Ride Drive > Performance Cars > About Driver Training Courses

Ride Drive on–road advanced driving courses are primarily focussed on developing the skills of the performance car and sports car driver to manage their cars and themselves on the public road to a high standard of skill and safety. This page provides details of the ethos behind that objective and of the skid pan driving experience and car control programme which can be incorporated.

Why Shouldn’t Training to be a Better Driver be Exciting?

When a motor manufacturer designs and builds a car, particularly high performance and sports cars, the most important criteria will be to make it seductive. Is has to be well proportioned and look as though it will be as exciting to own and to drive as it is to look at. Sports cars should stand out from the crowd and evoke the emotion of love at first sight within those who might buy it?

Secondly, high performance and sports cars need to live up to their looks through the way they perform to complete the whole package. But if there is to be much excitement surrounding performance and sports cars, why is it that anything to do with tuning up your road driving skills to drive them usually turns out to be so deathly boring?

Everything About Driver Training is so Wrong

At Ride Drive we recognise all that is wrong with public perception of driver training. That is why we work hard to turn that around, helping you as a driver of a performance or sports car to feel more comfortable with the concept of gaining high performance driving skills through driver training.

There is nothing sissy and boring about what we do on the road, as we can show you how you can experience excitement and fulfilment from driving your high performance car, even without breaking any rules or attracting negative attention.

Imagine driving a winding rural B–class road for mile upon mile in a smooth and flowing style. Try to think of making progress with every gear being slotted with perfect timing and the car always at the right speed for every bend – and all done with hardly any braking. You may be thinking of a dry sunny day right now, but imagine of you could also deliver just as well in wet conditions.

If you can imagine this you are imagining the after effect of completing a Ride Drive on–road high performance car advanced driving experience. This is the creation of a state of driver and machine working in perfect harmony.

Why Do I Need Advice On How To Drive My Car?

You are going to need something, because having a powerful car it will help if you had some powerful skills to go with it. Buying a high performance car or sports car doesn’t suddenly inject you with upgraded skills, and you can’t make it up as you go along either. Tuning yourself up to the same level as the car is always the best strategy.

Like a computer, you can only get out what has been put in, and you may need to speed up the processor to do that too. Even if you have owned a powerful car before, the one you drive now may have quite different characteristics.

Most People Never Know What Their Car Can Deliver

We estimate that over 90% of people who own a high performance car, sports car, or any other fast car, will realise less than 35% of its potential on the road. It is prudent to note that when we speak of potential we don’t mean reaching its top speed. Any fool can drive fast in a straight line and even circuit driving is easy.

What we are saying is that around nine out of ten high performance car drivers are living through a period of car ownership during which they are missing out on about 65 – 70% of what their car can offer.

That’s a bit like owning a masterclass painting and never seeing the colours, or a musical instrument that you never get to play well. If you are happy with that, the only point in you owning your high performance car, or sports car, will be to look good in a traffic queue, or when cruising on a motorway.

At Ride Drive we understand high performance car and sports cars; all types of cars in fact, and we understand what you want to get from your fast car. Our on–road high performance car advanced driving experience will always provide you with those additional tools for your driving skills toolbox so you understand more about what it is you drive on the road, and will drive it at a much higher level.

Fast cars require the fast processing of information, and with the development of a higher range of driver skills, you can start to get the best out of your overall road driving experience.

Content – Advanced Road Driving Experience

Each and every Ride Drive advanced driving experience will be different, as we tailor the input on the day to match the needs and requests of the customer. However, here are some of the most commonly included elements for our on–road high performance car advanced driving experience.

Development forward, peripheral and rearward observation
Tuning spatial awareness skills and sense of anticipation
Identification and management of actual as well as potential danger
Implementation of defensive road positioning and personal safety measures
Accurate assessment of bends, development cornering procedures, bend linking and rural road driving skills
Dynamic steering methods
Car stability management, including engine power management
Effective exploitation of gear ratios
Timing and application of braking techniques
Dynamic road positioning methods
Acceleration sense
Overtaking procedures, including identification and exploitation of opportunities
Third party perception awareness
Conflict prevention and resolution

Content – Car Control Sessions (Aerodromes)

Ride Drive offer a selection of on–road advanced driving courses which incorporate a period of driver development time at an approved hard surface driving facility, such as a disused aerodrome. Again, these sessions are not available in isolation, but are always a built in component to a number of available on–road advanced driving experience options.

All input here is related back to the use of the car on a public road and is not a track day or any other form of competitive programme. Again, the content of car control sessions are tailored to the needs of the individual and attuned to the type of car they drive. However, here are some of the activities available.

Emergency braking
Emergency lane changing/collision avoidance
Tyre grip trade–off
Clutch-drag oversteer (RWD cars)
Power lift oversteer (FWD & RWD)
Explanation and understanding cornering forces
Car stability management, including experience of mismanagement
Understeer and oversteer, prevention and control
Fixed–grip steering
Management of high frequency direction changes

Content – Skid Pan or Skid Car Sessions

A skid pan, or skid car driving experience, with Ride Drive is the only activity available for which the vehicle is supplied. Skid pan or skid car sessions are not available in isolation, but are an activity that is built into a number of on–road advanced driving courses.

The on–road advanced driver training takes place en–route to and from the skid car facility and all activities at the skidpan are directly referenced to road driving scenarios.

Even on the skid pan, or when using a skid car, the content of the session will be tailored to the needs of the customer and may contain some or all of the following elements.

ABS explanation and familiarisation
Tyre grip trade–off (extreme conditions)
Four causes of skidding, plus one
Power steer – steering by use of the throttle
Explanation and understanding of energy forces acting on a vehicle
Fingertip vehicle control
Understeer and oversteer prevention and control
Low–grip surface braking and deceleration techniques
Collision avoidance
How to have a better crash

More About the Ride Drive Advanced Driving Experience

Each Ride Drive high performance car advanced driving experience will be conducted on a one–to–one basis with you driving your own car. We do this because no two makes of high performance car or sports car will drive the same; and your car is the one that you will continue driving thereafter.

You will very quickly realise that you have embarked upon an exciting and fresh approach to advanced road driving methods. The whole package, whichever option you choose will be delivered in such a manner as to be focussed upon giving you the best in practical entertainment and learning.

This is where you gain the skills necessary to use your car more effectively within a public road environment, and so gain more from your car ownership experience by gaining greater vehicle performance and drivability from tuning the main control component, which is positioned behind the wheel.

In a manner that is friendly and understanding we build upon your existing driving skill, preserving all the good stuff that you do and know, before taking you forward to a much more advanced level. We guide you to realising how to make unobtrusive progress by driving more consistently whilst handling the car more smoothly and how to grab the thing by the scruff of the neck and make it do as it is told.

Courses begin and end in your home area wherever possible and are delivered by individuals from the Ride Drive team of on–road advanced driving and high performance car specialists.

About Our Training in Performance Car Driver Skills