faith 237 Report post Posted August 11, 2014 Don't worry Rob, I'll teach you 1 rob275 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CATDT 43 Report post Posted August 15, 2014 Thanks for your balance payment Kodename47 - look forward to meeting you in a few weeks time. KR Jo PDTD (Saturday 20th September)1. Kodename47 - paid in full2. Steeps - paid in full3. jimgreen83 - paid in full4. Mike C (via Jo) - paid in full5. Kristov4 - deposit paid 6. Quixote - paid in full Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted August 15, 2014 Hmmm...... ... I am in two minds whether to fit my Rota 9"/AD08's for the 'drifting'.... burn them out rather than my Pilot Sport 3's, then flog the rims as is.... Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 Message for 'The Drifters'.... .... are we meeting up for nosh this Friday night? 7.30ish? Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 I think that's a splendid idea, in fact if anyone else is around we could have a little mini meet :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 I shall be there for foooooood! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 I thought that was the plan seeing as we're all staying the same place on the Friday night Unless we were all going to sit at separate tables and eat alone? 2 faith and rob275 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 what time are you planning to get there Mike? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 You can if you want, Mike..... I don't mind you using a toothpick at the table, but do you really, really need to take your teeth out to do it...? I'm reckoning on being there by 6.00ish... Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 It all depends on what time I get to finish work, but the latest I would get there is around 8pm but I should hopefully get there earlier than that. 1 KevinA reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 Aiming for somewhere around between 6 and 7pm, finishing work at half 12, grabbing some lunch and then I'll head down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeps 294 Report post Posted August 19, 2014 I'm around if there's a minimeet on the Friday Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted August 20, 2014 All are welcome, Steeps... Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kristov4 70 Report post Posted August 21, 2014 Anyone mind if I drop in and join you guys for dinner tomorrow night? Milton Keynes South right? I should be heading back from fensport after having Keiths Exhaust and Cris' springs fitted and a remap. 1 Keethos reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeps 294 Report post Posted August 21, 2014 I'll probably be there around 6ish (MK south, if the plan changes I'll be able to see on here) 1 Keethos reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted August 22, 2014 The more the merrier :-) I don't know what time I will be there, depends what time I wake up tomorrow afternoon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted August 22, 2014 Awesome stuff! Glad you guys can join us! I've sorted my life out and it looks like I can leave work a lil early so I'll probably arrive at the hotel for about 6ish \o/ YAY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted August 22, 2014 Cool, well I've just arrived :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeps 294 Report post Posted August 22, 2014 Here now too, m1 and the south road into MK have accidents on Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark@Abbey M/S 235 Report post Posted August 22, 2014 Good luck for tomorrow guys n girls. Weather is looking good. Have fun. Keep it on the black stuff thou please 1 TankGirl reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CATDT 43 Report post Posted August 23, 2014 Another great day with you lovely people - thanks for your company and enthusiasm. Congratulations to the winners: Drifting God = Keethos Drivers of the Day = Special K, Mike & Faith - a 1st Trust you've all had a safe drive home & I feel like I'm missing you already Jo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special K 442 Report post Posted August 24, 2014 Jo - a really instructive and, equally important, a hugely enjoyable day... you are unquestionably the 'hostess with the mostest..' Colin's instruction is, in my opinion, second to none. He has that rare ability to simplify the complex/abstract into layman's speak so that even the mentally challenged ( me) can understand - and does so with supreme skill, humour and encouragement. The best 'head master' I've ever experienced.. What shines out is that it is not the "... do this.." approach many instructors use - the technical rationale behind everything is explained. The 'slip angle mapping' was a revelation... I was doing things by the end of the day that I would have said I could never do... .... and yet again, I got outdone on the very last run of the day by a better 'God'... sob.... Guys 'n gals - the drifting/ otl cornering is an awesome course... and by crikey, it is fun!! But so is every course that CAT run.. Spec K Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted August 24, 2014 What an awesome weekend! Had a pleasant and amusing meal with Spec, Faith, Mike, Steeps and Kristov the night before (even though what should have been a lil over an hour journey that turned into a 2 and a bit hour journey dude to a 3 car crash heading up the M1 (which forced us to slow right down heading down the M1, all I can think of is that the crash was very close to the inner barrier which might have meant debris has scattered onto our side thus stopping/slowing traffic. The day at Millbrook was truely awesome! We we're welcomed by Jo and Colin, supplied with refreshments and snacks, given detailed instructions on what we were going to do, asked what we hoping to achieve from the day and like Keith has already mentioned, Colin would explain the technical details of how cars handle and drift. We then set off down to the big circular handling area outside the corporate events building that you see Fifth Gear often tests their vehicles at. The place is a thing of beauty, the roads there are epic, lots of dips & inclines, tight chambers, hair pins.....and the views were breath taking too, the drifting (which I will come to in a moment) was awesome but I also really enjoyed the short drive to and from the CAT office and the circular handling area. Once we got to the circular handling area, we jumped into a drift Caterham and tackled 4 cones evenly spaced out which we had to slalom through and then drift around the last cone before slalom'ing through the cones again and drifting around the cone on the other end. This was the most physically intense part of the day as the Caterham had no power steering and half a turn of the wheel did bugger all to the wheels themselves so to do a lil turn required more than half a turn of the steering wheel. To do this constantly between the cones was exhausting on the arms, and then trying to chase the steering wheel by quickly spinning it back in the opposite direction when drifting the car was mega difficult, my arms definitely weren't quick enough for the non powered small steering wheel, but by the end, I ended up doing less work going around the last cones as I could start to stamp the loud pedal, release the steering wheel and the car would spin around itself and the wheel would naturally spin round in the direction I wanted to go. I could then catch the wheel, hold it a lil while pumping the gas and then release again to allow the wheel to spin back central again. All the while, Colin would stop us, tell us what we were doing wrong and why we were doing it wrong, and then told us what to try to help correct that issue, such a great instructor.....soooooo much fun......but then came the time getting out of the Caterham which was a bit of a struggle trying to lift myself out as again my arms were absolutely knackered by then. Then next session was a similar process, but this time just between 2 cones. The slalom before was more to keep the speed down but this time, we needed more speed as we were to trail brake around the cone and then stamp on the gas, due to the weight transfer, this make the back end very easy to step out and again, this was a mega hoot and I really got into the swing of it.....even pushed it far enough that I almost changed one drift into another but I think I span out in the end We then jumped into a race Caterham to cover the Over Grip Limit Handling side of things, Colin again would go into detail explaining why people would spin out or tank slap and how were could overcome or correct the car to prevent that from happening, a lot of useful information that we did not know about. The circular handling area has a lot of painted coloured marking on the floor and we had to follow the blue marking that made a large figure of 8 but rather than 2 long corner, you had 4 smaller corners. This was designed so we could go around each corner like we would on track, deliberately get the back end out and then try catching it, to straight it out and carry on around the small circuit. This was a big struggle for me.....the Caterham had a full roll cage which mean I had to climb through a small gap on the side to get in and out of the Caterham......I'm definitely not the most agile person around, I was quite surprised that I actually managed to get in and out of it.....the I did end up crawling out of it in the end....not the most elegant way of climbing out After another nice cruise back to the office for a nice lunch, we headed back down again to do a slip angle map of our cars to see what our cars were capable of, but before my go, Colin was kind enough to jump in first to see if he could feel anything wrong with my car, this meant we had a quick blast through the general handling circuit around the corner which was awesome and Colin said that he couldn't feel any issues which was a great reassurance that my car is still solid and that it's primarily cosmetic damage. This required us to drive down the straight towards the corporate event building, brake, turn in, stabilise and then power out back up the opposite straight, catching the back end to stop yourself from spinning out, this allowed use to gauge the 3 areas of the car's handling which was very useful to know. Colin then had the circuit wetted in a big circle around the middle of the circular handling area, we then took turns to go on with our own cars with Colin besides us and tried to get us drifting around in a big circle. I wish we could have had a lil more time doing this as I was starting to get the hang of it with Colin's help, unlike the Caterham which had enough power for the light body to very easily break traction by pumping the gas pedal, my car required me to pump quicker to keep the drift going but ran out of time before I could experiment with slowing the pumping process but holding the gas more, but at the same time, I didn't fancy blowing my engine by going around too many time (starving the engine of oil as it all runs to one side of the engine due to the continuous circular g forces). And last of all, Colin had the whole are wetted as we were getting back into the drift Caterham for a final drift challenge between us to see who could pull off the longest drift, Faith went first who did manage to pull off some nice drifts. Spec then got excited and jumped at the next go who managed to pull off some even more impressive drifts which we thought was game over for us, this was quite surprising for someone who doesn't believe in drifting and it's shenanigans but managed to do pretty well. Mike then rocked up and also managed to pull off some very nice drifts which all most bested Spec, but then I rocked up as the last challenger, Colin explained that the realistic expectations of newbies drifting around the circle for the first time is usually 1/4 of the circle or in some cases 1/2 which Spec and Mike managed so I wasn't expecting much, but within a couple of attempts, everything clicked, using the same techniques that Colin showed us from the very start up to the session in our own cars, I managed to do full circle around the circular handling area, I was buzzing at this point......and very wet I continued to play, playing with the throttle, continuously pumping the pedal but I found myself varying the speed of my pumps, sometimes holding it down longer, sometimes only dabbing it, sometimes backing off for a little longer. I also started to steer more than before, rather than just simply letting go of the steering wheel, now I had to force the wheel back into the turn to help get the back end out more to continue the drift (otherwise you just end up straightening out). So coming from just keeping it simple i.e. just pumping on the gas pedal at a constant steady rate and concentrating on steering in the right direct, it's like rubbing your belly and patting your head, you get for example your belly rub in a steady direction and then you can concentrate on patting faster or slower, drifting felt similar to begin with but now I was patting at different speeds while rubbing in different directions. At this point, I was having sooooo much fun that I couldn't tell how long my drifts were, it was such a blast! After climbing out of the Caterham all battered, bruised and wet, I was still buzzing and just wanted to carry on, but alas that was the end of the training day, we headed back to the CAT office, got our goody bags, certificates and prices for best drivers and drifting god, and started to pack our cars full of crap we had unloaded in the morning. It was such a really really big shame that we couldn't record any of it, I'm so gutted I couldn't see myself drift or even capture the awesome roads around Millbrook. Even though I'm aching like hell and forever relying on my poor memory of this amazing day, I would still highly recommend this to other people, weather you are there to learn how to do something in particular or just to have fun, it's well worth the money in my opinion! Thank you so much Faith, Mike and Spec for wonderful company there, thank you ever so much Jo and Colin for hosting and tutoring us and thank you Mark for /organising/introducing us to the CAT Driver Training courses! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted August 24, 2014 Great write up Keith, looks like you guys had a lot of fun and learnt a whole lot too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
