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by John Deveson
Observer, Newbury Group of Advanced Motorists
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I was driving home late one wet evening in Dublin when a pedestrian ran from a side street and crossed the road in front of me and a car coming in the opposite direction, against a red light. No doubt he was in a hurry to get to the nearby pub before closing time. The consequence was some bent metal, dented pride and a depleted bank balance but luckily no injuries. That was thirty years ago and I have often wondered if I could have coped with situation any better. So when Tony Parish announced a training session at the Goodwood skid pan I was one of the first to sign up. |
Note the tyre tracks and the direction in which the front wheels are pointing! |
Eleven members of the Group took part – six in the morning and five in the afternoon. I was booked on the afternoon session and arrived as the morning group was finishing. I was pleased to hear that they had all enjoyed themselves.
The 2½ hour course began with a brief theory lesson and safety rules. We were told about the causes of skids and how to extricate ourselves from both the front wheel and rear wheel variety – as advanced motorists we all knew the theory but it was good to have a reminder.
Then it was down to the skid pan itself to see if we could put theory into practice. The Goodwood pan is tarmac flooded with a mixture of vegetable oil and water and the car was an ancient Ford Sierra (rear-wheel drive) with almost bald tyres.
The practice session was divided into three sections. First the instructor demonstrated how front and rear wheel skids occur and how to control them. We each then had some practice under his guidance. The thing which I found most difficult was to force myself NOT to drive in accordance with the prevailing conditions – but to do so would have been an utter waste of time!
Next we each had about ten minutes practice without the instructor but with one of our fellow pupils as a passenger. At this stage we all became rather more adventurous which gave us a chance to hone our newly-acquired skills. There was some fairly spectacular driving but only one person (who shall remain nameless – but it wasn’t me!) hit the cones.
In the final session we learnt to practice cadence braking and then to go round in a figure of eight without skidding.
All this took place at speeds of no more than 10-15 mph and so I wondered how the situation related to real life. Our instructor told us that, because of the extremely slippery conditions things happened at about the same speed as they would on an ordinary wet road in a car with correctly inflated tyres.
Was it a day and £40 well spent? The answer is most definitely yes. We all felt much more confident in our ability to control a skid should we have the misfortune to find ourselves in such a situation. It was interesting to note that a front wheel skid can begin almost without the driver noticing – the only sign being that the car is going straight on instead of in the intended direction.
And finally, having taken a few lap times, it was interesting to note that the flamboyant drivers didn’t get around any faster than the more cautious ones.