Last Sunday (15-Jan-2012), Celine, Jessica and myself attended a basic defensive driving course at the Eastern Creek Raceway. We’ve had this in our calendar for sometime now but with our CRV figuring in an accident last September and basically at the smash repairs for almost all of October, we finally found a weekend where we can all do it.
A full day course will probably not suddenly or magically turn you into a defensive driver but there were a few tips we took away from the course. The most dramatic is realising how the ABS brakes work when you have to slam the brakes on an emergency. And there were practical tips from keys to seat belts and driving positions that can easily be adopted.
We were divided into 3 groups. The Holden, Ford and Subaru group – all 3 of us stayed with the Subaru Group. After a short introduction – our group drove off to the far end of the race track and practiced emergency braking. At first we accelerated at 40kph before slamming on the brake. Then 60kph , 80 kph and 100kph. At 60kph – the instructor jumped infront of my way forcing me to react and slam the brakes as hard and my heart went racing too. At the next 2 speeds of 80 and 100 – you can now appreciate the ABS braking and generally how good are the brakes of our cars.
I always had that fear that if I slam on the break that my car will spin like that in the movies. Yet at 100kph and slamming the break as hard as you could – the car simply pumped into a halt similar to someone pumping the brakes although my foot was on the brakes all the time. The race track gave the perfect opportunity to try this as it is unsafe if not illegal to be doing this on the road unless it’s a real emergency.
We were also suppose to be able to try our dynamic stability control. The feature of our car to automatically correct itself if it was violently swerved to avoid a collision. But I believe this takes more practice than the 4 that was given to us. By the time I swerve my foot stays on the brake rather than getting back to the accelerator and recovering – or on real life going back to track to avoid on coming traffic.
The day was fun – Jessica got a lot of praises from the instructor for her Mazda SP25. She’s now convinsed that her car will accelerate and stop faster than my Honda Accord Euro. Celine’s Honda CRV does not have a dynamic stability control but she aced the brake-swerve and recover manuever better than I did.
Next – Celine and Jessica is now planning to attend the ‘Galmatic’ – a girl only course that teaches auto-mechanics, conducted also by a female mechanic. I just hope this two do not turn into rev-heads 
Rommel Pascual is the Web Administrator of the SEAWIND Network
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hi rommel, it is adrenaline pumping to attend courses like that. i attended one, not as a participant, mind you kasi i still dont have my licence that time. it was for people aged 60 and above. there was one lady with a new car, naku, she damaged her car that day when she wasnt able to break in time during the wet street training. takot tuloy din ako. am glad everything went well during your course!
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Rommel Pascual reply on February 10th, 2012 7:15 am:
I wonder if we would have hesitated if any of the participants had a mishap. It was a big group and all went well. The biggest drama was that they simplified the backward slalom because a lot of the participants have difficulty reversing, and the number of cars waiting at the end of the track was building up. Then it was becoming increasingly dangerous if someone – as you said – miss their brakes at high speed.
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