delsol161

hey ya'll juss thought i'd share w/ everyone the fun i had this on saturday. my dad works for Honda @ the East Liberty Plant, here in Ohio. he had heard of a defensive driving course that honda offers call "Kids & Keys". it's supposed to teach new drivers the fundamentals of defensive driving. it includes braking techniques (with and without ABS), manuverability, and spin control. my dad and i have talked about me doing it since i was 16, and he paid for it for my b-day this year. TRC is the Transportation Research Center. it basically consists of a 7.5 mile high speed track, 50+ acre skid pad, 1.5 mile winding road course, offroad courses, inclines/declines, water pits, bumpy roads, and a crash test center. now, everything seemed up to my expectations of it being a course for beginning drivers w/ little skill/knowlege... and it was juss boring. then, my instructor, Frank, decided to take us to the skid pad to use the spin car. this is where it got fun as hell. the entire course is taken in '99-'01 Accords BTW. Frank is about 22, and a college student. needless to say, he was ready for some fun too. so, we got into a modified accord. it sported Acura suspension. it was a 5-lug, 4 corner disc setup. it has an outrigger of sorts on all four corners. the outrigger is hydraulically controlled, to lift the front and rear of the car into the air. lift the front, and it simulates a front-end skid. lift the rear, and a rear-end skid ensues. naturally, i couldn't wait to try it out. we started on a stupid circle, that was needed to make sure we could handle the next test. the next test? it was a 1/16th mile oval. the two girls in the class never went over 20 mph, and kept losing it in the turns... it was pathetic and i kept laughing. when it was my turn, Frank said that since i laughed, a damn well better impress him. so, i took the first corner doing 25, juss bein' cautious. i drifted the entired length of the following straight . he said if i had the balls, i could go faster... so i did. the next lap consisted of two 35 mph drifts (one got away from me). i went for about 15 minutes longer than the girls, cuz Frank was having fun. finally, i went for 45. i almost lost it, but stood on the gas. there was a nice cloud of smoke, as well as the lovely smell of roasted tires. the poor auto started to rev limit, and frank got a lil worried. finally, i pulled it out, took a cool down lap, and stopped next to the oval. frank stepped out, and said that was the first time he'd ever laughed, and nearly shit himself @ the same time.

to anybody around my age in the central ohio area, i'd seriously suggest looking into this course. i actually did learn a lil bit, and had a blast. it was only available to honda employees' kids, but frank said now almost anyone can enter it. Below are a couple links, check 'em out

http://www.trcpg.com/


P.S. they say that you can take the corners on the test track @ about 140, let go of the wheel, and the car will stay on course simply because of the speed & the incredibly steep bank (up to 36 degrees)