by "t0ast" (t0ast217)
Published 05/09/2017 at 14:00
by "t0ast" (t0ast217)
Published 05/09/2017 at 14:00
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STARS: 7
Remarkably, it wound up being pretty fun and not as terrifying as one might think. If the lead image wasn’t obvious enough, I’m talking about coaching for Tire Rack’s Street Survival program. It’s a driving school made available 1-3 times per year by several well-established car clubs in many areas of the U.S. (SCCA, BMW CCA, PCA, Corvette Museum, etc.).
My SCCA region (Kansas City) was having some trouble finding enough coaches to help run the program, so I figured I’d volunteer to actually do something a bit more substantive about unskilled drivers in the area than just complaining. That, and I absolutely had to have one of these sexy polo shirts:
Well, not so much on that last point, but it was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Some quick info about the structure of the program first though:
The general idea behind this school is to provide a safe area (typically an autocross venue) and coaches with performance driving experience to teach new drivers about the limits of their car. They get to learn about things like oversteer, understeer, emergency braking maneuvers, how those things feel, what causes them, and how to best handle them should they occur. In other words, it’s a bunch of things that only ever get a brief mention when learning how to drive and can’t easily be practiced safely/legally out on the road.
All of the lessons are set up to build confidence and skill in hopes of creating a healthy margin of safety above normal driving behavior for those moments when things go bad on the road. Of course, the “normal driving behavior” part of that equation is strongly emphasized as well, because none of this is intended to enable faster or more aggressive driving out on the street. If students are interested in putting what they’ve learned to use on a regular basis, they’ll be provided with info about upcoming club events at the end of the day.
The school is a full-day event, with two classroom and two driving sessions of about 70 minutes each and a lunch break in-between. The classroom sessions go over topics like the basic physics of tires, best practices in the driver’s seat, and distracted driving. The practical exercises have the students driving their own vehicle (as long as it’s not a SUV/truck without modern electronic aids) with a coach in the passenger seat the entire time as they cycle through several areas set up to experience and practice the concepts I mentioned above.
The cost is currently $75 per student and many insurance companies count it towards their additional driving education discount.
Our club used the same venue as we do for most of our autocross events, which is a local community college’s precision driving center normally used for training law enforcement officers. There, we set up a skidpad with cracked corn spread out on one side, an offset slalom (which could be traversed on the short/easy or wide/hard sides as needed), a single/double lane change, and an emergency braking zone (which went from straight to curved later on in the day), all with intended speeds in the range of 20-45 MPH.
I had two students assigned to me, both with about 8 months of driving experience. One had their family’s new-ish Explorer (since their older F150 wasn’t eligible) and the other had his own early 2010s Corolla. Both were a little nervous at first about some of the things being asked of them, but once they saw that they and others could slide around, slam on the brakes, etc. without dying, breaking their car, or upsetting their parents, they quickly took to the exercises with aplomb.
Adjusting my own performance barometer to the unfamiliar cars from their passenger sears was an interesting experience as well. The Corolla wasn’t too difficult to figure out or get it to do what we needed it to do, considering that it’s about as straightforward as one can get with a modern FWD compact, but the Explorer was somewhat tricky and restrictive. It was a lot more capable than I had expected and getting it to oversteer proved nearly impossible. The drivers aids were just too aggressive (we’re not allowed to disable them) and the pedal-style e-brake was too cumbersome and ineffective to be useful. Still, we made do everywhere else just fine.
Both students made excellent progress throughout the day with few hang-ups. I’d say the biggest hurdle to overcome in each case was the instinct to just keep adding steering when the car starts to understeer when instead they should be focused on restoring grip with deceleration and/or less steering. Not far behind that was teaching the idea of driving a wider, more curved route through the lane change and slalom to provide an easier approach to the next cone(s) and avoid clipping them with the rear tires.
By mid-afternoon, they had just about everything figured out, so I kept raising the speeds and started mixing a few things in, like surprise handbrake applications in the Corolla and/or asking the students to navigate some of the exercises while texting. Both caught on quickly and were able to apply what had been taught earlier, so by the end of the day I barely had to make any corrections.
We did unfortunately bust off a few splash guard clips on the Corolla after mowing down a full line of cones at speed early in the day, but the parents of that student were entirely cool about it. They saw the progress being made and thought the experience far outweighed the few extra dollars it would cost to fix. I think with the exception of that and someone else’s student winding up with a flat tire, everyone else made it through unscathed, so I’d call that a pretty successful day overall.
Anyway, I’ll likely be back at it again when it comes around again next year. It probably goes without saying at this point that the experience was a very positive one for both me and the students, so this program has my full support. If you have any performance driving experience and have an interest in teaching or have a teen in the family at or approaching driving age, I’d highly recommend checking it out .
"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54)
05/09/2017 at 14:13, STARS: 2
Been there. Done that. Very rewarding experience. I clearly remember my best student was driving a S197 Mustang Pony package. He learned a lot, drove quite well, and though he kicked the tail out a few times (it’s a Mustang, it’s required) he never once Cars and Coffeed us through the cones. I was also really impressed just how much power the V6 actually had.
"RyanFrew" (ryanfrew)
05/09/2017 at 14:16, STARS: 0
I love coaching these and plan to do it again. An Exploder, though? That would make me nervous. I’ve only taught kids in cars, not SUVs. Worst experience was a 16yo in an e9x M3, who thought he knew everything there was to know (surprise). Best experience was a girl in a Camry who improved
dramatically
over the day. It’s fun to see progress with anyone who is eager to learn. Also fun to mess with them a little bit. I like to have them do the slalom and send a text at the same time.
"SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman" (dasborgen)
05/09/2017 at 14:42, STARS: 2
I coached this once a couple of years ago. This was my write-up
http://oppositelock.kinja.com/teaching-teens-at-the-tirerack-street-survival-1634673087
Will do another this year.
"t0ast" (t0ast217)
05/09/2017 at 14:48, STARS: 0
Being saddled with an Explorer (even though it was, I think, a ‘15) was a slightly unsettling thought at first, but after gradually working up the speed, it still felt really stable, so we just kept going and all was well. I was actually kind of surprised in that regard. The stability/traction control were definitely putting in some overtime there. Compared to some of the minivans that were being flung around, I think I actually had it pretty easy.
I did catch a hint of know-it-all from one of the students as he complained a few times about how boring the classes were, but to be fair he was able to relay all the basic concepts to me reliably, took well to instruction, and was able to recognize and improve on what mistakes were made. The other was more towards the quiet side, possibly bordering on nervous, but that neatly faded away throughout the day into being able to handle things like those surprise handbrake applications like a champ.
"t0ast" (t0ast217)
05/09/2017 at 15:15, STARS: 0
Nice write-up! I was hoping that we’d get to do the tailgating or the combined/course exercises as well, but no such luck. Unfortunately our venue is just a little too small to fit those in.
"Sam" (samwellington)
05/09/2017 at 15:28, STARS: 2
I went as a driver when I was 18. It was very fun and I learned a lot about the limits of my car. The instructor also realised that I was a pretty experienced driver already, so we focused more on advanced stuff (i.e. getting through the slalom as fast as possible and doing the lane change with almost zero time left to make the change) than the basics.
There was also a 16 year old girl there who was hooning the shit out of her grandma’s Dodge Cirrus. It was amazing to watch.
"RyanFrew" (ryanfrew)
05/09/2017 at 15:48, STARS: 0
Yeah, a little bit of nervousness is a good thing.
I actually got a kid one time who is now racing professionally and had been doing Kart/Spec Miata for a couple of years by the time he was doing Street Survival. His dad definitely just put him into the class for the insurance rates, but he definitely could have been coaching me. We just kind of had a laugh about it.
"t0ast" (t0ast217)
05/09/2017 at 16:26, STARS: 0
Ha, that’s great. One of our autocross regulars enrolled his son who was switching from junior karts to co-driving their STX BMW 328is this year and had him driving said BMW for the class. I don’t think he was nearly as experienced as your example, but I’m sure that would have been a very fun car to be in regardless.
"RPM esq." (rpm3)
05/09/2017 at 16:45, STARS: 0
I took my son to a somewhat similar defensive/evasive driving course last summer, where the instructors taught us each skill, the parents executed it first (with their presumably greater driving experience and skill), and then the kids practiced it a bunch of times. It was a good confidence builder to have their parents learning alongside them. We did it in my ‘92 Land Cruiser....I figured that if he could learn to handle that through a slalom and emergency braking course he could handle anything, plus it was the car he’d actually be driving at first. We had a great time and I think it was great for his driving skills.
Also, I somehow set the fastest clean time in the slalom, much to the chagrin of the hypercompetitive dad in a Subaru who just couldn’t do it without taking out a couple cones on every run.