zoom
24-10-2011, 01:39 PM
I spent a day at Brands Hatch Indy with Ben Elliott race instructor to help improve my driving. It was a phenomenal day, massive fun and learnt a lot.
I became aware of him through this and the vx220 forum as he was recommended as a driver coach. In particular, I chose him because as part of his teaching he uses a Video Vbox two camera video and data logging during the day. Not only do you get to review this during sessions but you get it all on a DVD at the end to take home and review at your leisure with the free Circuit Tools software. It also makes a nice momento.
The weather was dry, I had a fresh set of KU39 tyres ready to exploit, once the release compound had fully worn off (very impressive tyres). I was a relative novice at Brands having driven 6 laps of it 9 years ago.
The day began with Ben fitting out my car with the vbox and cameras which took about 10 minutes. I gave him a bit of an overview of what I was looking and he said we'll go out for some laps and he'll observe without commenting and from there we can work on relevant areas.
Ben advised we wound the Nitrons adjustable suspension back to full soft so that we could really feel what was going on in the car.
Out we went. Paddock Hill bend is without doubt a sphincter clencher. By the sub optimal way I was driving, to me the car felt like it was going to fall off the track, it was a scary bend and I was practically holding my breath each time in that session.
Back in the paddock (I'd booked a pit garage, which is well worth it especially if it rains, as it allows Ben to set up his table, computer and monitor) Ben gave me a debrief. My driving was ok, safe, followed the basic principles. My vision was good with looking through the bends, which the picture in picture camera clearly showed my where my head was pointed so we didnt need to work on that as a focus. What it needed was me really getting the car to dance to extract speed through the corners. And that began with my braking technique, I was coming off the brakes too sharply which lightened up the front too quickly and unsettled the car.
The next session Ben took the car out. Like all professional drivers the way he made the car do what he wanted, keeping it so balanced and planted it was fantastic to experience that control and speed. We then went back to the pits and reviewed the data comparing his laps with mine. It was very obvious where I lost time using the delta t channel (the red trace in the graph), the speed comparison data line and the side by side videos you can step through.
Screen shot of the the side by side analysis of a bend, Ben is the blue trace. The other advantage of video with the data is that you can see if you were caught up in traffic to explain an unusually slower section like Ben's blue trace on the right at the start of the lap at Paddock Hill bend...
(sorry about the poor picture quality)
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff189/dws2000/3fba8a2e.jpg
As the day progressed we followed the same format of me going out followed by data review, ticking off a bend at a time to get my trace as close to Ben's session as possible. It was an excellent and tangible way to see improvement. At the end of the day reviewing the data I could see I had knocked off over 3 seconds from my first session to my last and got my trace to within a second of Ben's (although I'm sure he wasn't trying that hard).
Some of the output you get, the picture in picture is useful to point to your head to see if you are using vision correctly and looking through the bends, we switched it later to point at my feet to see heel and toe, smooth braking and accelleration...
http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?user=dws2000&v=cuM1swMpsRI&view=videos
The pace definitely got quicker each time, by the end I felt I was flying round at a respectable pace which was very satisfying. The penultimate lap of the day saw an interesting 'moment' due to fuel starvation ...
http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?desktop_uri=%2Fuser%2Fdws2000&sort=p&channel_id=0&livestreaming_tutorial=False&ytsession=%7B%7D&start=0&user=dws2000&use_new_videos_tab=False&page=1&autoplay=True&gl=GB
I had an absolute blast. Overall it was a fantastic day and Ben is a great teacher, his approach and style is well judged. I'd recommend him if you're thinking of driver training to help you get the most out of yourself.
I became aware of him through this and the vx220 forum as he was recommended as a driver coach. In particular, I chose him because as part of his teaching he uses a Video Vbox two camera video and data logging during the day. Not only do you get to review this during sessions but you get it all on a DVD at the end to take home and review at your leisure with the free Circuit Tools software. It also makes a nice momento.
The weather was dry, I had a fresh set of KU39 tyres ready to exploit, once the release compound had fully worn off (very impressive tyres). I was a relative novice at Brands having driven 6 laps of it 9 years ago.
The day began with Ben fitting out my car with the vbox and cameras which took about 10 minutes. I gave him a bit of an overview of what I was looking and he said we'll go out for some laps and he'll observe without commenting and from there we can work on relevant areas.
Ben advised we wound the Nitrons adjustable suspension back to full soft so that we could really feel what was going on in the car.
Out we went. Paddock Hill bend is without doubt a sphincter clencher. By the sub optimal way I was driving, to me the car felt like it was going to fall off the track, it was a scary bend and I was practically holding my breath each time in that session.
Back in the paddock (I'd booked a pit garage, which is well worth it especially if it rains, as it allows Ben to set up his table, computer and monitor) Ben gave me a debrief. My driving was ok, safe, followed the basic principles. My vision was good with looking through the bends, which the picture in picture camera clearly showed my where my head was pointed so we didnt need to work on that as a focus. What it needed was me really getting the car to dance to extract speed through the corners. And that began with my braking technique, I was coming off the brakes too sharply which lightened up the front too quickly and unsettled the car.
The next session Ben took the car out. Like all professional drivers the way he made the car do what he wanted, keeping it so balanced and planted it was fantastic to experience that control and speed. We then went back to the pits and reviewed the data comparing his laps with mine. It was very obvious where I lost time using the delta t channel (the red trace in the graph), the speed comparison data line and the side by side videos you can step through.
Screen shot of the the side by side analysis of a bend, Ben is the blue trace. The other advantage of video with the data is that you can see if you were caught up in traffic to explain an unusually slower section like Ben's blue trace on the right at the start of the lap at Paddock Hill bend...
(sorry about the poor picture quality)
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff189/dws2000/3fba8a2e.jpg
As the day progressed we followed the same format of me going out followed by data review, ticking off a bend at a time to get my trace as close to Ben's session as possible. It was an excellent and tangible way to see improvement. At the end of the day reviewing the data I could see I had knocked off over 3 seconds from my first session to my last and got my trace to within a second of Ben's (although I'm sure he wasn't trying that hard).
Some of the output you get, the picture in picture is useful to point to your head to see if you are using vision correctly and looking through the bends, we switched it later to point at my feet to see heel and toe, smooth braking and accelleration...
http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?user=dws2000&v=cuM1swMpsRI&view=videos
The pace definitely got quicker each time, by the end I felt I was flying round at a respectable pace which was very satisfying. The penultimate lap of the day saw an interesting 'moment' due to fuel starvation ...
http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?desktop_uri=%2Fuser%2Fdws2000&sort=p&channel_id=0&livestreaming_tutorial=False&ytsession=%7B%7D&start=0&user=dws2000&use_new_videos_tab=False&page=1&autoplay=True&gl=GB
I had an absolute blast. Overall it was a fantastic day and Ben is a great teacher, his approach and style is well judged. I'd recommend him if you're thinking of driver training to help you get the most out of yourself.