Advanced Driving Courses

[Tasmaniak]

hehe fun is not the word.

I remember the first day of Anti-terror and security..

"Over the coming weeks you will learn how successfully complete and evade a PIT manuever. You will also learn how to crash safely. Furthermore, you will capable of evading pursuing vehicles potentially with the same skill set as you. You will also have to chase me down on the circuit and put my vehicle into a wall."

Heaven...

 

[c2105026]

Well I booked in for a course w/ Ian Luff Motivation on 30th November. Defensive driving course (Level 1). No skid control though, the skid control course has level 1 as a pre-requisite. Doing it at Easter Creek. Next question - which car to take? I drive the VX most often but the VB is more dangerous to drive with poorer dynamics and lower levels of crash safety......

 

[Tasmaniak]

The VX by far. A lot of the technical information they share will be more pertinent to the later technologies found in the VX. Whatever you learn there will apply completely to the VX with some being useable in the VB. Take the VB and you will find yourself on the sidelines when doing anything with braking as it will be relying on ABS instructions.

 

[Immortality]

Thing is though, with ABS braking you just brake and let the ABS do the work, with a non-ABS equipped car you need to be able to learn to adjust brake pressure/modulate brakes etc to gain/keep control. There is this awesome hill close to where I live, I used to test car brakes here and see how hard the car could be pushed before the ABS kicked in. It's a strange feeling having the brake pedal modulating under your foot as the ABS unit does it's thing. I was disappointed with the companies Nissan Maxima, ABS kicked in very quickly, other cars seemed to pull up a lot harder without the ABS been used.

I do agree though, most of the stuff taught will be based on late model cars. these courses are good. I wouldn't mind doing a skid control course, of course, been in NZ, any decent winters down poor is a good time to learn how to control a car when you start to aquaplane etc

 

[Tasmaniak]

Yes but with ABS then comes the whole driving through incidents. Instead of just trying to stop in time, they want to be able to teach you to drive around the truck just pulling out instead of slamming on the anchors hoping for ABS and still plowing into it at 20km/h. Maybe thats the more advanced driving courses? I don't know.

 

[Immortality]

Yep, that's part of it, the whole point of ABS is to give you the ability to be able to still steer the vehicle. Simply put, steer to where the object is your trying to avoid because by the time you get there, they will have moved forward, try to go behind it if it's moving at a reasonable speed. To often I see accidents where the car trying to avoid the accident actually steers into the same direction as the other vehicle they are trying to avoid.

The thing is, it's all really about experience, been able to read the scene in front of you and try to make the right decisions. Your also having to second guess what the other driver(s) are going to do. That is why I always tell my boys to see what is happening 10 seconds up the road, don't just concentrate on the vehicle right in front of you because you have no idea if they are paying attention. It's also one of the reasons I hate sitting behind SUV's, Vans and trucks etc as you just can't see what is going on in front of you.

 

[_R_J_K_]

Joining a car club and doing track days is another great way of learning driving skills.

This is a good one, see if you can find a club that host Motorkhana/Texikhana/Gymkhana events near you.

 

[c2105026]

There is Bathurst Light Car Club (I am in Orange, BLCC is only 40 min away). I was a member of them back when I had my Peugeot 306 then Mazda 3; but now I have autos that are a bit soggy and unwieldy, not that suited to things like motorkhana. club also runs khanacross events, but this presents a high risk of vehicle damage. They do hillclimbs and supersprints on the mt panorama circuit itself but having done those I don't have the balls for it, too scared of brushing a wall or something. Very expensive too. I paid $350 for a weekend of hillclimbs. I ended up coming 75 out of 78 competitors (the other 3 crashed), only got about 10 minutes of driving.......in addition my stocker VB/VX Commodores being soggy autos aren't suited for such a thing.

I have seen youtube clips of the ian luff course; they had non-abs cars doing the braking drills.

 

[Tasmaniak]

I would still be taking the VX.

 

[Deuce]

The thing is, it's all really about experience, been able to read the scene in front of you and try to make the right decisions. Your also having to second guess what the other driver(s) are going to do. That is why I always tell my boys to see what is happening 10 seconds up the road, don't just concentrate on the vehicle right in front of you because you have no idea if they are paying attention. It's also one of the reasons I hate sitting behind SUV's, Vans and trucks etc as you just can't see what is going on in front of you.

THIS ^ ^ ^
what everyone should be learning!!

I especially hate close calls on the bike, when your rear brake locks and starts sliding out sideways, on off on off, no traction, You've cut off speed, swerve to miss, up a drive way, on some grass, anything to not scratch the bike (or self)
So much saved by scanning far ahead and predicting the actions of a multitude of drivers and cars.