Skidpan session at Goodwood (20 October 2002)

Oh my goodness, I don't think I've laughed so hard in ages! ... I shall explain this later.

After a quick pub lunch a few minutes away from the Goodwood motor racing circuit, 5 of us joined the remaining 3 drivers for the afternoon session.

The session was run by a couple of guys who have been providing skid pan training for about 20 years. They formed an amusing double act - with plenty of anecdotes and corny jokes to keep the session light hearted. We had a short classroom session, where they explained the causes of skids (both front wheel and rear wheel) and what happens to the car once the grip is lost. Then it was outside for some practical experience.

We used two old Ford Sierras, one was set up to be 'neutral' handling, while the other was tail happy - to simulate a rear wheel drive car. The skid pan was a fairly small tarmaced area covered with a mixture of oil and water - really slippery!

First off, the two instructors took us round in each of the cars, nicely loaded up with four of us in each car as passengers. I was in the tail happy car first and couldn't believe how quickly the back end went - driving this thing was going to be a real challenge. By comparison, the neutral car was much more controlled, but front wheel skidding was something new to me.

We each then had a session driving the two cars, with the instructor next to us, and a couple of passengers in the back. The group I was in started with the front wheel skid control. I was up first and managed to stall the car before we even got started, oh dear :-( We all seemed to get the hang of this reasonably well.

Then it was our turn in the tail happy car. They told us that at any speed over 13mph, the car would spin - we didn't really need to try that hard to get it to 'let go'. It was amazing how hard it is to deliberately drive into a corner so that a car will spin - your automatic reaction is to drive carefully so as not to spin in the first place! Once I'd got the idea, there was no stopping me - spin, spin, spin I went :-). Now I was letting the car spin, rather than taking instant corrective action. I got the hang of it eventually, but it was really hard work - you have to work the steering wheel like mad, the instant the back starts to go.

Some of our group got the hang of this a lot quicker than me (David in particular), so then the instructor added to the difficulty by throwing his weight around in the car and the judicious use of the handbrake! With all this 'help' there was no way David could hold onto the car and we were in spin city. It was at this point that I was in stitches with laughter.

Next up was practicing what to do when the wheels lock under braking. We were instructed on how to pump the brakes. I can't believe how effective this was - I only hope that I remember this if I ever face the situation for real.

Finally, we had a little test/contest putting everything into practice. We had to drive two figure of 8 circuits of the skid pan in the shortest time. Each cone we hit would count as a five second penalty. Everyone knew that if they span, they would lose, but at the same time the clock was ticking. A couple of the group did spin, but most managed a clean round.

Thanks to David Horne for organizing the event, it was a great afternoon.

Bob Pain