When the rev roars

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Somehow my hopes of obtaining the S15 seems to fade slowly each day...I seemed to have found a different form of diversion from brooding over the S15. Instead, the mix of snow, slush and sleet made way for a perfect environment to push the tiny manual Suzuki to the limits. Running without a RPM meter, I can only guage the appropriate gear by the sound of the rev and the speed. Numerous bends, uphills and downhills to practice and yesterday, was a public holiday here in Japan.

Went snowboarding in Shiga Kogen which wasn't a bad place but the rain days before literally destroyed the prestine snow. The grounds were hard and falling was a bad experience. But as the day proceeded, sleet and rain stormed in and the surface layer of snow began to soften up to create a slushy and slippery surface. I began to ride bigger and bigger with hopes of getting my moo neh's worth. Did some ramps, jumps but nothing too insane since today I still have to work. A good day of snowboarding indeed and heading home in the toy car was limited to speeds below 90km/h. Anything above that, the toy car would vibrate and handling would become problematic. Besides it was snowing so bad in the evening, everyone else was doing slower on the highways.

Sending my friend back, I took to the snow covered roads for a little fun. Entering a regular bend, making a left or right turn, etc. All I had to do was to down shift and brake lightly since braking a little harder would send the tail of the car sliding out. Yeah, down shift and brake lightly without the tail sliding, enter the bend at a comfortable speed. Once I hit the apex, I would floor the pedal and this would send the tail sliding out which initiated a drift. The amount of drift could simply be controlled by the amount of gas floored. Because traction was so bad, counter steering was relatively tricky but after a couple of tries, everyone should be able to do it. I was constantly keeping the gear in 2nd thru the corner drifts and playing with the amount of gas and counter steering. 3rd was not advisable at speeds below 40km/h since there simply wasn't enuff torque to lose traction. Then I found a nice wide dual carriage way in the back roads and did a couple of donuts before continuing the drift practice. Uphill was definitely easier to drift since downhill was more tricky and more proned to losing control due to gravity.

Well I am using a NA, un-tuned and under-powered manual 4WD car so drifting was relatively easy to manage. I wouldn't say the same for 2 litre turbo FRs since I have never driven one.