Thinking of taking one of these, my parking is shit, I'm like an old doddery fool that hogs the middle lane on the motorway sitting at 40, and I've got no idea what evasive action to take should the need arise, plus I've just taken delivery of a new Lambo*.
Havnt had any training since I passed my test on the third attempt in the 1860s.
Can anyone recommend an advanced driving course or are they all much of a muchness.
Cheers
Bignose Dave
*Or the nearest equivalent
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I'm assuming since you admit to not being a driving god that you have a penis the size of a springbar and your balls are like calcified walnuts.
Maybe try just manning the heck up, believing you own the road and that pedestrians mean points.
That, or buy a Tesla.
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
I feel your pain, I've not been out of second gear since 1984.
If you're as shit as you make out, maybe it's better for other road users if perhaps you sent your license back to to DVLA and got the bus......
When you get the Lambo ( or equivalent ) just come round mine and Ill show you how to drive it, I promise lots of evasive action tuition innit.
Well we all know the equivalent* is a DAF so are you sure about that request?Originally Posted by JasonM
*clearly way better than a lambo, equivalent schmivalent.
Dave, I'd have told you not to bother with these.
Then I saw your parking...
:)
Look on the bright side, I didn't hit the bloke. I hope Len has recovered?
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
If you want parallel parking, and a general brush up driving, then you could try a "normal" driving instructor.
For road driving join your local RoSPA group and get up to their standard to start with. Its the cheapest advanced training you will ever get. After membership fee you just donate some fuel to your instructor (versus hundreds per day for tuition)
For car control training go see Andy Walsh and do a few days with www.carlimits.com
that should do you for general use, if you want to specialise in a particular aspect of road, track, off road, then the guys at Carlimits can advise on further training.....
Wife is doing the IAM at the moment, and speaks very highly. Not sure they cover parallel parking, but then our Merc parks itself anyway...
This. Maybe just a session or two on a "Pass Plus" type of course.
Several years ago I did a refresher course with a senior Police driving instructor, which I really benefitted from. We all pick up bad habits, and it's useful to have somebody really experienced knock the rough edges off of your driving. At the time, I'd been engineering and testing a single-seater, and held a National race licence, but track and road driving are very separate disciplines.
Too many people pass their test and think they don't need to learn anything else.
I think i will give the local Rospa/ Roadar chap a ring tonight.
TBH its more accident avoidance / defensive driving skills I am interested in specifically, as well as a general brush up on observation / road awareness etc ...
although my parking is shit, bad parking doesnt tend to kill people.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Get hold of a copy of "Roadcraft", Dave. It's mostly about anticipation, observation and car positioning. It would be a good place to start.
I'll do that Ian, thanks for the suggestion.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
So your not coming round then? I had a baseball cap for you and everything.
Cheers..
Jase
Well worth getting in touch with the Institute of Advanced motorists they use a lot of former Police driving instructors should have a local group to you they work from Roadcraft.
https://www.iamroadsmart.com
Forgive me disagreeing, but I'd suggest that, without simultaneous training in "the system", Roadcraft is quite impenetrable, and the advice therein would be almost impossible to put into practice. It was originally written to go alongside the police driver training courses, and even though the later editions are somewhat more user friendly, you are never going to learn how to improve your driving from a book without parallel instruction.
The IAM provide driver assessment sessions, and I have heard that they are excellent. You drive in normal traffic for around an hour, and the assessor then provides feedback on what you do well and/or poorly.
(I am an IAM member, though I'll be the first to admit that I do not always drive to their standards, as I find some of their views too rigid for real world driving.)
For somebody (like Dave) who has realised that their driving could be improved, perusal of "Roadcraft" would open up the concepts of car positioning and the importance of observation and anticipation. In itself, it is not a driver improvement course, but in conjunction with on-road tuition would be enough to provide a marked improvement.
I think even just reading material like that is going to result in increased attention and awareness of other road users etc
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I totally agree that reading "material like that" is helpful. I'm just not convinced that Roadcraft is the correct material - it's basically the documentation for a training course, and without the allied training it doesn't really work very well as a stand-alone book (and I have read it a number of times, in different editions).
There are plenty of other books available on the subject (some good, some bad) which will provide greater enlightenment. For example (the author posts quite often on PistonHeads):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Pe.../dp/B00S3TZ6ZO
Last edited by PhilipK; 8th July 2016 at 14:55.
I had one of those sessions. I've done a little bit of track work so I was quite surprised to find he asked me to speed up my approach to clear sighted roundabouts. And he thought I indicated too much. When in the car, obviously.
What else?
He didn't like me crossing my arms. I protested and said I liked to know which way the front wheels were pointing at all times but he dismissed that idea. Something about decreasing radius turns and air bags... can't remember. It was a while ago.
He also didn't like me double declutching (I think he laughed when he saw me do it).
Overall, it was worthwhile though.
I'm a class 1 Police Advanced Driver and I highly recommend doing a course with IAM or RoSPA. Just an afternoon sitting with a driver doing a commentary can really change your perceptions of hazard recognition.
Roadcraft is a very dry read but to get the best from it then you need to sit with an instructor.
As for the system of car control, you completely relearn how to drive and some it is not easy to get your head round.
Why not do a one dayer with the Iam, no commitment to a course to see if it's the thing for you?
I've had 6 weeks of additional driver training and whilst it has been one of the most enjoyable things I have done in my Police career, I wouldn't want to do it again. It really is hard work and very intensive and all the time you are being assessed, not just when you're driving. Attitude is everything and the boy racer types are weeded out fairly quickly.
Give the Iam assessment a go. You won't regret it.
The same dickheads will be all around you after doing the advanced driving course.
But you will have advanced 😉 warning of their stupidity.
Seconded... That was my driving bible when I was a Police driver.
"The system of car control", many a happy hour spent learning that
IAM did me well and you get cheep insurance (car and house) so you'll get your money back on it too.
Even better when work pay ;)
Had a chat with the secretary of the local IAM group, I'm going to have a trial session with a local observer with a view to possibly going on to do their test training.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Dave, it might be worth enrolling on a speed awareness course. I was asked (ahem) to attend one and found it very insightful in terms of awareness on the road.
I was also *ahem* invited to a speed awareness course. The biscuits were great . When I drove in town I used third gear max for at least two weeks afterwards.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
He is on the money. Roadcraft is pants. Drive safe.........................
http://www.ultimate-dek.co.uk/4-dynamics.html
I did this with my dad about 6 months ago, excellent day out. Bit of fun to be had as well as learning some defensive driving skills.
Went for a trial observed drive / assessment with the IAM today. Bloke says I'm not that far off advanced standard (about 60% 1s and 40% 2s if that makes any sense to you), although we didn't do any parking ;)).
I'm quite happy about that, but I think I will go on to do the training and test with them. I think I read that around 1800 people are killed in the UK per year on the roads, and I assume the vast majority of those incidents are down to human error and not mechanical failure.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I also had the 'opportunity' to do one of these, but I really don't speed in town any more.
The difference between hitting someone at 30 and 40 was graphically demonstrated and it really made an impact (no pun intended on me).
Trouble is, it just makes me angrier at the 40-everywhere tossers when they don't slow down to 30 after holding me up in the 60 zone!
M.
I just try to drive something that will stand up to a bit of a shunt 😝 But I don't know how big a shunt a lambo would take up the snout before it would close in around your groin.......any I've seen after a shunt haven't been pretty! 😂
Old people in sports cars are lethal so fare play for acknowledging this.
I did some training for the motorbike at advanced level which was helpful.
A pass pluss would give you motorway training and think it's 9 hours out with an instructor. Did mine after my driving test and was invaluable
Completed the IAM Revamped Advanced test, which give out a useful book " How To Be A Better Driver", as well as lots of hand outs. Am now doing ROSPA equivalent which has the advantage of the retest every three years, and will hopefully work for IAM Masters next year. All work from Roadcraft which appears to still be the main reference, but Reg Locals book " Advanced And Performance Driving ", as well as Stephen Haleys " Mind Driving", are also possibly worth looking at. Can become very addictive especially if you can find time to practice. Good luck!
Thanks very much for all the contributions in this thread. Car insurance renewal prompted me to have a look at the topic of driving improvement, there are some great options to explore here.
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