Help me find a driving school!
- Thread starter Dinan55
- Start date
Most BMW CCA Chapters offer two schools, High Performance Driving, a school designed to teach “racing lines”. Safety Schools, designed to teach daily driving techniques. High Performance Driving schools cost between $200.00 and $300.00 per two day school. Safety Schools cost between $20.00 and $50.00 per day. After completing a Safety School some insurance companies will give the graduate a discount. Contact your local BMW CCA Chapter.
![[?|]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_banghead.gif "Bang Head [?|]"){kind=icon}
). im hungover dont listen to me.
A regular driving school won't do. They don't teach you how to evade objects coming at you moving at 70mph.
So here's the story...
Imagine you're looking at a slightly curved, reverse C shaped four-lane road from top view. The traffic in the two left lanes going down, and the two right going up. The traffic isn't heavy and isn't light, so it's pretty normal. We're driving in the far right lane.
A friend of our family opened up a new restaurant in Georgetown in D.C. last week, and as usual we have nothing to eat at home so we decided to go pay him a visit. Well, it was kind of raining and the road was damp, and a damp road is the most hazardous type when it comes to traction. Anyways, I was sitting in the back (I hate sitting in the back), my dad was driving, and my mom was in the passenger's seat. We're going up this winding road that leads up into Adams Morgan and everyone is going the speed limit, which was 35mph. So I'm bored shitless, just looking at whatever passes by the window and thinking random things when all of a sudden I hear my dad gasp like a little bitch. I looked out the front window, and I see this beige Honda Accord, the ones two generations back, just effortlessly spinning towards our side of the road. The whole car went silent, and all I could do was say shit, I heard my dad say f*ck, and my mother was just speechless. From the top view of this road, we were on the bottom part of the far right lane, and this guy was coming from the second-to-last lane from the left, advancing towards the cars in our lane. Well, I heard the Benz downshift because my dad floored it in order to get out of the car's path, but keep in mind that it's a normally-aspirated diesel, not a turbo, it has no acceleration whatsoever. So all we could do is wait. The spinning Accord missed the black car in front of us, and we were the only car left to take the hit. The back end then spun about 1 foot from the driver's door, and kept advancing towards the back left door. I just waited for it to hit us and then I saw my dad steer three inches to the right, and BY SOME ACT OF GOD, I swear this has to be an act of God, nothing else, the stupid son of a bitch misses us by literally, and I mean literally no more than 1/2 an inch. If I had opened my window and reached out, I could've touched this guy's rear window. Scared shitless, I looked back and amazingly the car hadn't hit anybody and was sitting there in the middle of both roads, the guy driving behind us was obviously shitting himself because he just stopped in the middle of the road and wouldn't go anywhere. We just kept driving, astonished at how it didn't hit us.
You know, I've always heard about car accidents and everything and I've always thought to myself that it could have easily been avoided, but everything I just told you happened in a time slot of 1.5 to 2 seconds. Now I realize how fast it really happens. Well after that we discussed the whole thing for about two hours, and I was still shaking because for the first time in my life I had actually been scared. The guy was obviously speeding because there's no way in hell you can slide for 100 yards going 35mph. My dad said that if this were Bulgaria (where we're from, and the best party place in the world), somebody would have dragged that asshole out of his car and beat the shit out of him. So now my parents are just going crazy and want to sign me up for a performance driving school so in situations like this one I can do something about it instead of just sit there waiting. My dad later told me he saw exactly how it happened, that the guy skid a bit to the left, then of course out of instinct he counter-steered hard to the right and of course that was the point where he wasn't the driver anymore, but the passenger.
And that’s pretty much the whole story. I can't stop thinking to myself what would've happened if we were in the left lane of our road, or just two seconds late....
So here's the story...
Imagine you're looking at a slightly curved, reverse C shaped four-lane road from top view. The traffic in the two left lanes going down, and the two right going up. The traffic isn't heavy and isn't light, so it's pretty normal. We're driving in the far right lane.
A friend of our family opened up a new restaurant in Georgetown in D.C. last week, and as usual we have nothing to eat at home so we decided to go pay him a visit. Well, it was kind of raining and the road was damp, and a damp road is the most hazardous type when it comes to traction. Anyways, I was sitting in the back (I hate sitting in the back), my dad was driving, and my mom was in the passenger's seat. We're going up this winding road that leads up into Adams Morgan and everyone is going the speed limit, which was 35mph. So I'm bored shitless, just looking at whatever passes by the window and thinking random things when all of a sudden I hear my dad gasp like a little bitch. I looked out the front window, and I see this beige Honda Accord, the ones two generations back, just effortlessly spinning towards our side of the road. The whole car went silent, and all I could do was say shit, I heard my dad say f*ck, and my mother was just speechless. From the top view of this road, we were on the bottom part of the far right lane, and this guy was coming from the second-to-last lane from the left, advancing towards the cars in our lane. Well, I heard the Benz downshift because my dad floored it in order to get out of the car's path, but keep in mind that it's a normally-aspirated diesel, not a turbo, it has no acceleration whatsoever. So all we could do is wait. The spinning Accord missed the black car in front of us, and we were the only car left to take the hit. The back end then spun about 1 foot from the driver's door, and kept advancing towards the back left door. I just waited for it to hit us and then I saw my dad steer three inches to the right, and BY SOME ACT OF GOD, I swear this has to be an act of God, nothing else, the stupid son of a bitch misses us by literally, and I mean literally no more than 1/2 an inch. If I had opened my window and reached out, I could've touched this guy's rear window. Scared shitless, I looked back and amazingly the car hadn't hit anybody and was sitting there in the middle of both roads, the guy driving behind us was obviously shitting himself because he just stopped in the middle of the road and wouldn't go anywhere. We just kept driving, astonished at how it didn't hit us.
You know, I've always heard about car accidents and everything and I've always thought to myself that it could have easily been avoided, but everything I just told you happened in a time slot of 1.5 to 2 seconds. Now I realize how fast it really happens. Well after that we discussed the whole thing for about two hours, and I was still shaking because for the first time in my life I had actually been scared. The guy was obviously speeding because there's no way in hell you can slide for 100 yards going 35mph. My dad said that if this were Bulgaria (where we're from, and the best party place in the world), somebody would have dragged that asshole out of his car and beat the shit out of him. So now my parents are just going crazy and want to sign me up for a performance driving school so in situations like this one I can do something about it instead of just sit there waiting. My dad later told me he saw exactly how it happened, that the guy skid a bit to the left, then of course out of instinct he counter-steered hard to the right and of course that was the point where he wasn't the driver anymore, but the passenger.
And that’s pretty much the whole story. I can't stop thinking to myself what would've happened if we were in the left lane of our road, or just two seconds late....
Teaching you to avoid things at seventy miles per hour is NOT taught in High Performance Driving schools, because as I said they are schools designed to teach 'racing lines". Avoiding objects that suddenly appear in your lane, whether it is a board in the road, an accident that just took place in front of you, or whether it be someone who crosses the line and comes head on, are topics taught in Safety Schools. What you are looking for is a safety school. FYI I have and still instruct these schools for BMW CCA and have instructed them for police academies.
![[rolleyes]](/images/smilies/rolleyes.png "Roll Eyes (Sarcastic) [rolleyes]")
![[:D]](/images/smilies/biggrin.png "Big Grin [:D]")
What these schools SHOULD teach you is appreciation for your car's and yourself's ability in the rain and dry. and the fact that most of the time if you feel a "little twitch" from the rear then just feather the throttle rather than bundling on the opposite lock. I'm willing to make a bet that the driver who spun not only launched the wheel round to full opposite lock but also lifted off the throttle in panic. If you know how to race round a track at the limit then these skills are passed down to everyday driving. imho safety schools try to teach you what to do when your having an accident advanced driving (which is probably more what you want) teaches you not to have one in the first place.
![[rofl]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_rofl.gif "ROFL [rofl]"){kind=icon}