LEARNING TO RACE THE LOTUS WAY
Top tutors help pupils master the lines at Hethel
BEING TAUGHT how to drive a Lotus very quickly on Lotus’s test track by a Lotus Formula 1 driver. As educational opportunities go, it’s a pretty special one. The Lotus Driving Academy is a series of increasingly challenging driving courses on the Lotus test track behind the factory in Hethel, Norfolk. If you like, you can do almost the whole lot in a weekend and gain your ‘Lotus Licence’ – ideal preparation for a full-on racing course.
Lotus’s track is not a racetrack, although it is built to FIA standards of safety. It used to be part of an airfield, and while its surface of concrete and tarmacadam was entertaining to drive on, it was getting a bit tired. So Dave Minter, one of the key engineers of the original Elise (and now one of the Academy’s instructors) formulated a plan to re-make the track as a top-level modern test facility.
Dany Bahar, when briefly and colourfully CEO of Lotus, spent an awful lot of money to make the idea a reality: the final bill was £3.8 million. ‘One of the best things Dany did was to invest in the track,’ says Martin Donnelly, pictured above and the Academy’s highest-profile instructor.
Martin Donnelly. You’ll remember him as a Lotus F1 driver in 1989 and 1990, and you’ll remember the huge accident at Jerez that stopped his F1 career in its tracks. The left front suspension broke during practice, pitching Martin into the barrier at 140mph. His climb to the big time, which had included stops in Formula Ford, FF2000, F3, Formula 3000 and endurance racing, was over.
Eventually his body mended enough for Martin to run a racing team and teach, and nowadays he races Elises and BTCC cars from time to time as well as honing the dynamics of future production cars and being a Formula 1 driving-standards steward. His talent has never deserted him – which brings us to the Lotus Driving Academy.
‘I’ve been doing this with Lotus since 2005,’ says the man from west Belfast, ‘and I like to believe I’m part of the family. I’ve lived in Norfolk since 1984 and have a strong allegiance to Lotus. It’s home.’
Martin is passing on to his pupils the skills he developed while progressing through the single-seater ranks, but he’s not a ‘learn from my mistakes’ sort of teacher; he tended not to make any. He has always been far more familiar with the podium than with the gravel, as his compatriot and former employer Eddie Jordan noticed.
You pick this up quickly when talking with Martin, who still says, with wonderment, ‘I drove in Formula 1 when Senna did…’ It’s all about smoothness and precision, not about driving on the edge.
Do new arrivals at the Academy expect to be drifting within minutes? It depends on the pupil, and age is a considerable factor.
‘The older ones are more relaxed. The young kids arrive pumped-up, hyped-up in their race boots,’ Martin says, ‘so I explain that we are not Lotus Formula 1 but Lotus Cars. It sounds dull but safety is paramount. Next, I get them to relax. I tell them we’re not looking for the next Jenson Button.
‘For the first session I’m the spy in the cab, trying to tap into the dormant driver within.
I explain that there are three main controls, and your inputs control the car. They can use them like Alain Prost, smooth and boring, or like Nigel Mansell, sideways and messy.
‘We do a number of different exercises, using the throttle to control the car’s attitude, feeling the understeer and controlling it, feeling the oversteer and controlling it. We use the slalom in a brake-and-avoid test, with the ABS on and off. There’s a lot of brain effort involved. At the end they’re more mentally tired than physically tired.’
So what is Martin looking for? ‘Calmness. Not yes-yes-yes in reply to everything I say, not dithering. I say to them, the more relaxed you are, the more you’ll enjoy it. You’re not setting a record.
‘It’s easier to do it in two sessions with some reflection in between. The second session is always better.’
Are people surprised at just how fast the cars can go round corners? ‘They are, and they are impressed the most when they’re doing it themselves, keeping the car balanced, staying smooth, consistent and in the right position.’ The Prost approach, then. And, indeed, the Donnelly approach. Calmness and control: ‘Ninety per cent of accidents happen because people panic,’ he says.
So that’s the philosophy. What actually happens when you arrive at Hethel? That depends on which course you have signed up for. They start with a ‘Scare Yourself Sensible’ track session driving an Elise with an instructor, or an ‘Exige Experience’, an enhanced version of the same thing using a very rapid Exige.
These are ideal for those with little or no previous track experience. If you’re familiar with the basics, you can leap straight into the Lotus Licence series, beginning at Bronze level and, if you like, working through three more precious metals up to Platinum.
‘We use the North track for the Bronze level,’ Martin explains. This is the fast half of the whole circuit, with the long Mansell Straight with a chicane, the Rindt Hairpin at the end (great for power oversteer), then the shorter Fittipaldi Straight leading into the Clark esses before a very sharp right-hander at Windsock (the one legacy of the track’s airfield origins) and back on to Mansell.
‘This level has three 20-minute sessions in an Elise Sport 220,’ Martin continues, ‘not at ten-tenths but learning the skills and the lines. If we want to progress, we go on to Silver.’ The Bronze level includes a factory tour plus a visit to Classic Team Lotus across the road, a treasure trove of past Lotus racing cars run by Colin Chapman’s son, Clive, and veteran mechanic Bob Dance.
Silver builds on Bronze and adds the brake-and-avoid manoeuvres, and brings the South circuit into play. This is twistier, with its tightening sequence of Graham Hill esses (Martin’s favourite section, especially if preceded by the Clark curve as part of the full circuit) followed by the Andretti Hairpin where the old circular steering pad used to be, the fast Senna Curves and the Chapman right-hander. If you don’t turn hard right back into the Graham Hill complex, you power back onto the North circuit through the hold-on-tight, ultra-fast, gentle right at Windsock.
And then there’s Gold, which teaches smooth power oversteer, how to master an ‘extended cone slalom’ and how to heel-andtoe. That last last lesson would seem to come very late, given how fundamental a skill it is for quick and smooth driving whether on track or road, but surprisingly few people know how to do it, and the Academy approach is to get the basics of balance, lines and flow right first. This done, part of the afternoon is spent in an Exige Sport with its supercharged 350bhp V6 engine. If all has gone as it should, you will now have your Lotus Licence.
‘You can do Bronze, Silver and Gold in one weekend,’ Martin encourages. ‘Then you’re ready for Platinum, comparing dry handling with wet handling, how to choose the right lines for each, learning left-foot braking and trail-braking. There’s a data logger to help you improve your performance.’
After this, you move from the Exige Sport 350 to a track-prepared Exige Cup. ‘It’s on slicks,’ says Martin, ‘and if you don’t nurture them you’ll have an accident. When there’s no heat in the front tyres it just understeers.’ And once you’ve learned how to exploit the immense grip that warmed slicks offer, you’re ready to go racing.
‘We are the only British carmaker who can run an academy like this on our own track,’ Martin points out. ‘And it’s a great shop window for Lotus, too. We once sold four Evoras in a day.’