My oh my I love my Prelude! (1). You’re all probably thinking whyyy??
Well let me tell you exactly why. I did not know until today what the car was capable of until V8 Super Car driver Dave Sieders set the beast off its leash!

All you track aficionados are probably saying to yourselves that a Prelude isn’t a track car, and you guys are correct in saying so. I never purchased the Prelude to be a track car; I just loved the car when I first saw it but lets save that story for another day!

Now before everyone gets all excited, my car isn’t concealing any weapons of mass destruction (2). In fact the weapon should be me, the driver. I’ve always thought that my relationship with my car was like that of a dog (3) and its owner, as the owner must always teach the doggie new tricks! Having tried several times at teaching the beast new tricks, I was slowly giving up and started to blame the car for not being able to achieve my desired lap times.

Enter Oran Park South and Dave Sieders. The beast was unleashed and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Here my car was behaving like it was on semi slicks, braking like it had massive calipers and running over ripple strips like an angry beast on a mission! Dave was driving the car to its true potential and I was clinging onto my seat thinking, “whoa.. my car rocks!!”

I could not believe how well Dave was steering this 1500kg Honda. Underpowered heavy cars aren’t supposed to behave like this, so I was pleasantly surprised at what a beast my car turned out to be! The man was driving flat-out on third gear around the whole circuit(4). He showed no fear as the car hugged the ripple strips up the dogleg and onto the final turn where a sweeping concrete wall was waiting to greet us. I have always been paranoid that my brakes and tyres would fail on me if I were to further push the car, but these preconceptions have now been tossed out the window.

Obviously it would be reckless for me to attempt this all out assault without first perfecting my technique, so it certainly helps to know that my car is capable of such feats. If you want to see what your car is capable of, I strongly recommend that you ask one the professional driver trainers at the Circuit Club Track Days to have a steer of your ride. You’ll be impressed!

It makes me sad that this looks to be the last time I will be zipping around Oran Park, as I’m sure the beast desperately wants to return for another run around the park!

At least all is not lost as the memories and lessons learned will definitely stay with me when tackling more track days in the future. Bye bye Oran Park

By the way, “Its not the car.. It’s the driver! (5)” Footnotes:
1. Even more so than before
2. As a matter of fact, my only weapons are coil-over suspension
3. Man’s best friend =)
4. Yikes!
5. Dave shaved 6 seconds off my lap time