DE Continued

So Carl (my instructor) hops into the driver's seat of my car to take'r out for a couple of laps to talk me through the course and show me his 'line'. No big deal. He never takes my car above third gear and doesn't do anything real aggressive. I AM impressed with his heel-toe technique. Two times around and he pulls over to swap seats. Obligatory safety talk, make sure I pay attention to the other students, don't worry about going fast - try and be consistent, etc. I'm nervous. Like, REAL nervous. I don't know why exactly, but I think it's the Skip Barber driving suit - and the death grip this dude has on the dashboard.

My first two or three laps were sloppy as hell. Carl is busy saying "brake, brake BRAKE" and "turn, turn, APEX, gas, GAS" while holding on to both the dash and the door handle. ("I really like when my students have race harnesses" he tells me after the first session). Four or five more laps and he's not saying much - just watching me and my technique. We finish up and he bails out quick to get in his car for his 30 minutes on the track.

I spend a couple of minutes watching his car go fast. And brake hard. And make LOTS of noise (I find out later that the thing basically has straight pipes - sounds nice and fast - it's real easy to hear shifting technique with a car this loud!). I'm not sure what to expect from him when he returns as he seems pretty ingrained in the PCA 'scene' so might just ignore me to socialize with the other instructors.

Boy was I wrong.

So he parks his loud-n-fast-911 and strolls on over to my car. Proceeds to talk to me about our first session and gives me a few pointers. We verbally 'walk' around the course, talking about braking points and turn-in points. He, again, stressed to NOT obsess about the laptimes being fast or slow, but try and make them consistent. And, he says, I REALLY should be doing the heel-toe thing. It's better for the car, and makes the weight transfer on the down-shifts much smoother. I'm drinking tons of Gatorade (did I mention how fucking HOT it was?) and he's eating one of my custom peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It's a good time.

So, the next session I'm in the left seat for the entire time. I spend about 10 minutes in third - concentrating on the line, and eventually driving Carl a bit batty ("ok, ok - shift already!"). So, I start to be more aggressive and up the speed, delay the brake and shift into fourth on the longer straights. Not a word. No real feedback from Carl - well, except that left hand is gripping the dash again. About 20 minutes into this session and a rare event occurred - I got a compliment. Something to effect of "That was a good lap - now, just keep doing that". And I did. And it connected. I now understand what it means to hit the line the right way. Everything just kind of falls into place, and instead of being white-knuckled on the steering wheel - DIVING the car into the corners - you are just helping the car hit the corners easily and with a minimum amount of physical input. It's quite amazing. *-Back to earth-* "Now, where is the heel-toe?" he asks. Arrrrgh - shit, there goes my line. I spend a few more laps floundering with this concept and it's time to head into the paddock.

"Well, my job is basically done" he states. "Basically, I'm convinced that you're not a dumbshit and can maintain control of your car. You're hitting the lines well and not driving over your head, so I'm happy to let you do the next two sessions on your own. Work on the heel-toe. If you want, I'll ride along and answer questions, but there's not much else I can say for today. Oh, hey - do you want to sit in the passenger seat while I take my car out?"

Booyah.

Here's what I got to ride in - twice. More later...