alansti7

Anybody ever done the 1st Lotus Airfield training course, instructed by Andrew Walsh? Any comments on how good (or bad) it is, and how many pieces you car was in when you finished? :-)

mutant_matt

I did this in Feb @ North Weald along with Ian Sadler, Phil Stephens and James Bushall (hopefully I remembered all their names correctly).

The course is great, Andrew is both very talented and a good teacher. There is plenty of room to get out of control which I seem to remember Ian being the best at

Andrew teaches steering technique, left foot braking, controlling/using wheelspin for fast corner exits, heal and toe braking, getting into and out of various types of slide and anything else you ask him to teach you. You get to find out what your car feels like beyond the limit (and in Ian's case, what it's like to spin it, over and over ).

I had a fantastic time, learn a lot, got to know the car much better and it didn't cost much (and the car is still in one piece ).

Now I've got my STi, I'll be going back and doing it again in that.

Matt

Davey P

iTrader: (1)

Is there a website or any other details about this

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

Hi,

If it's as good as Peeps say and cheap let us all know as I like many may own a Scoob but doooooooooooo need training to drive it

Tony

IanW

Well pretty much No thanks to attempts by Van drivers [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

[Edited by IanW - 10/18/2002 2:29:03 AM]

mutant_matt

URL is http://www.1stlotus.com

Matt

WillieF

I and a couple of other new Sti7 owners here in Scotland did the fast track course at Crail in Scotland. When I arrived my car had 1000 miles on it.

I left with a big grin as I learned sooooooo much about the car in 8 hours. Andrew is an extremely good instructor and really knows his stuff handling your car as though it was his own and he had it for months - this was the first time he had been out in the STi7s!!

Crail has such huge open spaces that hitting anything is out of the question. The only problem is that it is quite rough and I lost quite a lot of tyre during the day BUT that IMO was better than losing the car on a public road. My driving has improved as a result of the course and I will be back at crail next time andrew is here. I beleive they also do a series on onroad training courses which I am keen to do but I think these need to be done in Wales now near the !st Lotus office.

Chris L

Highly recommended. Sal, her Dad and I did the course with Andrew at North Weald a few months back. Very entertaining and useful. It is more about improving your driving techniques than going fast around a course. I'll never forget the near right angled bend that Andrew setup with cones. At the end of the day he said we would be taking the corner at 80mph - and we did Just to prove a point though, Andrew then took the corner at nearly 100mph in my car - the guy can drive.

Chris

Phil

As Matt said

EXCELLENT

Phil

alansti7

Just booked it now - Friday 22nd Nov for 2 people. Can't wait!

Is there anything that you guys did to your cars for preparation? Increasing tyre pressures etc? And did you get any extra insurance cover for the day, or did you find that you were already covered by your existing policy?

ian_sadler

Seeing as my name has been mentoned (thanks Matt )I thought I'd reply to say what a great day it was.

How to find the limits of you and your car in a HUGE open space

Andrew is a great teacher and its nice to get some one-on-one tuition in your own car.

Only down side is a day isn't long enough and it cost me a set of front tyres

Ian

Phil

Ditto the front tyres

Phil

mutant_matt

My front tyres were fine (but then I wasn't lighting them up out of the 2nd gear cone course (was I Ian )).

IanW will confirm what kind of decent mileage we got out of that set....

Matt

tezza

Worth doing as there is little to hit, although at North Weald I did come close after spinning 2 and a half times. Almost the record but a Porker did 3 spins a few weeks before but I travelled the most doing it! Andrew runs the course with just 4 drivers so you get a lot of his time which is a big plus.
terry