GTP_rpm
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- GTP_rpm
Hi mortals and aliens alike, here I thought I'd share my experience at the "warm-up" day for this years Race Academy by Nissan.
This was just a test day, for the organisers and instructors, caterers etc...to get a feel how the day would run and time to iron out any mistakes or flaws. A bit like a rehearsal, I guess.
My girlfriend is the assistant events manager for Nissan UK, hence how I got the lucky oppertunity to be one of the 40 lucky guinea pigs. The weather stayed dry, though looked to be threatening all day.
First off, a little video and an introduction from Rob Bath (drives in the RJN 350Z and is a presenter) about Race Academy and a short demonstration of the track - Silverstone South Circuit. Luckily, I have already done the GP track in my own car, so I knew half of the track...but that was a 1.6 Honda CRX, slightly different beast to the GTR and 370Z.
The 40 testers were split into groups of 4, so we could combat the 4 activities seperately. The activities were;
1. 370Z Advanced Car Control.
...basically an unscored event, just used to try and have a go at drifting/doing donoughts. Generally being a hooligan for about 20minutes.
2. 370Z on Silverstone South with an Instructor. A scored event on %
...As it says on the tin really. 5 370's shared between 10 people, the other 5 waiting got to be taken out by Rob Bath in a roll-caged 350Z. He's a really genuinly nice guy 👍
3. Nissan GTR AutoCross / Head to Head. A scored event on best time out of 2 runs
...Two GTR's, on the infield with cones layed out. 2 circuits with an instructor to be shown the way, then 2 attempts on your own. GTR's were both LHD and set up in auto.
4. GTR on Silverstone South with an Elite Instructor. A scored event on %
...50mins one-to-one with the Elite Instructor. 10 GTR's!!!
So, my group got to dive in at the deep end with the GTR. I told my instructor straight away about Ant being my brother and I feel it really helped, as he didn't talk to me like a baby who had never driven before. The first part, was with the GTR in normal modes. At first, the power was over-whelming. But he kept egging me on...and eventually I got used to it and stopped getting tunnel vision!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNPDH2FqYg8
We then came in, set it to R mode and tried again. What can I say? Anyone who is in doubt of a GTR as a drivers car, obviously has different parameters for what they call a drivers car. It does cater for you and anyone can drive it quickly, but it'll still require a fantastic driver to extract the full potential from it - and that someone isn't me! Or even my instructor...! I thoroughly was in ore of how delicate it felt, by how much feedback you got through your arms, bum, back and brake pedal...very, very impressed by the experience.
I scored a 90% on this activity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y736Ta69_L8&feature=channel
Next up was the instructors demo race. All 10 GTR's on track, with their instructors pretty much going for it. It was meant to be 80%...but it looks like a bit more to me. Notice how he tries different lines and how much more brake pressure he uses than I was. That literally had me squashed in my seat...Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT4kAUv9IlM&feature=channel
Had a good chat with the guy afterwards, I think he enjoyed himself as much as I did lol.
Next up, was the GTR on AutoCross / Head to Head.
Not the best layout for the GTR, but I gave it my best shot. My best timed run was a 25.12. That was the 2nd quickest of the day by anyone, the fastest on the day was a 25.11...How close do you want it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjDpC__4ZzU&feature=channel
We then went to the 370Z drifting section. I had a good play about, met an old karting associate in Chaz Small. Also finally noticed our team leader, was Charles Hollings, also someone very familiar to me from the old UK karting days. Ant had popped down by this point and a few people noticed who he was. He didn't get asked to sign any autographs though...but then, who would?
No vbox clip for the 370Z drifting. It was pretty boring and pointless in my opinion. Though good to give drifting a go - very tough. Just not me...
We then went for our final activity, with the 370Z's on the South track. I was given my instructor and he was a lot younger than my one from the GTR. He asked about my experience and this time didn't mention Ant and, he spoke to me like I was a complete newbie. I kept my head down, did what he said and got out the otherside of it quite dissapointed with how patronising he was...and dissapointed with the 370Z. But after the GTR, most cars would feel very tame and un-impressive, I expect.
I scored a 91% for this event.
About 10mins later, he was standing with 3 other instructors. They all turned to me when I walked past and the 3 older guys were smirking and the younger one turned round, not smiling and said "Ian, what's your second name?"
"...Davidson?" I said, not guessing where this was going.
"...Anthony Davidson's brother??" He questioned.
At this point the other 3 instructors began laughing at him and I heard one of them say "You've been had mate!!". Not entirely sure what it was about, but they wern't laughing at me.
Unfortunately, I've not uploaded the video's of the 370Z on track yet, because I am trying to split the video into 2x8mins so it will Youtube. You will understand just how irritating he was, although right in what he was saying, his different tone compared with the GTR instructor was just...He spoke to me kind of like how you'd talk to your 4 year old child if they were learning to ride a bike for the first time haha!
Anyway, we did the presentation thing and, although it was just the test day, a lot of us were quite tense. I knew I had won my group, but didn't know how everyone else had done.
Rob Bath began presenting, saying the top 5 places were covered with just 1.5%. He announced Third place, none-other than Andy Middlehurst. (if you're unaware of him, he's considered a God in the GTR/Skyline/Nissan world, won 4 British Saloon champs and did BTCC for 2 or 3 years). He then announced 2nd place...and it wasn't me.
"And in first place...it must run in the family...Ian Davidson".
I actually won, I knew I was up there but damn...I won! I got on the top step and Rob shouted out "speeeeccch".
Now I really felt stupid. Lol.
I gave my speech, got down and studied the score sheet. There was 0.3% covering 5th - 2nd place and I won by 1.2% over 2nd.
A brilliant day, excellent ego boost which is always welcome for a tubby ginger bastard...and fell in love with the GTR. Life is worth living, just for these individual days in our lives I reckon.
/hippy
Chuffed
This was just a test day, for the organisers and instructors, caterers etc...to get a feel how the day would run and time to iron out any mistakes or flaws. A bit like a rehearsal, I guess.
My girlfriend is the assistant events manager for Nissan UK, hence how I got the lucky oppertunity to be one of the 40 lucky guinea pigs. The weather stayed dry, though looked to be threatening all day.
First off, a little video and an introduction from Rob Bath (drives in the RJN 350Z and is a presenter) about Race Academy and a short demonstration of the track - Silverstone South Circuit. Luckily, I have already done the GP track in my own car, so I knew half of the track...but that was a 1.6 Honda CRX, slightly different beast to the GTR and 370Z.
The 40 testers were split into groups of 4, so we could combat the 4 activities seperately. The activities were;
1. 370Z Advanced Car Control.
...basically an unscored event, just used to try and have a go at drifting/doing donoughts. Generally being a hooligan for about 20minutes.
2. 370Z on Silverstone South with an Instructor. A scored event on %
...As it says on the tin really. 5 370's shared between 10 people, the other 5 waiting got to be taken out by Rob Bath in a roll-caged 350Z. He's a really genuinly nice guy 👍
3. Nissan GTR AutoCross / Head to Head. A scored event on best time out of 2 runs
...Two GTR's, on the infield with cones layed out. 2 circuits with an instructor to be shown the way, then 2 attempts on your own. GTR's were both LHD and set up in auto.
4. GTR on Silverstone South with an Elite Instructor. A scored event on %
...50mins one-to-one with the Elite Instructor. 10 GTR's!!!
So, my group got to dive in at the deep end with the GTR. I told my instructor straight away about Ant being my brother and I feel it really helped, as he didn't talk to me like a baby who had never driven before. The first part, was with the GTR in normal modes. At first, the power was over-whelming. But he kept egging me on...and eventually I got used to it and stopped getting tunnel vision!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNPDH2FqYg8
We then came in, set it to R mode and tried again. What can I say? Anyone who is in doubt of a GTR as a drivers car, obviously has different parameters for what they call a drivers car. It does cater for you and anyone can drive it quickly, but it'll still require a fantastic driver to extract the full potential from it - and that someone isn't me! Or even my instructor...! I thoroughly was in ore of how delicate it felt, by how much feedback you got through your arms, bum, back and brake pedal...very, very impressed by the experience.
I scored a 90% on this activity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y736Ta69_L8&feature=channel
Next up was the instructors demo race. All 10 GTR's on track, with their instructors pretty much going for it. It was meant to be 80%...but it looks like a bit more to me. Notice how he tries different lines and how much more brake pressure he uses than I was. That literally had me squashed in my seat...Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT4kAUv9IlM&feature=channel
Had a good chat with the guy afterwards, I think he enjoyed himself as much as I did lol.
Next up, was the GTR on AutoCross / Head to Head.
Not the best layout for the GTR, but I gave it my best shot. My best timed run was a 25.12. That was the 2nd quickest of the day by anyone, the fastest on the day was a 25.11...How close do you want it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjDpC__4ZzU&feature=channel
We then went to the 370Z drifting section. I had a good play about, met an old karting associate in Chaz Small. Also finally noticed our team leader, was Charles Hollings, also someone very familiar to me from the old UK karting days. Ant had popped down by this point and a few people noticed who he was. He didn't get asked to sign any autographs though...but then, who would?
No vbox clip for the 370Z drifting. It was pretty boring and pointless in my opinion. Though good to give drifting a go - very tough. Just not me...
We then went for our final activity, with the 370Z's on the South track. I was given my instructor and he was a lot younger than my one from the GTR. He asked about my experience and this time didn't mention Ant and, he spoke to me like I was a complete newbie. I kept my head down, did what he said and got out the otherside of it quite dissapointed with how patronising he was...and dissapointed with the 370Z. But after the GTR, most cars would feel very tame and un-impressive, I expect.
I scored a 91% for this event.
About 10mins later, he was standing with 3 other instructors. They all turned to me when I walked past and the 3 older guys were smirking and the younger one turned round, not smiling and said "Ian, what's your second name?"
"...Davidson?" I said, not guessing where this was going.
"...Anthony Davidson's brother??" He questioned.
At this point the other 3 instructors began laughing at him and I heard one of them say "You've been had mate!!". Not entirely sure what it was about, but they wern't laughing at me.
Unfortunately, I've not uploaded the video's of the 370Z on track yet, because I am trying to split the video into 2x8mins so it will Youtube. You will understand just how irritating he was, although right in what he was saying, his different tone compared with the GTR instructor was just...He spoke to me kind of like how you'd talk to your 4 year old child if they were learning to ride a bike for the first time haha!
Anyway, we did the presentation thing and, although it was just the test day, a lot of us were quite tense. I knew I had won my group, but didn't know how everyone else had done.
Rob Bath began presenting, saying the top 5 places were covered with just 1.5%. He announced Third place, none-other than Andy Middlehurst. (if you're unaware of him, he's considered a God in the GTR/Skyline/Nissan world, won 4 British Saloon champs and did BTCC for 2 or 3 years). He then announced 2nd place...and it wasn't me.
"And in first place...it must run in the family...Ian Davidson".
I actually won, I knew I was up there but damn...I won! I got on the top step and Rob shouted out "speeeeccch".
Now I really felt stupid. Lol.
I gave my speech, got down and studied the score sheet. There was 0.3% covering 5th - 2nd place and I won by 1.2% over 2nd.
A brilliant day, excellent ego boost which is always welcome for a tubby ginger bastard...and fell in love with the GTR. Life is worth living, just for these individual days in our lives I reckon.
/hippy
Chuffed
)
awsome day out by the looks of things, i have to wait till im 21 befor i can do track days at silverstone 
