Ride Drive courses - what to expect
Discussion
Forget it...
All you will get is a dramatic reduction in your likelyhood of being in an accident....more enjoyment of your driving...preservation of your no claims bonus...your car lasting you longer...
Why bother?
BOF.
Take a pencil and paper and try to record what you have learned as soon as possible after your drive! Well done for taking the course!
All you will get is a dramatic reduction in your likelyhood of being in an accident....more enjoyment of your driving...preservation of your no claims bonus...your car lasting you longer...
Why bother?
BOF.
Take a pencil and paper and try to record what you have learned as soon as possible after your drive! Well done for taking the course!
saxmund said:
I've got a session booked in for 9 June, including time on the track at Bruntingthorpe. Looking forward to it already... although th eprospect of having someone sitting next to me assessing my driving is a bit worrying.
You will not be the first driver he has helped...you will get some advice before you drive...if he is any good he will know how you are feeling - don't worry...enjoy the day.As above, take notes of the things that seem important to you.
Come back and let us know how it went?
BOF?
Yes I'll report back. Seriously, I'm expecting it to be an enjoyable and educational day. I am still being very conservative about things like overtaking and cornering and learning exactly what I can do safely will be invaluable. And I'm looking forward to getting on a track and seeing how fast it actually goes! (Yes I know the track session is fairly serious but I'm sure there'll be an opportunity to put my foot down).
(Dons flame suit)
I'm a bit sceptical of these "advanced" 1 day courses, seems a bold claim to be able to re educate someone in the required amount of different elements to make a serious difference to anybody's driving in such a short time? We spend more time than that just on corners and bends never mind all the rest? Good that people are interested in improving their skills though,
Regards,
Gary
I'm a bit sceptical of these "advanced" 1 day courses, seems a bold claim to be able to re educate someone in the required amount of different elements to make a serious difference to anybody's driving in such a short time? We spend more time than that just on corners and bends never mind all the rest? Good that people are interested in improving their skills though,
Regards,
Gary
jaf01uk said:
(Dons flame suit)
I'm a bit sceptical of these "advanced" 1 day courses, seems a bold claim to be able to re educate someone in the required amount of different elements to make a serious difference to anybody's driving in such a short time? We spend more time than that just on corners and bends never mind all the rest? Good that people are interested in improving their skills though,
Regards,
Gary
At first glance I'm a bit sceptical too, and maybe one can't make a dramatic improvement in the various practical skills during the course of the day. I expect the way it works is that you can make some practical improvements fairly quickly on the day, but most of the benefit may come from identifying the areas to focus on, and orientating the thought processes more effectively, so that the self-teaching process becomes more efficient subsequently.I'm a bit sceptical of these "advanced" 1 day courses, seems a bold claim to be able to re educate someone in the required amount of different elements to make a serious difference to anybody's driving in such a short time? We spend more time than that just on corners and bends never mind all the rest? Good that people are interested in improving their skills though,
Regards,
Gary
If that's what happens the rewards of the day of investment should continue to emerge during a period of months or even years afterwards.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Edited by p1esk on Friday 27th June 19:57
You can do quite a lot in a day... the important things you need to change are attitude to safety, away from the typical DSA trained idea of carrying on until you see a burning need to do something into using observation to plan what you need to do before you need to do it; and self-coaching - imparting the ability to ask and answer the question 'what do you feel' when operating the car. The rest is practice and development of muscle memory so that it becomes instinctual.
I've not experienced RideDrive so I can't offer an opinion as to what you're going to do in a day, but I'd suggest coming up with a list of things you might want to do/learn rather than getting a standard experience.
I've not experienced RideDrive so I can't offer an opinion as to what you're going to do in a day, but I'd suggest coming up with a list of things you might want to do/learn rather than getting a standard experience.
swanny71 said:
I did the full day Advanced Handling Skills and Road Driving Course on Friday. The day was fantastic and I learned a lot of new skills that should help keep me and the Griff out of trouble.
That's good and I'm glad you enjoyed it and feel to have been helped by it. It seems to me that such courses are especially relevant to people with powerful cars, where it's easier to get into serious trouble quite quickly.Best wishes all,
Dave.
I completed the day on Monday - I enjoyed it thoroughly.
The instructor was excellent and not patronising in any way, he understood that of course I didn't have the level of training he had. We drove up to Bruntingthorpe from Maidenhead on a variety of roads and covered the following topics:
information gathering - looking a *long* way ahead
planning your approach to hazards
hazard avoidance
"reading" road signs, white lines etc
positioning, getting the speed right & being in the right gear
driving using acceleration sense and not using brakes
taking the right line through bends
limit point theory
a bit about momentum, forces acting on a car etc
overtaking
steering, braking and gearchanging technique
At Bruntingthorpe we had a shortish track session with a bit of fast driving and covered a few things like correcting lift-off oversteer and doing an emergency stop at 70, as well as practising some of the above. And we saw the Vulcan land which was a bonus!
I found it valuable as it is the only driving training I have had since my driving test, and of course no-one ever shows you how to overtake, or even to drive spiritedly on a B-road. By the end I was driving much more smoothly, without the contstant braking, slowing down and speeding up that used to mean "making progress" and I was covering ground quicker without it seeming fast - in fact I was maintaining speeds safely on a single-carriageway road that beforehand would not have seemed safe and would have involved a lot of speeding up and slowing down. It has also given me a lot to think about and work on - for example, I now know how to give myself a good overtaking position, judge whether it is on and execute, and although I still lack a bit of confidence I think that will grow.
The only thing I would say is, if you want a lot of overtaking practice, it might be worth seeing if you can go somewhere that will not get too congested, as heavy traffic obviously limits overtaking opportunities. But of course you can practise everything else - and having other road users around can be valuable in itself.
I was of course on "best behaviour" (I did after all have a copper sitting in the car next to me) but it was also useful to hear his assessment of my strengths and weaknesses and where I had improved over the day, and what I might work on - again, delivered in a natural and unpatronising manner, he really was a chap I could learn well with.
The instructor was excellent and not patronising in any way, he understood that of course I didn't have the level of training he had. We drove up to Bruntingthorpe from Maidenhead on a variety of roads and covered the following topics:
information gathering - looking a *long* way ahead
planning your approach to hazards
hazard avoidance
"reading" road signs, white lines etc
positioning, getting the speed right & being in the right gear
driving using acceleration sense and not using brakes
taking the right line through bends
limit point theory
a bit about momentum, forces acting on a car etc
overtaking
steering, braking and gearchanging technique
At Bruntingthorpe we had a shortish track session with a bit of fast driving and covered a few things like correcting lift-off oversteer and doing an emergency stop at 70, as well as practising some of the above. And we saw the Vulcan land which was a bonus!
I found it valuable as it is the only driving training I have had since my driving test, and of course no-one ever shows you how to overtake, or even to drive spiritedly on a B-road. By the end I was driving much more smoothly, without the contstant braking, slowing down and speeding up that used to mean "making progress" and I was covering ground quicker without it seeming fast - in fact I was maintaining speeds safely on a single-carriageway road that beforehand would not have seemed safe and would have involved a lot of speeding up and slowing down. It has also given me a lot to think about and work on - for example, I now know how to give myself a good overtaking position, judge whether it is on and execute, and although I still lack a bit of confidence I think that will grow.
The only thing I would say is, if you want a lot of overtaking practice, it might be worth seeing if you can go somewhere that will not get too congested, as heavy traffic obviously limits overtaking opportunities. But of course you can practise everything else - and having other road users around can be valuable in itself.
I was of course on "best behaviour" (I did after all have a copper sitting in the car next to me) but it was also useful to hear his assessment of my strengths and weaknesses and where I had improved over the day, and what I might work on - again, delivered in a natural and unpatronising manner, he really was a chap I could learn well with.
Booked in for the 14th of July, with some time at Brunters. Really looking forward to it, but spoke to my instructor today and I'm a bit worried when he asked me what car I had: I told him I had an Impreza and he asked if it was front- or rear-wheel drive...
I'd like to think he was either winding me up or testing me!
Will post my thoughts after the day.
Cheers, Animal
I'd like to think he was either winding me up or testing me!
Will post my thoughts after the day.
Cheers, Animal
Well,
Had my day yesterday and it was fantastic! I was surprised at just how smoothly and quickly (and with such little effort) my car can be driven just by reading the road ahead. All it took was a few simple adjustments such as where I was positioning my car on the road and my driving became smoother. My instructor was very good: never patronising but providing a flow of commentary and advice whenever necessary without me ever feeling like I was being overloaded with information or criticised. Throughout the day I felt like I was being encouraged to be more confident in my driving (obviously without ever being bullish or aggressive).
The track session at Bruntingthorpe was just outstanding. We started by using a small section (an aircraft stand, I think) to see which end of the car let go first (the rear) before heading out onto the long circuit for a couple of slow laps and some brake tests. After that came a few fast laps when, with a bit of egging on from my instructor I was pretty quickly finding the car's limits. Followed this with some short laps through the chicane and a couple of top speed runs. Had one hairy moment when some complete chump biker cut across me when I was on the main straight about 2 feet from my bumper - at 120mph! Later found out that he was from Performance Bike... I would have liked to have gone to have a quick chat with him after that - but it's a bit difficult with a copper in the car! That aside, the hour on track passed in about 5 mins!
The drive home was more of the same: reading the road ahead, identifying hazards and also identifying the habits which impede my progress and break the driving flow. It is, of course, a lot to try and pick up in a day so I'm going to take BOF's advice and start writing some notes this morning.
To say I went to bed happy would be an understatement: taking some advanced driving instruction must be the most cost-effective expense I've had since I started driving and with a bit of effort I can become a much better driver - result!
Cheers,
Animal
Had my day yesterday and it was fantastic! I was surprised at just how smoothly and quickly (and with such little effort) my car can be driven just by reading the road ahead. All it took was a few simple adjustments such as where I was positioning my car on the road and my driving became smoother. My instructor was very good: never patronising but providing a flow of commentary and advice whenever necessary without me ever feeling like I was being overloaded with information or criticised. Throughout the day I felt like I was being encouraged to be more confident in my driving (obviously without ever being bullish or aggressive).
The track session at Bruntingthorpe was just outstanding. We started by using a small section (an aircraft stand, I think) to see which end of the car let go first (the rear) before heading out onto the long circuit for a couple of slow laps and some brake tests. After that came a few fast laps when, with a bit of egging on from my instructor I was pretty quickly finding the car's limits. Followed this with some short laps through the chicane and a couple of top speed runs. Had one hairy moment when some complete chump biker cut across me when I was on the main straight about 2 feet from my bumper - at 120mph! Later found out that he was from Performance Bike... I would have liked to have gone to have a quick chat with him after that - but it's a bit difficult with a copper in the car! That aside, the hour on track passed in about 5 mins!
The drive home was more of the same: reading the road ahead, identifying hazards and also identifying the habits which impede my progress and break the driving flow. It is, of course, a lot to try and pick up in a day so I'm going to take BOF's advice and start writing some notes this morning.
To say I went to bed happy would be an understatement: taking some advanced driving instruction must be the most cost-effective expense I've had since I started driving and with a bit of effort I can become a much better driver - result!
Cheers,
Animal
Edited by Animal on Tuesday 15th July 06:57
Edited by Animal on Tuesday 15th July 06:57
Hi Guy's,
I hope you don't mind me butting in here, but I picked up on a couple of people making comments about writing stuff down that you learned on the day. I can perhaps save you a lot of time with that, because a lot of what you will have covered can be found here http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/tipoffs-index.htm which is all free of charge to read.
Jules
I hope you don't mind me butting in here, but I picked up on a couple of people making comments about writing stuff down that you learned on the day. I can perhaps save you a lot of time with that, because a lot of what you will have covered can be found here http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/tipoffs-index.htm which is all free of charge to read.
Jules
Edited by Ride Drive on Wednesday 16th July 10:23
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