Improving Driving Skills & Skid-Control Training – Late-to-Mid 1978
Knowing that lives depended upon my driving competence and skill, I had insisted that my original formal driving lessons, during late-May 1973 to late-June 1974, should include as many road types & conditions as possible, plus adverse-weather and night-time conditions as well. Leaving “no stone unturned”, my instructor also insisted that I develop competence in reversing downhill around corners and other forms of complex manoeuvring in confined spaces; skills that were later to stand me in good stead, both in Great Britain and overseas.
Sometime during the late 1970s, I decided the time was right to further develop my driving skills, beyond the basic competence required for the ordinary driving test, which I had passed at the tender age of 18½, at the third attempt, on 1st July 1974. Preparing for the IAM – Institute of Advanced Motoring test and subsequent continuous membership fees, seemed prohibitively expensive, but in mid-to-late 1978, the local Road Safety Committee, of Castle Point District Council, offered what was described as a “Driver Advisory Course”, at the modest fee of £6•00 in total, to cover police expenses, provision of text books etc, conducted at the local council offices’ building, by police A1 pursuit driving instructors, from the Essex Police Driving School in Chelmsford, which also had a modest-sized skid pan.
The theoretical “class-room” based part of the course (4 x 2 hours), comprised narrated films and slide shows, plus an initial written test of our knowledge about the Highway Code, and recognition & interpretation of road signs. We were also given a personal copy of the police driving manual “Roadcraft” (upon which the IAM course was based), then priced at £0•34, that I still have in the automotive & motoring section of my home library.
Home Office, “Roadcraft – The Police Drivers’ Manual”, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 2nd Edition, 1968, Second Impression (with amendments), 1974, ISBN 0-11-340561-8
I scored 20 out of 20 (i.e. 100%) on road-sign recognition, but only 22½ out of 24 (i.e. 93•75%) on knowledge of the Highway Code (of which I still have a reasonably up-to-date copy; purchased in the public-library’s second-hand book sale), but this still placed me top of the class, in which only one or two scored more than 80%, and many scored less than 50%. It was stressed that the ability to quickly & accurately recognise & interpret warning, information and direction signs, was of paramount importance in quickly informing the driver’s decision of how to react to some of the hazards ahead.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code
http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/
http://toptests.co.uk/highway-code/
https://www.learnerdriving.com/learn-to ... hway-code/
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Hig ... &FORM=IGRE
Although some aspects of this theoretical instruction, now seem to have been incorporated into the current piecemeal driving test (e.g. hazard-recognition videos), it was a revelation to witness how one could improve one’s observation skills to better anticipate what other road users (e.g. motor-vehicle drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, horse riders, pedestrians and others) might possibly do next and be mindful of potential escape routes if the worst happened.
They highlighted how information about junction layout and probable zones of visibility, could be deduced from direction road signs (white characters & symbols on a green rectangular background). Other important topics were: how to keep the car “balanced”; choosing one’s line through bends, roundabouts and other junctions; positioning the car relative to the road and other vehicles, to optimise zones of vision under all driving conditions and provide acceleration space for overtaking when both necessary and safe to do so.
At the end of the theoretical course, we spent a whole Saturday, at the Essex Police Driving School. During the day, as groups of three passengers in the police cars, we accompanied A1-category police pursuit drivers, simulating pursuit driving (no sirens or flashing lights!) on the rural roads of Essex, as they gave a running commentary about their observations, plus what they were doing and why. We also had individual instruction in our own cars, on the Essex Police Driving School’s skid pan.
Although at that time, I probably had more experience of driving the family’s 1973 VW 1600 Type 2 campervan (the first vehicle that I ever drove solo, in mid-1975, at the age of 19½), it was decided that the nimbler 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300, with its more precise rack & pinion steering, much smaller 29¾ feet turning-circle (between kerbs | bettered by few if any other cars, besides the London taxi’s 25 feet turning-circle) and better all-round visibility, would be more appropriate to initial skid-control training.
It had always been impressed upon me that if I ever got into a skid, I should NEVER brake or declutch under any circumstances; relying solely on steering and throttle to re-establish control! When I first ventured onto the skidpan, my initial reaction to the feeling of increasingly light steering was to gently ease off the throttle, to avoid the likelihood of skidding; something I did instinctively without conscious thought.
I was gently admonished by my police instructor who praised such a response in normal driving, but reminded me that I was actually trying to cause the car to skid, so that I could learn to control it after the event. He must have been reasonably impressed by my subsequent performance, because he later had me performing more advanced manoeuvres under controlled-skid conditions, which the other course members didn’t try.
One manoeuvre I particularly recall, is that of undertaking a controlled skid in a semi-circular arc (akin to a technique used by rally drivers to quickly negotiate sharp bends at high speed, in rear-wheel-drive cars), using a combination of throttle and opposite steering lock, followed by termination of the skid to re-establish normal steering control and negotiate a slalom course of traffic cones and then re-initiate the controlled skid in a semi-circular arc, to again repeat the exercise. It was a useful and very enjoyable exercise!
I cannot take all of the credit, for the successful completion of my skid-control training. I believe the Toledo’s light, sensitive, precise steering, combined with the very progressive throttle, made it so much easier to achieve. I don’t know whether I could have done it as well, driving other cars!
During the winter of 1978/79, when I was on teaching practice at Abbs Cross School (an 11~18 year age-group secondary school) in Hornchurch, Havering (an eastern borough of Greater London), the non-availability of train services one day, obliged me to drive there in the Toledo instead.
For reasons that I cannot recall, this involved driving along the narrow country lane between West Horndon and Upminster, which had a severe camber and was completely covered with slippery, hard-packed snow. Although driving at a modest speed, the car started to
fishtail at some stage; the car’s rear noticeably oscillating from side to side. I immediately responded by gently easing off the accelerator pedal by only a few millimetres, which instantly suppressed the
fishtailing and restored stability.
“What is Fishtailing?”, Blog, OPONEO.CO.UK , Updated 2nd February 2021
https://www.oponeo.co.uk/blog/what-is-fishtailing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishtailing
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According to the following publication, turning circles of the front-wheel drive Triumph 1300/1300TC and 1500 are:
John Millward, “Triumph 1300/1500 Car Repair Manual, 1965~1973”, Autodata Ltd., 1980, ISBN 0-85666-049-3
Triumph 1300/1300TC 30 feet 0 inches (9•14 metres) – 3 inches more than Toledo
Triumph 1500 33 feet 0 inches (10•06 metres) – 3 feet 3 inches more than Toledo
I have yet to find any turning-circle specifications, for the other small 1960s to 1980s Triumphs, such as the Dolomite, Herald & Vitesse, Spitfire & GT6 and TR-Series.
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In 1991, I came across the following article in a newspaper (whether local or national, I cannot recall), about stunt-driver Jacquie De Creed, of Popes Court, Stratton, Cirencester, who was said to be the only woman in the World, who could drive a car on two wheels. Eight years earlier in 1983, she was included in the Guiness Book of Records, after setting a new record of 232 feet (i.e. 72 metres) for the Long Distance Car Ramp Jump, in a specially prepared Ford Mustang, having approached the jumping ramp at 140 mph.
The photograph which accompanied the newspaper article, implies that her car of choice for driving on two wheels, was either a Triumph Toledo 1300 or Triumph Dolomite 13/1500 (although the car’s C-prefix registration number suggests the latter), and she claimed to have managed a distance of one mile doing this in the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquie_de_Creed
http://jacquiedecreed.com/
http://www.dicksheppard.co.uk/close-to-the-edge/
Needless to say, the advanced driving techniques covered by the Essex Police Driving School instructors, during our “Driver Advisory Course”, did
NOT include either of driving on two wheels or ramp-jumping a car!
Stunt-driver Jacquie De Creed, driving a Triumph Toledo 1300 or Triumph Dolomite 13/1500 on two wheels