Taught my first Car Control Clinic yesterday.
Here's a picture of me having some fun while the students were having lunch:
I was recently invited to be a car control clinic instructor with our BMW Car Club of America. Our car control clinics begin with a brief introduction of the day's events as well as some important information like where on the steering wheel to put your hands!
We then begin the three exercises of the day:
1) Braking exercise - it's amazing how many drivers have never felt the anti-lock braking system in their car. This exercise makes sure you do! It goes into more detail with brake modulation, steering while braking, etc. You do this exercise yourself and then pull around to instructors for feedback.
2) Skidpad - This exercise is to emphasize how much weight transfer affects steering. We have an oval, not a circle, set up. By simply modulating the throttle, you'll be able to continually drive the car around the oval while keeping the steering wheel in a static position. This is NOT done by drifting/oversteering/getting the rear end out at all... it's simply done by weight transfer - when you're on the throttle, weight is transfered to the rear of the car, and the car doesn't turn as much for a given steering wheel position. When you let off the throttle, weight transfers to the front, giving the front wheels more traction to turn. It's an amazing phenomenon once you pick it up and are able to do it. If you've never spun your car before, your instructor will allow you to do so during this exercise. :) There will be an instructor with you in the car the whole time.
3) Slalom - Here we're teaching you to LOOK AHEAD more than anything else. You go around a set of cones, Turn 180 degrees, then go through another set of cones that run parallel to the first set. We'll show you the proper line to take - during the exercise you'll realize how much better your line is by simply using your downward peripheral vision to navigate the cones. You'll learn throttle control and brake control too, of course. An instructor is with you the whole time for this exercise as well.
More pictures from Saturday's event taken by Lance Leong:
http://www.justracing.com/galleries/thumbnails.php?album=183
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