Handling Skills Day With Ride Drive

I did the Ride Drive Advanced Handling Skills & Road Driving Experience day with Kevin from Dorset.

I met Kevin and we had a chat about how the day would go and then spent the first 15–minutes just driving whilst he took notes. Amazingly, I found this quite nerve racking, almost as much as doing a test. We then pulled over and had a chat about road position and what we were going to concentrate upon during our day, and whilst completing our journey to the airfield.

Road Positioning For Bends

The drive to the airfield concentrated on making safe, but effective progress. This primarily covered observation, which leads to positioning on bends to get the maximum view ahead.

Positioning behind cars when travelling, and when stationary, was practiced, well as positioning for overtakes, adjusting speed for corners, and potential hazards, and being in the right gear for the speed at which your travelling.

I felt 60% of this reinforced what I felt I already knew and all the time Kevin explained the reasons for the particular points he was making, and they all seemed perfectly logical.

The bit I was most looking forward to was the airfield, and I was not disappointed. I spent just over an hour pushing the car to its limits, and beyond. Admittedly it was dry, and found it extremely hard to get the back to let go. The car actually suffered far more from serious under steer, especially doing circles and figure of 8’s.

Don’t Lift Off The Power Mid–Bend!

Over the hour I managed to go from taking a sharp right hander at 50, and only just keeping control, to taking it at almost 70 smoothly and totally in control. Also, it was a very good experience to see and feel what happens when you brake mid–corner (very scary), or lift off the power (scary) – won’t be doing that on the road! Kevin had wanted to do some cone work, but unfortunately the airfield (Kemble) hadn’t provided any that day (not his fault).

After the airfield, another 2½ hour drive back on all sorts of roads; dual carriage ways, A–roads, B–roads, and even a couple of dirt tracks – well, almost. I definitely felt more in control of the car, and drove in a quicker safer and smoother style.

Just before the end we had a blast up a zig–zag hill and across the top. This car really does stick to the road (when its dry) when you give it smooth and controlled inputs.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and whilst I’m sure I still have a couple of bad habits (which I will continue to work on), I feel even more confident in both the car’s and my own ability. Kevin was a very nice bloke and extremely knowledgeable, and I would recommend him to any one that would like to improve there skills and find out what the car really can do.

Carl Hussey
Honda S2000
Dorset

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This page was last updated
Monday, 14-Feb-2011

Handling Skills Day With Ride Drive