Advanced Driving Course

[Baz]

Last weekend I went for a Level Three Driving course at the DTEC at the Perth International Airport and would highly recommend it to any young drivers who just got there lisense or who have recently just bought a high performance car.

It's actually quite amazing how hard it is to brake and stop at 50 km/h in a car without ABS in a straight line. After learning how to pulse brake and avoid locking up we moved onto braking in a straight line and steering to avoid cones. It's actually a lot harder than it looks (i managed to take out one of the three family members and cleaned up two other pedestrians on the sidewalk - hypothetically). Second time round i managed to take out the same family member - again but stopped correctly. Last time round I managed to brake and steer no worries.

Was interesting to watch people from the sidelines. One girl there the same age as myself, tried to brake and turn at the same time and took out the whole family (three cones) due to the fact that you cant brake and turn at the same time. Second and third time round she managed to avoid with no worries at all. One thing that did suprise me though was that there was a 40 yo driver there with his daughter and he was the only one who managed to hit the cones when braking directly in front of the cones to stop and also hit more cones than anyone else when trying to avoid.

After that we moved onto the skidpan where a slalom was set up and driving camry's with a device underneath the vehicle which was able to lower and heighten both the rear and front of the car up. First up was understeering (the boring stuff) where he heightened the front of the car up. After a short period we moved onto the oversteering by heightening the rear end of the car up (the fun stuff) and did that for a while. And I was quite surprised how pathetic I was at controlling the oversteer (mind you my car is still yet to arrive) and turned myself around many times.

After that they talked for a while and we did some boring random stuff such as ABS and changing tyres etc. but besides from that it was a really benefical day out for my own driving skills. I would say it would be a good course for us younger people as we start to move into the High Peformance cars or for those that are looking for a bit of a touch up of driving skills. At a price of $250 for the full day and a lot cheaper for the half day courses it really isnt that much considering how much you learn that could one day stop you drilling into the back of someones car or turning your car around while you attempt to go sideways around a corner.

Cheers,

[Sneaker]

Website? Contact?

[JXL]

yeah very interested at all.

does this driving course count anything towards your no claim insurance bonus???

[stÖrmy]

yah some contact number would be good, once i get my license i wouldent mind doing something like this, my mum doesnt trust my driving abilities i guess something like this could show her that im a half decent driver.

[Guest]

http://www.dtec.com.au/ is your contact and a very good idea to pay them a visit.

[mitchy_]

yah some contact number would be good, once i get my license i wouldent mind doing something like this, my mum doesnt trust my driving abilities i guess something like this could show her that im a half decent driver.

seeing your still on your L's...most people wont think your a very good driver.

im on my P's and i dont consider myself a good driver yet either..

[stÖrmy]

well i started driving before i even went for my l's, so ive been driving for quite a long time.

but i still only know the basics what any normal driver would know, but knowing these other things would deffinatly help, for safety and stuff.

[bully]

Its great that you did the course as an ex defensive driving instructors i wish more would - i taught both my sons pusle braking etc when they had their "L"s. The device fitted to the car was probally called the "Skid car" system where the instructor can adjust to simulate all types of road conditions and create over steer and understeer in the vehicle. Any way well done for doing the course just remember like all training you have to apply the techniques learnt everyday to get the max benifit from what you have learnt. I recommend a refresher session every few years

[gtrken]

Good training tool that Swedish skid car..

I should know as I was the first WA instructor on it. Reason was that Myself and Steve founded DTEC and bought them in back in 1996.

Good to see that young people are doing these PROPER advanced courses willingly.

I got sick of teaching young people who didn't want to learn and thought they knew everything:)

Cheers

Ken

[Flite]

Wife bought me a voucher for valentines day for advanced driving course thing down in subiaco. Once car is resprayed and fixed up i'll be doing that

[gtrken]

Any advanced training is good but...

there is always a but..

Try and get a course where the instructor is IN the car with you, not just standing outside if possible. The instructor being in the car can pick up a lot more of your problems/bad habits etc.

I know they all do the outside of the car type training as it helps keep costs down but it takes longer to correct mistakes. Obviously a 1 on 1 is the best but would be very pricey, mainly for venue hire and instructor wages.

Cheers

Ken

[Baz]

In the course I did the instructor was in the car at all times and was able to say exactly what I was doing wrong when I made a mistake. The majority of the time I was was in the car with the other 2 people down there while we were carrying out the execises. Cost was only $250, which wasn't too bad but I wasn't complaining because my parents specifically wanted me to do it and payed for it as well. I'm sure many other parents would be more than happy to give some sort of help paying for something like that.

About the no claim bonus apparently if you contact your insurance you possibly get some form of a discount but I havent really looked into it myself yet.

[raasclaat]

now if only the state government invested money into these courses for young drivers instead of multanova's we may actually save lives!

congrats for doing the course..ive been always wanting to do it

[caminperth]

Have to do that course, and some gravel driving, to be able to drive our vehicles on site.. was good and free..

[JXL]

so where can we get the contact details for this course???

gtrken do you recommend any other ones we should try???

[MLCrisis]

Good training tool that Swedish skid car..

I should know as I was the first WA instructor on it. Reason was that Myself and Steve founded DTEC and bought them in back in 1996.

Hey, Ken. I did the course through Woodside in about '97 - '98. We may have met. I also managed to push some business to DTEC through Steve (Brown & Root / Shell Philippines and then a joint bid for some stuff in Oman). Had fun on the course. Even though I have successfully used pulse braking in the past, sort of (!), when I was on the course, my technique was kinda interesting! I basically had my foot jammed hard on the pedal, knee locked and my heel doing an Elvis impersonation while I skidded throught the cones!! I did manage to improve, but would definitely benefit from doing it again.

Cheers.

[gtrken]

MLcrisis. if it was at Cannington Greyhounds rear carpark or Belmont next to the gokarts then yes, was probably me.

6 days a week , 8 hrs a day for 3 years in that skid car can send you a little stir crazy though..

Cheers

Ken

[Kyles]

im a great driver, reversing out of the drive way tonight, i hit the bin (forgot it was there...opsy daisy...) wasnt driving the presious skyline though... i have a car now...

Maby i should look into this, or light my drive way better