advanced driving courses

[pile]

What im really after here is two things . This year i would like to book some driving courses on the road and trackday courses. I'm looking for advice from people on what courses they have found to be the most informative.

Im already going to book a course with Andy Walsh, but ive also heard Don Palmer is very good for trackday and i believe he does road courses aswell.

Any advice would be appreciated

[SamD]

Check out John Cave @ Drivetrain. There is a discount for TSN members in the Offers and Groupbuys section.

[RedRobin]

I've done the CarLimits with Andy Walsh - It's on North Weald airfield, is heavy on tyres and fuel, but shows you the handling limits of your car and how best to manage it. You learn where 'the edge' is and consequently know to avoid it on the road, or if you can't avoid it, how to limit the damage! I, and others, recommend it as a great way to know your car better.

I'm doing Drivetrain with John Cave next week and will add my 'review' to the others on TSN. It's road orientated.

Don Palmer also has an excellent reputation, particularly for track apparently.

My advice would be not to bother with any of the standard 'Advanced Motorists' type of courses - They tend to be, shall we say "limited".

HTH

[pile]

Thx RedRobin

[techieboy]

Did a Don Palmer day at Bruntingthorpe two weeks ago. I'd just bought a VX220 and wanted to get a feel for it in a safe environment. Was a little concerned with the differences in handling between the a heavy front engined quattro and a light rwd mid engined car.

Twas a great day. The course I did was specifically aimed at finding the cars limits and dealing with the results. Nice balance between theory and practice. Most of what we did would apply to road and/or track although you'd probably need to have a screw loose to be trying some of it on the road due to the speed required to provoke the car. Don is certainly a character and has a few war stories to tell.

As Robin said, quite hard on the tyres and especially the brakes in my case. I finished off the rear greenstuff pads, the front tyres and boiled the brake fluid - the garage said the fluid was blacker than my tyres when they replaced it

Was quite expensive but it felt worth it. There were two of us on the course. The other guy had a Z4M roadster and I managed to lap the circuit faster than him all day (but it was a lovely car and the brakes on it were immense as were some of the power slides).

He also offers a road based course much like the Drivetrain course but he suggests you complete the car limits/control course first to get the full benefit.

I'm booked on a Walshy day in a couple of weeks time to see how that compares.

You've probably already taken a massive step in the right direction by admitting to yourself that you'd like some additional training.

[JAYDR32]

[ QUOTE ]

Did a Don Palmer day at Bruntingthorpe two weeks ago. I'd just bought a VX220 and wanted to get a feel for it in a safe environment. Was a little concerned with the differences in handling between the a heavy front engined quattro and a light rwd mid engined car.

Twas a great day. The course I did was specifically aimed at finding the cars limits and dealing with the results. Nice balance between theory and practice. Most of what we did would apply to road and/or track although you'd probably need to have a screw loose to be trying some of it on the road due to the speed required to provoke the car. Don is certainly a character and has a few war stories to tell.

As Robin said, quite hard on the tyres and especially the brakes in my case. I finished off the rear greenstuff pads, the front tyres and boiled the brake fluid - the garage said the fluid was blacker than my tyres when they replaced it

Was quite expensive but it felt worth it. There were two of us on the course. The other guy had a Z4M convertible and I managed to lap the circuit faster than him all day (but it was a lovely car and the brakes on it were immense as were some of the power slides).

He also offers a road based course much like the Drivetrain course but he suggests you complete the car limits/control course first to get the full benefit.

I'm booked on a Walshy day in a couple of weeks time to see how that compares.

You've probably already taken a massive step in the right direction by admitting to yourself that you'd like some additional training.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to go off topic, the guy with the Z4 was it black? I think it was hollpe from Z4um.com. Nice bloke said he was doing a DP day..

[techieboy]

Yep, it was black and Pete, the owner, was certainly a nice guy (which reminds me, I need to drop him an email). It was a beautiful car. I'd never actually liked them before but we went out in each others cars to observe and I was really impressed with it. Still can't get over how powerful the brakes where and it was much nicer inside than the 3 and 5 series. Surprisingly quiet inside as well, considering the abuse it was getting. It didn't feel massively fast (I'm sure it was) but after coming out of the VX where 30mph feels and sounds fast, it's no wonder. I'm pretty sure in reality the Z4M should batter my 150-odd BHP but the difference between me risking £10k's worth of VX track day toy and him risking £40k's worth of M roadster was worth a second or two on my lap times. I'm sure he'll be able to get faster and faster in it as the power is already there. I'm already near the ceiling on the VX and have now got to resort to some handling/engine modifications to wring some more performance out of it.

I think Don liked it as well. He kept taking it out and abusing it in a large way. Certainly looked like a visit to a tyre company was in order by the end of the day and we'd both incurred some stone chip damage. I've no idea how quick Don's laps were (in either of our cars or his own) but certainly much quicker than either of us. I'm not sure we could match him in his Golf TDi.

[JAYDR32]

Sounds like a top day! Yeah it was Pete then, excellent! I am going to try DP out later in the summer all being well.. Highly recommended I hear.