Very few things can be as important as understanding how to handle yourself on the roads when driving. After all, most of us, spend 1-2 hours a day in our cars and much more so on weekends and long drives.
I always thought the more experience you have the better you get at driving. Sure no amount of theory can replace practical experience on the road, but how are you to know what to do when you encounter an emergency situation you haven't experienced before? Do you know how your car will react to a hard braking scenario? or what will happen if you brake and swerve to avoid a stalled car? or why do some cars skid and some rollover sideways?
Ever wondered why police officers, anti-terrorist squads, safety people, etc. in most countries undergo mandatory driver skill training. Also an increasing number of jobs which require driving as part of work, now prescribe employees undergo driver skills training.
This is where defensive driver courses come in. Having bought a new rear wheel drive car a month back (my MX5!!), I knew I had to understand how my MX5 handles in emergency situations - like I said the stuff you haven't experienced on roads before and hopefully should never have to!
I did some research and came across Driver Dynamics and saw some good recommendations for them. With all my work related air travel keeping me busy, I knew I had to make time for a defensive drive course soon. The opportune moment came on the long weekend for melbourne cup day. Yes if you plan well in advance you can get a good discount deal on the course , but I knew I didn't want to keep putting this off. So coughed up 285$ and registered for a day at Sandown Racecourse with the Driver Dynamics team.
The mandatory instructions were simple, be there at 830am sharp, get your driver's license and make sure your tires are at 40PSI! The generalized 40 psi recommendation was the only confusing one, so I emailed them with my car/tire model and they confirmed I need to go from manufacturer recommended 30 psi to 40 psi. Some research on the interweb and forums and it was clear, manufacturer recommendations are more for comfort, rather than tire life, safety and performance! The day before the course, I was even told by the tire expert at the local Beaurepaires that I was nuts to fill up to 40 psi and these defensive driving courses destroy your tires! Well too late, as I had already paid up.
So there I was at Sandown at 8am on Melbourne Cup day. Had researched over the weekend that the only open entrance was from princess highway (opp. 659 princess highway on google navigation), so was there in plenty of time.
I met their senior-most instructor, Pete, who guided me to the stands where I parked my MX5. Along side me were a V8 ute and a commodore. I thought it was a day with very few cars, but was told generally there are 50 cars or so, but today they were expecting 25 or so. And then the cars starting coming in - from SUVs to hyundai station wagons, a bmw 135i and many more! There were brand new cars like mine and some very old ones. There were L platers with parents, P platers and much more experienced drivers as well, both young and old.
Driver Dynamics CEO Kevin was also there with his Lamborghini.
The only pic I took was of the stunning yellow lambo next to my mx5. The rest of the day I was too busy driving!
We signed up and were taken through the morning theory session - this is where Pete took us through a lot of important points and how cars behave. He confirmed things like why 36psi to 40psi is the best tire pressure to be on. Also cleared up a lot of myths on handling skids. The biggest shocker to me was braking and swerving almost never causes a vehicle to rollover (unlike movies) - there has to be an intervening object like divider, curb, gutter, large rock, burst tire, etc to cause the car to rollover.
We then quickly went over emergency braking scenarios and went out for practicals.
This is where the fun part started. We were split in two groups, with Kevin and Pete handling each group separately. The sprayed recycled rain water on the track and put some cones and then got us going individually through various braking scenarios. There were wide stopping distance differences between various cars when braking in a straight line, however Kevin and Pete reckoned every car could go from 60kmph to hard stop within 20meters. By the end of a few runs, everyone did. I was happy to see my MX5 was stopping in slightly over half the distance. We were told to feel when the ABS cycled and even asked to let go of our hands and see how stability control kept the car going straight. Where almost every one screwed up was the brake swerve brake test. Too many orange cones were killed in this test.
We then had a quick 45min lunch break. I rushed to a nearby mcdonalds and had 2 burger patties (threw away the buns - wanna know why? - click here). Back in the classroom and we were all distracted by the high revving cars having fun on the track in the background. We now had some more theory on safe driving distances, etc and were out again for practicals. This time we did slalom which is were cones are placed 18 meters apart and you zig zag past them at 40-50kmph. The MX5 handled surprisingly well even at 60kmph! After a few runs, we had a few more braking and swerving maneuvers in the wet and this time a lot of us were way more confident. I could feel the mx5 better and my reaction times had significantly improved. This time I completed most exercises successfully and Kevin advised I do some of the exercises at 65kmph (instead of 60) as the MX5 is a much better car. I ended up doing things at 70kmph as the MX5 speedometer has markings 20kmph apart and it was not easy staying at 65. And at 70kmph the MX5 behaved perfectly and no cones were killed!
Finally we went back in and recapped the day. Pete reminded us that ideally we should all be driving at the right distance from the vehicle in front and hopefully never encounter emergency situations, but now we had some confidence to handle them if we did. We were then handed out course completion certificates (which can be used for OHS compliance at your employer) and given some discount coupons for defensive and advanced driving courses, as well as coupons for a 1hr lamborghini drive. Pete was kind enough to hang around and answer any pending questions.
All in all a great day, made some new friends and gained a lot of confidence in important driving skills. The MX5 did well and the tires are perfectly fine.
I would highly recommend a defensive driving course to anyone on the road. This stuff can really save lives! Safe Driving!
I always thought the more experience you have the better you get at driving. Sure no amount of theory can replace practical experience on the road, but how are you to know what to do when you encounter an emergency situation you haven't experienced before? Do you know how your car will react to a hard braking scenario? or what will happen if you brake and swerve to avoid a stalled car? or why do some cars skid and some rollover sideways?
Ever wondered why police officers, anti-terrorist squads, safety people, etc. in most countries undergo mandatory driver skill training. Also an increasing number of jobs which require driving as part of work, now prescribe employees undergo driver skills training.
This is where defensive driver courses come in. Having bought a new rear wheel drive car a month back (my MX5!!), I knew I had to understand how my MX5 handles in emergency situations - like I said the stuff you haven't experienced on roads before and hopefully should never have to!
I did some research and came across Driver Dynamics and saw some good recommendations for them. With all my work related air travel keeping me busy, I knew I had to make time for a defensive drive course soon. The opportune moment came on the long weekend for melbourne cup day. Yes if you plan well in advance you can get a good discount deal on the course , but I knew I didn't want to keep putting this off. So coughed up 285$ and registered for a day at Sandown Racecourse with the Driver Dynamics team.
The mandatory instructions were simple, be there at 830am sharp, get your driver's license and make sure your tires are at 40PSI! The generalized 40 psi recommendation was the only confusing one, so I emailed them with my car/tire model and they confirmed I need to go from manufacturer recommended 30 psi to 40 psi. Some research on the interweb and forums and it was clear, manufacturer recommendations are more for comfort, rather than tire life, safety and performance! The day before the course, I was even told by the tire expert at the local Beaurepaires that I was nuts to fill up to 40 psi and these defensive driving courses destroy your tires! Well too late, as I had already paid up.
So there I was at Sandown at 8am on Melbourne Cup day. Had researched over the weekend that the only open entrance was from princess highway (opp. 659 princess highway on google navigation), so was there in plenty of time.
I met their senior-most instructor, Pete, who guided me to the stands where I parked my MX5. Along side me were a V8 ute and a commodore. I thought it was a day with very few cars, but was told generally there are 50 cars or so, but today they were expecting 25 or so. And then the cars starting coming in - from SUVs to hyundai station wagons, a bmw 135i and many more! There were brand new cars like mine and some very old ones. There were L platers with parents, P platers and much more experienced drivers as well, both young and old.
Driver Dynamics CEO Kevin was also there with his Lamborghini.
The only pic I took was of the stunning yellow lambo next to my mx5. The rest of the day I was too busy driving!
We signed up and were taken through the morning theory session - this is where Pete took us through a lot of important points and how cars behave. He confirmed things like why 36psi to 40psi is the best tire pressure to be on. Also cleared up a lot of myths on handling skids. The biggest shocker to me was braking and swerving almost never causes a vehicle to rollover (unlike movies) - there has to be an intervening object like divider, curb, gutter, large rock, burst tire, etc to cause the car to rollover.
We then quickly went over emergency braking scenarios and went out for practicals.
This is where the fun part started. We were split in two groups, with Kevin and Pete handling each group separately. The sprayed recycled rain water on the track and put some cones and then got us going individually through various braking scenarios. There were wide stopping distance differences between various cars when braking in a straight line, however Kevin and Pete reckoned every car could go from 60kmph to hard stop within 20meters. By the end of a few runs, everyone did. I was happy to see my MX5 was stopping in slightly over half the distance. We were told to feel when the ABS cycled and even asked to let go of our hands and see how stability control kept the car going straight. Where almost every one screwed up was the brake swerve brake test. Too many orange cones were killed in this test.
We then had a quick 45min lunch break. I rushed to a nearby mcdonalds and had 2 burger patties (threw away the buns - wanna know why? - click here). Back in the classroom and we were all distracted by the high revving cars having fun on the track in the background. We now had some more theory on safe driving distances, etc and were out again for practicals. This time we did slalom which is were cones are placed 18 meters apart and you zig zag past them at 40-50kmph. The MX5 handled surprisingly well even at 60kmph! After a few runs, we had a few more braking and swerving maneuvers in the wet and this time a lot of us were way more confident. I could feel the mx5 better and my reaction times had significantly improved. This time I completed most exercises successfully and Kevin advised I do some of the exercises at 65kmph (instead of 60) as the MX5 is a much better car. I ended up doing things at 70kmph as the MX5 speedometer has markings 20kmph apart and it was not easy staying at 65. And at 70kmph the MX5 behaved perfectly and no cones were killed!
Finally we went back in and recapped the day. Pete reminded us that ideally we should all be driving at the right distance from the vehicle in front and hopefully never encounter emergency situations, but now we had some confidence to handle them if we did. We were then handed out course completion certificates (which can be used for OHS compliance at your employer) and given some discount coupons for defensive and advanced driving courses, as well as coupons for a 1hr lamborghini drive. Pete was kind enough to hang around and answer any pending questions.
All in all a great day, made some new friends and gained a lot of confidence in important driving skills. The MX5 did well and the tires are perfectly fine.
I would highly recommend a defensive driving course to anyone on the road. This stuff can really save lives! Safe Driving!
awesome :)
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