Review of RideDrive
Many thanks to Graham for this really well written review of his day with RideDrive. If you'd like to check out what they have to offer, see the discounts section.
As part of the S2KUK Xmas raffle, I was fortunate enough to win several prizes including a full day RideDrive Advanced Driver Training voucher. This is a summary of the experience that I thoroughly recommend to all S2000 drivers:
After calling to book a date for the experience, I received an email from Roger, my instructor for the day, confirming a start location, my drive expectations, and also recommending obtaining a copy of ‘Roadcraft: The Essential Police Driver's Handbook’.
Book read, (the section on driver psychology is particularly interesting) and mobile numbers exchanged, I met Roger at 9am in a local carpark. After introductions, Roger clarified what I was hoping to get from the day, (best paraphrased as fast but safe road driving with a particular focus on overtaking). We buckled up and set off for a short evaluation drive.
I must admit I felt like like I was on a driving test initially and certainly did not drive as I would normally, but Roger was very relaxed and I soon relaxed and resorted to my typical, poor, driving style.
After 20 minutes, we pulled over and Roger provided some observations on my road positioning, braking and appropriate gearing, among other things. We decided to focus on road positioning and engaging lower gears more smoothly initially and set off through the South Downs, taking in some fun and fast roads.
Roger provided excellent tips, techniques and approaches to fast corning, always ensuring I understood ‘why’ as well as ‘how’. Very quickly it became obvious to me that I did not process a lot of information that was available on the roads, and Roger’s commentary really helped to drill this practice into me.
After an hour or so, we stopped at AAC Middle Wallop for a cuppa, review of the changes in driving style and general chitchat. Roger’s knowledge of the local roads was second to none, and his experiences training Police pursuit cars and bikes was evident and interesting.
We cracked on as the sun came out so of course, the roof came down. Heading west, we started ‘profiling’ drivers and anticipating actions as we took on some more challenging overtaking procedures. This was very educational but most of all, excellent fun.
We stopped for lunch at Compton Abbas Airfield, which was another great location and reviewed the morning’s work. At this point I was mentally quite tired, so I can see how the half day might be enough for some, (or maybe splitting the experience into two half days, which was an option).
But keen to continue putting my new skills to practice, we jumped back in car and headed north, taking in many fast roads and really ‘pushing on’, (with a big smile on my face most the time).
We finally got back to our start location around 4pm after an extensive and high speed drive around some of the south’s best roads, (many of which I was not aware of). We had a quick debrief about the day, my car, and discussed things to think about going forward before saying farewell.
Its now over a year since that day but I still employ many of the skills I picked up from Roger, which on several occasions have kept my S2000 out of a hedge! The event was a flexible and personalised road driving course with a top instructor, and a very practical alternative to pure track tuition. Thoroughly recommended!
Graham (cynicg)
