Glad you are OK :) Sorry about the car :(

I wrote off a Focus in what sounds like similarly spectacular fashion, but if you are not too young and have a wife, insurance should not be too horrendous I hope, especially with protected NCB.

Training will improve your confidence to not repeat the same again.

I don't think people should sing the praises of AWD like they do, it is an absolute B****** when it does stop gripping and with the roads like they are at the moment, there will be more and more threads on overboost and lift off oversteer unfortunately. Happens every year.

Low profile tyres with stiffer springs and big wheels also don't work too well in the wet and your sweet handling car from the summer can end up a complete nightmare in the wet.

Imprezas are very easy to drive to a point IMHO, but they bite pretty hard beyond that.

[Edited by john banks - 11/5/2002 5:53:54 PM]

Sorry to hear that, TomCat.

Totally agree with MGJohn - everyone should be made to ride a bike before getting a car!! :eek: Radical I know, but there's a lot of truth in that theory.


(Disclaimer: Not all motorcyclists are sensible/safe/whatever. Just had to add this before people start saying about this kn0b they saw the other day.....)

[Edited by V5 - 11/6/2002 9:26:17 AM]

3 weeks after buying an MY99 WRX, my first Scooby, I've written it off - my first accident in 12 years. Luckily, I didn't hurt anyone else. I came out of it unhurt too - the Scooby protected me to the end.
Crazy thing is, in the past I've driven my xr2i like a complete idiot but got away with it. This time I wasn't driving dangerously fast, I hung back until there was a decent gap before overtaking. It was on a damp, muddy B road though and I guess I hit a patch of mud or standing water and lost the back end, and next thing I knew I was upside down in a hedge.
The guy who helped me out, and the Police he called, and the ambulance they called were all superb. Seeing the state of the car I was taken to hospital in a neck brace on a back board, though I felt OK - sensible precaution but I really was OK. Felt bad for wasting all their time though.
Seeing the car the day after I can see why they reacted as they did. Not one panel undamaged, not one light unbroken, nearly all the windows broken too. I took 2 whole rolls of film so I'll never forget.

Anyway, the point of this long post is this - assuming my insurance company will let me (dreading the next renewal as it'll be a fault claim, despite protected NCD) - where do I learn to drive the next one? Any ideas for driver training/ skid pans etc near Bristol to learn to handle the power?
I'm sure I'm laying myself open to "couldn't handle the power" type stuff - but I want to learn how to.

Have you seen Saxo boys thread :D

Do an advanced driving course. Superb for learning "making progress" whilst recognising potential problems.

I think it's more learning appropriate speed for the conditions than handling the power. And before anyone misinterprets what I've said, I don't mean not driving quickly.

I'm sure other people will suggest driver courses and plenty more will drive you out of town with burning crosses. ;)

One thing comes to mind though, if you crash another car and a paramedic tells you to lie still and don't move TAKE THEIR ADVICE. ;) Spinal injuries often don't hurt, but a sudden move and it's a bath chair for life. It's the same with head injuries, you might be perfectly ok straight after the accident, but twelve hours later, you drop dead, it's known as "the lucid interval".

here are a couple of links that I have looked at. cant recommend either one as I havent tried them yet but both come very highly recommended by other people.

http://www.drivingdevelopment.co.uk/


http://www.1stlotus.com/

bad luck by the way. glad you came out in 1 piece.

Steve

Bad time of year - lots of dirt on the road and pesky leaves.
Had an interesting slide in mine at the weekend driving slower than normal caught me by surprise. Guess even scoobs arent invincible.

Castle Combe do skid pan training Skid pan, probably the closest to you.

Just to say I hope it works out okay with the police and insurance etc

Sorry to hear you didn't get away with it like I did. Thank god you asked about advanced driving or you may well be getting flamed to death for what happened!!!

Previous steed = XR2i....

'Nuff Said.

Mak.

Can anyone spot the similarities here between this and SB's post? ;)

Previous car, FWD: predictable, safe understeer when you overstep the mark (that's why most 'family cars' are FWD)
Current car, AWD: any one of a number of things can happen, and suddenly, when you overstep the mark (oversteer, understeer, wombling free :D)

LOL at Carl's 'oversteer, understeer, wombling free' :)

In addition to the many fine advanced driver and skid pan type car driver training available, any driver can really benefit enormously if he/she spends some time on two wheels on our roads for a year or two. Survive that and you will NEVER be caught out by manhole covers, so called black ice, slippery leaves (which for some reason appear every autumn regular as ...:)) diesel spills, sudden fog, dosy car drivers - yes some drive scoobies too :)- and all the other hazards which affect two wheel riders.

Like many experienced drivers, I'm an uneasy passenger except when alongside a driver who has some of that extra sense usually only obtained the hard way as a motorcyclist. Any other drivers see and feel things this way? Be interested in any thoughts on these lines.

MGJohn - The problem with learning road skills on a bike is that if you make a mistake it's gonna hurt.

I'd say join the IAM, they teach you to be aware of hazards and to improve your observation.

When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought "oh, that's another few quid on my insurance due to someone elses incompetance."

However, TomCat does genuinely appear to want to improve his driving skills to avoid something similar happening again - and that can only be a good thing.

Perhaps you're not gonna be able to afford a Scoob for a year or two, but the main lessons to be learnt from advanced driving - observation, positioning, correct speed for conditions - can be learnt in any car. The IAM do seem to use some methods of car control which I don't get along with, but the basics are well worth learning.

Road conditions at this time of year are very unpredictable - wet roads, leaves etc - and I'd be the first to admit to going slower than the odd Clio, just to allow a bit of extra margin for the unexpected......

Try one of Motorsport Events acadamy days , see their web site.
Try Ride Drive do almost all TVR training

Thanks everyone for the constructive advice & sympathy.
DavidRB - couldn't agree more. I did exactly what the medical people told me to - they are professionals, I'ld just crashed a perfectly good car.

wilf - thanks. Police who attended very sympathetic, but final decision not down to them. Insurance is elephant.co.uk, seem pretty together so far. I'll have to see how I get on.

Carl - thats it... back in the xr2i it feels much less safe, but it gives lots of warnings near the limit. loads of body roll, runs wide etc etc

MGJohn - used to ride a bike (no motor though) round Bristol, until a friend got knocked off hers at a roundabout. Put me off anything but bike tracks & deserted lanes

Try just cycling a push bike on the roads and even that soon makes you a hell of a lot more aware on the roads and does you the world of good when you climb into your ton of killer metal :)