How good are your driving skills?

Well, there hasn't been a WRC champ for five years that's been from anywhere except Loeb's home town.
(You're too young to remember when the Press On Regardless was a WRC round.)
(I switched from Mopar to Fiat (ersatz Abarth 124) back in the '70s, and have been driving Italian cars since (except for a Sainz homologation Celica GT-Four and an EVO VIII to handle New England winters.)
(Most US drivers aren't very good, but one or two of us have seen turns, before. )

On a track with other cars and on rallye stages where previous drivers have kicked sand onto the asphalt, you can still get the odd surprise. (Look what happened to Massa in Hungary).

That's why you have to pay attention. In the US, that's called "defensive driving". Among pilots, it's called "situational awareness".
On the street, it means that you keep reserve capacity to deal with the unexpected.

You can't anticipate everything at any speed. That doesn't mean you slow to a stop. It means that we've added airbags, seat belts, dashboard padding, crumple zones, and any number of safety features (mostly developed on race tracks) to production cars.

You should have seen the cars I learned on, back when the US was building roads specifically for 75 mph speeds. No collapsing steering column, no safety glass, etc. -- bench seats and no seat belts.

Todays cars -- even with lightweight materials -- weigh more than cars of that earlier era, because modern cars carry far more weight in safety equipment. And yet speed limits are lower.

That's just an excuse for drivers to drive badly.


Do the math: if everyone drives at half speed, they're each on the road twice as long. Across the population, that means double the man-hours on the roads: On average, twice the number of people on the road at the same time.

If it's the other people on the roads that makes it dangerous, slowing the speed limit just makes it more dangerous.

 

Yea,I agree,also at race tracks you can not control all is happening there,and you can get some surpises and injuries,like Massa,and sometimes in a very several mode.Yeah I agree.
And now think about one "surprise" when one car(1 ton weight) is coming in front aganist you at full speed,is not a (800 grms) spring dropped by a car in you same direction,,,you can imagine the results,and this situation is the situation you are going to find in a public road,so the limits are necessary,,,but to know how is the correct maximun speed in any limit is another history,and everyone could say a different ideal speed limit under his own driving feelings/thinkings/skills,,,

Yes modern cars adds a lot of active/passive security improvements,but have you ever asked to yourself why street cars dont add "security anti-spill interior bars"???
(except some homologated GT models),,,,,,This bars are the best way to secure a race driver on a race car,,so why they dont put in road stock cars??? Because my friend,in frontal crashes,car against car,it will be a total carnage.So as you see,not all the things(bars,tyres,etc etc etc) in a race track car are compatible with public road cars,is another big reason to need speed limits,,,

Sometimes the low speed is more dangerous than high speed,I agree,sometimes,,,and sometimes is opossite too.
Keep reserve capacity to deal with the unexpected,yeah,always you have to be ready,but this is very relative and depends a lot of things on that,one of the most important thing on that is the kind of road,is logical,on a wide a good visibility road you will keep more capacity for all that,but in the most of public primary and secondary roads here is quite difficult,because is not wide,covered by trees,and is very rare to find more than o'5 mile of straigh line between turns,so behind every turn you could find another guy at opossite direcction coming in "rally mode" running out the lane divisor line eating 20 -30 cm of your lane at the turn,so here you can find that in EVERY turn,so is difficult to pevent a crash if you(like the other guy coming) are driving in "rally mode" too and find him,here happens a lot.

Yea,to put even lower the speed limits is NOT the solution,and is also worst,yeah I agree.

Only can say is the well minded people know where is the limit(legal by law,or not) to drive in the correct way,to know what means a car,and what means a hevy crash,,,this kind of people will be the correct respect for the meaning of "road" word and for their own life,and other people life.

 

Of course I meant "oversteer", not "understeer". OVERSTEER is fun! Control it and don't endanger others.

 

I've not done any competitive racing but I've never had an accident (21 been driving since I was 16) I drive safe fastest I've driven was 120. I need to be in better shape and have my eyes fixed as I do not have 20/20 in fact my license says I need corrective lenses...would love to do something like the AMG experience

 

Driving on track with proper instruction increases road driving safety immeasurably. In a perfect world it should be mandatory for all drivers to learn the basics of car control, emergency braking etc.

I strongly recommend that the people who haven't been to a track do so; not only is it incredible amounts of fun but also will let you enjoy you road car 10x!

 

X10000

 

Been two three driving schools in open wheel cars, owned 5 Ferraris and done a little GT racing as well.

I pretty much suck when compared to the pros
Come to think of it I pretty much suck when compared to the amateurs.

I can kick my Moms ass though.

 

It seems to me that the less you know about proper car control, the higher the adrenalin rush you will get when pushing you car to the limit and beyond! It should be noted that you'll probably only get to experience this extreme high one time only, and it will probably be followed by an extreme low.

 

Well said !

 

Pushing a vehicle to the limits of traction -- say, on a rallye stage -- when you know what you're doing is an electric feeling.

What you describe (driving without a clue) is more like getting hit by a bolt of lightning.

 

When I was 16/17 I could be hyper alert and my reaction time was great and I could drift a car very nicely, but I was shy on judgement and experience. The hyper alertness and reaction time have dwindled ever since and my skill and experience are doing well at 38 and improving. I like to think I may have had raw talent at that early age, but that was then.

 

Tried rallying in late 70s through 1982.
Wrecked a couple cars,was hospitalized briefly,ran out of $$ and sponsors right after 1 season.
Ended up as navigator for Renault (R5 TS) and later Opel (Cadett GT).
Quit motorsport business in '82 and since then only did Skip Barber ,AMG Graduate and Ferrari Avanzato.
I consider my skills as average but I am convinced that 99% of ordinary drivers on the roads are way below average and most of them should not even have a licence to drive (that one applies to US as I consider European drivers to be much better trained and skilled then these "dark masses" we have here)

 

My skills are pretty good, Ive only wrecked a few exotics

 

http://itiwsi.com/driving.html This is the best driving training that I have had for on the street driving

 

I tracked recently for the first time and had a blast. I also realized how hard it really is.

 

Was a real eye opener for me the first time! I thought I could whip Mario Andretti if I just had the right car! Boy was I wrong!!!!! But on the street, my training might have him beat.....if I had a much better car than him.

 

Also tracked my car for the first time this year. Awesome fun! I never had any idea that I would be as talented as a racing driver, and I was proved to be absolutely correct! But it's about the fun you're having, and improving your skills, not about putting it on pole.


Onno

 

So you are saying that 1% of drivers are about 100 times better than the rest? Seems unlikely.

 

Depends on your definition of "enjoy". If you wish to get the maximum performance out of any car, you absolutely need a high level of skill. There's more than that to a Ferrari, though.

 

Quite possible, if the other 20% are that much poorer than average. Also, average does not mean good.

I think the split is indeed around 80/20, but reversed. 80% are below average, just by virtue of having very young and very old drivers.

 

ask jason.

 

Chew on this.

For me, racing has taken almost all the joy out of driving on the street.

 

Credentials: Some of you will remember me from about 4 years ago when I frequented this forum. I am a qualified driving instructor, with almost 5,000 miles on my F355B. I can carry on a conversation with a passenger, wave to the corner marshals, and corect a lurid slide while laping within 2 seconds of the lap record of the class the 355 sits in.

I do not believe that it is possible to learn how to drive a car like the F355 anywhere near 100% unless you already have significant amounts of time in an actual race car/cart; where significant is thousands of miles plus. It is possible to learn, but the ONLY safe place to learn is on a track wth a qualified instructor in the seat next to you. Learing on the street is a recipie for big troubles.

The problem with cars like the F355 (and F348*) is that there is so much mass centralization, that the car is faster than 95% of all drivers. This is loads of fun AFTER you figure out how to keep the nose pointing forward at all times. Figuring out how to do this is the key element of driving these cars fast (and surviving). In effect, you quit steering with the wheel alone and start steering with all three major controls {wheel, throttle, brakes}. When you do get this one figured out, drifting sidways through a turn does not even turn on the adrenalin, you can brign the rear end around braking into a turn and avoid having to add and remove steering input (which upsets the car momentarily.)

However, this is not a note about driving fast, how to do it, where to do it. This is a thought about being safe when doing it.

Consider the three major differences you have in your advantage at a track: 1) no cars are headed in your direction, 2) if you happen to (need to) leave the road, there is little to hit, 3) if you do happen to hit something, the ambualnce is 30 seconds away, rather than 30 minutes away.

In addition, at the track you will not be accosted with random blabberings from a passenger completely unconcerned with what is going on immediately in front of the car. The tires (engine, tranny, and brakes) will be up to temperature--allowing the car to driven on its limits. And finally, by the end of the first session, the track (line) will be clear of debris, sand, gravel,... And, if you are smart, there will be people watching and coaching you how to become even better than you currently are. We call these people instructors and they typically sit in the passenger seats.

None of the last two paragraphs are typical when a car such as these is driven on the street. Tires, warm-ish; Engine oil, a little cool; brakes, cold; traffic, comming your way; hazzards, always present; constabulatory observation, somewhat more than occasional;
In short, no matter how you slice it, its just not safe to excersize these cars on public thouroughfares (momentary excursions excluded).

So, next time you feel borred driving at/near the legal limits, play a little game. This game consists of steering the vehicle so that you never run over a {pot hole, squished animal, lane marker, painted stripe, curb, tree limb, ....} and do so by looking far enough down the road so that you can see, identify, decide, and react with enough time so that your passenger does not feel any inputs to the car. Try this for 20 minutes, and be honest about all the little things on the list above, you will find it significantly more difficult than anticipated.

(*) somewhat less for the F360 and 430.

Mitch

 

My father used to say no one can be a good driver unless they have driven at least 100,000 miles. Even that may not be enough. One has to experience many different situations before they can be a good driver.

And a good high performance/racing school is also a must.

And then you must practice what you know. Use it or lose it as they say.

Yours truly practicing my skills.
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