Well today i undertook a full day course in defensive driving courtesy a voucher i got with my car and i must say it was great.
first they did a small seminar on various bits of road safety and hazard observation etc etc lookout what to do in the even of a potential crash and so on. then we got to the good bit. the practical driving, in your own car!
the first exercise was threshold braking where we had to go from 50 then 60 finally 70 over three runs, once the instructor blew his whistle you were to come down on the brakes but without locking the wheels or in the case of the four cars that day that had abs, the abs working.
it was a bit of a giggle watching people either brake too softly *guilty* or slam down too hard and not let up [a couple of the chicks did that] from that we could see the major differences and how speed can increase the stopping distances.
some guy in his wrx had previously completed an advand handling course he got with his car so he could almost stop on a dime where as a poor girl in her laser barely touched the brake and made it to the end of the cone "path" before coming to a stop.
next we simulated some emergency braking techniques, slam down hard back off, slam down etc untill stop. or in the case of abs, just slam down. personally i had a recent experience where i allowed my eyes to wander for a second and then looking forward i hit the skids, thought hang on this isnt right, backed off and hit the skids again. from that little potential accident i didnt slam the brakes as if a kid or something just jumped out in front of me, so it took a couple of runs to get the feel of what it was like to just come down hard. again the wrx with its semi-racing tires [little bugger] pulled up nice and short without a problem. once again a couple of the chicks, a little under-confident [notably one in a R33 skyline] simply didnt go all out and hit down hard. understandably something like that is a situational thing.
after that we did a little, as i call it, "dodge johnny" exersice [AKA Brake and dodge, or Brake and escape] where you drove at a cone barrier as per normal and on the signal you slam down hard [as if to panic for a second] then release [to get grip] and dodge around the cones.
on my first attempt i clipped a corner cone from not pulling away enough. second attempt and my hands got a little crossed on the wheel, bad wheel holding position ment i didnt turn enough, my hand got caught on the horn button [is it just me or is the button layout for the horn on VS's a bitch?] but on the third attempt i got it to 70 and beautifully went though, lock release dodge and threshold brake to a stop. by then i was loving it. didnt realise my car could jolt over like that, then again never thought to try :P
the next exercise had me jumping for joy, a simple 7 cone slalom with only one real guideline "go as fast as you like, but not insane, the idea is to get a feel for the cars corner to corner ability"
........heh heh heh heh. the first run i went in tight dodging the cones as close as possiable abeit a little slow [35-40ish] gaining confidence i gave it a little more room for dodging in favor of a little more speed. holding it about 50-55 i had a couple of little chirps accelerating a little too early but it was all good. who'd of thought some simple zig-zaging could be so much fun! though admitably i had to resist the temptation of gettign a smoking circle happening on the final cone [doing a loop around]
once again the chicks where a little underconfident and kept it slow but thats was all good. and once again the wrx guy just let it all out and showed me just how quick those damn things are, i almost couldnt beleive it was hanging on like it did.
as a final exersise we did the slalom in reverse [again, own set pace] well i was first up and decided to have a little fun, so i kept it a little quick and completed it reasonably smoothly. one poor chick just wasnt turning the wheel enough nudged a few of the cones.
after that it was back to the room for a final discussion, tips and a wrap up.
all in all what did i learn?
- my car can turn a little better than expected
- my habit of leaving a lot of space infront of me was well founded
- wrx's are scary things :P
- i should of showed some balls and seen ifi could grab one of the girl's number, they were a bunch of honeys ^_^
- i learnt looking at the next cars rear wheels is not only a big mistake but also very stupid. im now trying to get into the habit of looking flat ahead while keeping an eye out around me.
this course was done at the AHG driver training center in Perth.
www.dtec.com.au for more information. i THOUGHOUGHLY reccemend you spend the dollars and book a day. good fun and even the wrx guy with his advanced car handling training still learnt a lesson or two. big
to AHG and the course instructors [didnt catch names
]
...whew. thats a big post.