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On the 24th April 2004 Motorsport Events held a specially organised driving academy day exclusively for Seven owners. Normally these are run in conjunction with the Ferrari club but Mark of P4 fame suggested a one off day just for sevens.
After a blat through the countryside with Knowley and Jan T in his fatboy R300 we arrived at Upper Heyford airfield security and signed in. Thanks for avoiding the scameras on the way there Knowley. The airfield is in use with various bunkers, police driver training areas, and hundreds upon hundreds of new cars stored up in paddocks. We tootled around the airfield to the far side where the events for the day were set up, signed in and were split into our various groups.
In all there were 5 groups of eight cars with a wide range of sevens being present. It was a gloriously sunny day and so quite a few family members and spectators were out as well.
Our first event was car control (read as very high speed cornering). From a standing start one at a time we accelerated for about 100 metres up to about 70 mph into a sweeping right or left hand turn, then when in the corner quickly lifted fully off the accelerator to bring the back around and cause lift-off oversteer, and then applied throttle in a balanced fashion to cause throttle oversteer - at least that is how the theory went. The reality was often quite different, with many spins off in either direction including a memorable attempt by Knowley to cut half of the paddock’s grass. After about 8 runs I was starting to get the hang of it and would have been happy to continue like this all day. This was the most difficult exercise for the day but also the most fun. Our instructor - Mark Blair was excellent with his advice and it was great to see seven owners pushing their cars to the limit and beyond.
The next event was a slalom course teaching correct positioning of hands during steering. This also conveniently doubled as a good opportunity to practice our donutting skills. Next was the timed run driving challenge for the day which was a combined slalom/handling/emergency braking course. One car at a time went out and did the course while being timed. For each cone you clipped or for not stopping in either of the “carparks” you received a 5 second penalty. This was reasonably difficult requiring full braking or acceleration while negotiating switchback corners and hairpins.
My first timed run was mid 33 seconds but unfortunately I clipped one cone. There were some good times in our group in the second run including Michael in his non-furry nose cone car (left the fur at home for the day). My second run for the day was 34.12 seconds and was the second fastest time for the day. The fastest time for the day was high 33 seconds set by Beagle in his 200 bhp car with slicks. (Nice one Beagle!)
There were some other events including emergency braking and more slaloms with a short track session at the end of the day followed by some awards for good (and bad!) driving.
1st Award - Knowley will henceforth be known as the "Grass Cutter" for obvious reasons.
2nd Award - Jan T received a special mention for Mr Consistency - he clipped exactly the same cone every time through one of the courses. He also managed to make his biking mate (Fireblade rider mind you) quite ill during some laps around the track and was very very loud at the same time.
3rd Award - Mark (P4) was just too damn noisy in his car - well done getting that black flag though.
4th Award - Frankyknuckles for being fastest during the track session and getting the best score in the exam.
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