Hunt On For Melb Club Shooting Killers
The heartbroken families of Melbourne's fatal Love Machine nightclub shooting victims say the killers acted with inhumanity, violence and "not a care" about who they hit. The shots, which also injured four others, were fired from a stolen black Porsche SUV, later found burnt out at Wollert. New CCTV footage shows a maroon Ford ute with a silver tray, and distinctive bar across the back, seen leaving the area after the Porsche was torched. Police are now pleading for anyone who recognises the ute to contact them. Rebekah Spinks was about five metres from her boyfriend, Richard Arow, when he was shot dead. She described him as the "strongest man with the softest heart". They just had no regard for humanity at all, because not just Richard and Aaron and the people who were injured, but everyone, including me on the street, was a target that day, they didn't care who they were hurting. Mr Arow's sister Achol Arow, said the family had not come to terms with his death. Yom Ayom said her son Richard's death was senseless and unbearable. She said he had promised to repay her for bringing the family here to build a better life, only for his life to be taken by the very thing she fled. Detective Acting Inspector Julian Horan said the shooting, in one of Melbourne's busiest entertainment precincts, was "incredibly reckless and absolutely cowardly". Security guard Aaron Osmani's family said he was "very loving and caring", with his whole life ahead of him. The family said Mr Osmani looked out for his younger brothers and sister and three-year old niece, who he doted on. Investigators are exploring whether the shooting was a revenge attack on the nightclub after patrons were ejected.
After a small program and safety briefing the group is split in smaller groups and our instructor Yukka takes us to the first course. Due to the weight balance of the AWD rear-engine Porsche 911 Turbo a different technique is required to drift it and the first exercise couldn鈥檛 be a better start to learn this: slalom on ice. Accelerating off the line we are required to steer in for the first corner, tap the brakes briefly to shift the weight to the outside and accelerate to drift. Approaching the next corner, counter steer quickly and tap the brakes again to swing the back around to the other side. It soon feels like an automotive dance as we swing from side to side around the cones. The cones were quite close to each other so our first exercise was fairly low speed but the second course would all change that. We are taken to a large circle to practice our drift consistency.
The drift circle is a great place to see the all-wheel drive system in action. In comparison to a rear-wheel drive car it is a bit harder to drift but once you have it going you can reduce your steering inputs to the minimum and almost keep the wheels straight. Balancing the drift is entirely done by the throttle, more throttle makes the circle wider, less throttle makes the circle smaller. Being gentle on the throttle and steering is rewarded with a smooth never-ending drift. But enough with the exercise, time for the real action! We head back to the base and swap our 911 Turbo S for a rear-wheel drive Cayman GTS. To give the Cayman a bit more grip it has 5mm spikes instead of 4. We head out to a little track on the far end of the camp. Every track has a little paddock where you can stop and change drivers and every track also has a Cayenne on stand-by to pull any cars out of the snow besides the track.
The Porsche Cayman GTS is fundamentally different on snow and ice than the all-wheel drive 911 Turbo. It is much easier to get a drift going but it is harder work to stay in control. One little mistake and you soon find yourself with the nose pointing in the wrong direction. In my third lap I got a bit carried away and after drifting through three nice S-corner combinations I clearly over did it and found myself stuck in the snow wall for the first and luckily last time this day. Adjacent to our Cayman GTS track was another track with a little surprise for us. This track called the GT3 Cup track had a Porsche GT3 Cup and Porsche 918 Spyder on spikes waiting for us. Seeing the 918 Spyder there on snow and ice was a surreal sight. With its low ride height and wing extended up it looked like it was ready to eat the ice.
We drove back to base with the 918 Spyder and took a short break for lunch. After lunch the 918 Spyder was available for a few photos and after that we had to return to our 鈥榥ormal鈥?program. The next chapter in our Porsche Finland story was the Porsche Cayenne Turbo. Warned about the car鈥檚 weight and poor drift capabilities, we weren鈥檛 sure what to expect. But as soon as we left the paddock and turned in to drift around the first corner we knew this is going to be fun! The Cayenne is by far the hardest Porsche we have been trying to drift in Finland. You really have to trick it into a drift. Before setting out on the icy tracks we always switched to Sport Plus mode and disabled ESP. In the Cayman and the Turbo we switched back to the soft suspension setting to make the car a bit more forgiving. In the Cayenne however we chose to keep the suspension in sport to reduce body roll. With the Cayman and the 911 Turbo I tried to drift as clean as possible as going off the cleared track did not only bring a high risk of getting stuck but also of damaging the car. For our last sessions of the day we returned to the majestic Turbo S. With plenty of practice behind us our last track was a combination of two smaller tracks with wide long sweeping corners ideal for long drifts. Coming from the Cayenne, the Turbo was easy to drift. On this track cones helped initiate the perfect Scandinavian flick around three tighter corners. Along with two dedicated instructors it was just one of the examples where the Porsche Driving Experience is not just about fun but also helps improve your driving skill.