Bigpower

Now then, how did I get here ... I seem to be making a habit lately of finding really interesting forums having followed various links from other forums. I'm pretty sure this one started on nothloop.co.uk but with a number of branches along the way.

Powerful road car .. hardly, I run a Mk3 MR2 Roadster, all of around 130bhp but I do drive some pretty powerful stuff on a day to day basis.

I currently work as an ARDS (Assoc Of Racing Driver Schools) Instructor and freelance driver coach. I started in 1990 with the Jim Russell 7-day course at Donington and trained with them as in an instructor in 91. The first 5 years was almost exclusively training Racing Drivers, either via the school course and follow ups or via Jim Russell booked Coaching. During the period I raced saloons/sports and single seaters plus some Rallying, some good results and a championship win.

I drifted away from the formal instructing side in the late 90s as my other business was taking a lot of my time. Did some coaching in UK and overseas and having decided in 2000 that I preferrred my track work I got back into the whole ARDS thing again. A lot of the work is "Gift" day stuff, drive a Ferrari .. Porsche .. Lambo .. Single Seater and, whilst I do enjoy it, my passion is still the more serious training/coaching work. As well as Race School work I do a fair bit of trackday instructing and "session" coaching. I've done a fair bit of rally instruction (spec Gravel) and "drifting". The drifting instruction is really just a more formal way of doing what I've done for years on Car Control and Race Driver "Skills" Training, as I do it as a bolt on to Drift Academy Practice days.

Racing has pretty much followed my instructing years, very little late 90s but loads once I got back into instructing, specifically Fiestas, Fords, Britcar, Endurance Races (inc the big 24hr race .... no, not that one, the 2CV one at Snetterton of course ... now theres big power for you!). Been on a house move enforced sabatical for the past 2 years but already signed up for a number of races this year including the Britcar Silverstone 24Hr (Daniels Motorsport) and the Nurburgring 24hr (Brunswick Motorsport). I'm doing one or two VLN (mini-endurance) races before the "big one" as I've never raced there before although I have "worked" there (Motorsport Akademie trained).

Starting to sound more like a CV so I'll leave it there.

Maxx

Maxx, welcome onboard - what a great entrance. I'm buying an MR2 Roadster in the next few months - so get some piccies up.

Hi malcolm - probably followed one of my posts from northloop

Welcome to BigPower - are you heading up to track day at Snetterton on the 28th?

Sounds like a great career so far and a very interesting year to come in particular the 24hr at the nordschleife ... should be fun

murano3 wrote:Maxx, welcome onboard - what a great entrance. I'm buying an MR2 Roadster in the next few months - so get some piccies up.

Ben,

Thanks for the welcome. I'll certainly post a few pics. The MR2 was a bit of a revelation for me. I'd always been an Elise fan as I used to work on all the Lotus Skills courses we ran at Rockingham and we did a lot of work in Elises. If it was up to me I would have had one for the road but it would be waaaay too hardcore for my better half. The MR2 was an impulse buy in the spring of 2005. It was only intended as a summer drive but I loved it so much I've run it every day, ever since. I also never expected much on track. I often get the chance to do a few laps on the trackdays I work on and I do some other work that gets me out on track myself. I was delighted with the balance of the MR2 and it handled really well, a bit soft and noticeable chassis flex but you'd expect that. I had some TTE springs put on (lowered it by 30m, plus stiffened it up "a little") and also had a chassis brace fitted.

Car was much improved, not as hardcore as Elise but still huge fun and in my view, a better training car as you could feel the weight moving around more. I've even used it on a number of my Drift Academy days, it hasn't got the power to do a full power drift but if you get sufficient momentum it does drift quite well (for a rear engined car).

It's also extremely practical. Great Roof and pretty comfortable on a run. The TTE springs actually improved the ride quality (even my wife said so). Bit limited for storage but no worse than any other of this type of car.

M.

What a great entrance.

Last year i passed my national B race licence with the hope of entering the world of racing but having an expensive road car i just can not afford it and could not face selling it to fund racing.

I would be very interested in having some coaching in the future but guess you did not say hi on here to advertise yourself!!

If you ever need a tea boy during the 24hour races then you know where to look!!

Welcome onboard Sir

24hour at Snetterton eh? My principal business were key sponsors for the event a few years ago.........God those things were fun.

Sounds like a varied and rewarding career path so far and now you've bimbled into our lot You're doomed

A few of the us are looking into professional driving tuition for next year so prepare to keep that PM box clear at all times.

Cheers

Stuart

dynamix wrote:Hi malcolm - probably followed one of my posts from northloop

Welcome to BigPower - are you heading up to track day at Snetterton on the 28th?

Sounds like a great career so far and a very interesting year to come in particular the 24hr at the nordschleife ... should be fun

Duncan,

It may well have been. Thing is, by the time you've followed all the links you often forget what you were looking for in the first place. This is your own trackday at Snet, not planned to but not really read anythng about it. I was at Snet on 28th Jan with Lotus-On-Track (as an instructor). It was a great day, dry after the first hour and I got quite a bit of "off" time where I was able to put in some laps, probably over an hour in fact. I generally don't do track days as a customer as I do prob 60 or so a year as an instructor. I don't get to drive at all of them but enough to get my fix

Really looking forward to the Nordschleife. The Motorsport Akademie course I did really fired me up to want to actually race here as for the first time I was able to lap continuously (the track is closed for MA & VLN practice only) and without fear of what was over the next rise. There were many occasions of 2-3 laps where I didn't see another car and when you did it was only the odd one or two. It was also the first time I'd driven anything resembling a race car there. It was a track spec e36 BMW 325, pretty rapid (and hugely thirsty).

M.

Which companies do you do the days for? (aside from L.O.T)

Duncan,

It's almost exclusively LoT at present, plus the other associated "on-Track" clubs (Honda/MG). That accounts for around 60 days on it's own, most of which I do if not racing. I've worked for most of them on an ad-hoc basis, still do odd days for Book-A-Track and Javelin. I've worked on Goldtrack/RMA/EasyTrack/Tracktime/Promosport days but usually for a 3rd party (CPA/Trackshare) or private work. To be honest I got very disillusioned with trackday instruction (for trackday companies) as I spent many days were I was hardly used (for in-car work) and was hanging round the pit lane or flagging etc. which is not really my thing.

I think this was a result of the "free instruction" policy most had at that time. Certainly I found on the non LoT days I did last year that I was busier. Jonny at BaT now charges which has interestingly seen higher demand, plus he often has "groups" who take instruction as part of a package. LoT is always busy and because it's a club there are many members who do lots of days a year and it allows me to follow a progression. That added to the fact that they have just started a race series for club members has meant a big upsurge in demand.

I think this year, apart from LoT+ I'll do very few days for other TDOs, perhaps just a few BaT days.

If it's of interest, my main employer for none-trackday work is "The Racing School" who run at Rockingham, Donington & 3 Sisters. I'm mainly involved in the Single-Seater stuff that they run.

M.

Welcome to Bigpower. :-D

What a carreer something I think most on here or in fact any petrolhead would love to do as a day job. :-D

I see a Bigpower training day on the cards!!