Driving Tuition

[jamin]

After several months of consideration I have decided that I am going ot take the plunge and buy a TVR, most likely a Cerb, but I am looking at Chims also.

Although my girlfriend did not take a great deal of convincing (I think she thinks I will let her drive it!) she will take a serious amount of convincing to sit in the car while I am behind the wheel (no guts some people).

Hence, it would go along way towards my case if I was to undertake an advanced driving course or a fast car driving course of some nature.

Does anyone have any advice of where I can undertake such things and if this will help my insurance any? I have seen various adverts in the classified section, but these seem more along the lines of take this car round a track - which I will be able to do a lot cheaper when I buy my tiv.....

Thanks in advance
Jamin

[Don]

You want to convince your girlfriend you can drive safely try an IAM or ROSPA Advanced driving course. I'm doing the IAM thing st the moment. Stunning value since it is all done by volunteers.

It ISN'T about performance driving though. If you want that most of the circuits have schools.

If you're buying a Cerb then the only thing that will bring your insurance permium down is shopping around! I haven't heard of anyone getting discount for IAM membership...

Edited by Don on Tuesday 16th October 17:22

[Don]

www.iam.org.uk/

[tvrheart]

I'll second the IAM route, I did it and the skills that I learnt have improved my driving a lot. One of these performance courses is next on my list but for your purpose it may have the wrong effect, getting taught how to hang the back end out of every damp round-about! - A slight generalisation of course but I hope you get my point, IAM first for safety then add in the speed element which the IAM cannot do.

[mags]

I am told that the Don Palmer 'wetter the better' course is perfect for being able to handle your car in the wet, or slippery conditions.
I will certainly be doing that if I manage to purchase a Cerb next year.

[Saturn 5]

Ive done the IAM test, very good. It dosent teach you how to razz around a race track but it will give you extra skills for safe driving. I thought about a performance course and decided I didnt fancy rannting the guts out of my car and wasting my tyres to satisfy an instructors requirements. Plus the IAM course/test is cheaper. Well worth it.

[jamin]

Thanks for the replies chaps. There are certainly some valid points, I think I will go for the safety first option and then work on the speed side of things. Although the 'wetter the better' course does sound valuable!

Cheers
Jamin

[tvrheart]

I had an e-mail from Don Palmer a few months back saying that he has had to stop the Wetter the Better course as MIRA stopped hiring out there facilities other than to official bodies wanting to test their cars/kit. He did offer an alternative course at another location but it was dearer. Situation may have since changed again though.
Chris

[JonRB]

We had a good discussion on the IAM here on Pistonheads recently. Have a look at www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=3260&f=23&h=0

I'd thoroughly recommend doing the IAM as it will
a) Improve your road driving & safety
b) Give you major brownie points with the girlfriend and convince her its safe to be your passenger.

Regards
Jon

[bertie]

I've done the HPC course with Jonh Lyons and it was absolutely superb.
Granted it's not cheap, about £1200 I seem to recall but you do get 3 days, 1 to 1 traveling all over the country.
The focus is on performance road driving with sessions at Cadwell park (the wrong way as he guessed I knew the track), MIRA on the wet handling course, and Millbrook on the fast and slow handling courses and the high speed banking.
I had my Cerbera at the time and you wouldn't believe what it can do in the right hands, plus doing 170+ on the banking was interesting!

The HPC cousre is recognised by some insurers so you do get your money back eventualy, and they do a half day first assesment before you can do the full course which is only a couple of hundred.
I'd thoroughly reccomend it.

[ianhfoster]

Well I can fully recommend RideDrive (www.ridedrive.co.uk/) - although they are based in Aylesbury (so was great for me) they cover all over. Both myself & my wife did a full day each with Julian in our Chimaera.

Even though I've done a fair number of 'defensive driving' days and a lot of track days I found this to be dammed useful - so much so that it is now to become part of my annual 'ownership costs' (along with half a dozen track days a year ... And by far the most important bit, my wife (who'd never driven the car before the day) came back having had a great time and nicely confident about the car and her skills.

All in - top respect.

[micky8181]

You really should talk to Ridedrive, these guys are beyond compare. Although they are based in Aylesbury they can operate all over the country.

I felt that I could really understand my Cerbie after just a half day session. My wife was too scared to drive the car but now I can't get her out of it (maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all).

If you want a proper lesson, these are the people to talk to.

[martvr]

I've just come back from a 1 to 1 intensive training session with International Drivers Club www.id-club.com at Bruntingthorpe. I can't get the smile off my face and just had to share it with an audience that would understand. The two guys running it Jay Shepherd (TVR Tuscan Challenge) and Martin Polley give lots of great advice and enthusiasm and 2.5 hours of non-stop accompanied track time. I can't recommend them enough if you want to improve your track driving. Go on, you know it makes sense.