The Skid-Mobile

The Mid-Ohio "Skid-Mobile"

Recently, the two principals of Madness Motorsports attended a high-performance driving school put on by the Mid-Ohio School (at the Mid-Ohio track, as you might have guessed). Needless to say, we were exemplary students , other than when Eric scared the bejezuz out of one of the instructors during a cornering drill ("stop trying to be a race car driver, shift the car", the instructor was heard to say).

Anyway, one of the exercises during the day was "the skid pad". They took us over to the pad on the edge of the paddock, and showed us the Skid-Mobile, which was a Civic with hydraulically controlled outriggers that significantly limited the amount of traction available at each wheel. We were then told to drive around a course of pylons (kinda of a mini-autocross course). It turned out to be a bit like racing on ice - the Skid-Mobile had very little traction, and if you did not pay very careful attention to how the weight was distributed in the car as you turned, you would spin round and round.

The Skid-Pad Course (or at least an artistic representation)

The experience was very good at pointing out how-to and how-not-to control a car. After we each had a number of laps around the course and we all started to get good, the stopwatch came out and we all started spinning again. Mason actually finished with the fastest lap after penalties were applied for cones knocked down, but Eric had the fastest raw time (which included one dandy spin that wiped out at least three cones).

Mason trying not to look like a fool (you be the judge?)

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Eric Leininger
eric@madmotors.com