It’s been said, more than once, that my driving characteristics trend toward the aggressive side. I suppose I could drive in a calmer manner. But when my friend told me about a day-long driver skills course where attendees would learn how to perform advanced high-speed maneuvers safely, I thought, now that sounds like the more enjoyable option.

So a couple weeks back I got up at o-dark-thirty to make it to the race course by 7:30am, an hour and a half away. Found a charge station on the way, as I wasn’t sure how much range would be eaten up over the course of the day.

The course was arranged into five events, with five groups rotating through. At all times there was just a driver and an instructor in the car. They checked to make sure we’d removed all loose items from the car, to prevent them from knocking around.

Slalom

This event had cones arranged in a straight line, and drivers would veer back and forth between them, at the highest speed they could manage without hitting cones. Volunteers were on stand-by along the track to set up cones that had been hit.

Skid pad

In this event, a section of asphalt was splashed with a large amount of water. Drivers spent a minute driving in a circle, feeling the point where too much gas would lead to skidding. After going around once, they had us turn off traction control, to make the car much more liable to drift. I found a “track mode” option that also directed way more torque to the rear wheels. Made for some very fun doughnuts 🙂 Though I’d need a bit more practice to actually get the hang of drifting. The video below is by one of the volunteers, who actually knew what they were doing.

Accident avoidance

This event involved accelerating to high speed and then mashing on the brake, to get a feel for the limits of ABS. The driver then rounds a corner and again accelerates to high speed, driving straight towards a volunteer down the track. At seemingly the last second, the volunteer darts to the left or right, and the driver needs to swerve in the opposite direction to avoid them, and come to a stop. Balancing the swerve with the braking was the tricky bit to get right.

Figure eight

In this event, we drove along a figure-eight track. Skills taught here included balancing acceleration and braking, as well as looking around a turn. Don’t brake enough through a turn and you lose control, but brake too much and you lose speed you have to recover after straightening out.

Autocross

Our group was lucky enough to save the best for last. This event put together skills from slalom, skid pad, and figure-eight. Cones were arranged to form a large circuit, with various obstacle elements. Got to go around about five times. I made some friends when I grabbed some slick shots from some other cars and shared them out.

After all five events, they debriefed us while volunteers set up a much larger autocross course. Those who wanted to stick around go around as often as they liked, until the volunteers needed to head out. After the first circuit they even let us go around without an instructor. I ended up doing that another five times before shooting off.

I needn’t have been worried about range, had plenty to get back home across the ferry. All in all, 10/10 would drive again.

Other happenings: I attended a play by someone in the ward, a take on Wizard of Oz. The play was fine, and the friend performed very well, but I unfortunately succumbed to the Stake Conference Effect. I think my neighbors were annoyed by me jolting awake multiple times throughout the performance. Oh well.

Went on a hike with a friend, Lime Kiln Trail, which turned out to be really chill, almost no elevation change because it followed a hundred-year-old rail line. We found the reason it got its name, an old kiln used to cook lime out of limestone.

My team at work has been running a pickleball tournament, and this week I got knocked out of the third round. It’s double-elimination so I may have a second crack at it. My opponent played a lot of tennis and the skills transferred. Also I was wearing jeans and hiking shoes, and it was absurdly hot out side. Notwithstanding all that I did manage to force a tie-break round where he won 11-9. So I feel good about it.

I played pickleball again later that week with a friend who got affected by layoffs and has recently finished a six-month job hunt, landing a great position in Austin Texas. Will be missed. Last night we had a going-away party for her.

Can’t wait for Colorado!