"To investigate and develop car handling skills in a safe but extremely low grip environment. To develop best practice in conjunction with Volvo Cars Driving Academy and to demonstrate the ability and limitations of modern electronic safety systems."
Who would have thought that High Performance Club would be returning to visit Volvo Cars’ facilities in Alvdalen, Sweden for the sixth year?
2006 saw four groups of six participants over eight days. A complete mixture of standards; from six time attendees through to absolute novices. Why go back? Could it be the opportunity to drive on the world’s ultimate low grip facility?
Or to be exposed to some of the best tuition in the safest cars for this type of winter environment?
Or simply for the sheer fun and exhilaration of being in beautiful surroundings in good company understanding how car control actually works?
Over the past six years the course has metamorphosed quite a bit. In the early days we relied exclusively on VCDA to come up with the course content. This year saw us discussing and writing a brief long before we went which helped us all focus a little more on the challenges in this environment. As well as the usual venues of Monzta and Porfyrdammen we also utilised a huge frozen lake near the Norwegian border in Loten. This allowed for a two hour road drive through the heartland of Swedish skiing passing through the resort of Salen.
We had enormous changes in temperature and conditions this year. From +6°C to -23°C, with everything from bright sunshine, through freezing rain to heavy snow. This meant we had enormous changes in levels of grip almost on a minute by minute basis, this makes for extremely interesting driving.
Whilst simply observing it became obvious from chassis language how much peoples’ car control skills improved and how levels of confidence and ability were raised too. It was interesting to see how even the most experienced of members struggled with steering technique.
We were lucky to have Don Palmer along to mentor both the instructors and participants alike. It’s good to be in the company of instructors who are now friends. Jerry Nilsson, Tomas Hegge and Anders Olafsson have now become an extension to the group and we look forward to seeing them all again next year.
In true HPC style we asked what people had taken away from the experience.
"For me as a driving coach the impressions of the trip have wholly reinforced the need to improve steering technique in HPC. I had always suspected that the three most important elements when learning to drive near to the limit are steering, steering and steering.
That suspicion has been transformed into a certainty. When you can steer, you can rescue a car from critical situations. When you can steer, you sense the nearness of critical situations early and avoid, "going over the top”. When you cannot steer properly, critical situations escalate into potential disasters very quickly indeed.
Critical situations only become critical when we ignore them.
Getting the right entry speed transforms these situations into fun and exhilaration. We can generally calibrate our entry speed from information presented to us by the steering wheel. Once we have done this a few times we usually call this experience.
The importance of appropriate entry speeds quickly became apparent to all who drove with vigour. It was great to see members of HPC improving their steering technique dramatically during their stay in Sweden.
The other interesting feature of the trip was the variability of grip from one lap to the next especially as temperatures rose to near freezing. Ten minutes was enough to transform grip from acceptable to almost total loss. The Volvo instructor team explained that this is a real problem in typical road situations found in Sweden warning that six good corners on the road are often followed by a very low grip seventh courting disaster as a false sense of security exposes the unwary."
"I confess to being more exhausted when I got back to the UK than I had anticipated. Can you get too much of a good thing? I was on a pretty scary learning curve. I didn't remember everything I should have but was surprised at the difference in the FWD, RWD and 4WD cars. I hope I now have a good foundation for beginning to understand the differences in handling for each.
It's a serious credit to the coaching team that I was able to follow the course without getting completely lost. I can't thank them enough for making up for the gaps in my knowledge. The standard of coaching and instruction was quite startling.
I learnt very different things from each them. I was impressed by Jerry's coaching which was beautifully counter-balanced with tempered caution from Anders. Tomas's approach was closer to the style that I had expected to find and an important piece of the whole offering. I was astounded by the way that Don's profound coaching skills were merged seamlessly into entirely natural interactions. I believe that in Sweden he was very much a catalyst for the success of the course and certainly responsible for causing me to enjoy the learning experience whenever I might have been in danger of taking it all a bit too seriously and trying a little too hard.
Would I like to come in 2007? Does it snow in Sweden? I have to come again; I haven't seen a moose yet!"
"The staff at Volvo were all fun to be with, easy to learn from and made a great job of making the whole experience very worthwhile.
So what did I take away?...I think mostly for me it has been about learning to do things gradually more intuitively. I'd like to get my skill level up to a point where I don't have to think about it so much as just do it. I suppose what I really learned, especially as a first timer, is the fantastic value of studded tyres and even more so, how great rally studs are.
Driving on low friction surfaces demands much more planning. You plan not just your next move but two or three in front. Inputs have to be fast and direct and you can be asking the car to change direction long before it has even reacted to your last change.
All in all it was great fun and the instructors were an inspiration. Last but not least, the road driving provides ample time to sit alongside fellow HPC members and learn more about their and ones own driving, to hopefully further improve for the future."
"This year's combination of FWD, RWD, and AWD was great. The best thing about this year compared to last was the in-car coaching and demo-drives (and the RWD car, of course!)."
"VCC are now offering us a course in real world low grip driving. Old habits die hard. In fact if you stick with your old habits, that’s exactly what you will do! We have deeply ingrained responses to situations – ‘old teaching’ was: if you skid, then off the brakes, steering centred and try and recover. Well, now we know better? If the situation is irrecoverable, it’s now hard on the brakes, steer and NEVER GIVE UP !!!
If you don’t practice this, then you won’t do it in an emergency as your brain is not correctly programmed. Likewise, our ‘mapped’ responses to a skid or loss of control need to be refined – will the stability control system sort the problem for me? Can I trick the system to get more steering from the car? Should I lift off or give it more throttle? How much throttle? – it depends on whether the car is AWD,RWD or FWD., and in Volvo’s case, whether the car has anti-skid systems.
Overall, I think the electronic systems are amazing life savers. But as soon as you start to master them, more questions are raised than most people will ever be able, or want to answer. I believe HPC drivers need to be able to master the systems and to have the experience that will enable them to use them to their maximum advantage. Finally, memo to self: on jumping in to a strange car, always query what stability systems the car has?"
"This was my second HPC Sweden event. The contrast was huge, from a single large group in 2005 to small group in 2006. This maximised driving time and minimised down time which meant we got the most possible from two very hectic days. I really like the Scandinavian instructors’ flexibility in approach to driving. They observe, question and demonstrate to a very high standard and enjoy the discussion of ' Why do you do that '. A refreshing change to some of our UK ' by the book’ teaching techniques. My own technique improved over the two days, and I was very happy with my progress.
The contrast of road studs verses rally studs also allowed us to compare different levels of grip on the same surface, and to try different techniques on each to see what the benefits would be on speed and smoothness. I have an often overriding urge to drive everything like a rally car, which is great fun, but especially on cars with modern traction control & anti skid systems, you fight the car as well as the conditions. This results in too many inputs and an unsettling ride for your passengers! Using a smooth style driving up to and on the limit avoiding large DSTC intrusions will be just as fast and better for passengers.
Sweden is so good because you can explore the aspects of car control and self control in absolute safety. Practising these skills in FWD, AWD, RWD and a rally car is worth so much for finessing skills, skills that I hope I never need to use on the road, but if I do, I know I will be better equipped to employ, after having this experience.
Oh and it's really great fun too."
"Three things I took away were: the benefit of a session with Don Palmer a week before the event that enabled me to revise skill development and act as a reminder that Less is More. An AWD car will not corner any better or perhaps as well as its FWD equivalent; and when things are not going well, you can and should brake in a skid!"
"Swedish ice driving is great limit handling experience and huge fun. My objective this year was to develop my car control so that I could link one corner with the next, so, hopefully, I'd be sliding either one way or the other from corner to corner and not driving straight. Looking well beyond the next corner is the key together with ensuring that whatever angle the car is at, the steering wheels are pointing where you want the car to go. Sounds easier than it is but is hugely satisfying when it comes together."
"The limit has always been a challenge for me and I have felt particularly uncomfortable there. Being on the limit consistently has softened my personal performance envelope. I had spent a day with Don Palmer before going and wanted to research the links between tarmac and ice. You need to develop a genuine sense of speed and have the ability to drive just slowly enough. This is done with a constant search for grip and meticulous observation. You experience sensations through hands, spinal cortex and gut. You also come to realise that steering is of paramount importance and that different techniques have to be mastered in order to cope. You also discover, if understood, what a life saver modern traction control systems can be!"
