MINIs only driving skills day

I’ve seen posts from MINI owners around the country upset that they are not welcome or supported by their local BMWCCA – well here we have excellent support, with the Boston BMWCCA supporting the regular MINI of Peabody OctoberFast, and now the White Mountain BMWCCA chapter has just provided a MINIs only advanced driving skills school day – tremendous fun as well as being educational!

The day started early with a two hour drive to New Hampshire International Speedway – we don’t get on the track, the skills school is in a parking lot, but the insurance is needed! First step, line up and empty the MINIs of everything loose …

Next, we had a slide presentation showing the activities of the day (Circle skid pad, figure 8 skid pad, braking, lane change/braking) and describing the car and driver behaviours we needed to learn (weight transfer, under- and over- steer, etc). Then on to the fun! I started in group 2, meaning I was on the skid pad with a number of MINI friends including Theo, Joe, Sheena, Armen and Audra … a fun time was had by all 🙂

The task begins with getting the MINI going round the circle without moving the steering wheel (ie: holding it locked at the position needed to make the continuous turn); then experiment with more gas to force the tires to lose grip – the result is that the car keeps going round the circle, but at a bigger radius! Easing off the gas pulls the car back in … so as you get comfortable, you can moderate the cars position on the circle just by throttle, with no change in steering wheel position! It’s fun, and amazingly educational to discover how stable your MINI is!

The water helps the tires slide without destroying them too much (although there’s definitely significant wear on the edges!) …

There are two circle skid pads, and after everyone’s had practice, they join them into a big figure 8 – the instructor now accompanies you and keeps pulling the E-brake at annoying moments, to induce oversteer which you’re then supposed to correct by accelerating … I sucked at this 😦

Luckily, it was followed by lunch – catered burgers / dogs / salad courtesy of MINI of Peabody (a couple techs also came up from MoP, to spectate). Another sponsor, Concord Motorsport, brought a Dinan-equipped MINI which attracted lots of attention:

 

After lunch, we moved on to braking and lane change maneouvres – first was braking in a straight line (from about 30mph), using ABS initially then learning to brake with minimal ABS – hopefully shortening the stopping distance! This moved on to lane change then braking: you drive down towards an instructor who points left or right at the last minute, and you have to change to that lane, then stop.
Finally, we moved on to double lane changes, approaching from (say) the right, then switching two lanes before coming to a stop. Easier for some than for others!

 

A surprise end to the day was the chance to drive a parade lap of the NHIS track! I think we had 25 MINIs – and drove at about 25mph …

(my previous ADSS events: May 2004 and April 2005)