Advanced Driving Course - who's done one?

xrapidx

xrapidx

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Who's done an advanced driving course, went for Day 1 of 3 today - and was shocked at just how little I know about handling a car, for example, in wet conditions, I think I killed a few traffic cones today, went off a make believe cliff, and flipped over on the make believe mountain side - All 50km/h and below - on a wet surface.

I was shocked to see, even with ABS, that my car had almost the same stopping distance as an old Citi Golf from 50km/h on a wet surface, even the one attendee in a DB9 didn't stop much shorter. :eek:

This sort of training should be compulsory for every road user, its a real I opener - planning on sending my girlfriend soon - soon.

I've done a few performance driving courses, but nothing on defensive driving.
 
Where? Cost?
Its when thing I definitely wanna do some time.
 
Well worth it, the 3-day course is R3500 - but you get food, etc, and a competency thing if you pass at the end, and they say it is quite difficult to pass - once you have this, and depending on your insurance company, you can get a decent rebate on your insurance, making up the R3500 quite quick.

I just want to send my girlfriend on the skid pad training (think its about R1000 for the day) - just so she can see how badly just about everyone drives in bad conditions - EVERYONE at the course screwed up in at least half of the exercises on the first try.

WHERE: Depend on your city, if you have a local race track, call them and ask them if they know of anyone.
 
I've done the BMW several times, as well as a defensive driving course in the US. Brilliant, I think they're worth every penny. I'd go again, anytime.
 
Did the skidpan & high performance course at Killarney a while ago. Was intending to send my girlfriend on the course, as she recently got a new rear wheel drive car so called up Killarney to find out how much for the skidpan course. Was a bit taken aback that it now costs R1500 just for the 1 module ( skidpan ). When I did the course the skidpan was around R550 and the high performance around R800, but was a while ago.

I would however have no hesitation in recommending these courses to everyone, irrespective of the cost. Moerse fun too.
 
Yeh - R1,500 is less than the excess on her car when she goes into the back of someone on rainy day :) In my case, my girlfriend drives MY double cab...
 
After you have done a few modules of the Advanced Driving Course you enjoy driving much more because you know how little skills you had before doing the courses. I think everyone should do it, it is really fun and in the end you appreciate the skills you have learned.
The courses are actually not that expensive if compared to the cost of today's cars.
 
Morgoth said:
where do you take this course? and do you need a certain amount of road experience before you can do it?
Click to expand...

Not sure in Jhb, I know BMW and Audi offer courses up there, check there website. Over here I did it in my own car, which is what I wanted :)

You don't need any experience, but without knowing the basics of driving, it might be a waste of R3,500 if you have no decent experience, there was a guy today that hadn't had his license long, and it showed.
 
xrapidx said:
Who's done an advanced driving course, went for Day 1 of 3 today - and was shocked at just how little I know about handling a car, for example, in wet conditions, I think I killed a few traffic cones today, went off a make believe cliff, and flipped over on the make believe mountain side - All 50km/h and below - on a wet surface.

I was shocked to see, even with ABS, that my car had almost the same stopping distance as an old Citi Golf from 50km/h on a wet surface, even the one attendee in a DB9 didn't stop much shorter. :eek:

This sort of training should be compulsory for every road user, its a real I opener - planning on sending my girlfriend soon - soon.

I've done a few performance driving courses, but nothing on defensive driving.
Click to expand...


I did one via Toyota after i wrote off me company car:o:D
 
xrapidx, who do we call and where can we book? :) I have been planning on doing something like this since my dad done the audi high speed course.. I have been to the audi website to look at the prices, but its in jhb. i cant go there, work keeping me here..

I also want to do it!

help out here man! :)
 
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xrapidx said:
Well worth it, the 3-day course is R3500 - but you get food, etc, and a competency thing if you pass at the end, and they say it is quite difficult to pass - once you have this, and depending on your insurance company, you can get a decent rebate on your insurance, making up the R3500 quite quick.

I just want to send my girlfriend on the skid pad training (think its about R1000 for the day) - just so she can see how badly just about everyone drives in bad conditions - EVERYONE at the course screwed up in at least half of the exercises on the first try.

WHERE: Depend on your city, if you have a local race track, call them and ask them if they know of anyone.
Click to expand...

Did you go to the one by killarney?went there a couple years back,was great fun.Opened my eyes but i did not kill any cones :D
Did the instructor put his jag on the line again?
 
theratman said:
Did you go to the one by killarney?went there a couple years back,was great fun.Opened my eyes but i did not kill any cones :D
Did the instructor put his jag on the line again?
Click to expand...

Nah - someone else's corolla :p

I killed cones because I was driving to fast, I tried explaining to the instructor that my car was rear wheel drive, AND the speedo was digital and out delayed by about 3 seconds, so it was difficult for me to judge how fast I was going :p
 
They should make it compulsory to do one before you can renew your drivers licence! Give some incentive on it (only have the points penalty on the new arto system, rebate on course fees, etc.).
 
thedutchman said:
hahahahaha, brilliant excuse!
Click to expand...

LOL - I kept getting in trouble for driving to fast :p the instructor said he's not going to help peeling my car off the wall on the other side. :o

It was very interesting that after each initial exercise, where you think there's nothing you can change to avoid hitting the cones, and then he tells you what to do, and after doing it, you actually miss them.

After the course I actually want to do the skid pad training again - There's a thread on here somewhere about an accident I had in my Hilux, if I had known and was able to do what I'd learnt this week - there's a good chance I could've avoided the accident, saved myself excess, and 1 years worth of trouble fixing the car.

JAV said:
They should make it compulsory to do one before you can renew your drivers licence! Give some incentive on it (only have the points penalty on the new arto system, rebate on course fees, etc.).
Click to expand...

I actually agree, if it were compulsory there would be far fewer accidents on the road.
 
Did your insurance premium go down by having an advance driving certificate?
 
I've done the Audi one at Kyalami, was fantastic, loved it and made a significant impact on my driving habits and ability...
 
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