Drifting at Oulton on Friday 8th August?

[Bill K 111]

Any other Lotuses going to be at this "Introduction to Drifting" event at Oulton Park? I hope so. If not can you please sign up? With the Elise being notoriously difficult to drift I dont really want to be the only one that the drift-friendly Beemer/Caterham etc drivers are pointing and laughing at.

It's all low speed first/second gear stuff using that purpose built track in the middle of the circuit. I'm told that the low grip/noise tarmac is acheived through the use of special glass in the surface. In addition, if it's not already wet, they can also send the bowser out as well. As a result, apparently tyre wear is on a par with a track day. I'll be in my standard S1 111S with 048s.

Who's up for it?


http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/cadwell-park/tra...

[grays]

Yup, I could be tempted. I've done a few of these now and they great fun - it's pure hooliganism which I love!

Here's a video from my last time a couple of week ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NLED-L6Mjg

[Gooby]

I actually cant think of something I would like to do less in a 'liz. Saying that, having seen Nikos drifting till black flag on most track days it does look like fun.

One of my neighbours is a "drifter", currently 9th in the european championships and he thinks drifting an Elise is a Baaaad idea.

[Bill K 111]

Oh dear. Did he happen to say why?

[bogie]

I used to love doing it in the wet in my Elise, and was pretty good after lots of practice/sets of tyres !

Hopefully it will be as minimal wear as poss doing such a thing, on a purpose built surface that can be wet, but of course you will get extra tyre wear, and bushes etc, basically the whole suspension system, so be prepared for that.

Good fun though, and I reckon if you can drift an Elise, you will be able to drift most things

[TIPPER]

My last effort at drifting ended in complete comedy: Coming out of the chicane before the pit straight at Snetterton I had a little bit of a tail wag and thought I saw a camera pointed in my direction out of the corner of my eye. Not being able to resist the chance to pose I tickled the throttle a bit more and...................round and round and round an round and round and round........we went off down the pit straight

[Cuzza]

Sounds great - did a few slaloms in my S1 which meant keeping the back end moving around all the time and sliding through sets of cones, you'll learn a lot about car control and have a proper giggle at the same time.

You might want to think aagain about using 48s though, they'll need more provocation than, say some Toyos.

Enjoy

[Bill K 111]

bogie said:

Good fun though, and I reckon if you can drift an Elise, you will be able to drift most things

My thoughts exactly! Quite prepared to give it a go though...try everything once an' all that.

Grays has a couple of videos showing him drifting his Elise at this Oulton track. He makes it look easy and I SO dont think it is. Any track day 'drifts' have really just been slides that I have been lucky to catch (completely identify with TIPPER on the whole round and round thing!)

Think I'll take the advice about tyres though and change them for something less grippy.

There are still spaces available if you can make it guys?

[Bill K 111]

Well, did the drift day yesterday and am reporting back to PH. Can report that it was great fun, well organised and met some nice people. Track was smooth, slippery and quiet even in the dry. There were free instructors on hand all day if you wanted them. Track was quite narrow but most of the run off was grassy, although you generally tended to spin and stop within your own car’s length if you got it wrong. The only downside was a couple of great water filled holes between the tarmac and the grass at certain points particularly where one poor chap cracked his clam on an offtrack excursion.
As for the Elise, I would conclude that, once provoked into breaking traction, it’s terrific at drifting in this environment, but you do have to be quick to catch the rotation. At first it seems you are either not quick enough/don’t actually let the steering travel far enough and you spin…or… you catch it, it straightens up again, drift over. The trick seems to be to apply the right amount of power to keep it sideways once the rotation has been arrested. Thereafter it’s a juggle between enough power to keep you sliding and extra steering input to control the ‘mid-party’ rotation if you’re a bit ham fisted with the throttle.

Little clip here showing some footage before the camera battery ran out. Yes it’s untidy and yes (unlike Grays) the Walshy rotational steering got hopelessly lost but you do get better with every run.

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/SuperGP/?ac...

I realise this kind of malarkey is not for all Elise owners but if you’ve ever fancied a bit o’ the old sideways, then this day is for you.

Bill K

[crackthatoff]

that looks like great fun although some of the walls look a bit near

[piooly]

I reckon I would have lasted about 5 seconds. Some of the obstackles are a bit close at parts for my liking but I'd love to give it a go on a wider track with nothing to hit....