October 15th, 2005

My Stripey, Spinning, Trackday RX-8

Note: For the videos below, you need the latest version of QuickTime.

Ok, so if you buy an RX-8 in the UK, you get a free trackday type thing. I went on mine not long ago, and it’s awesome. You do 5 things:

  • Road driving. Sounds boring, but was amazing - you go out for a couple of hours with an advanced driving instructor. Mine was also a traffic cop! You get taught all sorts of cool stuff, like how to balance the car properly though corners, how to negotiate roundabouts, etc, smoothly and quickly. Amazing stuff.

  • Track driving. A different instructor then takes you round a high-speed race track, teaching you racing lines, etc.

  • ABS. Simple exercises showing you how ABS works, emergency stopping from 80+ mph, etc.

  • Adverse handling. Imagine the twistiest, bumpiest road you can imagine. Then imagine tearing around it as fast as you possibly can. Absolutely the most fun I’ve ever had in a car:

First video is of me driving, taken from the back seat. You can hear my instructor telling me what to do, etc. Sorry that it’s shaky - the course was very, very bumpy.

Video here. (15.9Mb - Right click + download)

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Second video is an in-car lap of my instructor driving, taken from the passenger seat:

Video here. (17.2Mb - Right click + download)

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Third is a shot from the outside of me driving around on it. Doesn’t seem that fast watching this!

Video here. (11.4Mb - Right click + download)

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  • Finally, skid pan! Whoo! First with DSC on, then off. Span it out several times.

Video here. (12.5Mb - Right click + download)

An awesome day indeed.