Gidday ST
After watching Subacools action at Dirtfish, I would like to do something similar.
I'm not a terrible driver but coming from a rwd background I made the transition to fwd easily but am finding awd a little more difficult. It is kind of point and shoot which sounds easy but having more control makes it more important to know what to do with it.
My third driving instructor reckoned that if he didn't teach me to drive, I would be dead in a year ... He took me out to a road construction zone and taught me skid handling in the mud.
Eighteen years ago now, Sep van Maanen, the parts manager at the dealer I bought Roo1 from, put it to me this way:
"
In Europe they call the Audi Quattro "the widow maker". They handle so well that people go faster, and faster, and faster. Then one day they come across a load of gravel, or black ice, or a tallow spill. They are going so fast that they are dead before they realise their mistake.
Subarus with AWD handle better than the Quattro because of the drive train being symmetrical."
About three years later, his words came back to haunt me as I fought the car through a very tight urban roundabout, coming out of it at around 60~70 kms/h in second ... I have been far more circumspect ever since, even though the superb handling saved me on more than one occasion.
On road Im a firm believer in using ones indicators and switching to and from Euro and normal ( haha) indicator stalks has left my hands a bit confused and my steering technique leaves a little to be desired, a point which is magnified by the foresters slower steering ratio.
The steering is "faster" than our reactions, as a general rule ...
And IMNSHO, 95% (at least) of "reaction time" is actually having correctly predicted the conditions prior to getting into them. IOW, be alert; always scanning the road ahead for situations or conditions that may impact on what you are going to do when you get there shortly ...
Could any one recommend an advanced training course out west (or anywhere for rhe sake of others) or consider themselves expert enough to give me any pointers?
I don't consider myself an "expert". However, I'm still alive and undamaged after 48 years and about 1,000,000 miles of driving many different kinds and makes of vehicles. I have driven some of the fastest and most powerful production cars ever made; and driven them very fast, often on shockingly bad roads. Maybe all that counts for something; maybe not.
As the Scouts say: "Be prepared" ...
Always pay other drivers the 'compliment' of treating them as if they are homicidal maniacs, out to get you in particular ... Hope and pray that they pay you the same 'compliment'. I reckon I have probably saved more people's lives than the other way around; BUT I can recall vividly some occasions when they saved mine (and their own ... ).
Never accelerate faster than the car in front of you ... :iconwink:.
Never accelerate hard into
any corner on a road you don't know very well.
Never accelerate harder than the rate of change of direction of the corner. This goes double (or triple ... ) if you cannot clearly see your entire line through the corner, and beyond ...
Always be aware of what the road signs are telling you; and then
never rely on them, unless you know that particular road well ...
Know thyself;
Know thy car;
He who hesitates is lost ...
Even my new Fox handles more than well enough to lure me into a false sense of security.
Never forget that a car weighing 1,000 kgs travelling at 60 km/h packs much the same hitting power as a 600 Nitro Express rifle (an "elephant gun") does at point blank range ...
More than enough for now. I have been at a client's today, and it has been irritating and stressful.
[EDIT]
And I agree with all that stuff that Rally contributed too.
The day you reckon you know it all; you're dead ...
Remember Brocky ...
[end edit]
:rotfl:
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! So this aspect is very important to me.