Repost - July 5 - Private Instructions with racer Sunako-san

[jamesskyline153]

Aki, thanks for a wonderful day! it was great hanging out/meeting you all today.. Sorry had to leave early for work.. but i surely enjoyed this event... See you guys at daikoku.. hehe

[hyrev]

Well, as I type this you guys are still at the restraunt and I am at home eating some juicy meaty ribs - mmm mmmm mmmmm! We made it home in about 1.5 hours and I know you all are going to stuck in traffic, as I call Miguel to warn him and to pass the word. At one point it said, right after my exit that it would 90 minutes for the next 9km. At another point it said Hachioji 15 minutes, Chofu 110 minutes - ouch. By the time you all get home, I will be sound asleep and well fed.

Enough about that. Well, what I can I say about today? Was one hell of a time. Hats off to Aki for setting this class up and Sunako-San & Team for teaching and giving feedback. I learned so much about my driving (lack) and braking, that is an art form. I will do a write up of my experience as a passenger in Aki's car with Sunako behind the wheel. But for now, let me eat my ribs, drink a cold Asahi and get some much needed sleep.

[matty32]

good stuff guys look forward to seeing photos.....

[hyrev]

Ok, 1 photo, but this event deserves its own seperate page, trust me.
Looks like loads of fun, huh?

[Thrust]

Mmmm........ yes, that tyre/tire is looking nicely warmed up.

[DCD]

Sounds like it (and looks like it by the state of those tyres!) was a fun day. I had to shoot at the Nismo Festa today so no chance I could make it down. Looking forward to seeing some pix & vidz!

[REXtreme]

It was an awesome day but now I am very tired.

The drive back was also a killer. But no Problems.

I learned a lot my car, myself, control and limits.

A lot of new cars.

Had a great run all day playing with the S2000

But it all seemed pointless when Sunako san was driving Nicks car. I saw him the whole length of the straight behind me just be fore I turned in at the first corner.

By the time I reached the 4th corner he was right up my clacker. Thats a mad comination.
It would have been interesting to see a time, sorry I got in the way... haha!




Aki Arigatou! Top Gun!



My Roadie did pretty well against the high power oposition.



Thanks Dai for some shots of my Car!



Some dirty brake dust and tire gunge.



Some action. From the group I wasn't driving in.

Miguel and Dai Newera Bro's



Tom



Nick



Miguel



Time to pack up.



Peace? FU?

[Kanzen]

Just a short post for now as I've just got back and now relaxing with a beer after a much needed shower.

Great day and great company, even though it was a scorcher !!
Learned a LOT from Sunako-san, and was just stunned when he took my car around the track. I've been out with him before (Aki's GT-R at Fuji) so I knew he'd make it look easy but christ, it was like I was in a different car.
I'll post up some video tomorrow. Got a lap and a half before the camera fell off

I know where I'm going wrong with my driving now, just need to keep practicing....

BIG thanks to Aki for organising everything, I know it takes a lot of effort.

Paul - Your need a call sign. You car sounds like a jet plane on boost !!

James - Good to meet you. Real shame you had to leave early, you missed the best part of the day....

[akasakaR33]

Guys - big thanks for coming out - not the easiest place to get to - some of those roads were just as wide as my car! And good thing it didn't rain, either, can you imagine?

Anyway - glad to know everyone learned something about their driving, and more importantly, had a good time. No accidents, no injuries, and no upset stomachs. And once again to be amazed at how a pro can REALLY drive - I always learn something about high performance driving at these kinds of events, and was happy to organize this for all of you. Thanks for being so patient - the day started out kinda slow, but I think in retrospect that the explanations and skill practices were good stuff.

Now, next step - as Sunako-san said, practice, practice practice! All within a month. Fuji, Tsukuba anyone??

Aki

PS Thanks to Demon Dave and his brother for coming out and wishing us a good day! Thanks also to Ville for trekking by himself all the way out from Tokyo to support! Looking forward to your photos!

PPS - I have video of Hyrev screaming when Sunako is driving my car. Any volunteers to host it for public consumption?

[Vihis]

Thank you for a dream come true, and then some.

Aki, superb event !. I hope I can some day attend one with my own car. (thanks for the last minute train tips !)

I had the utmost pleasure to meet a great bunch of guys enjoying motor sport and who accepted a stranger from across the world to join in on the fun. Hopefully see you all again sometime, sooner or later

The trip home was something:

Miquel: That Hachiroku you've got is a well polished gem ! <pops his ears open>, maybe I can hear something after a few days ha ha ! Many thanks for the mind blowing ride. Those cups are tiny but comfortable.

Aki: Many thanks for the ride to Yokohama. You don't get to shotgun in a faster-than-lightning car every day. Tuned RB26DETT all the way, all day.

Nick: I'll get back to you about Wednesday with my details so we can keep in touch Lovely motor !

The photos, all 819 of them, should yield some pretty pictures. I'll try my best to get them to you guys by Wednesday before the Daikoku meet. Personal pictures which I promised will have to wait a bit, but they will be sent to your inboxes as soon as humanly possible.



-Vihis

[Demon Dave]

Was good to finally meet you Aki, and everyone else too.

Unfortunately we got a call from work and had to leave earlier than expected while you were all in the second briefing. so we didn't get to see any of the free laping later in the day.

I hope the drive back wasn't too long! The Chuo can be a nightmare at times, and the distance/time involved is the primary reason I'm never able to attend any of the Daikoku meets. Well, that and work.

regards

Dave

[hyrev]

Nick, I know now what you mean about the sound. My friend took some vid of me going down the straight and it sounds nice, as well as your car. But after a while, I turned down the boost to 1.3'ish and it was still a treat. I also have some in car footage, so perhaps on Monday I will have some videos uploaded on youtube for all to enjoy. Vihis, great to meet you, I feel bad that I did not get to spend so much time with you. You made a journey by train to be with us, but I was trying to collect my thoughts a few times before heading out back on the track.

Just out of curiousity, how long did it take to get back home last night? Was the Chuo still pretty mad?

[Kanzen]

Originally Posted by hyrev

Just out of curiousity, how long did it take to get back home last night? Was the Chuo still pretty mad?

The traffic was fine, but we came off and went down the 16 to Machida and then got on the highway from there.

My Hicas light came on shortly after joining the Chuo which had me worried, and Aki insisted on following me back to Yokohama in case I broke down. What a guy. Typically though it didn't come back on after I turned the engine off/on!! Will get that checked out next week.

I really want to get back to Fuji. Short course first to practice the weight transfer, and then a couple of sessions on the main circuit to unleash the boost !!

[Miguel - Newera]

What can I say, what a day!! Huge thanks to Aki!

Dai Chan & I drove up the night before and stayed at a cheap Ryokan. The plan had been to sleep soundly fresh for the morning, but somehow I woke up at 3.57am and couldn't sleep, so I read a copy of Jap Performance... Dai woke up too, so we chatted about

Despite my rotor arm melting just before lunch time, Sunako organised for a local AE86 race car builder. What a star! (You should have seen the AE86 tuner's garage, ha!! N2 AE86's in various stages of build and a 240Z with a genuine Hakosuka GT-R's engine).
Although that AE86 racer was more interested in the R35 GT-R that took us to his garage than anything else... ).

I realised yesterday unless I get instruction like this, yoI can hit a brick wall with learning to drive...There I was thinking I could drive pretty well, then seeing Sunako San at the wheel of my AE86 made it look so easy and me so untidy! The car hardly slid at all, with not a hint of understeer on those tight hairpins, yet his lap time was around 44.3

To get those sort of times I was having to totally thrash the pants off the car and found myself fighting with under and then oversteer - just as he explained, under precedes over.

With Sunako driving my car it's as if he could sense what the car was doing at every step of the track and react instantly, rather than just looking at a corner as a whole then just go through it as best as possible. Amazing!

At the end of the day, all that boring learning about the importance of braking with steering clicked...That graph he drew on the wipe board of braking against steering angle is indelibly etched in my mind...! 20 years of driving and I hadn't realised my braking when heeling and toeing wasn't strong enough!

Speaking of driving, you're very impressive Aki. Awesome driving there in your GT-R. You were only, what 1 second off Sunako's pace? That's amazing!!
Seeing your GT-R's very quick skip sideways on entry to the corner and the speed it could carry going in hard at the end of the pit straight was very cool indeed!

Was great to see Dai Chan enjoy himself so much. He really had huge fun and although he can't type in English, I might ask him to use a translation program when he comes to work on Monday and let us know his thoughts... I could see the twinkle in his eye. He totally enjoyed himself and learnt a lot too. Come August he's going to have one of the best days in his life, maybe...

Driving the N1 race Civic EG6 was of course an eye opener. The steering wheel would tug hard (They're fitting a larger wheel, Aki) and the car flew! I was still around 1.5 seconds off Sunako's lap times losing out to understeer, so I really must practice, practice, practice and see if I can get better at nailing the frotn end down on the brakes on entry to corners before we do the endurance race at Ebisu in it mid August. I'd like to see us win of course...

Driving home on local Urayasu roads, I practiced heel and toe more and want to get a set of racing shoes ASAP (Paul, we need to talk next week, buddy - if anyone wants some low prices Alpine Star race gear contact Hyrev!!!).

I even found myself thinking about really nailing the front end down on entry to faster corners by braking harder and leaving the downchange to the last split second as Yuko & I woke up this morning...

Really need to get some track time, or at the very least do some Touge between now & August...

Was interesting what you were saying yesterday Aki - This type of driving is against what we learn traditionally to do all the braking, etc. before entering the corner... Trial braking makes sense now, I just need to make it natural!

Now I realise why I lost you on the drive home. One minute you were driving behind me, next minute you dropped back (As I overtook and smiled at Nick).

Tom caught me up and we cruised at around 140 km/h for a while, making noise in the tunnels, etc. before he pulled off at a rest area. Then when I was alone I sped up a bit more and had some fun coming into Tokyo whilst seeing if the performance of the engine had dropped off ... A little, perhaps but it's still fairly potent. I'll re-tune the throttle bodies and see if it gets better

Vihis, thanks for the comments on the AE86. I think next week is RX-7's day at Tsukuka (July 7th) and on 6th August there will definitely be something on for AE86's... If you're around the next time we go drifting, you should come along. You'd have fun, especially as they allow passengers for drift events.

Thanks again Aki - Fantastic event. Can't wait for August 16th now!

[Miguel - Newera]

Originally Posted by hyrev

Well, as I type this you guys are still at the restraunt and I am at home eating some juicy meaty ribs - mmm mmmm mmmmm! We made it home in about 1.5 hours and I know you all are going to stuck in traffic, as I call Miguel to warn him and to pass the word. At one point it said, right after my exit that it would 90 minutes for the next 9km. At another point it said Hachioji 15 minutes, Chofu 110 minutes - ouch. By the time you all get home, I will be sound asleep and well fed.

No traffic at all by the time I hit the end part of the Chuo, but was glad of the warning Cheers Paul - we ended up avoiding leaving and sitting in Denny's drinking refils of iced coffee joking & chatting about what we'd learnt. Wednesday we'll share more at Daikoku.