My aunt and uncle gave me a vehicle safety training course for my birthday (last December!) and last weekend I got around to actually doing it. I took place on a training track of the ADAC (the German AAA) half an hour from where I live.

We learned to improve our driving under difficult conditions such as wet and slippery surfaces, curves, in unexpected situations, emergency braking (I just can't lock up my rear brakes!), hard braking while avoiding an obstacle at the same time and much more...

I was the only car in the group without ABS, ESP, airbags, stability control etc...

My wife took some video that I made into a short clip:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqa-jjraDRU

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[This message has been edited by yellowstone (edited 08-28-2007).]

Looks like fun! Props to Lyen for the good video taking too.

Lol imagine how few americans would have drivers licenses if they were subjected to german driving standards.

Your car is super nice, one of the best upgraded ones I have seen. Not bad driving either. nice work!

i did the about the same thing back in high school. it was a BSR course for defensive driveing. i think the most fun part was what they called the skid pad it was a circle that they sprayed water on and the teacher would make you throw the car sideways like drifting in on circle. then we did the whole thing with braking in the corners and stopping on ice and a whole lot of other thing. but we did not have that one giant skid pad like you that and we used old cop car. it was a blast i would recomend it to anybody that wants to have fun but also learn a lot about controlling a car when you get into that kind of promblem. by the way nice driving there and your car looks great like always does.

Cool, looks very similar to the Öamtc (Austrian version of ADAC) training course I wanted to take, pretty much since, since I turned 18. Wish the American AAA would be more like an Automobile club (offering services that clubs do) and less like a car insurance company (Insurance, roadside assistance, maps, discounts)

The closest schools I found that were similar stateside, were www.AudiDrivingExperience.com and the BMW driving school (latter having more of the "water walls" and "water spin pad" (unpredictable "water traps" as opposed to a simply wet skid pad)

Yellowstone, do you have more videos by any chance? This is really cool to watch..

-M

Do you mean videos of the driving training or Fiero videos in general? I do have the raw clips that were taken at the training course but the stuff that's in the video that I posted on YouTube is the best part. All my Fiero vids are available here: .http://www.youtube.com/resu...+fiero&search=Search

quote Originally posted by Austrian Import: Yellowstone, do you have more videos by any chance? This is really cool to watch.. -M

The water-induced spins look kinda fun. Well, at least after the first time and you stop peeing yourself.

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quote Originally posted by yellowstone: Do you mean videos of the driving training or Fiero videos in general? I do have the raw clips that were taken at the training course but the stuff that's in the video that I posted on YouTube is the best part. All my Fiero vids are available here: .http://www.youtube.com/resu...+fiero&search=Search

Driver's training. Doesn't have to be just the Fiero. Kinda curious how the other cars fared too.

quote Originally posted by InaneCathode: Lol imagine how few americans would have drivers licenses if they were subjected to german driving standards.

I can only dream that that would happen. A large portion of the American drivers should not have licenses.

ooooo! That looked like FUN!

Vidcaps of the aboce clip:

If it's still like it was when I lived in Berlin, you had to graduate from driving school just to get a license - none of this "Mom will teach you how to drive". The only place you could drive otherwise was on an 'Uebungsgelaende' - kind of like Golf'n'Stuff for unlicensed drivers.

Carwash included, cool ! I want to follow some similar course when my upgrades are done. Its good to get to know what your car does in these conditions... I tried some stuff on an icy empty parking parkinglot and did some winterdriving and that experience helped in at least one occasion to get a swinging back under control...theres no time to think so you have to react automatically !

Nice video. Question(s); during the straight run through the water were you trying to lock-up the brakes or was the spin out caused by trying to steer straight through? It seems you mastered it during the last two runs.

When the track instructor (women) came to the car, what was she saying? What was the purpose of that run? Breaking while in a curve?

Good and valid questions.

1) The straight run is fitted with a device that brakes your rear axle loose as you pass over it. The challenge is to control the car by counter-steering on a wet and slippery surface that has the traction characteristics of packed snow.

2) The purpose of the second exercise you've mentioned was emergency braking while in a curve. Easy for the other cars with ABS but I had to alternate between braking and steering. The instructor was saying that I didn't manage to lock up the rear brakes. Now I'm getting Archie's big brake kit... :-)

We did other exercises (the training was from 8:30 am to 6 pm) but either they looked unexiting on video or Lyen was too far away to make good shots.

quote Originally posted by madcurl: Nice video. Question(s); during the straight run through the water were you trying to lock-up the brakes or was the spin out caused by trying to steer straight through? It seems you mastered it during the last two runs. When the track instructor (women) came to the car, what was she saying? What was the purpose of that run? Breaking while in a curve?

I'm sure even the boring stuff might be a good teaching tool, if you add some captions to it (or walk us through what we're looking at) How much is that course anyways?

-M

I would have spent all day in the water and spun out if I were there. They did not have these places when I lived in Germany.

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Fiero Thomas
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