The morning was clear and cold. The breeze was stiff off the water. The smell of gasoline and burnt tire hung heavily in the air. It was good.
A few talents shy of Ernest Hemingway, we made our way down to Quonset Point early on October 19th. We did have our new head of school, Jean-Yves, with us for his first experience with our hidden RI gem - the ADSI performance driving school and autocross. For those who have not yet been barraged with the semi-regular posts of the Automobile Club de FASRI (ACF) and aren't yet familiar with it, we are a small group of parents and friends that have banded together to express our love of all things automobile and racing. Just about anything with wheels is fair game and the "club" has grown organically over the past year as we find folks with similar interests. The ACF even includes a fair number of people outside of FASRI too as we clearly do not discriminate against anyone with petrol in their veins.
One of our favorite activities is attending ADSI events. ADSI is a local treasure of a driving school that operates on a disused runway at Quonset Point in North Kingston RI. There is no sign. You have to know about it. Some of the best things in RI work this way.
On this day, our FASRI crew consisted of myself, Attilio (a pseudonym used to protect the guilty), Fred, and Jean-Yves. We were joined by many regular ADSI participants - Rich, Jessica, Jesse, Brad, Nick - and a good core crew including Tim, Aiden, Erik, Max, and Dillon. Alex joined us for the first time in his sublime C4S Cab for the full day, fresh off a day I shared with him at Thompson Speedway recently. The morning class was strong with about 9 cars. About 10 more cars ran the full course in the afternoon. The smaller turnout means we all got quite a few runs and a good dose of instruction. These events are actually primarily instructional with timing used to measure our progress. The Warwick Police Department also joined the party doing training nearby on a portion of the runway we all shared. That made for interesting feelings as we drove hard to the sound of sirens and visions of flashing lights! Luckily they cleared out before lunchtime.
Jean-Yves dives into the 4-cone slalom.
The morning started with our traditional 60' slalom course of 4-cones-in-a-row. It never ceases to challenge even the best drivers to push their tires just that much harder. Yes, that's a nice way to say that I spun out trying to go through it too fast on my second run. There is nothing to hit and no consequences for a spin so it's a great way to really see where the car's limits are without paying a price. And it's so much fun!
What it looks like when you try the slalom a bit too fast!
With the local constabulary constraining our space a little, we moved on to the shoestring drill. This looks like the laces on a shoe where you follow one "lace" and trace its snaking path until it turns 180 degrees and snakes its way back to the opposite side (the map of the layout is in the top right of the video below). It's a great drill to work on some tough skills: looking far enough ahead to judge speed for turn in and where to set your apex. It's easy to push way too hard. And I did that too (video evidence below). We were all starting to wake up and enjoy ourselves by this point.
Next we did a mini track walk where we examined some specific parts of the track on foot. As a group, we talked about how to approach these parts in the cars and what variables to keep in mind. Rich took over lead instructor duties, describing the track's hidden secrets under instructor Dave's watchful eye. And Attilio layered on the finer points and complexities that he's mastered over the past year. And kept us entertained as he chowed a large bag of bell peppers! It was very windy so we kept the non-driving parts short and sweet.
Finally it was time for lunch and to get ready to run the full course. The course this time was laid out in a format that we haven't seen since last fall. Changing to a newer format early in 2014 provoked a bit of discord with many ADSI regulars who liked the higher speed section of the old layout and the ability to compare times to older data. These folks were very happy to have the old layout back. There is something to be said for the section where you get up to 75mph or so and then have to brake hard down to 20 for a sharp hairpin corner. Get that wrong and you lose lots of time. Old layout or new, I am just happy to be in my car so I am easily sated. An open runway with any course on it makes me smile.
The afternoon is a timed event, with one car at a time running the course. Again, very safe and orderly. But also instructive as small mistakes add up to big time differences over the course of the nearly two-minute laps. Times in the low 1-minute-40-second realm are challenging to achieve. And 1:30's are significantly quick. The times are taken for comparison and instructional purposes, but it would be disingenuous to say that there isn't a little bit of friendly competition going on in subtle ways too. Bench racing perhaps.
Here's what a run of the full afternoon course looks.
The atmosphere remains overwhelmingly encouraging and everyone is very friendly. It's common to hop out of your own car and into someone else's so you can see their pace and how they attack the course. Or to just check out their cool car and see how it goes at speed. I was invited to drive Brad's E36 M3 with Hankook racing slicks on it for the first time. I have never driven on slicks before now. Braking force was tremendous. Cornering wasn't the night-and-day-difference I expected. But the car was nimble and great fun to drive. Thanks, Brad and Nick! I also had a go in Jean-Yves' Turbo Beetle and you know? That car has some good speed in there. I was very impressed by the lateral grip of the car. It was easy to get it up to the limit. Again, tons of fun to see and feel more cars!
The mildly competitive nature at ADSI is restrained to a very genteel form that encourages everyone to improve. Fun and learning are the most important emotions of these events. All of the students posted great times. No one got there this time, but the 1:20's are vaguely in sight. Maybe next year, though.
And the new head-of-school survived it and even maybe enjoyed it. Come give it a try. You may too!
A few of us had to pack it in somewhat early to live up to our ACF vow of trying to disrupt our home and family lives as little as possible with our petrol-fueled habits. It was a really ideal way to spend a day, though, and a perfect end to a thrilling and massively educational season. I hope everyone has the courage to get over any concerns about your skills (we're all learning!) and your car (it's about the driver not the car!) to come learn with us and see how much more you can know about something you probably do every day. We've spent a full year learning to trust how good our cars already are ("Hands, Rich! Hands!") and to advance our instinctive muscle memory. Are you ready to come find out for yourself? Get ready for the next event in March or April of 2015. We'll see you there.
We are planning our last couple of events for the year. Barbie Jeep downhill racing on Nov 16 (Sunday at 1pm) at Diamond Hill State Park in Cumberland. Come race. Come film. Come laugh. It should be hilarious. And our annual awards get together date TBD but probably in January or so that is still shaping up. Join now and have some fun with us.