Winter Driver Training: Finland (now with pics!)

[Richie.se]

Columbus has wash-boxes work phone: xxx --> that should make sense to you

Only problem now is the weather. I will try to get confirmation from the träckmeister about weather conditions and their effect tomorrow when I meet with the Orga guys in Hyvinkää.

Everything else looks really good. I'm missing one payment, but that's it; we have a projector for Saturday's meeting (at the cottage), beer for Saturday night and a decent crowd. We'll be leaving Helsinki at around 13-1400, I think.

Bret

Got it Good job
Okey, I'll just give you a call when the boat arrives then! See you in just a few days!


edit: you can delete that number from your post now

 

[bretti_kivi]

cool, have done. I apologise now for my inability to spell på Svenska

All we need is some cold weather..... bring a lid if you want a ride on Sunday afternoon!

Bret

 

[bretti_kivi]

absolutely everything is...


GO!

Track is fine, exercises are sorted (not quite how I'd imagined, but these guys are goood

Bret

 

[Richie.se]

onboard
There's a little dirty black car down stairs waiting to release all its fury on the tracks... ehm, I mean all of those crazy 75hp and FWD... This'll be fun!
Will head up for some food now and maybe watch some of the Olymics which by the way didn't turn out great for Sweden in the Hockey (better luck to Finland).

So take car now and see you all in the morning

 

[bretti_kivi]

guys, both of you: thanks. You who stayed home missed a great weekend.

Some pics:

 

[Will]

Well done, looks like great fun.

So how did the A2 handle and what did you learn?

 

[bretti_kivi]

you can drift it round corners; the round thing in your hands doesn't do as much as your right foot. That's why the one guy ended in the snowbank, as he was rounding the right-angle at the exit of the car park; 70km/h and full power in third with too little destabilise on the way in (to the right and then sharper left to get the back moving whether ESP is on or off) and then too much grip. OK, ESP was off

Driving on backroads just got easier. Twitch the wheel left, apply power, feel the curve happen, leave the lock on, maybe right depending on the next corner... it feels far more natural now to drift. Much easier, too.

I span it twice, but both occasions there was serious warning. Oh, and the Tacho doesn't work with ESP disconnected.

Slalom was cool. Ask Richie, he drove it more than I did (I had to help out!). I managed to hit around 75 but then it would get very unstable in the last curve and ESP would try to compensate but fail and end up essentially braking the car completely.

Bret

 

[Richie.se]

For a starters; THANK YOU BRET for a great planned weekend, we all had lots of fun in the snow! Awsome job from your Subaru friends, really good instructors - specially for the Germans who weren't used to snow =)

Great pictures Bret, I'm uploading mine right now, I'll go through them and then I'll post some later! Hope the guys had a good time on the Snowmobiles and with the reindeers! The drive to Turku in pitch black was not the first time - but the first time after 4½h sleep I actually thought there would be less cars out that early but the way I chose (that you also suggested) must have been the fastest I did some overtaking where I had to - damn the little A2 felt quick after this weekend And the GPS told me where the cameras were so I had no problems!
When I got on the boat I for some reason woke up at Mariehamn Damn I must have been tired! They gave me free luxury breakfeast+dinner for the diff of pricing between Turku and Helsinki boats!

Now I'll check the pictures, upload them and I'll get back with some more comments of the time in the snow!

Good job Bret!

 

[Richie.se]

(Bret, edit and add "pictures on pg.7" in Thread Name?)

Finland Winter Drivers Training - Richie's report

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The A2 VIP Parking outside our cottage

The cottage itself with room for all of us and more

A real nice looking peir of headlights for the A2! Me like!

If anyone has any doubt about the weather conditions I took some pictures from the main road to the track! Me and Bret mostly went full speed when possible thanks to studded tires and the Germans (for understandble reasons never went over 50km/h)

I do have some more images of Brets work in progress from his interior. =D But I wasn't shure if he wanted me to post them, so I'll hold on to them until Bret says okey or not... But this is his solution to Finnish winter darkness ;-)

The line-up at the air-strip

 

[Richie.se]

THE DONKEY obstacle we were going to avoid... Brets sex-toy from work aswell - but it didn't make it through the day! =D
Sorry man, you'll have to stick to the Mrs! ;-)

Subaru instructor Mikael shows how it suppose to be done when you don't have ESP or ASR

And off we went to try to avoid the donkey... Lined up one by one. Since germany doesn't have skid pan during requirement there had to be some practice on how the car reacts on ice roads. As you can see conditions were EXCELLENT! You couldn't see far so you didn't have much room when the donkey appeared.

After a couple of hours on the cold track we set up a fire and had some sausage without bread and in paper (the Finnish way )

Then Bret had made Finnish bun dough. One of the german wives asked "if it's a finnish speciality, how come non of the instructors are eating it"
But it tasted good Bret!

The instructors and the whole weekend on the track and skid course was all courtesy of Subaru Club Finland!

Mr D (one of the Germans) wanted to take a piss but didn't realize the depth of the snow!

 

[Richie.se]

The slalom was the second most popular course except for the track itself, here you could really feel the ESP working - or you could go for a 720 degree woth the A2 if you didn't use it! We all tried it without ESP for a couple of times, the first 2-3 obstacles where managable, but after 4 or 5 you would spin if you had high speed!

Donkey avoidance without ESP, possible to pass, but you wouldn't make it bak on track and spin around!

Here's a short animation I made of how to manage the donkey without hitting it... We went 70-90km/h with ESP

And since NONE of us hit the donkey one instructor with an Audi A3 showed how it was done without ESP and going 120km/h

RIP! Lets say the donkey died...

The line up for group photo

Then we had some time on the real track. In Finland they use real racing tracks even in winter, the only difference from summer is that they put LOTS of water on it so it freezes! Then ad some snow, a little rain, more snow, -20 degrees and you have a PERFECT winter-track! WHUHU! =D

Then on the Sunday afternoon the Subaru club had it booked and offered rides! They were going "a bit" faster though... And for some reason their cars never went straight! :-D

 

[Richie.se]

One of many Impreza STi's

A new Forrester showing how the track is suppose to be used! He was actually one of the fastest!



These were my pictures from this years event! Thanks to everyone who where there, you guys now who you are! See you all again!

 

[jupis]

I also want to thank you Bret for organizing this wonderful event! I think we all learned a lot how to handle this little car in winter conditions and added to this we had a very nice weekend.