Like all experiences in life, you always have to start from the beginning. Babies learn to walk before they run, you get your drivers license before you buy and drive your very own car, and you go for the R3 driving experience to learn to recognize your limits of automotive handling before you can properly race your own car on a track. 
Tengku Djan Ley or just Djan, as he is more fondly known as, explained quite aptly during the introduction of the R3 driving experience that we were not here to drive the deliciously menacing MSS and MME cars parked outside. But if we continued to participate in all the different levels of the R3 driving experience (Djan hinted that this was just the basics. There’s more to come) we might one day get the rare opportunity to pilot one of them. Yes, might. I’m holding him to his word! The Proton R3 Motorsports Driving Experience is not a defensive driving course – It’s to give us ordinary folks an insight into the basics of performance driving, tailored to train and emphasize on vehicle control at all times, regardless of scenario and situation. It consisted of 5 different training modules and a Time Attack session which combines all that you’ve learnt into one competitive package and dang were the participants competitive.
Yours truly was assigned to cover the course as a participant, a few lucky Suprima S owners were given the opportunity to attend this course with purchase of their brand new cars whilst others willingly parted with RM880 to learn from the best that R3 had to offer – legendary rally driver Karamjit Singh and MRC 2WD champion Kenneth Koh to name a few.
It started with the most basic of all things performance – how to sit properly. Towering at 6ft 3, Karamjit modeled the do’s and don’ts of sitting properly in the demo Proton Preve car.The instructors answered all the questions that the participants threw at them, from sitting like rapper 50 cents, to why seat belt clips are bad, to the proper way of strapping on the seat belt (yes… believe it). The basic fundamentals rebooted.
The participants were split to 4 different teams, each team started off with different training sessions – the slalom test (oversteer and understeer control), threshold braking, brake avoidance test, and cornering lines. I was assigned to the green team which started off with the slalom test with the king of left foot braking himself, Karamjit Singh. He took everyone for a couple of instructional joyrides around the slalom course and explained what to do when over and understeering, then threw us into the deep end of the pool and rode shotgun with the participants driving. Each participant was given 2-3 rounds around the slalom course under the watchful eye of Karamjit, he gave pointers and corrected the participants whenever he noticed an error. As fun as that was, nothing was better than watching the lady participants squeel everytime Karamjit yanked the handbrake to induce an oversteer. Made for very good conversation! 
The brake avoidance test was probably the most nerve wrecking. We were tasked to floor the accelerator straight at a flag bearer and at the command of the instructor we had to brake and change directions to wherever the flag bearer decided at the very last minute. Any delayed response meant inevitably plowing through the flag bearer using him as a speedbump (note – I’m sure he was very safe. I’m just exaggerating). The main lesson here is learning to assess any emergency braking situation, react and respond within the milliseconds you have and avoiding a crash or something nasty. Not as easy as it sounds when you’re speeding down the straight at 70-80km/h all the while looking at the flag bearer who is straight ahead. He probably grew a new white hair everytime a participant ran over a cone or two right in front of him. 
In the threshold brake test, we were given a Suprima S which had its ABS disengaged. This test allowed the participants to experience the difference between ABS and non-ABS cars (all other test had ABS enabled) and they learnt how to brake without locking up the wheels. In my own test runs, the difference between wheel lock up and aku-brake-sendiri techniques was a shocking 5ft! To make things worse, the road surface was intentionally made sandy too. Lack of ABS, a slippery surface, an instructor who asked us to floor a turbo charged car all the way before standing on the brakes at the very last minute, a very eye-opening harrowing experience on learning the limits of grip! This test was quite the eye opener since I own a non-ABS car. I now have huge respect for my oversized brakes, UHP tyres and now drive much slower. It’s also worth nothing that although we floored the accelerators, we didn’t hit anymore than 60km/h in the threshold brake test and it was already intimidating. Imagine a 110km/h situation….! 
The last course was the cornering lines – “Slow in fast out”. This course basically showed us the fastest way around a corner versus the wrong way to take corners. We were given a manual Satria Neo R3, arguably the sweetest handling car amongst the test cars. Short and lightweight wheel base, a nippy 1.6L manual tweaked by the R3 gurus and a body hugging seat made for a very interesting lesson in cornering fast. Apex points, feathering the throttle and knowing when to give it the beans was all made simple by the instructor. 
Pretty much everyone was buzzing with adrenaline by the time the course was over and breaked for lunch. Every participant was eagerly awaiting the Time Attack competition, which basically was a test which combined all the training elements into one massive gymkana-ish track. Fastest competitor around the course won bragging rights and a prize from the R3 team! Yours truly did it in 44 seconds flat but was penalized 2 seconds for missing a braking area. Others hit 38 seconds and faster. It was safe to say I didn’t win any prizes. 
In conclusion, I’ve attended defensive driving courses in the past and although similar, the lessons learnt were vastly different. Defensive driving teaches you how to drive carefully, the R3 driving experience lets you learn the limits of your driving ability and where you need to expand or improve on. The course also gave me a new insight on the brand new Proton Suprima S and R3 Neo, I have new respect for the cars and what they can do. Take my word for it – test driving these cars at your local dealership will not let you experience what the car is truly capable of and the R3 pundits really do know what they are doing. If you ever complain about an R3 car or the new Preve or Suprima, it’s because you doing it wrong. Seriously.
Interested in signing up to experience the Proton R3 Motorsport Driving Experience? Contact them at : 03-80269400 / 03-80745888 or email : [email protected]
