The Advanced Handling Skills and Road Driving Experience (S03PM), or Handling Skills day as we call it for short, has become by far our most popular advanced driving package and has received very enthusiastic reviews from those that have completed it. However, with the Y04PM package we have gone one better, as here we have added to an already very successful programme by including a skid prevention and control session, which makes this option even more spectacular.

This exciting and informative 8-hour day has the same content as the full-day advanced road driving programme (S02PM), but with the addition of a visit to one of our approved aerodrome sites, as well as to a vehicle skidding facility.

The whole day not only gives you a mix of all types of road driving environments, but also contains two well-organised and structured hour long periods away from the road where you can explore the handling characteristics of your own car at one venue, and discover the techniques required to control a car on a low-grip surface at the other.

For the vehicle handling part of the day we use a wide section of runway where we lead you through a series of fascinating and informative set of disciplines that give you the opportunity to explore the behavioural characteristics of your particular car. This will include the identification of both oversteer and understeer, how to prevent loss of control and to learn how you can avoid being involved in a collision. This part of your day demonstrates the effects of the different forces that act upon the car that occur in response to the input that you give to it through use of the driving controls. It will be through these exercises that we help you to understand what you are asking of your car when you drive it and what you can reasonably expect it to cope with. You will also realise what warnings the car may give to you before it lets go?

We always say that on the majority of the occasions where crashes happen, particularly those that do not involve another vehicle, are not caused by an incident in itself, but through how the driver will react to that incident. By completing this programme you certainly come to learn how perilous it can be if you do the wrong thing at the wrong time. By the end of the vehicle handling session you will know exactly what your car is doing at all times, why it behaves the way that it does and how to grab the thing by the scruff of the neck and make it do as it is told.

Depending upon which area of the country you choose to complete this programme will depend upon what type of facility will be available. The differences are that of either using a wet surface skidpan, or an all-weather facility with a specially prepared skid car; but whatever it is that you use, the result will be to give you the confidence to drive your car in poor road and weather conditions.

Becoming involved in a skid situation is something that many drivers have never experienced, and yet it is perhaps one of the things they fear will happen to them the most.  In reality a skid is actually a symptom of something else that is wrong, and that something will usually be a lack of understanding of the demands a driver will place upon a vehicle when driving it, as in what he or she may expect from it when turning the steering wheel, applying the brake or putting their foot on the accelerator. This is why this package is so useful, as it gives you the best of all things in terms of driver preparation and development.

When participating in a Ride Drive skid prevention and control programme, when linked in with a vehicle handling programme, you will become very much aware of all of the issues that will provoke a car into a control loss situation, and will understand there are really only four reasons as to why a car will skid, as you get to experience each of them.  Having completed this Ride Drive option it is most unlikely that in the future you will become involved in a skid, but it is perhaps best to know what to do anyway – just in case.

N.B. Ride Drive do not run purely skid prevention and control courses, and all skid car sessions are delivered as an integral part of an advanced road driving programme.

Whilst it is very easy to get carried away with all the excitement and perceived glamour of completing the two off road sessions let us not overlook what is by far the most important content of the day - the advanced road driving input.

Unless we are able to relate all that we do during the vehicle handling session, and all that we gain from the skid prevention and control programme, to how we drive a car on a road, there is little point to any of it. By applying the required skills appropriately you will develop a very close driver and machine relationship with your car, in that you will end up working with it, rather than being at odds with it. This means that can always realise the very best from it in terms of your ownership and road driving experience.

Advanced road driving isn’t about achieving a high speed, as it is about how to drive in an appropriate manner and to develop your skills to an advanced level so that no matter what the driving environment you will always be in a position to deal effectively with anything that you encounter on the road and to know how to remain in control.




Apart from gaining the increased driving ability you gain from completing a Ride Drive Advanced Road Driving Experience of this calibre, there is another benefit that is well worth considering. Did you realise that Ride Drive has a unique relationship with one of the biggest motor insurance agencies within the UK, and one that will reward your success with Ride Drive by offering you a 25% discount from the cost of your annual premiums? It's true, and not only that, you will go on being rewarded, year after year at the same rate, providing you do not have an accident that is your fault. All you have to do is to complete a Ride Drive Advanced Driving Experience, that consists of a total of 8-hours or more, be assessed by your Ride Drive coach as representing a low level of risk and 25% discount is yours. If you think that is too good to be true, then don't, because unusually enough the deal is exactly as it is described on the page. CLICK HERE and take a look for yourself.

If you would like to be able to drive a winding rural B-Class road by making the car flow along smoothly and by accurately reading every bend so that you hardly have to touch the brake, then you have come to the right place.  This is about developing the skills so as to cover the distance efficiently, by using accuracy and the intelligent interpretation of your road environment to make unobtrusive progress whilst remaining safe and in control at all times. It is also about you gaining a better understanding of how to enhance your skills to improve your overall personal performance as an advanced driver.

Unlike many organisations we are not in the game of looking for square pegs to go into square holes, as we will happily take on people of all shapes and sizes and who have all different levels of expectation and existing ability.  Basically, whilst certain factors will always need to be included, we will always build whatever elements you want to cover into the session so that you will always get the best out of your involvement with us.

• Development of advanced observation
• Car stability management
• Power management and control
• Steering methods
• Effective choice of gear ratios
• Braking techniques
• Defensive vehicle positioning
• Hazard identification and management
• Bend assessment
• Alternative road positioning methods
• Cornering techniques, which includes the linking of bends
• Acceleration sense
• Overtaking procedures
• Fast road driving (motorways and dual carriageways)
• Third party perception awareness
• Conflict prevention and resolution

SKIDDING SESSION

• ABS familiarization
• Tyre grip trade-off
• The causes of skidding
• Collision avoidance
• Power lift oversteer
• Cornering forces
• Vehicle balance and control
• Understeer an oversteer control
• Braking and deceleration techniques

VEHICLE HANDLING SESSION

• Emergency braking
• Tyre grip trade-off
• Clutch-drag oversteer (RWD cars)
• Power lift oversteer
• Cornering forces
• Vehicle balance and control
• Understeer an oversteer control and avoidance
• Collision avoidance