Mon 27 Jun 2005
Those lucky Swedes and Scandinadians get to do it on icy lakes. Porsche and Audi will take their customers out on drive days on frozen Artic lakes. And with the help of our good mate Kevin Flynn, you can do it at the Police Training complex in Atwood. About 25 minutes from the Melbourne CBD. It’s the skid pan and it’s full of slideways goodness!
What is a skid pan you ask? It’s a concrete circle about 150 metres in diameter, kept wet with 90% water, 10% oil to keep that dreaded traction from kicking in. And because we don’t get black ice on call, the coppers decided it was imperative that they learn to drive a toey V8, rear drive pursuit car in slippery conditions. Coppers get to do it as part of their training in high speed pursuits. Some get to do it for education, and some crazy bastards get to do it for fun. The best thing is that the oil stops your tyres from frying and you loose virtually no tread whatsoever. But afterwards the oil all over the car looks like you’ve been through a bonfire in Baghdad.
There was a pretty broad spectrum of cars there: a twin turbo Supra, s13 Silvias, a few modded Skyline R33s and an S14 Silvia. Despite prior experience, everyone looses it and does the 180, occaisonally doing a few donuts to vent your spleen at stuffing it up yet again. It takes more than a few goes to get this right. Although most were modified, some of the best slides and sounds came from an automatic, non turbo S13 Silvia. So it’s not all about the grunt. 
Letting rip in a car with Kevin, he whips any car into a centrifugal frenzy with pin-point accuracy. "Does your mum know you drive like this?" I asked, pinned with inertia to the B pillar. "Know? She taught me!" replies Kev’. I dunno what his mum was trying to escape from, but he’s learnt well, and so have I. He demonstrates a kind of no fuss, no worries ease that can only come from thousands of hours of practice. Yet still has you thinking "smart arsed bastard!". But he’s not cocky. He’s here to teach and by the end of the day, you end up learning a lot about throttle control and a lot more mindful about how good you really are when the slip hits the fan. Turns out practice really is everything. But thankfully, it’s a load of shits and giggles as well. When are they putting the skid pan into Gran Turismo 5? Kevin Flynn’s Driver Dynamics can organise a day on the skids for you. This day was on behalf of Nissansilvia.com and was something many of them came back a second time for. Given notice he can organise drive days for clubs, corporates or even car companies to flog their wares. Check out their web site and tell ‘em Crazy Bob sent ya. I can now finally vouch for how much fun learning to drive can be. And no mum. No one lost an eye.