Quote:
Originally Posted by ilmiont
I'd like to have the opportunity to push myself and the car to the absolute limit while getting immediate feedback on my technique and how I could improve. I'm a road driver with a completely stock 2005 S60 2.5T (no plans to alter its factory-standard nature - discussion is not about the car).
I feel like I know where the limit is and I do have good instinctive car control ability (which my driving instructor noted). Yet I'm also only 22, have only had the car 11 months and am acutely aware I have made mistakes, some of them stupid, and that I will make more mistakes. I'd like to either prove to myself that my car control is as good as I believe it to be - or, more likely, be found out, told my technique is poor, and shown how to improve it. I've read a great deal of performance driving theory/literature but I would like to practice it in my own car.
If anyone's done a genuinely "advanced" driving course that doesn't break the bank, would be interested to know details. Thanks.
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Firstly, lets get this bit out of the way - the road is not the place to be driving near or at the limit. If you want to drive at 9/10ths, get on a track.
You've acknowledged that your experience and knowledge is incomplete, and want to learn, which is great. However, I think most here for whom 22 is a distant memory will confirm - your car control skills are almost certainly nowhere near as good as you think they are
I would highly recommend doing a skid pan course first. This will cure you of any notion that you know how to handle a car on the limit
Having basic skid control skills is vital though, and more importantly it will give you exposure to the feel of a car that's near the limit of traction in a benign environment. The course will be done in a vehicle adapted to simulate varying levels of traction without the benefit of ABS, EBD, stability control etc.
Many years ago I did the beginner and intermediate level Lotus Driver Training Experience, and it was both huge fun, and covered a range of pertinent skills which you first learn in isolation, then get to apply driving laps of the circuit at Hethel in an Elise. Not cheap, but well worth the cost.
I've also done a couple of days of driver training in my own cars with 1:1 tuition, which have also been invaluable. (Sorry, can't provide any useful recommendations of who to use that are still relevant).
Those sorts of things will teach you the car control skills, which are great to have, but pointless in the context of road driving without also learning the "Roadcraft" side of it. Yes, most of the IAM/RoSPA type courses are more focussed on safety than about driving quickly in safety, but the skills they teach about reading the road and other drivers are critical to making good, but safe, progress. It's all very well knowing
how to drive fast, but if you don't know
when it's safe to do so, it will invariably end badly no matter how good your driving.
HTH,
J