rossyl
Member
- Messages
- 3,312
Yesterday I went on an Advanced Road Driver day.
The purpose of the day was to make me a better driver on the road by increasing awareness, managing the speed and movement of the car better and generally improving my technique.
I thought it was very good and very worthwhile. He picked me up from my place and we drove over 200 miles from 9.15am to 6pm! A long day. It involved assessing my drive and teaching me new driving techniques. It works by combining car control techniques, that you'd use on the road or a track, with bits from what the Police and other advanced drive schools do with road and hazard awareness - you can't actually do one successfully without the other, was the message and lesson.
I've got to say that I realised what a novice I was! We drove around in his Fiat Panda(!) the great thing about this little car is that is accentuates all the things you do badly: bad gear changes, coming off the accelerator too hard, braking too firmly; all of that will lead the car to pitch, roll, lunge etc. If you can drive it and make it feel smooth you are doing a good job. We also worked on cornering and on entry and exit.
We worked on awareness, on managing what's in front and what's behind you and having a more planned drive. I thought I was already pretty good at this, but I was shown that there was ample areas for improvement.
My gear changes were pretty normal, and I was shown the differences in what i was doing when compared to blipping the throttle on downshifting and getting the right rev points and engine load to upshift. The differences were marked and noticeable. It was very satisfying when i got it right. I am sure there are many of you who already know how to do this and heel and toe, which will be my next step, but I'm sure there's plenty for everyone still to learn from Mike.
Mike Cooper is the person who owns the company and does the days. We had a long time to chat over the course of the day and he's a nice bloke to spend a day with, which is important.
He showed me what you can do with a Fiat Panda if you bring together all his various teachings, it was incredible. We flew round this beautiful stretch of road carrying some amazing speed but extremely smoothly and of course controlled with our vision of all upcoming hazards noted and assessed. I doubt many of us in our Masser's would have kept up with him.
Mike also does track day teachings and told me a few great stories of how what he has done has stunned a few people. Imagine being on a track in a Ferrari 430 and being overtaken by a Fiat Panda! Or, having 10 years of experience driving track days, gunning it and recording a respectable lap time, then in the same car being taken out for a leisurely and smooth lap by Mike that you didn't consider fast, only to find that he's beaten your time on a 3min lap by over 10 seconds. He coaches people in BritCar and various other comps.
I thoroughly recommend Mike for road driving improvements, and even though I don't have first hand experience, I would recommend him for track days as well. He teaches on tracks across the country as well as The Ring which he's actually taken the Panda round on many occasions.
Here's Mike Cooper's website http://www.drivertuition.com/
Give me a shout if you want further info. As you can guess I thought it was brilliant. I have no affiliation of course.
R
The purpose of the day was to make me a better driver on the road by increasing awareness, managing the speed and movement of the car better and generally improving my technique.
I thought it was very good and very worthwhile. He picked me up from my place and we drove over 200 miles from 9.15am to 6pm! A long day. It involved assessing my drive and teaching me new driving techniques. It works by combining car control techniques, that you'd use on the road or a track, with bits from what the Police and other advanced drive schools do with road and hazard awareness - you can't actually do one successfully without the other, was the message and lesson.
I've got to say that I realised what a novice I was! We drove around in his Fiat Panda(!) the great thing about this little car is that is accentuates all the things you do badly: bad gear changes, coming off the accelerator too hard, braking too firmly; all of that will lead the car to pitch, roll, lunge etc. If you can drive it and make it feel smooth you are doing a good job. We also worked on cornering and on entry and exit.
We worked on awareness, on managing what's in front and what's behind you and having a more planned drive. I thought I was already pretty good at this, but I was shown that there was ample areas for improvement.
My gear changes were pretty normal, and I was shown the differences in what i was doing when compared to blipping the throttle on downshifting and getting the right rev points and engine load to upshift. The differences were marked and noticeable. It was very satisfying when i got it right. I am sure there are many of you who already know how to do this and heel and toe, which will be my next step, but I'm sure there's plenty for everyone still to learn from Mike.
Mike Cooper is the person who owns the company and does the days. We had a long time to chat over the course of the day and he's a nice bloke to spend a day with, which is important.
He showed me what you can do with a Fiat Panda if you bring together all his various teachings, it was incredible. We flew round this beautiful stretch of road carrying some amazing speed but extremely smoothly and of course controlled with our vision of all upcoming hazards noted and assessed. I doubt many of us in our Masser's would have kept up with him.
Mike also does track day teachings and told me a few great stories of how what he has done has stunned a few people. Imagine being on a track in a Ferrari 430 and being overtaken by a Fiat Panda! Or, having 10 years of experience driving track days, gunning it and recording a respectable lap time, then in the same car being taken out for a leisurely and smooth lap by Mike that you didn't consider fast, only to find that he's beaten your time on a 3min lap by over 10 seconds. He coaches people in BritCar and various other comps.
I thoroughly recommend Mike for road driving improvements, and even though I don't have first hand experience, I would recommend him for track days as well. He teaches on tracks across the country as well as The Ring which he's actually taken the Panda round on many occasions.
Here's Mike Cooper's website http://www.drivertuition.com/
Give me a shout if you want further info. As you can guess I thought it was brilliant. I have no affiliation of course.
R
Last edited:
