Lately, I’ve been right back on my soapbox about how any moron can get a driver’s license, regardless of skill, willingness to learn, care behind the wheel, or even synapse functionality. You can thank Craig Fitzgerald for spooling me up this time, after he mentioned that nowhere in the Massachusetts driver’s manual does it mention how to panic-stop with a vehicle with anti-lock brakes, but has plenty of information regarding vehicle titles. I’ll admit, the first time I tried to panic stop on an icy road with a car that had anti-lock brakes (a 2001 Buick Regal in 2006, eight years after I first started driving in snowy conditions) that the buzzing from the system working actually scared the hell out of me. Prior to, I only had older, non-ABS vehicles, excepting a Dodge Ram I never drove in the snow and a Chevy Blazer that was such a turd that it probably didn’t work.
But why stop at ABS, or traction and stability control? If you want to drive, you should know how to operate your machine, right? I’m sure using family history isn’t the most subjective point, but for my sister, it worked out. She isn’t a gearhead by any stretch of the imagination and we all knew it. I had attempted cutting her loose in that Blazer, and she managed to scare the hell out of me AND get the wonder wagon to do a burnout, something I struggled to do on my best day. It was my dad who got through to her…he took her to the snow-covered parking lot in a park near the house, put her behind the wheel of his 1985 Chevy K-20, and taught her how to drive sideways. Or, in my mother’s parlance, “drive like an asshole”. Donuts, skids, fishtails, Rockfords, brake-induced slides…he made her do it all. And she did it, without stuffing the Chevy into the trees. She nailed her driver’s test and even to this day believes that the training my dad put her through helped with her confidence.
So…let’s think about this for a minute. Picture a driver’s training school where they have a fleet of cars, a skidpad, and some other courses. You pay a fee and for a week or two, they teach you how to drive in a manner that is most certainly not approved by the DMV. Pass the course, and you score a reprieve on your insurance or something like that. We aren’t talking a rally school or a stunt-driving academy, but a skill-increasing setup that focuses on driver behavior. Would you be for it?
I work for a big name auto manufacture in the design/test area. I hear pretty often other co workers saying how they were driving a car/truck with no antilock and slid into something. These are the people designing the stuff………
Sure, I could use more practice dealing with what happens on the wrong side of the ragged edge myself. Haven’t managed to get nearly enough racing seat time lately.
Mandatory as a part of driver’s ed in Sweden.
I don’t care what nanny systems are or are not on your car – learn to drive your car with whatever systems it has – because, and I know this will be a surprise to no one who reads these pages, they operate differently. For example, I had a Land Rover with nannys that was hateful to drive in the snow, until you put it in 4 lock (it was awd), then it handled in the snow with aplomb because that action turned the nanny off.