[tanner]

Didn't want to hijack this thread but it's somewhat related as it's a driving school, but target audience different. It's not a HPDA. It's the Tire Rack Street Survival School for young/new drivers which took place at the Brampton Powerade centre. So this is a good read for parents with young drivers or something to consider when you have kids and they get keys to your car.

Disclaimer: volunteered for this event as I heard they needed some volunteers. Actually was going to take photos but decided not to so I could get a feel for how the school operates. School is ran by both the Porsche Club of Upper Canada and BMW Club of Canada Trillium Chapter, with instructors from both groups. Wife is an instructor coming from the BMW side and had a student for the day. Event held at the Powerade Centre in Brampton. I just volunteered doing whatever they needed or helped out wherever to make things run smoothly.

So to preface the day, it sucked for volunteers as it rained in the morning and damp in the afternoon but fortunately got things finished before the next round of rain came in. It was great however for students! Helped out with setting up the slalom course in the morning, assisting with pylons, herding students through the line, and with the stop box later in the day and messing with students by placing the stop pylon in random locations in the stop box LOL. Target audience for this are young drivers, and parents are also involved during the classroom training and watch their kids during the behind the wheel exercises. There were a few older drivers that participated (a few being the parent and another being an instructor's mother I believe who really did not enjoy herself there as she doesn't like driving at all - so a good candidate for this but sadly she refused to go any faster throughout the day).

They allowed only 36 drivers to keep the group size to a decent size, thus giving students plenty of time in each of the exercises. Students were paired with the same instructor throughout the day. Cost? $75 which is very cheap (it's offered well below cost and guessing the two clubs, Tire Rack and other sponsors kicking in some money for a good cause). Sadly only two of the students drove manuals. #savethemanuals

I didn't see any of the classroom training but did read through the material during the lunch break. It sets a good knowledge base for young drivers. The usual contact patch and the traction circle is discussed, proper seating position, understeer/oversteer, distracted driving and a lot of focus on vision. Information in there also specific for parents (ie.: what car their kid should have, automatic versus manuals, distracted driving, setting rules when they're driving, etc.)

For the driving exercises in the morning, students experienced the skidpad, emergency lane change, slalom exercise in the morning (students would go through the two pylons and then later go through the slalom by going around the outer pylon instead, then finally the instructor would tell them whether to go through or wide on the next set). Instructor with them in the car, one at the beginning and another at the end of each exercise to provide feedback. Afternoon, one autocross section with a emergency lane change setup where students would drive through normally but be intentionally distracted, figure eight, and a short autocross to put everything they learned together. Group size was fairly ideal, giving students plenty of seat time at each exercise.

During the lunch hour, a tractor with trailer was setup with cars around it, students got in to get an idea of what a truck driver can see and can't see (they had a car right in front of the truck, with only a foot between the bumpers, and a bunch of vehicles on the side and behind, and was setup that only one of the six vehicles could be seen). Airbag detonation also demonstrated, one steering wheel and one passenger airbag (and commenting how one should never put their foot up on the dash or out the window). A water bottle was placed on top of the air bag, I was a little surprised at how high that water bottle went up.

At the start of the day, you could see how timid most of the students were - looking only a few feet beyond the front bumper and no good sense of where all four corners of the car was. Just trying to herd them to the start some was like "uh what, where do you want me to drive?!?? I don't understand." During the final autocross exercise, some of the looks on the driver's face was pure concentration, looking farther out, finding the quicker line around the autocross and really knowing where all their tires were, quite a few consistently getting their tires a few inches away from the pylon. Most pushed it and getting the car to move around which was one of the goals so students experienced it and knew what to do versus panic. Most had a big grin on their face at the end of the autocross.

At the end of the day, the lead organizer offered a few words ... course objective was to focus on vision and to give students an idea on what to do if they found themselves in a situation that they needed to get out of. Students were not to leave thinking that they could driver faster and more aggressively, thinking that they had the necessary skills and experience which they don't of course. Policy also for instructors to mention nothing about performance driving (re.: track school).

This is something like Ian Law's track school I've taken but geared towards young drivers, and did I say it was also very cheap? If you have a teenager with a driver's license, highly recommend it. In fact, it's something that every new driver, or better yet, every driver, should go through at a a minimum. Unfortunately if they had to do this for every new driver, it would be a lot lot lot more expensive than $75.

They plan on holding two events again next year, one around in May probably and another in the fall.