Photos from Jan 26th, 2008 Winter Driving School

[jeongyun]

Hello, folks

Here's the [url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/]link to my WDS photo page[/url].

I'm still post processing photos.
So far, I've done processing the photos of the following cars.

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/bmw325/]BMW 325
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/bmw325/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0543.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/hondaaccord/]Honda Accord
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/hondaaccord/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0566.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/hyundaiaccent/]Hyundai Accent
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/hyundaiaccent/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0429.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/saturnl/]Saturn L-series, I guess
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/saturnl/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0453.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/subaruimprezasedan/]Subaru Impreza Sedan
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/subaruimprezasedan/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0498.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/subaruimprezawagon/]Subaru Impreza Wagon
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/subaruimprezawagon/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0641.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/subarulegacywagon/]Subaru Legacy Wagon
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/subarulegacywagon/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0556.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotacamry/]Toyota Camry
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotacamry/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0650.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotacorollave/]Toyota Corolla VE
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotacorollave/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0704.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotacorolla/]Toyota Corolla (mid 90s, 7th gen?)
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotacorolla/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0642.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotaecho/]Toyota Echo
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotaecho/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0489.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotasienna/]Toyota Sienna
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/toyotasienna/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0706.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/volvo850/]Volvo 850
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/volvo850/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0577.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/volvos40/]Volvo S40
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/volvos40/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0668.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/volvov70/]Volvo V70
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/volvov70/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0787.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/vwgolf/]VW Golf
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/vwgolf/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0685.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/vwgti/]VW GTI was the sexiest of them all!
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/vwgti/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0546.jpg[/img][/url]

If you want full resolution files, you can email me or send me PM.

[url=http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/people/]Track and People
[img]http://jeongyun.tini4u.net/mcowds/people/content/bin/images/thumb/CRW_0593.jpg[/img][/url]

[gregor]

awesome!!

somethings wrong with the BMW.. Christoph is in the wrong seat!!!??

luv it!!

[wing]

Lots of picks of my star students! Awesome shots!

[-Ferdinand-]

Those are some great photos Jeongyun! Nice variety too, different framing, some zoomed in tight, others farther out, and some very cool slow shutter speed panning shots too like #4 of the Toyota Echo.

It's very useful to be able to see and study outside shots of your car in action.

One of my students, Courtney in the red Hyundai Accent, is Greg Kierstead's niece. Smooth driving skills must be a genetic trait in that family. She was really very good.

That little Hyundai would have been an awesome car if it weren't hobbled with useless all-season tires. But Courtney used those tires to their absolute limit, rarely pushing them beyond that. And I mean that in a good way.

She wasn't at all afraid to push the car, but she immediately understood that the front tires are only capable of so much. She managed to hang those front tires right at the limit of grip, without excessive wheelspin under throttle, and without excessive steering wheel angles, all the time keeping the front wheels smoothly hooked up right at the very limit of traction.

Many students will come charging into a corner, crank the wheel over way too far, then stand full on the throttle believing their FWD will simply pull the car around. They're often surprised or frustrated to discover that the car instead plows straight ahead in massive understeer.

The lousy all-season tires on the Hyundai were actually a good demonstration tool for the school, because it was so much easier to make them lose grip. It required a very smooth approach to keep them hooked up with traction and Courtney managed to dance on that limit very well, the whole time keeping within a very narrow range of the limit of traction, neither too fast nor too slow.

You can see that clearly in the photos of her red car. The front tires are angled exactly the right amount, not quite sliding, not quite spinning, not kicking up a lot of snow. Very cool and very smooth.

The photos of Christoph in the BMW are really neat too. I'm very impressed with his driving.

In the first six photos you see him drifting the car into the right hand hairpin corner, yet the whole time the front tires are pointing almost perfectly in the same direction as the rear tires. It's not a wild crossed-up showing-off oversteering power slide, or steering wheel cranked way too far over into an understeering push. It's a picture perfect 4-wheel drift, crabbing the car through the turn at a controlled drift angle, while keeping all four tires loaded equally to the limit, just enough to kick some snow out to the side.

That's so cool!

It's a perfect illustration of how you really don't need a whole lot of steering input. The front wheels are hardly angled at all, they're practically pointed straight ahead the whole time. With just the right amount of throttle applied to the rear wheels, the car can be pivoted through the corner with all four wheels doing their equal share of the work. THAT is the perfect way to take a corner.

Of course we took full advantage of the great track conditions and safe environment to push Christoph well beyond this point too. As he became more confident he started to get more and more exuberant, spinning around completely backwards on several occasions, or getting into tank-slappers where he couldn't keep up fast enough with the steering inputs.

The wilder it got though, the more obvious it became that this was not the quickest way around the track. Even limited by her lousy all-season tires, Courtney's super smooth driving style was clearly way quicker everywhere through all the corners compared to Christoph's fishtailing flailing.

But that was exactly what we were here for to learn. Learn by pushing yourself and your car to the limits and beyond, as long as it is in a safe and controlled school environment where you can't hurt anything.

The fact that Christoph was having problems controlling those huge slides, and spun out frequently, was actually very reassuring to me. It tells me that he has not been out somewhere with my car practising this stuff on his own on open roads. I'm happy that he has had this opportunity to see for himself that big power slides and spin-outs can be fun, but that they are counter productive and slow.

Most of all, I'm thrilled at how well both of my student drivers saw, learned, and demonstrated, that smoothness is the key to good driving. What a fun day that was!

[wing]

Awe, you got to spin? Darn!

My students were great, but a little afraid to push the envelope. But that's ok, they did get into a number of situations were the car understeered or oversteered and they caught it each time -- although a little on edge about it typically they certainly learned.

It was awesome to see one of my students grabbing for the neutral when he was under steering in later exercises when he had a very hard time to do it at first.

[gkierst]

I took some photos on Saturday also. Don't expect the same professional looking shots though. Those are some nice pictures jeongyun. Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks for the great feedback on Courtney's driving Ferdinand. I know she had a really good time. She said the three of you were laughing most of the day. Hopefully we can book you to instruct my nephew. He should be getting his license in six years.

Greg

[-Ferdinand-]

[quote="gkierst"]Thanks for the great feedback on Courtney's driving Ferdinand. I know she had a really good time. She said the three of you were laughing most of the day.[/quote]
I'm so glad to hear she had fun. I tried yanking the handbrake a few times when it looked like that would help to cure a moment of understeer. She kept threatening to punch me out and toss me out of the car if I did that again!

Judging by all the other photos it looks like everyone else was taking this way too seriously. Only Ann is smiling in one of their shots (#1 of the Subaru Legacy Wagon).

[quote]Hopefully we can book you to instruct my nephew. He should be getting his license in six years.[/quote]
I just checked and it looks like my calendar is clear that day!

[jeongyun]

Thanks for comments guys!
I just finished uploading them all. :-)

I wonder if someone can mail the students the link, as some of them may not read the forum.
If one could, tell them full size files are free, just shoot me mail.

I wish I'd do photo shoots a few more times,
but since the wife works every other weekend, and I need to return the lens by the weekend, the chances are slim. :-(

[-Ferdinand-]

They really are great shots. I sent the link to my brother, who is a professional photographer, and he also said your photos are really good. You can see a sample of his stuff [url=http://andreastrauttmansdorff.com/][b][u]here[/u][/b][/url] and click on the Cars section.

[morrow]

Thanks for coming out to take photos of the WDS! My student and I had a really productive day, and she got extra seat time as she had the option of going out again with the "second" group. (She was my only student.)

We were having trouble with one corner, so asked Sam to hop in for a second opinion.

She learned a lot, was a quick study, and enjoyed herself.

The reason I wasn't smiling, was that I hardly ever stopped talking! Afterwards, when we were talking with Sam, I was pleased when he was mentioning things to think of and try that we had already talked about, and tried.

I know Christoph enjoyed his day, too, Ferd. And, it won't be long before he's asking to trade seats!!

Jeannie

[gregor]

track and people shots are great.... classic "Ron with no hat" shot.

anychance you can send these to the link (mco newsletter?)

[QuebecTourist]

Great photos!

Making that Sienna do anything funky must have been a handful! How well did the driver lady do?

I can't wait another 2 weeks....

[WRC_VERNA]

that Sienna van was pressuring the sideways BMW a few times :P

[b_p_smith]

The Sienna was my wife. I think the new winter tires helped, but that was offset a bit by the fact all four shocks are in rough shape (still originals on 315k).

I was in the Camry with my son (he's the one that pushed a bit too much on that one corner). We were both pushing the limits a tad. Took me a couple of days to get all the ice & snow from all the nooks and crannies underneath. :-)

My youngest was taking video most of the day. A lot of it doesn't really capture much excitement since he was pretty far away on extreme zoom. I'm slowly extracting some small segments (starting with footage of my vehicles) and I'll post on my own website sometime very soon. The in-van footage of the accident avoidance part is kinda interesting.

Brad.

P.S. while the photos may not show it, there was definitely a lot of smiling going on in the Camry. And the occasional Yee-Haw. :-)

[John Powell]

[quote="b_p_smith"]... P.S. while the photos may not show it, there was definitely a lot of smiling going on in the Camry. And the occasional Yee-Haw. :-)[/quote]

And that includes the instructors. [mrgreen] In fact, regarding the enthusiasm of Brad and his son, one might say there was a little, ummm, encouragement? [wink]