FTO AUSTRALIA

Well I have been counting my lucky stars since yesterday, I was about a kilometre from my house and driving quite spiritedly I went round a corner that I go around everyday but a little faster than usual.

Corner has a little negative camber and I usually experience what I would call controlled understeer, not this time with car in second gear (tip) and no backing off of the throttle the rear end went very loose to the point where I was staring at the right hand gutter, quickly stamped the pedal to the floor and back it came the other way this time slight turn right and it was back.

I had the stereo up loud enough to not hear any tyre screeches if there was any and there were cars everywhere. Very very l lucky for me, I will be getting new rear tyres in the next few days as they are less than good.

Moral of the story take it easier hehe. I never thought my fto would do that but the combination of the corner, the tyres and my stupidity could of cost me dearly. Really just felt like the car was out of my hands for the first time. May be time for a advanced driver course so I can learn to control it with more than luck.

I have to say, doing a Defensive Driving Course (I've done 2 so far) was one of the best things I've ever done. Knowing what your car feels like in uncontrolled situations (in a controlled environment) makes all the difference to how you handle the unexpected in the real world. I'll be off to do a third as soon as I get my "new" FTO in a few days time.

For those who don't have the time or money to do a defensive driving course just yet, get to know your car by playing with it in controlled situations and by "feeling" how it responds. You don't need to do these things at high speed and you don't have to put yourself or others at danger. The main thing is to learn how your car responds and to be able to feel that response.

It is however probably a good idea to do them when no one else is around.

Here's some things you might want to try:
1) Do laps of a round-a-bout increasing speed as you go, as the speed increases eventually you'll begin to feel the wheels slip. You can alter the slipping point by increasing / decreasing your speed and the sharpness of your turning. By learning how this feels you can begin to better understand your car and how close you are to the limit when cornering.

2) On a long straight road wobble your steering wheel from the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock positions, doing so repetitively will get the car unbalanced and will also give you good indication of how your suspension handles and what sort of condition it is in. Don't do this too fast or turn the wheel too wildly or you could be in trouble!

3) On an empty dirt road, take the car up to a mild speed and slam on the breaks. Try both the front brakes and the handbrake (not at the same time). This will give you an indication of what your car is likely to do under emergency braking conditions or if aqua-planing and allows you to try different response. Make sure the road is safe enough that you're not going to hit a tree or road side post. You can do these at lower speeds given that you'll slip more on dirt than bitumen.

4) On a wet road try accelerating hard (wheel spin), braking hard at low speed (small skidding) and cornering on the round-a-bout like mentioned above.

There's a lot of things like this you can do, the key is to make sure you are always safe. Remember you don't need to do these at high speed and the point is to experiment and learn so you become more familiar with your car and its limitations.

This is however no substitute for the proper training and education you'll get from a driving course, but it's a good place to start if you don't have the time or money to do it just yet.

If you are insured with AAMI, you are entitled to a Free defensive driving course with them . I done this course when I had my GSR Lancer. I wanted to do it again with my FTO, but they dont insure FTO's.

I must say the Jim Murcott Driving Course I done at Sandown was awesome, because at the end of the day, we were allowed to drive around the track on our own for 30 min. I managed to get my Lancer on two wheels, when I hit the Kerb

How much a driving cost at a place like "Jim Murcott Driving Course" would cost?

ruchi wrote:3) On an empty dirt road, take the car up to a mild speed and slam on the breaks. Try both the front brakes and the handbrake (not at the same time).

It's worth mentioning a couple of things on this point.

If you're car has ABS, it may get "confused" on dirt if you slam the brakes on. If you then combine it with cadence braking (pumping the brake pedal), you can get into serious trouble and lose your breaks because the onboard computer doesn't know what the hell is going on.

At the last defensive driving course I attended (3 months ago) they informed us that no professional driver in any testing situations had yet managed to "beat" ABS braking in terms of distance. I managed to actually get within half a car length but no closer So the moral of this is, in an emergency situation and your car has ABS, slam on the anchors and concentrate on steering the car around the obstacle.

If you're car does not have ABS, the recommended braking method now is "threshold braking", not "cadence braking". Threshold braking is where you keep applying pressure to the anchors until you just begin to lock and you back off a fraction. This takes considerable practice to get it right and naturally the amount of pressure varies according to a number of factors. But as I said, I managed to get to within half a car length of the car's ABS braking distance using this technique.

And lastly, I've been in the car when a friend of mine snapped his hand brake cable by pulling the hand brake on while the car was in motion. I laughed my head off but man he was peeved

mxysxy wrote:How much a driving cost at a place like "Jim Murcott Driving Course" would cost?

I'm pretty sure they only cost a few hundred dollars for the full day. That is unless you're doing it at the Holden Performance Driving School or in the Porches at Mount Cotton (in Brisbane)

There's also a WRX Rally Driving School near the Gold Coast that I'd love to go to

mxysxy wrote:How much a driving cost at a place like "Jim Murcott Driving Course" would cost?

Im not to sure how much the course cost. I won it as a prize I know for certain it wasnt cheap. Id say around the $300-$400 mark.

Another driving course I have done was the Formula Ford "U Drive". You drive an ex Formula Ford race car, around Calder park and they teach you everything. I wouldnt consider it as a defensive driving course, but a good lesson, on how to **** yourself when you spin out at 140kmh.
However it is a lot more expensive. $500 for half a day. Thankfully I have good friends, who bought it for me for my 21st!!