CAT Driver training
Discussion
Slightly tempted by their L2 course which is half a day at Millbrook followed by half a day on the road. But it seems very expensive when the L1 course with an entire day on the road is a few hundred cheaper. Much as I'd like to spend a few hours driving at Millbrook, is there much advantage from a training perspective in the Millbrook session?
I'm not interested in track driving skills per se.
I'm not interested in track driving skills per se.
We use Millbrook for our advanced driving courses, travelling to Millbrook from Wales, and have 5 hours of driving on various bits of the facility. I really enjoy teaching there as I do genuinely see the real benefits for their on road driving.
BUT, I don't treat some of the circuits (inner handling and alpine) as a track. I get them to treat them as a road, so parts of it have two lanes, like a single carriageway with lanes in both directions, I get them to assume that there could be oncoming traffic. That way, I can teach them when and where they can or can't use the whole road. All my students rave about it, and on the trip back I can really see how much they've taken out of it.
So, I think it's a great facility if it's used correctly, if it's just a track day, then I'm sure you could do a similar thing cheaper elsewhere.
BUT, I don't treat some of the circuits (inner handling and alpine) as a track. I get them to treat them as a road, so parts of it have two lanes, like a single carriageway with lanes in both directions, I get them to assume that there could be oncoming traffic. That way, I can teach them when and where they can or can't use the whole road. All my students rave about it, and on the trip back I can really see how much they've taken out of it.
So, I think it's a great facility if it's used correctly, if it's just a track day, then I'm sure you could do a similar thing cheaper elsewhere.
I did around 10 years providing advanced training and used Millbrook throughout that time.
Personally I found a couple of hours more than enough time to spend there. beyond that all that would happen is that the client would be knackered too eary and the experience would become more track day than driver training. The hill route has a tendency to be that way anyway (after all whoh wouldn't want to put air under their car), so that was driven on road lines, with the other side of the road being the useful 'get out of jail free' zone. Outer Handling was definitely a 'use all the width'. As a training location it couldnt be beat because if you balls a corner up it is less than a minute before you can balls it up again. Rinse and repeat for five laps and then stop so that the client stops getting better/more confident driving in the 'wrong' manner.
No idea if it's become a little more relaxed, but I stopped using it at around the time when the Honda engineers had their fatac and all the rules in the Millbrook Handbook were suddenly being followed to the absolute letter because the HSE had descended en masse. Being limited to 60 mph on the Hill route would have put something of a crimp in most training experiences. It's far less safe than a track - there's plenty of bent Armco to attest to that and if you really work at it you can jump out of the facility onto a live railway track.
Personally I found a couple of hours more than enough time to spend there. beyond that all that would happen is that the client would be knackered too eary and the experience would become more track day than driver training. The hill route has a tendency to be that way anyway (after all whoh wouldn't want to put air under their car), so that was driven on road lines, with the other side of the road being the useful 'get out of jail free' zone. Outer Handling was definitely a 'use all the width'. As a training location it couldnt be beat because if you balls a corner up it is less than a minute before you can balls it up again. Rinse and repeat for five laps and then stop so that the client stops getting better/more confident driving in the 'wrong' manner.
No idea if it's become a little more relaxed, but I stopped using it at around the time when the Honda engineers had their fatac and all the rules in the Millbrook Handbook were suddenly being followed to the absolute letter because the HSE had descended en masse. Being limited to 60 mph on the Hill route would have put something of a crimp in most training experiences. It's far less safe than a track - there's plenty of bent Armco to attest to that and if you really work at it you can jump out of the facility onto a live railway track.
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