J-Turn

The other day, I wrote the first part of my article about participating in the Porsche Track Experience (PTE) with my Boxster (morning program), and today I want to share about the latter half (part of the afternoon program).

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The first training session in the afternoon was the “J-Turn.” Since I had never heard of a J-Turn before, I couldn’t picture it, so I looked it up online on the spot and found it described as “a deliberate 180-degree spin turn from reverse driving.”

Later, the instructor explained that it was to “experience understeer/oversteer and learn vehicle control.” By the way, the training course was sprinkled with water to make understeer more likely, creating large puddles.

However, just hearing about it didn’t help me visualize it well, so I first watched a demonstration by the instructor.

The instructor showed two versions: “a version where understeer occurs but no steering input is made to correct the car’s behavior” and “a version where steering input is applied when understeer occurs to change the car’s direction.” More than the car’s behavior, I was surprised by the intense spray of water.

Wow, that’s intense… No way I could do that… (ﾟдﾟ)

“Anyway, accelerate boldly to about XX km/h until the marker cones, then ease off the accelerator, pause briefly, and turn the wheel sharply all at once. If you turn the wheel while accelerating, the car will just turn normally without understeer, so be careful. And everyone, please keep your windows closed at all times. Otherwise, things will get messy, lol.”

The instructor said this, and we got into our cars to start the first run. But since I was nervous, I ended up just gently steering along the cones around the big puddle without attempting any J-Turn (lol).

What was that all about… (-_-)

“Try going faster. Also, ease off the accelerator, pause briefly, then turn the wheel.”

Following this advice, I increased my speed and paused before turning the wheel, and near the end, understeer occurred.

With a loud tire screech of ‘GAGAGAGAGA…!‘, the car slid sideways with a force I had never experienced before.

Scary… (ﾟдﾟ)!!

I kept turning the wheel, the car’s direction changed, and I felt relieved returning to the line when the instructor said,

“That was… understeer, but as you increased the steering angle, you ended up with oversteer near the end. This is different from the understeer intended in J-Turn training, so try turning the wheel sharply from the start to induce understeer right away.”

I realized, “I was too cautious turning the wheel, so my behavior was different from the instructor’s demo,” and on the next run, I turned sharply from the start. Then, with the tire screech ‘GAGAGAGAGA…!‘, I successfully experienced the sequence of “understeer, a sharp change in car direction, and recovery.”

…I did it!!

“Yes, that’s it! Don’t forget that feeling and try again. This time, focus on making the transition from understeer to recovery smoother.”

I tried focusing on that, but concentrating on recovery made me hesitant to turn the wheel fully, so I couldn’t induce understeer well.

Wow… improving precision is really tough. I tried the J-Turn about 10 times, but if time allowed, I would have loved to do 20 or 30 runs until I fully got the feel of it. When the training ended and I got out of the car to hear the instructor’s summary, I was shocked.

My Boxster is covered in mud!!!

My once pristine Boxster was instantly coated in mud. I thought, “I wonder if the water truck waiting over there could spray it clean…” but that was obviously impossible, lol.

(↑The water truck. It stayed on standby and refilled water throughout the training.)

The instructor shared this:

“Now you understand why I said to keep your windows closed, right? (laughs) Many people experienced car behavior they’d never felt before, but if that much understeer happened on a real road, it would definitely cause a serious accident hitting oncoming cars or guardrails. I hope you now understand what happens when you take a curve at that speed on a rainy day.”

Improving driving technique isn’t just about driving faster; it’s also about “fully understanding how the car behaves in various situations and always driving safely no matter what.”

After the J-Turn, there was time to test drive Porsche’s new models, including the new 911 (992), Cayenne, and Panamera GTS, and I also tried the full throttle challenge. I’ll cover those in another article.