Impact Of A Soul To A Soul From A Soul

For the eye tired ones: this is a very very very super super long post… so beware of the damage it may do to your eyes and mind. And a record post for me… don’t say I didn’t warn you, proceed at your own risk and discretion

I did 3 minutes and 30 seconds in average every lap on the track in Sepang International Circuit. Pheeewwwww… that’s an experience nothing like when I pushed my own car on the highway.

The date is 11th June 2006, Sunday, I woke up before 6 in the morning and headed for breakfast with just a sausage and bacon, orange juice and a bowl of cereal. Then we set out from the hotel and headed to the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and reached there around 830 in the morning. I have never been there but my colleague said the way used to enter was the VIP route and then we were directed and parked at the pit. The Pit! This is where all the F1 cars are parked or the Japan GT cars are parked! We grouped upstairs of the pit waiting for our briefing for the day. I just got to tell you this, parked in the pit were 3 tuned and modified Nissan Silvia… a rare car to say the least at these times… waaaahhhh!

*eyes wide… jaw drops… drools all over*

The main instructor is none other than Sean Khoo and at the end of it we were divided into 4 groups to complete our exercises for the morning. There were 4 exercises that we have to complete before lunch and they are in the order our team completed it which are brake and evade, slalom, braking in corner and high speed lane changing. We started the cars and went into the track for the first time, trying to get to our exercise location that is.

Boys and Girls of all ages please do not try this at home even with adult supervision…

Brake and Evade
The setup is like this there’s a path you need to drive through marked by cones and dead straight ahead of it, 5 or 6 meters, are some cones placed as an obstacle. Now what you need to do is accelerate until u reach 80 to 90KMH or higher as you reach the 1st cone and the slam on the brakes as hard as you can and you have to avoid the obstacle. This may sound easy but one of the instructor drove a Sentra without ABS and when he hits the brakes you can hear the car skidding through and it’s going straight at the cones even though the tyres are turned 45 degrees to the left but he managed to not hit it as he is the instructor. The rest of the cars which is Sentras and Xtrails have ABS so it’s so much easier. We drove at about 90 KMH and the slams on the brakes and look at the escape route which is left or right and steer to that direction. Voila, no one hit any cones and we all past this one.

Slalom
The setup has cones lines up in a straight line with the spacing of roughly a car or a little more. What we need to do is zig zag through then at the speed of around 40 to 50 KMH and keeping it constant at the speed you start turning the steering. The catch is no braking and steering technique of push and pull where your hand cannot pass the 12 or 6 o clock position. If you think 50KMH is slow, let’s just put it that the instructor did it once with 50 KMH and everyone got a chance to sit in the car as a passenger decides to start at 30 KMH. The slalom exercise finished with a few cones knocked down by others.

Braking in Corner
The setup is a set of cones just wide enough for a car set at a corner and it’s like 70 degrees corner anticlockwise. You’re supposed to accelerate up to 90KMH and above and then brake at the 1st cone and that cone is at the end of the corner. Basically you need to speed up to the corner as if you did not see it and then slams on the brake and steer along the corner in the between the cones. One of the participants went into the grass when he throttled a little too much.

High Speed lane Change
Setup with cones as well, but it’s like a route on the left and then right and left and right again. Something like the slalom but this mimics the lanes on the road. This exercise requires a speed of somewhat 50KMH up to about 80KMH. The catch again is no braking and maintains a constant throttle and speed. Again this may sound easy, but one of the guys actually ran into the sideway where the grass and stuff are.

These all may sound easy but it’s not easy at all… just the technique of push and pull for steering is hard to achieve. After the exercise we adjourned back to the paddock which is above the pit stop opposite the grand stand for lunch. There we saw some of our stunts during the exercise being played back on the television. We all had some laugh and chatted among ourselves. Met some new friends as well.

After lunch we had a briefing again on the activities for the rest of the afternoon. The activities lined up are the track time, thrill rides and nismo suspension testing. Again the groups are assigned to their specific activities we started with track time with track time attack, nismo suspension testing and then the thrill rides.

Again, boys and girls, please do not try this at home even with adult supervision…

Track Time
We were taken on a tour of the track in SIC which is roughly about 5.5KM in distance. In this tour we were showed the route or the driving lines that the racers normally use in the track here. We followed one of the pace cars which is a Xtrail for 2 laps. This is for us to get familiarize with the racing line before the actual time attack begins. The time attack begins with the pace car in front and us following behind it. I was driving at the speed of a little above 120… I did not dare to step further as it’s my colleague’s car not mine. We all tried our skills in trying to follow the pace car and the racing lines but I guess an amateur like me kind of failed shamelessly. I was going into corners at the speed of a little less than 120KMH, hits the brakes and turns the steering wheels. After the braking it’s like 80 or 90 KMH. In every corner that I take I failed desperately as the car oversteers. It’s when the rear of the cars skids off to the side ala drifting style which should not be happening. Normally I guess we would be scared when that happens but when I was on the track even when the rear drift to the side I just turns it back to avoid a spinout and stepped on the throttle to move forward. May be it’s the track… but then again even speed of 80 on the track feel much more scarier than when you drive on the road twice the speed when you are on the track. I guess it’s most probably because of the corners which are everywhere and you are attacking them every other seconds. Then the time attack ended for our group which I think I did pretty well. I did 3 minutes and 30 seconds in average per lap on Sepang International Circuit track… Yeah!

Nismo Suspension Testing
This is basically 2 cars which is a Sentra and a Xtrail with Nismo’s tuned suspension. I tested the Xtrail against a slalom exercise and I was like drifting left and right. May be I was stepping too hard… I’m just not into 4 wheel drive vehicles. But I got to say that the Nismo tuned suspension does make a difference. The handling is so much better than the on the road specification cars.

Thrill Rides
This the part that kills so if you have heart problems, please skip this part. I have finished with the Nismo suspension stuff and I spotted the instructor Sean Khoo standing there beside a Sentra. I know I could not miss this chance so I ran up to him and hopped into the car. It was a Sentra automatic. He started by swerving to the right and left real hard, I was being thrown to the direction of the car as well. It’s like the stunts you see in television, the swerving, the cornering with handbrakes, reversing the car and spins it 180 degrees. Then he told me, “let do a 360 turn” and I happily replied “OK”. He reverse the car flooring the throttle and then with a twist in using the handbrake and changing the gear we spun a 360 degree turn. He is truly a stunt man with cars. After that, I just felt like another ride so I hoped in to another car doing stunts as well, this time sitting behind. The down side of sitting behind is you tend to be more worried as you do not know where the driver is heading and stuff. The other part is the seat belt just does not work so perfectly as the front seat does.

After these activities, they performed some other stunts for the photographer there and so I watched and took some photos too. They did the rodeo driving, where they drove with one leg in side the car and the other outside, just like riding a horse, hence the name. one of then drove out the Nissan Silvia and did some stunts with it too. He did the rodeo style and spun around rodeo style too. At one time he did the spinning with the door opened! After a few spins, a loud burst was heard, the worn out tyre of the Silvia punctured.

After all has ended, we adjourned back to the paddock club, had some refreshment which is 100 plus. It was a much welcomed refreshment as we were all exhausted, both mentally and physically. Then we had some announcement and debriefing. Along with this was the presentation of the certificate of achievement to all the participants. Now I have a cert, acknowledging me as I droved on the track in Sepang International Circuit… very happy and proud hehe. Oh yah, and I they drew me as the 2nd prize lucky draw. We were given some free gifts as we retired to our cars ready to head home satisfied of all our achievement and lessons learnt.

Some stuff that I should share is antilock braking system (ABS), it let you steer even if you jammed the brakes unlike conventional braking system that will lock the wheels and send you skidding straight. However for those who has it do you know that you ABS is in good condition? Have you used it before? Do you know what it feels like when ABS is working?

I have some photos taken using my U-10 below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeroimpact/
Here’s some video from a new found friend Jimmy
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=oddstuff