Audi’s GR8 driving experience

SEPANG, Malaysia—These days, selling a luxury car is not just about showing its customers how good a car looks and how its latest features work while inside a showroom, or even with just a drive around the block. Car brands like Audi conduct driving programs that allow customers to put their high-performance sedans and sportcars to the test on the track and on designed courses that mimic extreme driving conditions and real-life driving scenarios to show how technology has enhanced the safety and performance of these cars. Dubbed as the “Audi Driving Experience,” several experienced instructors, most of whom are career past or present race car drivers, run these programs and fly all over the globe to specially assigned racetracks and sites regularly to meet and greet its customers and show them what these cars got.

Last week, PGA Cars, the exclusive Philippine distributor of Audi, brought several members of the media and customers to one such event at Malaysia’s Sepang F1 International Circuit. Audi’s German, Australian and even two Malaysian race drivers took part in the driving program, where Audi has provided 22 units of its R8 supercars and 12 of its latest A6 sedans for use by its participants. Although driving programs for Audi is nothing new as PGA had conducted local customer and media driving events in the past with their sedans before by inviting German expert drivers to conduct seminars and demonstrations in local track venues, what is special about this is that the program includes driving the V10 engine-powered R8 around one of Asia’s premiere Formula One race courses.

Audi started its first driving experience program way back in 1983 to give car enthusiasts a more advanced and hand-on instructions and demonstration of its Quattro four-wheel-drive system under track and open road conditions. Aside from showing off how great these cars perform, participants can enhance their driving skills since they are given a quick lecture on safety driving and are given tips on how a car should be handled on track and on real-life driving conditions. These skills can be put to good use especially in adverse and emergency road situations. Audi has been conducting this type of customer events of several decades now and last year alone, over 10,000 participants joined in the various types of driving programs in some 30 countries worldwide.

Leading the pack of R8s was Audi instructor Steve Pizzati, who asked each driver to take turns following him in formation along the race track. He made sure each driver got a chance to follow him around the track so they could see the racing lines and at which point they should turn. “Anyone can drive top speed on a straight line. All you have to do is step on the gas! The key to good driving around the track is to know how you negotiate the curves. That is where good race driving starts. The more precise and smooth you are, the better times you will get from the track,” said Pizzati. Each participant was given six laps to drive the R8, with speeds reaching over 200 kph on a straight line, and traffic cones were prominently placed on the apex of each curve so the driver can know when would be the optimal time to make a turn. Instructions were given by the lead instructor via radio and each participant began to pick up the pace.

After the R8 track exercises, participants were asked to go braking and slalom exercises using Audi’s all-new A6 sedan. For the braking and handling exercise, each driver had to floor the car for about a hundred meters and slam the brakes very hard and avoid some simulated obstacle using traffic cones as guide. This maneuver demonstrates how well its ABS (anti-lock braking system) works without risk of injury or damage on public roads. Another interesting part was the ‘gymkhana’ exercise where the participants were asked to drive around a slalom course several times to see how its ESP (electronic stability program) complements the Audi Quattro four wheel drive system. The crisp and nimble handling of the A6 made it easy even for novice drivers, who were visibly apprehensive at the start of the exercise. After the exercise, these participants felt more confident and self-assured and said it definitely made them a better driver.

Toward the end of the program, the instructors made a presentation of the virtues of both the A6 and R8, including the engineering philosophies on how using new materials like carbon fiber and aluminum has helped save weight and improve handling and performance. Lastly, the instructors showed the group how to safely park the A6 “hands-free” using its proprietary self-parking technology. The A6 self-parking uses sensors and software technology to allow parallel parking virtually unaided by the driver. All the driver has to do is sit back and remain alert with the foot pedals to ensure a smooth computer-aided parking.