Driver Talent

[slip]

skidpan/lvma days @ mt cotton, and lots of em. rate them very highly. skidpan maybe low speed, but thats perfect, it gives you a chance to understand, experiment, and get comfortable. lvma good for finesse and being tidy to be faster.

sideline used to do it but theres a bunch of others now, check in the qld section as there have been dramas @ mt cotton and sideline may not be doing it anymore.

[hrd-hr30]

if the mt cotton skidpan/lvma stuff is mainly motorkhana type stuff, it is a good up to a point, but there's only so much it will teach you. motorkhanas are a very specialised discipline. other than a good grounding in car control and left foot braking (especialy useful in slaloms), the skills used to get a car around a motorkhana course fast don't really translate to speed events like sprints or hillclimbs. still good fun though. the smooth dirt autocross track at Ipswich is great for teaching control at speed. its like a speedway sort of surface and during the course of the day gets a black line developing from rubber build-up.

[slip]

yeah, its motorkhana style, wet/dry, as i said good for finesse/being tidy. definately need to do higher speed stuff as well. but if you think motorkhana events don't help with hillclimbs you're nuts.

[hrd-hr30]

yeah, its motorkhana style, wet/dry, as i said good for finesse/being tidy. definately need to do higher speed stuff as well. but if you think motorkhana events don't help with hillclimbs you're nuts.

well, I don't use the handbrake, spin around cones, memorise crazy courses marked out by witches hats, reverse, or do flick turns into stop garages at any Hillclimb I've ever done Hillclimbing is much more a mix of circuit skills. There are no 'racing lines' , blind corners, or threshold braking in khanas, as examples. I also prefer to get out of 1st gear at the hillclimb

Edited June 1, 2006 by hrd-hr30

[Duncan]

well yes but a khana has it place in learning to drive well too, braking properly, oversteer, understeer, car control and placement are all essential starting points

[hrd-hr30]

I totally agree. as I said before, they're good up to a point, but there's only so much they can teach you. they're a great place to get car control skills in a very safe environment (low speed and nothing to hit except cones). and they're a bit of fun...

[slip]

well i probably should clarify the motorkhana style things we did were sometimes up to 1min long and took up the whole lvma area at mt cotton. no left foot braking or handbrake. tamed my loose style a bit so when i went onto the unforgiving mt cotton hillclimb it was a great help.

ps. how good is the mt cotton hillclimb track! you can even crash after the finish line, big downhill braking moves, so many things to hit, awesome.

hrd-dr30 look forward to seeing you out at a qld even soon, my 31's almost back from motec.

bit OT now.... those that have spent time on QR, do you think it's taught you much?

[hrd-hr30]

well i probably should clarify the motorkhana style things we did were sometimes up to 1min long and took up the whole lvma area at mt cotton. no left foot braking or handbrake. tamed my loose style a bit so when i went onto the unforgiving mt cotton hillclimb it was a great help.

ps. how good is the mt cotton hillclimb track! you can even crash after the finish line, big downhill braking moves, so many things to hit, awesome.

hrd-dr30 look forward to seeing you out at a qld even soon, my 31's almost back from motec.

bit OT now.... those that have spent time on QR, do you think it's taught you much?

ah OK. I've never been to the training centre so i haven't seen the LVMA. but the bigger, more open motorkhana style things are much better and more fun than the tight technical stuff they do in QLD motorkhana championships. That's the sort of thing i picture when people say motorkhana...

yeah mt cotton hillclimb is definitely most adrenaline per dollar motorsport around!

let us know when you're running at an event and I'll try to make it. I want to get out to Morgan Park with the GTR, and will probably go back to the Autocross later in the year, and of course the Hillclimb. I should do a day at QR too, just to get some times - i've only done one event there and never really had the urge to go back

[Abo Bob]

I have very natural little talent as a driver (unlike say fatz for instance). seriously. But I've had plenty of practice over the last few years, and have scored some lap records, top 3 finishes etc. following this theory

I find this hard to believe. I think you have talent as well.

[slip]

Yeah, QR..... Did a drift day there, that was great. Any circuit work I've done there has been infinitely boring.

You every take the hr30 out?

[hrd-hr30]

Yeah, QR..... Did a drift day there, that was great. Any circuit work I've done there has been infinitely boring.

You every take the hr30 out?

no, the HR30 is stock apart from springs, wheels & tyres, and is not registered. That might all change soon. I'm missing my old Datto 1200 coupe race car. The GTR is fast on the track, but just doesn't have the raw edge that the caged, RWD stripped out race car had. And I can't bring myself to do that to the GTR. The HR30 on the other hand is looking likely to go under the knife...