Lotus Driver Training - this weekend
Discussion
Debbie Jane - The Lotus Driver Training courses are held at the Lotus factory which has it's own test track.
The man to call is Peter Sixsmith at Lotus Sport on 01953 608830. He will be able to tell you about forthcoming dates that might still have places available.
If you look back at the Lotus News section of Pistonheads you can find out more details.
Opinion is divided about whether the course offers good value for money or not but I'm going and then I'll let you know!!
The man to call is Peter Sixsmith at Lotus Sport on 01953 608830. He will be able to tell you about forthcoming dates that might still have places available.
If you look back at the Lotus News section of Pistonheads you can find out more details.
Opinion is divided about whether the course offers good value for money or not but I'm going and then I'll let you know!!
Debbie_Jane said:
I am interested in doing some Lotus driver training - how do I find out when and where the training is held?
Better value for money IMHO would be doign a course from Andrew Walsh www.1stlotus.com or Don Palmer www.drivingdevelopment.co.uk
You get more 1:1 tuition and loads of driving time. It's done in your own car (versus using theirs in the Lotus course), which I like because I want to know what I can do in *my* car..
I have done the Lotus driver training and while it was fun to do I think it's not that very good value if you look at the amount of actual 'training' you get.
Bye, Arno.
>> Edited by Arno on Friday 20th August 08:52
Arno said:
Better value for money IMHO would be doign a course from Andrew Walsh <a href="http://www.1stlotus.com">www.1stlotus.com</a> or Don Palmer www.drivingdevelopment.co.uk
You get more 1:1 tuition and loads of driving time. It's done in your own car (versus using theirs in the Lotus course), which I like because I want to know what I can do in *my* car..
I have done the Lotus driver training and while it was fun to do I think it's not that very good value if you look at the amount of actual 'training' you get.
Bye, Arno.
>> Edited by Arno on Friday 20th August 08:52
Great - thanks for the advice. Will look at the two websites you suggest and see when they have courses on. Jig - let me know what you think of the Lotus course when you have done it as well...
I know you're all excitedly waiting to hear about this 
....
There are only 12 people on each day, split into 3 groups of 4 with an instructor assigned to each group for the day. I had Hyla Breese, and he's excellent, very fast, good fun and keeps it nice and simple for you. Other instructors on the day were Alastair McQueen and Tony Parramint (apologies if I've spelt those wrong!)
So, what did we do? My group started with a slalom exercise between cones. This was mostly just fun IMHO, but it was a good warm up exercise. Then we did some braking exercises which I found really useful and I learnt a lot from that one. Then it was onto the (constant radius) circle to practice under and oversteer. Nothing new for me there, but definitely worth spending the time getting the feel of the car. Didn't stop my later 'incident' though
Then the afternoon was spent track driving in two 20 minute sessions. Learnt that I need to practice smoothness between braking and steering as I tend to be too abrubt which unsettles the car.
Value for money? 400 quid is a lot, and in pure track time it's not so good, but the facilities are good, it's very organised and you do get to use their cars which are all S2 Rover engined Elises. Looking at the missing number plates and broken splitters, I think that covers the cost difference easily! And it's fun..
Oh, and I should mention that on the track driving in the afternoon I managed to hit a tyre wall backwards at a bit of speed resulting in a dragstar injury - a mangled rear diffuser
That would have cost me a few hundred I think! 
Would I go again? No, I'll do the 1 on 1 thing next time, but I'm glad I did this as a kind of introductory session. It's fun in a corporate day kind of way and you do learn stuff throughout.
Thoroughly recommended though, especially if you feel like a bit of a novice and don't want to be intimidated by the whole experience.
.... There are only 12 people on each day, split into 3 groups of 4 with an instructor assigned to each group for the day. I had Hyla Breese, and he's excellent, very fast, good fun and keeps it nice and simple for you. Other instructors on the day were Alastair McQueen and Tony Parramint (apologies if I've spelt those wrong!)
So, what did we do? My group started with a slalom exercise between cones. This was mostly just fun IMHO, but it was a good warm up exercise. Then we did some braking exercises which I found really useful and I learnt a lot from that one. Then it was onto the (constant radius) circle to practice under and oversteer. Nothing new for me there, but definitely worth spending the time getting the feel of the car. Didn't stop my later 'incident' though
Then the afternoon was spent track driving in two 20 minute sessions. Learnt that I need to practice smoothness between braking and steering as I tend to be too abrubt which unsettles the car. Value for money? 400 quid is a lot, and in pure track time it's not so good, but the facilities are good, it's very organised and you do get to use their cars which are all S2 Rover engined Elises. Looking at the missing number plates and broken splitters, I think that covers the cost difference easily! And it's fun..
Oh, and I should mention that on the track driving in the afternoon I managed to hit a tyre wall backwards at a bit of speed resulting in a dragstar injury - a mangled rear diffuser
That would have cost me a few hundred I think! Would I go again? No, I'll do the 1 on 1 thing next time, but I'm glad I did this as a kind of introductory session. It's fun in a corporate day kind of way and you do learn stuff throughout.
Thoroughly recommended though, especially if you feel like a bit of a novice and don't want to be intimidated by the whole experience.
what did they have to say was the most difficult part of the elise's handling to master
I keep hearing that highspeed understeer quickly transforms into oversteerr and then a spin
is this true ?
i've had mine step out on me loads of times - but its only a flick of the wrist to get it back
I keep hearing that highspeed understeer quickly transforms into oversteerr and then a spin
is this true ?
i've had mine step out on me loads of times - but its only a flick of the wrist to get it back
Has anybody tried the Lotus Experience at Thruxton ?www.iantaylor.co.uk/elise.html
At £200 it seems like a bargain compaired to the Lotus Driver Training, but don't know how much you can get out of it compared to what jig has just described.
At £200 it seems like a bargain compaired to the Lotus Driver Training, but don't know how much you can get out of it compared to what jig has just described.
gadgeroonie said:
what did they have to say was the most difficult part of the elise's handling to master
I keep hearing that highspeed understeer quickly transforms into oversteerr and then a spin
is this true ?
i've had mine step out on me loads of times - but its only a flick of the wrist to get it back
Interesting question - wasn't really covered explicitly. On the circle, we pushed the car and it understeered. Push harder and it understeered worse, this was on a car with front wheels on the back to reduce their grip, too. To induce oversteer we lifted off the throttle sharply, but the curious thing was that if it was understeering a bit when you did that, then the back would not come out. Hyla explained that there is not enough grip at the front for the rear to pivot around in these circumstances.
This kind of hints that understeer does not transition to oversteer like a lot of cars, but that it behaves a bit like a FWD car in that situation.
When I've had oversteer, it's usually as a result of power (!) going down, i.e. a fast corner, front wheels hook up well and the power pushes the rear out. There's probably a hint of understeer first, which is as you describe. As you say, usually caught easily. The right hand kink at Bedford just in front of the pits seems to catch people this way.
The other situation that has caused it with me is turning in to a 90 degree or more corner too fast (twice on track), the front tyres grip and the car tries to spin (it succeeded, too, damn it!), hence my escapade with the tyre wall!
I'd be interested to hear the views of the more experienced guys around here...
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