Bravo
Well-Known Member
- Aug 27, 2004
- 5,822
- 15
My oldest daughter had her 15th birthday in January and got her Driver's License Learners Permit. About a week later, I read in the paper about something called the New Car Driver Control Clinic, sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America....The fee was $95 and I enrolled her. Today was the day of the clinic and we reported to a local church at 9 am..I was told to bring proof of insurance and her drivers license learner permit...and curiously, they told me to "add five pounds of air to your tires"...I'm thinking, "whats up with this?"
After a short period in a classroom environment, they took the nine students in their nine cars with their nine parents in the passenger seat out to a "course" set up in the parking lot. The course consisted of a series of orange cones, set up in a line. They had the students weave in and out and I though the whole affair was going to be rather dull when we went back into the classroom for the next "chalk talk".
The next drill, they explain, will be the "cloverleaf drill" where the cones are arranged in a "cross" that appears to be like the intersection of two streets. As he diagrams it up, I figure the are going to teach them how to turn from street to street. "This is really going to be dull" I am thinking to myself.
Wrong...he explains that he wants everyone to drive through the middle of the intersection and go straight through each time, turning only when emerging from the row of cones on the other end, and then turn either left or right and reenter from another angle 90 degrees away....so the 'cloverleaf' is created from entering the row and going all the way through, emerging on the other end and making a 90 degree turn left or right. I am figuring that this will at least be a bit interesting.
So we get in the car and the instructors are standing all around...my daughter enters the row of cones and comes out the other side...and they start shouting "faster, faster!!....speed up!!"
Oh crap...now the tires are squealing and she has the car on the edge of control as we whiz through the row and out the other end...."SPEED UP....HIT IT!!
I am effing white knuckling the arm rest on the passenger side...My gawd the child has been driving for 9 weeks and these amateur race car drivers are urging each driver to squeal and smoke the tires....
Finally, it is over and I get to relax so we go inside...
The next drill goes like this....
The cones are lined up linearly, perfectly straight - except at the very end, two "channels" are set up with a barrier in the middle. Behind this is a light pole. So as you start the drill, you see a straight row of cones with a barrier at the end with two channels, one left and one right.
And they say, "When we say go, we want you to stomp it all the way to the floor...maximum acceleration...keep it all the way to the floor, until you see the light at the end telling you to swerve right or left. When the light comes on, pound the break pedal to the floor and swerve around the barrier..
I cannot imagine this...so here we go outside..my car is a Nissan Pathfinder SUV. This is a medium length SUV with a 255 HP engine...so while it is not a BMW, it will pick up speed pretty good.
The instructor gives the word and she floors it....we are screaming straight toward the cone barrier and I am pleading with him to hit the light signalling left or right swerve...closer and closer and finally it comes on...
She jams the brakes and flies through the cones, straight toward the curb at the end of the parking lot...beyond this is a grassy downhill slope.
My fingernails are jammed into the armrest when the car finally comes to rest about three feet from the curb...the instructors have scattered right and left....
They are applauding her and saying "good job for your first time...go faster next time!!" Gawd...
So we go through these high speed accident avoidance drills on wet pavement for the next 4 hours. My daugther gets pretty damn good at it by the end of the day...and they even give us a turn at the end. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
I think I am ready for an early vodka though...
After a short period in a classroom environment, they took the nine students in their nine cars with their nine parents in the passenger seat out to a "course" set up in the parking lot. The course consisted of a series of orange cones, set up in a line. They had the students weave in and out and I though the whole affair was going to be rather dull when we went back into the classroom for the next "chalk talk".
The next drill, they explain, will be the "cloverleaf drill" where the cones are arranged in a "cross" that appears to be like the intersection of two streets. As he diagrams it up, I figure the are going to teach them how to turn from street to street. "This is really going to be dull" I am thinking to myself.
Wrong...he explains that he wants everyone to drive through the middle of the intersection and go straight through each time, turning only when emerging from the row of cones on the other end, and then turn either left or right and reenter from another angle 90 degrees away....so the 'cloverleaf' is created from entering the row and going all the way through, emerging on the other end and making a 90 degree turn left or right. I am figuring that this will at least be a bit interesting.
So we get in the car and the instructors are standing all around...my daughter enters the row of cones and comes out the other side...and they start shouting "faster, faster!!....speed up!!"
Oh crap...now the tires are squealing and she has the car on the edge of control as we whiz through the row and out the other end...."SPEED UP....HIT IT!!
I am effing white knuckling the arm rest on the passenger side...My gawd the child has been driving for 9 weeks and these amateur race car drivers are urging each driver to squeal and smoke the tires....
Finally, it is over and I get to relax so we go inside...
The next drill goes like this....
The cones are lined up linearly, perfectly straight - except at the very end, two "channels" are set up with a barrier in the middle. Behind this is a light pole. So as you start the drill, you see a straight row of cones with a barrier at the end with two channels, one left and one right.
And they say, "When we say go, we want you to stomp it all the way to the floor...maximum acceleration...keep it all the way to the floor, until you see the light at the end telling you to swerve right or left. When the light comes on, pound the break pedal to the floor and swerve around the barrier..
I cannot imagine this...so here we go outside..my car is a Nissan Pathfinder SUV. This is a medium length SUV with a 255 HP engine...so while it is not a BMW, it will pick up speed pretty good.
The instructor gives the word and she floors it....we are screaming straight toward the cone barrier and I am pleading with him to hit the light signalling left or right swerve...closer and closer and finally it comes on...
She jams the brakes and flies through the cones, straight toward the curb at the end of the parking lot...beyond this is a grassy downhill slope.
My fingernails are jammed into the armrest when the car finally comes to rest about three feet from the curb...the instructors have scattered right and left....
They are applauding her and saying "good job for your first time...go faster next time!!" Gawd...
So we go through these high speed accident avoidance drills on wet pavement for the next 4 hours. My daugther gets pretty damn good at it by the end of the day...and they even give us a turn at the end. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
I think I am ready for an early vodka though...