I've been thinking about a driving course for licensed kids 16-20. Basically a skid pad with water just to teach them the basics about control.

We keep losing kids in California, especially on freeways. They get sideways - moving out of the way of another driver who doesn't understand lane control - and once sideways they simply don't have the basic skills to recover.

I think we have all seen people getting caught in a bad lane change situation, trying to recover and just about rolling their cars.

Honestly when you see people driving around the Bay Area you just shutter and wonder how long it will be before they hurt themselves or someone else. I’d bet their training is 10% of what the Department of Fish and Game requires for a kid to secure a hunting license. And when it comes to weapons, a car or an SUV is a big one.

Possibly we could sanction a course with the 914 Club or maybe get a few more clubs out there to help. Maybe the CHP would be willing to host the exercise. Maybe we set aside 6 hours of the 914Club West Coast gig to do it.

I know we can get insurance, but possibly this will be harder than I think. PCA, SCCA, LPR and the other clubs do get insurance, but their groups might be easier to cover. I think the insurance we get falls under "driver training."

As far as locations we wouldn't need a huge place.

There has to be some good documentation available on skid pad training. I’ll talk to Hank Watts, one of the world’s greatest instructors/ organizers, and see what he thinks about a suitable training agenda - and the amount of time per student necessary.

Hank and his (well taught) instructors have educated all kinds of people to drive fast around tracks, so skid pad training by comparison would seem a walk in the park.

Getting just one kid to understand the basics would be worth it.

Does this make any sense or is there a better way?

Randal,

can you invite the asian drivers? (no offense to any on this board)

Randal, Great idea!

It almost seems like a right of passage these days, when a young driver has his first major accident. Maybe if they knew the limits of their cars, they wouldn't need to experiment on public roads.
Count me in if you need any help organizing this one.
Think we could play on the skidpad too?


-Brit

That is the same idea I had about 2 or 3 months ago. I work for a large trucking company. We had a demo in a Walmart parking lot where we parked a truck and trailer and then parked vehicles around it in the driver's blind spots. We told the public that we could make all these cars dissappear (4 vehicles in total). When they asked how we put them in the drivers seat of the big truck, closed the door and then asked them to find the vehicles in their mirrors. It was really an eye opener for them and I believe they gained an appreciation for just how challenging driving an 18 wheeler really is.

So along that line of thought I thought what can I do for our customers? I'm in the marketing dept. and we are always looking for ways to get more one on one time with our customers in a non work environment. I know the majority of them have kids and I thought it would be great to offer a driving school that concentrated on car control. The basic driving schools cover the rules of the road but like you I feel that the kids don't get the necessary lessons in car control that only come from the experience of actually doing it. I thought as an incentive I could approach our insurance company and see if they could sponsor a draw for one years auto insurance for a young driver. I know that would be a very popular incentive since the insurance rates here have skyrocketed in the past year.

Later on I started thinking about eventually making this sort of thing an event and seeing if the Porsche club and the Harley Davidson club would be interested in participating. The Porsche guys would bring the car instructors and the Harley guys could look after bike handling. I would sell it to both the Harley and Porsche dealers as being beneficial to them because they both target the same customers and a joint effort would generate a lot of publicity. The only problem is how do you limit the number of applicants? I imagine a quota would have to be set up with a certain number of places reserved for my customers. While the kids are being instructed I would get some good one on one time with their parents in an observation role. I think it would make for an interesting day for all.

Sounds great, I could use it for sure! I really need a DE or something. The 73 wreck was from sliding. Bah, I hit the breaks!
Eric

For Eric:

You're probably really close some club (PCA/ SCCA) that has some form of racing venue. Find some club doing AutoX which is a wonderful training venue and totally forgiving. As you get more confident you start pushing the car's limits and pretty soon you’re sliding, locking the wheels (braking) or spinning - and all that happens is that you hit a few cones. If you want instructors are (typically) available to help you.

It’s really amazing, as I’ve seen the very best drivers go so hard that they end up on two wheels, recover - never hitting a cone - then go on losing the entire event by only half a second. Unbelievable driving. The real thing. Didn’t happen without practice.

BTW the charge for AutoX is from $25.00 to $30.00 per event. Is this the world’s cheapest form of entertainment?

And in the end what you learn in AutoX will end up being invaluable in other driving situations.

My son Loren will be driving AutoX as soon as he gets his license. My transmission and clutch will probably suffer, but letting him learn will end up being priceless.

For SoloRacer:

The venue you described was a great way to teach people how important it is to think about what the truck might be doing.

Having spent lots of time driving 60,000 lbs of pears to the cannery, I learned very early on what a truck can’t do, i.e. stop, and it’s really amazing how many people cut right in front of you, then slam on the brakes.

Sounds like you people really had your act together with your trucking Demorama. Very impressive.

I'm a member of the BMW CCA. http://northstarbmw.org/ We have Teen Car Control Clinics a couple time a year. (winter, and summer) My 16 year old son participated this year. He had a 91 VW GTI. It was the best thing You can do for a kid! This is not drivers ED! The course is at a Tech Collage. It's the same course they train the Highway Patrol and the Police on high pursuit driving. These kids pushed their vehicles hard. They learned what it feels like to go into a skid. There is a wet skid pad there, an emergency lane change course with stop lights, several slolum courses. I'm telling you, several of the kids that started out in the morning really didn't have a clue! Really! It was just a matter of time before one of these kids would have been in an accident. I helped out resetting cones on the course that day. (I chased cones sometimes for a block!) As the day progressed you could see their skill level rise! Go to the site and click on the Photogallery. Then go to the videos. Check out the video of the teen Car Control Clinic put together by my sons friend Forrest Vodden. Nice production put to music. My sons $ 500.00 GTI is in the video. It's worth a look.

When I was learning to drive my father took me out a frozen lake with some 5 gallon pails.Learned all about slipen and sliden & braken w/o any damage to the car.Thanks DAD!

Back at the beginning of November, I spent the day at Lime Rock Park with 80 juniors from Housatonic Valley Regional High School. It was part of the Community Service program that is sponsored by the Connecticut Valley Region of the PCA.

This program features a classroom session on vehicle dynamics, identifying why cars behave the way they do. But the bulk of the day is spent outdoors in cars. The teens learn and practice slides and recoveries on a skid pad, threshold braking and accident avoidance techniques, etc.

It is the same as the Skip Barber Driving School that would cost you $695 to attend. Because we underwrite the program, it cost the kids $80 each.

The kids started out cocky, just wanting to beat the crap out of the cars. But, as the day went on, you could see a noticeable change in attitude. The kids that thought that they know how to drive, all admitted that it was eye-opening and they really had a lot more to learn. They all had a new-found respect for the responsibilities of operating a vehicle.

An interesting note, They all knew another teenager that had lost their life in an automobile accident.