Have you ever been in an emergency situation in your car that had you wishing you knew what to do? Most drivers would think that the only thing to do is to slam on the brakes and hope for the best, but there are ways to get out of a situation practically and there are driver training classes and clinics for people like you and I to attend to hone our driving skills.
While there are a number of driver training classes readily available locally, BMW Malaysia recently held their own MINI Driver Training program for the very first time in Malaysia, and it’s impressive.
Among the exercises at the program include simple exercises in typical traffic and hazardous conditions with speeds of up to 50 to 60km/h (fast enough to create some serious damage for car and driver); utilizing the right seating posture for driving and rehearsing precise and swift steering movement. And also on the menu were exercises for emergency and targeted braking together with lightning fast evasive action when confronted with an obstacle as well as familiarizing ourselves with understeer, the greatest enemy for any driver on the road (oversteer is fun so its okay).
The best part of the program however was an exercise that could never be used on the road but ideal for getting away from the bad guys. MINI calls it ‘Agent Turn’, some call it the reverse flick and others call it the J turn. It’s basically reversing as fast as possible, pop into N (for an auto transmission), flick the steering wheel into whichever direction, wait till it straightens out, pop back into D and blast away. Effin’ cool!! Really makes you feel like Steve McQueen.
Instructors for the program included some accomplished local rally drivers and racers like Ivan Khong, Hammond Lai, Hamdan Rohman and Irwan Ismail. I, together with other bloggers, were invited over to experience the inaugural MINI Driver training, a great honour but it was the vast collective amount of driving experience that made learning from the instructors all the more interesting.
Where some driver training programs assign you and your group to only one or two trainers to learn from, the MINI Driver Training Program ensures that you learn from all the trainers there. Each exercise is done by two instructors who take turns to train you and even offer personal advice when needed.
Two drivers are paired to a single car and we are all instructed via walkie. The instructors stand around the course at separate strategic points and observe our hand positioning, sitting posture, driving behavior, car balance, and make suggestions via the walkie to make sure you're doing it right.
The first lesson is car control; we are instructed to drive through a slalom course without knocking over any cones. This allows you to practice your steering positioning, throttle modulation and car feel. It is only when you get this right that you get to increase your speed, which you are later required to do. This is also a prerequisite to all the other exercises. But the trainers make you run the course so many times that by the end of it, doing it blindfolded would be no problem at all.
Next up is an exercise important for all of us, whether you’re an accomplished racer or a regular driver. Our daily lives require us to spend a lot of time on the roads these days, this increases your chance of being caught by surprise by a suicidal durian falling off a truck, or a suicidal cat that suddenly decided that the most comfortable place is the middle of the road.
Both durian and cat can do some serious damage to your car and in a situation where you loose balance of the car when trying to avoid them, spinning away dangerously is also dangerously possible. The MINI driver training prepares you both mentally and physically to counter such a situation. Seating position, hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel, and alertness allows you to brake and swerve to avoid the prickly thorns or a bloody mess. Of course, you do have to somewhat rely on the ABS so you can actually maneuver, it’s a combination of man and MINI that can get you out of a sticky situation.
Next up is a display of how the traction control actually works to help you and why leaving it on can save your life and MINI. You have to barrel towards a wet piece of concrete and try to do a 180 around a cone and head back to your starting point. Easy, no? Of course it is, with the traction control on. Without it, the distance that it takes to turn back around is longer and wider from the point where you wanted to turn because the tyres have zero grip, so you actually have to wait a while for the rubber to make contact with the road. And in a real life situation, the wait could be very costly.
The traction control on the MINI works like any other system, it calculates the amount of slip on each wheel, and distributes power to the wheel with the most grip. So the next time you’re thinking of turning off the system, think twice (track days are an exception).
So after all the exercises were done and the last drop of coffee finished off, it was time to mark the end of the day with some track time. But before that, it was a time attack challenge around the slalom course that tests everything you have learned through the day. The winner got to take home some interesting gifts including a RM100 fuel voucher.
Yes, we got to take the MINI’s out on track for a full 3 laps per driver. Though we had a pace car guiding us, it was still plenty of fun with the MINI's go-kart like handling characteristics, especially in turns 5 going to 6 and 12 going to 13, where the track really tests the balance of the car. It had me thinking that the MINI would actually be a pretty good race car.
The MINI Driver Training Program is open for everyone and for a price of RM1700, you too can learn from some of the best drivers in the country on how best to maximize the potential of your car, yourself, and the best ways to get out of prickly situations. For more details and to find out when's the next class, click here.
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