Some years ago my daughter Kate shouted me a ”BMW Driving Experience” this involved hooning around Phillip Island race circuit in BMW’s finest under the instruction of a race driver. One of the lessons involved an M3 with the traction control off, lots of water and a skid pan. We had to pootle along, turn hard right and boot it, then recover. Our instructor Geoff Brabham told us the only way to recover was to immediately back off then gradually feed in the power…… no one listened, everyone thought more power not less would do the trick, we were all wrong and after many tries most of us got it.
This brings me to the wonderful run up to Mt Baw Baw for Lunch today with the local car club. The weather was a bit damp so on entering a tight right hander I did exactly the opposite to what Mr Brabham taught me, I ended up pirouetting down the road then going backwards off it. Luckily no damage was done, the Lotus only weighs 720Kg and there were many club members on hand to restore the car to the tarmac, these fellows were not going to let me forget this so I thought I had better fess up and get it over with. Have I now learned that lesson? Lets hope so.
