An experience behind the exhilarating hot seat of a Formula 4 race car
14 Aug 2014|6,400 views
The speed of the car snapped me out of the moment and I was constantly telling myself, "Steady! Steady!" My foot hadn't even begun to fully extend and I could already feel and hear the gears all ready to shift. I was one with the machine. I shot from one end to the other in a blink of an eye, stomped on the brakes before I made the first turn on Sepang International Circuit, and realised I've probably yelled more profanities in that five seconds than I ever did in the past three decades.
This was the Michelin Pilot Sport Experience 2014, where the star of the event was undoubtedly the Formula 4 race car.
You see, as much as being a motoring journalist allows me to self-proclaim and boast about my superior driving skills, I'm just your average driver that will take the same amount of time as you do to parallel park a car. So when Michelin offered a rare opportunity to allow me to boost my 'driving ego' (and hopefully improve my driving skills), I simply couldn't say no.
The F4, quite simply, is an entry level version of a Formula One race car that ploughs through our street circuit every September. Although it is the junior class of open-wheelers, the F4 packs serious performance. It is a 470kg carbon fibre-bodied race car that's packed with 185 horses, giving it an astonishing power to weight ratio of 394bhp per tonne.
That is even more than the 911 Turbo S - one of Porsche's latest gems, which has 350bhp per tonne and can sprint from nought to 100km/h in 3.1 seconds.
Like ten-year olds waiting to lay their hands on the latest virtual games, we couldn't quite hold our anticipation while getting in line. When it was finally my turn, I fumbled at almost everything - putting two fingers into a single sock of the racing glove, wearing the balaclava inside out, etc. Hell, even the full-face helmet felt unusually suffocating!
This obviously isn't the usual cheap thrill you get from gunning a car through long, deserted roads while keeping a lookout for the Traffic Police when everyone else is comfortably tucked into their beds. This is as real as it gets, where a 10-minute drive (six laps around the track) feels like a fraction of a second.
My hands were literally clenched on the steering wheel. Every chance I got, I was working the accelerator and every time I did that, my body was thrown backwards, accompanied by a dramatic and deafening exhaust note. The mechanisms and motion of the F4 are simply wild - all set and done to keep my adrenaline pumping and my mind on alert mode.
It also goes without saying that the braking prowess of the open-wheeler is exceedingly efficient and frightfully ferocious. As you could imagine, my body lurched forward before every turn was made, attempting to rip off the six-point harness that was securing me.
Six laps later I was back at the pit lane, scrambling my way out of the tight cockpit and trying to maintain my composure despite going through a nerve-wrecking and spine-breaking drive. To say it's a memorable experience is an understatement because getting behind an open-wheeler isn't exactly an everyday sort of thing, even for a motoring journalist like myself.
Come to think of it, driving the Formula 4 race car is almost like going for a roller coaster ride - only difference is you're in control.
The speed of the car snapped me out of the moment and I was constantly telling myself, "Steady! Steady!" My foot hadn't even begun to fully extend and I could already feel and hear the gears all ready to shift. I was one with the machine. I shot from one end to the other in a blink of an eye, stomped on the brakes before I made the first turn on Sepang International Circuit, and realised I've probably yelled more profanities in that five seconds than I ever did in the past three decades.
This was the Michelin Pilot Sport Experience 2014, where the star of the event was undoubtedly the Formula 4 race car.
You see, as much as being a motoring journalist allows me to self-proclaim and boast about my superior driving skills, I'm just your average driver that will take the same amount of time as you do to parallel park a car. So when Michelin offered a rare opportunity to allow me to boost my 'driving ego' (and hopefully improve my driving skills), I simply couldn't say no.
The F4, quite simply, is an entry level version of a Formula One race car that ploughs through our street circuit every September. Although it is the junior class of open-wheelers, the F4 packs serious performance. It is a 470kg carbon fibre-bodied race car that's packed with 185 horses, giving it an astonishing power to weight ratio of 394bhp per tonne.
That is even more than the 911 Turbo S - one of Porsche's latest gems, which has 350bhp per tonne and can sprint from nought to 100km/h in 3.1 seconds.Like ten-year olds waiting to lay their hands on the latest virtual games, we couldn't quite hold our anticipation while getting in line. When it was finally my turn, I fumbled at almost everything - putting two fingers into a single sock of the racing glove, wearing the balaclava inside out, etc. Hell, even the full-face helmet felt unusually suffocating!
This obviously isn't the usual cheap thrill you get from gunning a car through long, deserted roads while keeping a lookout for the Traffic Police when everyone else is comfortably tucked into their beds. This is as real as it gets, where a 10-minute drive (six laps around the track) feels like a fraction of a second.
My hands were literally clenched on the steering wheel. Every chance I got, I was working the accelerator and every time I did that, my body was thrown backwards, accompanied by a dramatic and deafening exhaust note. The mechanisms and motion of the F4 are simply wild - all set and done to keep my adrenaline pumping and my mind on alert mode.
It also goes without saying that the braking prowess of the open-wheeler is exceedingly efficient and frightfully ferocious. As you could imagine, my body lurched forward before every turn was made, attempting to rip off the six-point harness that was securing me.
Six laps later I was back at the pit lane, scrambling my way out of the tight cockpit and trying to maintain my composure despite going through a nerve-wrecking and spine-breaking drive. To say it's a memorable experience is an understatement because getting behind an open-wheeler isn't exactly an everyday sort of thing, even for a motoring journalist like myself.
Come to think of it, driving the Formula 4 race car is almost like going for a roller coaster ride - only difference is you're in control.
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