Euro Sideways at Eastern Creek Skidpan (Video)

[evolution42]

Here's a video of me at Eastern Creek on the skidpan with the Euro. Its an '04 Luxury 6MT fully stock. The handbrake was really weak so it was hard to provoke it to get it sideways, but it was managable (as you can see in the video). Hope you guys like it:)


http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4544/driftzz6.th.jpg (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=driftzz6.jpg)
Low Quality/Preview: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4131367897819024683

Better Quality/Download: http://www.filefactory.com/file/0fdae3 (132mb,free)

[r-r-redEuro]

first link doesnt work.

[Suntzu]

Lots of body boat roll. What suspension you got?

[evolution42]

Lots of body boat roll. What suspension you got?
That's stock suspension...:p

[yfin]

nice one - so with all those turns you were using the handbrake? I never saw my Euro fish like that.

[tron07]

Looks fun, but I wouldnt do that to my car...... maybe a rental :p

Wonder if the alignment and cambers will run or not?

[JasonGilholme]

Cambers and alignment will be fine. its only on water. :thumbsup: Unless he hits a gutter/barrier.

I can't see the turns properly but you seem to be going heaps wide on the one where your goin side ways.

I'm guessing you werent competeing but if your after a good time you should turn in alot sooner and try to slide through the apex of the corner rather then sliding past it. Also, were you using the handbrake or the foot brake to get it working.

With the hand brake you should expect the back end to come round quicker so you should adjust your turn in to suite.

With the foot brake you should turn in as you would normally (maybe a bit sharper to help the weight transfer around) and then stab the brakes somewhere just before the apex to get the car to pivot (aka slide) around the apex of the corner.

Good work tho mate. Nothin wrong with a stock sussy car out there. I did a few in my crx when it was stock suspension and it was great fun. Learnt lots about the car those days.

[SiReal]

that looks fun ;)

[Amusevtec]

Jaaaaaaaaaaackkkkkk

[evolution42]

All of the sideways stuff was done using the handbrake. When we were doing the figure of 8 and the wet circles, none of us were trying to grip close to the cones to try and get around the course as fast as possible; we just wanted to get the cars sideways and slide as much as we could to feel the loss of traction, thats why I was going really wide.

The instructors were in the passengers seat the whole time doing the handbrake for us. The handbrake in my euro was really weak so thats why the car wasn't pivoting around as fast as it should. The instructor told us to floor it, lift off and turn viciously, dab the brake to transfer the weight to the front, then they'd pull the handbrake for a sec or two and the back end would come out. Pity you can't power oversteer the euro being FWD like you could with the VZ Commodore SS and Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG that were also doing the course, but still had a blast nevertheless. There was also an Impreza WRX STi which managed to pull off some nice zero-countersteer drifts.

In terms of wear and tear, the skidpan doesn't really wear out the car or tyres too much since it's polished concrete with continuous running (recycled) water. The car felt the same after the course as it did before, unlike the track days I've done where the clutch feels different and the brakes are awfully spongy.

[JasonGilholme]

Damn they were doin the hand brake for you too??

Thats not cool. but its a good way to learn non the less.

[SiReal]

can you do that in an auto car?

[JasonGilholme]

No reason why not. Just use the gear selection instead of drive.

[evolution42]

Damn they were doin the hand brake for you too??

Thats not cool. but its a good way to learn non the less.
Yeh they were doing the handbrake. To be honest, I'm glad they were, because we tried doing it ourselves, and not only were we screwing up the timing and force of the handbrake application, but its another thing to have to worry about when you know your gonna have to countersteer and recover the car straight afterwards. I'm sure they'd let you do the handbrake yourself if you wanted to, but I thought it's better to learn car control when they do it for you at first.

Yep, you can do that in auto cars. The commodore and E55 AMG were both auto, and there was a Falcon company car (on LPG!) which was also auto. The commodore seemed to stall alot after it spun out tho, suprising for an auto...

[JasonGilholme]

yeah the pick up is to one side in the commodore fuel tanks. Stupid idea really.

[tron07]

how much you pay for all this fun??

[evolution42]

how much you pay for all this fun??
I paid $250. 9-4pm, lunch included and unlimited drinks. 6 other people did the course when I was doing it, but it's usually more than that. The price is normally $275, but if you get 2 mates to do it as well, and book at least a week in advance, then you get the $25 discount.

It was an advanced driving course from Driving Solutions: http://www.drivingsolutions.com.au/Stage_2_advanced-driving.htm

I've also done the track days, which are the same price

[JasonGilholme]

damn man. Last skid pan i did was 80 bucks. Group of about 12 people and we had the pan to ourselves (with one driving instructor) from 8 - 6.

The instructor set out some courses and taught us a few things and then let us design some layouts and he chose the ones he thought were best.