Nationally Accredited Advanced Driving Course

It was an early start, but Adrian from Ride Drive was keen to get on the road and onto the lanes of Essex and Suffolk, so we could get a good full day for my Advanced Driving Course.

Adrian is a police advanced driver, trained to the top level of skill, and yet turned up to my house on a bicycle! After he chucked his gear into the boot of the Chimaera, we were off.

Mine is a Nationally Accredited Advanced Driving Course

Today, I was doing the a Ride Drive Nationally accredited advanced driving course comprising of a whole day of practical driver skills input. This is one on one full day full fat programme driving your own car whilst your trainer talks you through advanced driving techniques and other progressive skills.

Initially, we headed to Essex, driving through the B–roads and A–roads of the countyside. It wasn’t long before Adrian had assessed my driving and began to impliment the required changes.

I am sure we have all heard about making the most of our position on the road, especially the bikers among you, but actually in practice it is hard to break with your previous experience. And it is apparent we are all doing it wrong.

Changing Gear Should be One of the Easiest Aspects
But Turned Out to be One of the Hardest

Just as hard for me were the other principles of advanced motoring, especially the gears. Previously, I was one of the best drivers in the world; just a terrible mix up at birth stopped me from following Jenson Button into F1. Now I am rendered useless when changing gear! Still, perseverance is the key and after a bit of assurance from Adrian that most people find it difficult, I was soon getting the hang of taping all these techniques together.

Moving up through the beautiful villages of Suffolk, Adrian’s eyes lit up when we got to some overtaking opportunities. This is a key part of the course and the techniques learnt in this section gave me great confidence (not to be confused with cockyness) for future manoeuvres.

A Lesson in Overtaking & How to Make it Easier

I always operated on a safety first basis before and as it seems I may have been a little over cautions. Not a problem there of course, but with the techniques Adrian installed in me through the day, and also the confidence in the power of the car, we were able to make the moves in a safe and efficient manner, and where I would not have even considered attempting overtaking before.

Perhaps reading this away from the environment at the time may seem as though Ride Drive is promoting fast and furious driving, but this is not the case.

As Adrian explained, overtaking is a manoeuvre that everyone gets wrong and so the only way to learn how to do it safely is to practice under expert advice. Certainly the way I have now been taught to do it makes it a heck of alot less stressful, easier, mor econtrolled and ultimately safer.

Travelling in the Right Speed, in the Right Position
and at the Right Speed at all Times

Obviously observation is critical when driving and judging what the road ahead is doing. So whilst driving we were looking out for indicators of what may be in the road ahead. This included dust carts, unruly children, loose dogs, farm machinery etc.

With indicators and Adrian’s vast experience it was clear to see how no criminal can expect to escape the eye of the law. Of course our observation is key in setting up our car for the road ahead too.

Using techniques of road reading and interpreting other visual aids we were able to make sure we had the right position speed and gear for the road ahead at all times.

The Ride Drive Ethos

Over lunch, Adrian had explained that Ride Drive is owned by ex–police driver, Julian Smith, who’s objective it was to impart greater knowledge to drivers in the name of safety, and at the same time to allow them to still have fun on the road, but in a controlled manner.

This is because Julian found that as a traffic police officer (a department now called Roads Policing) he attended quite a collisions that featured cars from the beloved Bristol Road, nearly all of which could have been avoided with just a little advanced driver training.

After lunch the drive around the B–roads of Suffolk was superb, flying form village to village (you are encouraged to drive to your ability of course (speed limits are obeyed at all times), reading the road and actively looking for overtaking opportunities was a lot of fun, especially with Adrian’s encouragement and knowledge.

Eight hours later we were back at my house and going through a few points and questions about the course. All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and the techniques and confidence you get from the experience are well worth it.

Thank you Ride Drive, it was worth every penny.

James Burbridge
Blackheath,
London

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This page was last updated
Thursday, 09-Dec-2010

Nationally Accredited Advanced Driving Course