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Intro

The advanced training is held at Circuit Park Zandvoort. According to the description, it is similar to the basic training, with more "free" time at the track and more attention paid to the "language of the road". There's room for 60 cars.

The intensive training builds upon the previous two training levels, paying particular attention to e.g. steering technique and driving ideal lines. You are presumed to be familiar wit the basic techniques such as a correct steering position, correct handling of understeer and oversteer. 50 cars maximum.

Program of the day

• Theory
• Slalom & Kart track
• Understeer & Powerslide
• Braking with ABS
• Avoiding an obstacle at speed
• Oversteer
• Circuit driving
• Oval driving

Getting there

This being an official Porsche event, everything was very well organized. Which means for example that they send you some tips, a load of rules and regulations and a waiver to sign before participating. All in addition to the bill, of course.
My summary of the tips:

• Set the tyre pressure to the correct values (list provided for the less technically minded)
• Make sure the oil level is not low
• Fill up the tank as there's no filling station at the test center

The description of the route was excellent, but hardly necessary because all the signs pointing to ATT and RDW. These signs had been augmented by neat Porsche signs pointing in the same direction for those who might have forgotten where they were going. A little after 09.00 hours we arrived at the ATT, parked the car next to a nice collection of 911s of different vintages (ranging from SCs to 996s), some Boxters (including one with Burberry shawl) and a 928S4. Inside, a nice breakfast was waiting.

Theory

The first subject of the presentation was "Factors in safe driving", allowing amplification on the Car (a Porsche, of course), the Driver (steering position, concentration), and the Environment (road conditions, other drivers). Starting point was the steering position, illustrated with images of a well-dressed gentleman sitting behind the wheel. First the two classic mistakes: sitting so close to the wheel that even skinny people have to retract their stomach, usually in an effort to see more in foggy conditions (either induced by nature (fog) or alcohol). Classic mistake number two is much more common: sitting so far back that you can hardly reach the wheel with both shoulders touching the seat back. This causes you to hold the wheel with arms at full stretch, preventing quick steering movements. Not mentioned in the presentation was the other effect: not being able to exert enough force on the brake pedal to make an emergency stop. There's just no way you can put 70kg of force on the brake from that seating position. Quite worrying, as this position appears to be the favorite position of many taxi drivers and boy racers...
Anyway, on to the correct position:

• Left knee slightly bent with the clutch fulle depressed
• With the shoulders firmly touching the seat back, the wrists should rest on top of steering wheel
• Relaxed
• Don't use the wheel to brace yourself ("hanging onto the wheel")
• Hands at quarter-to-three (or 10-to-2 if you really want to).

The forces that act on a car were the next subject. This included things like the friction co-efficient, the effect of downward forces on traction, and the Traction Circle. The traction circle illustrates that the total force (braking/accelerating plus cornering) on a tyre should stay within certain limits, otherwise the tyre will start to slide. It also illustrates that there is a gray area in which a tyre starts to loose traction, instead of going from "grip" to "no grip" instantaneously. Like I said, nothing new here.
On to the subject of tyres, and what makes a tyre grip:

• Rubber compound
• Tire width
• Tire pressure
• Downward force on the tyre
• Road surface

• "Some people only know two settings for the throttle: wide open or idle. I use at least 100 settings in between."
• "To go faster, you must back off the throttle. Especially in a Porsche."
• "Less throttle means taking a turn quicker."

Given some basic knowledge about grip, it was time to discuss what to do when there's not enough grip available, starting off with understeer. Please remember, we're talking about an understeering skid, not dealing with a touch of understeer at speed. The goal is to avoid plowing head on into a (usually solid) object at the side of the road.
How to spot:

• Noise from the front tyres
• Nose doesn't turn in as much as expected
• More steering input doesn't reduce turn radius

• Back off the throttle (all the way!)
• Reduce steering input

The understeer discussion leads naturally into a review of slip angles. A tyre needs to slide a little bit to provide maximum grip. Therefore, a little bit of sliding around is the fastest way to go. However, if you overdo it, the slip angle of the tyres goes past the optimum angle, and the grip starts to decrease. Which is another reason why you should turn the wheel back when recovering from understeer.

As opposed to understeer, oversteer is usually more difficult to correct.
How to spot:

• Visual cues: the scenery changes when it shouldn't (you're looking straight ahead, and the world starts turning around you)
• Sensory cues: the famous "seat of the pants"
• On a dry surface the rear tyres may squeel

• Depress the clutch
• Feed in opposite lock (keep the front wheels pointing in the direction the car is traveling)

While the car is busy wagging its tail, you can practice your looking technique.
Some more Gijs van Lennep quotes:

• "You will go where're looking. That's why so many people manage to hit that one tree in sight: they look at it, praying that they are not going to hit that, and then they do."
• "Always look where you want to go."

How do you cause oversteer?

• Applying too much power too soon when exiting a turn (power oversteer)
• Abruptly lifting off the throttle in the middle of a turn (lift-off oversteer)

The final subject was braking. The short version is: if you have ABS, trust it to work well and try to bury the brake pedal somewhere underneath the floor. If not, use your golden right foot to hit the brakes hard (transfer as much weight forward ASAP), and adjust brake pressure to just keep the front wheels turning slowly. One advantage from ABS (aside from retaining the ability to steer effectively while braking hard) is that it takes advantage of the possibilities of different surfaces. Non-ABS brake systems come with a pre-set brake balance between front and rear wheels. Usually, the brake balance is adjusted in a way that causes the front wheels to lock up a little before the rear wheels do on a dry surface. However, on a wet surface, the rear wheels can do more braking in proportion to the front wheels than on a dry surface. This is a result of the laws of physics: there is less grip, so overall deceleration is smaller, which means less weight transfer to the front. ABS systems take advantage of this situation by braking the rear wheels as hard as possible, regardless of the initial brake balance, resulting in shorter braking distances.

Another result of the laws of physics: say you have to brake to avoid a collision with a suddenly appearing obstacle. Say you're doing 50km/h and manage to stop with a few centimeters to spare. Now, if you were doing 70km/h at the point where you first spotted the appearing obstacle, how fast would you be traveling when you hit that obstacle? What do you think? 20km/h? 30? maybe even 40? Given a reaction time of 1s between seeing the obstacle and hitting the brakes, you would hit the obstacle with a speed of 50km/h...

Now you might be thinking "a whole second of reaction time, nah, I'm much quicker". Well, so did Gijs van Lennep, who was invited to do test his reaction time in a simulator. The first run resulted in a reaction time of .7-something of a second. This disappointed Gijs somewhat, so he concentrated really hard and had another go at it. Result: .61s. Ever the competitor, he wanted to get below .6s, so he went for it again. Result: .63s. Thinking a very succesful racing career should mean he should be able to do better, he had one last go. This time he developed an itch on his head, scratched it, had to brake, and was disappointed to see a reaction time of .8-something on the screen. Just imagine what lighting a cigarette, fiddling with the radio or the kids in the back (kind of difficult in a 911) would do to your reaction time. Let's face it, we're not all as talented as Gijs van Lennep.

On to the practice sessions