Advanced Driving Courses?

Try searching against 'Don Palmer' and 'Bruntingthorpe'. He runs some good courses on handling and performance driving ... and he's a pleasant sort.

I did a performance driving course (track & road) with him a couple of years ago, at MIRA as it happens, and found him to be a good instructor. He is also keen on hi-fi and music, though yet to see the light where Naim is concerned.

Dan

Paul,
depends what you want to do.

If you want to enhance your public road skils then do an IAM course. If you want to test the limits of your car, then a racetrack is the place to do that.

Biggest thing I got out of my work advanced course was increased observation skills, leading to better anticipation of events.

It's just rather unfortunate that some who have done this course possibly abuse the privilige...

Andy's comments above are spot on.

I did a Drive and Survive course that turned out to be much more informative and fun that I had anticipated. It was about roadcraft, observation and all the basic stuff. We did some darting about on some service roads at Castle Donnington for an hour as part of the course but it wasn’t about heroics, just getting to know the handling characteristics of the car. Most of the time was spent driving around. I learned a hell of a lot about my driving and I still use as many of the techniques as I can remember today.

As Andy says, you have to decide if you want to be a better driver or a racing driver. There will be something to accommodate your needs either way.

Cheers

Sounds like IAM is the way to go to begin with.

I don't want to test the limits of the car, but it's a pretty powerful and manoeuvrable car compared to what I've had before so I figure a course might teach me some useful skills that would help me not get into trouble in the first place (thinking wet/ice etc).

If I want to drive on the track I'll turn left out of the car park (if only!)

The three people I personally know who did the advanced course are one copper and 2 gimps.

quote:

The three people I personally know who did the advanced course are one copper and 2 gimps

Would you like to add a bit of detail here?

/dl

quote:

The three people I personally know who did the advanced course are one copper and 2 gimps.

..and your point is?

... lets just hope that garyi isn't down in the celler with said gimps...

I know a number of people who've done the IAM courses on bikes and cars and none of them are decent drivers. The Rospa training is better (and the tutors/members aren't such tossers) however specialist courses which use track and road sessions are the best.

Agree with Steve's comments - it depends re IAM which instructor you get...

A few years ago the company I worked for required all company car drivers to attend a defensive driving course.

I found it very useful and tranferred many of the skills learned to my everyday driving. The course was not about driving fast, but driving with more appreciation of what was happening on the road ahead, the consequence of this being hassle is avoided and good progress can be made.

I agree with the general consensus that the course you choose should depend upon what you want to achieve.

My very limited experience of IAM training is that they focus on observation, roadcraft, etc. but probably do not offer much in the way of learning to handle a more powerful vehicle.

The course I took was all about teaching the proper and safe control of vehicles with above average grunt; in this case 350 bhp and up. The morning was spent on the track, in a variety of simulated conditions, learning (i) how the extra power can bite the unwary, (ii) how to avoid getting into trouble unnecessarily and (iii) how to get out of trouble should it ever be necessary. In the afternoon we were sent out on the public roads with police driving instructors who gave a frank and forthright assessment of our driving habits (a very humbling experience) before giving us a grounding in some proper driving techniques.

I thought the course was very practical and helpful. It definitely changed my driving style – hopefully for the better.

OK it sounds like I may have been a little hasty in thinking IAM is the way to go, though I haven't done anything other than have a look at their website.

I think I'll go back to Plan A which was to have a chat with the guy at work and see what he suggests - I'm fairly sure he'll have some contacts who should be able to offer something.

I also did a Defensive Driving course (a company initiative) - it started off with a rerun of the driving test - salutatory experience and then a 100 mile or so run through town and country emphasising roadcraft, interpretative observation, working with other cars etc. There were two students per instructor (a retired police driving instructor). All in all a useful day out - even if I did have to pay income tax on it as the Income Tax folk saw it as a perq and I did not drive suffiencient miles that year to get it tax free (this was several years ago)

I think these people http://www.cadence.co.uk/ know what they're talking about and seem to offer courses for getting more out of a sporty car more safely.

Paul