Driving A GT-R Around Yas Marina With A GT Academy Winner Was Ridiculously Good Fun

For most petrolheads, driving fast cars on track is about as awesome an experience as you could ever hope for. I’d only been on track a couple of times before last weekend, but each time I’d walked away vowing to do it more often. Learning lines, feeling your car on its true limits, and mastering your vehicle’s mass as you fling it through corners are rushes that are unmatched by anything else in the world.

Last weekend I attended the GT Academy finals in Abu Dhabi, and to keep me occupied while the gamers prepared for the big final race, Nissan threw me the keys to a GT-R and pointed me towards the pit lane exit at the glorious Yas Marina Circuit. To my right was 2014 Academy winner Ricardo Sanchez, who would be talking me through a short layout of the circuit.

Watching the first couple of laps of the video above is quite frustrating, and it was a little frustrating at times in the car, too. What’s important to remember is that I’ve never driven a GT-R before, and I’ve never driven that track. Ricardo is a professional driver, and he knew the track and its limits well. He had also played passenger to a number of other journalists who had very little experience, so he had to check I knew what I was doing, and I had to show him he could trust me not to put the car in the wall.

Once he knew I wasn’t a complete plum behind the wheel, he pushed me a little harder with each lap, and listening to his advice helped me make the most of my short time on the circuit. The only frustration I had was that because the car was so loud, and Ricardo’s accent is fairly strong, I didn’t always catch what he wanted me to do. Also, in the long right-hander heading towards the hotel he was telling me to hold; I thought he meant off the throttle, but realised on the cool down lap he meant hold a steady throttle. I actually learned this on my first ever time on track driving a Seat Leon Cupra 280 - in long corners, hold the throttle steady to keep the car balanced.

The part of the course I really struggled with was braking into the first corner from 130mph. As you can hear, Ricardo is asking me to really stamp on the brakes, but it feels so unnatural to do that from such high speed. I was braking hard, but being too smooth in the initial bite - you can hear Sanchez’s frustration a couple of times!

The section around the hotel was absolutely fantastic. The sweeping right-hander leading towards the tight right feels faster than it is as the tortured tyres bite into the hot tarmac, then you slowly build up brake pressure as you’re not braking in a straight line initially. Hit the apex, then be patient with the throttle - hit the power too early and you won’t get wide enough for the next left. Nail this section and power under the hotel into another left, which takes a small leap of faith as the barriers block your view of the exit.

My favourite corner is the next right. Hard on the brakes briefly, then as you lift off and the weight shifts, chuck the car to the right. You won’t believe it grips in the way it does, and you can feel power being distributed beneath you as the car’s computers whizz through complex mathematics and keep that big bulk in check. Another quick squirt of throttle before braking again, slamming down another gear and pitching the car left towards the back straight. Get this section right, and you’re topping 130mph into the first corner.

It was an exhilarating five laps, and I’d have given anything to stay out there. In fact, I would gladly have stayed on track for hours on end - I think the car would’ve given up before I did. Learning the circuit and the car’s limits is truly addictive. Those who get to do this for a living are the luckiest people alive. I might have to buy myself a PlayStation and try to compete next year…