As we walked up to the cars, it's here where the car's diminutive size, ankle-high ride height and tight cockpits got us all excited. Once snugly strapped into place, we performed a series of braking and steering exercises. Yours truly got over-zealous and blew-by a corners and locked up the front wheels on an occasion or two, and I was the only one... This is a school after all right?
Anyhoo, the Van Diemen is phenomenal! Most impressive is its grip. Its suspension consists in an advanced push-rod activated system devised by Bilstein and front and rear roll bars that are fully adjustable. That's one side of the story. The other is that all VD F2000s are shod with Pirelli P-Zero tires.
The sheer level of tarmac adherence from the combined Pirellis and Bilstein suspension is mind-numbing. Unless I acted like a clumsy gorilla behind the wheel, which I admittedly did on occasion, my sense of rational thought always won out over the amount of grip that remained when entering a corner. Only once did I try and fool the Pirelli's contact patches at the exit of Tac-Toe. With little warning, the rear end of the VD cut loose. By simply holding and gently prodding the throttle, I held the tail out for a moment and then, everything fell back into place. It was quite entertaining.
The VDs have strong AP brakes all around and are equipped with car-specific rack and pinion steering that requires little more than 180 degrees of steering wheel input. Once again, as these component's performance depend entirely on the grip provided by the tires, I was in good hands.
After every track session, we were de-briefed and were invited to ask questions about anything concerning driving techniques or racing lines across some of the complex corners of the track. The instructors gave many tricks and as the day progressed, so did the levels of confidence and overall track speeds. I need to this again!
Shortly after the call from the friend, he and I challenged each other to see who would manage the faster lap or to see if one would pass the other in one of the designated passing zones. As luck would have it, for the “friend”, the cars were rev-limited to 4,100 rpm and a top speed of roughly 125 km/h, thus thwarting any chances of my demonstrating my superior driving skills. Lucky guy...
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| Photo: Mathieu St-Pierre/Auto123.com |
Anyhoo, the Van Diemen is phenomenal! Most impressive is its grip. Its suspension consists in an advanced push-rod activated system devised by Bilstein and front and rear roll bars that are fully adjustable. That's one side of the story. The other is that all VD F2000s are shod with Pirelli P-Zero tires.
The sheer level of tarmac adherence from the combined Pirellis and Bilstein suspension is mind-numbing. Unless I acted like a clumsy gorilla behind the wheel, which I admittedly did on occasion, my sense of rational thought always won out over the amount of grip that remained when entering a corner. Only once did I try and fool the Pirelli's contact patches at the exit of Tac-Toe. With little warning, the rear end of the VD cut loose. By simply holding and gently prodding the throttle, I held the tail out for a moment and then, everything fell back into place. It was quite entertaining.
The VDs have strong AP brakes all around and are equipped with car-specific rack and pinion steering that requires little more than 180 degrees of steering wheel input. Once again, as these component's performance depend entirely on the grip provided by the tires, I was in good hands.
After every track session, we were de-briefed and were invited to ask questions about anything concerning driving techniques or racing lines across some of the complex corners of the track. The instructors gave many tricks and as the day progressed, so did the levels of confidence and overall track speeds. I need to this again!
Shortly after the call from the friend, he and I challenged each other to see who would manage the faster lap or to see if one would pass the other in one of the designated passing zones. As luck would have it, for the “friend”, the cars were rev-limited to 4,100 rpm and a top speed of roughly 125 km/h, thus thwarting any chances of my demonstrating my superior driving skills. Lucky guy...
 |
| Photo: Mathieu St-Pierre/Auto123.com |