I get the driver performance arguement Learning how to react and control the car in normal adn extreme situations. I was fortunate to learn driving dynamics first with bikes, then motorcycles then gocarts.
However, I 'm not too old though to rmember the night I drove into the back of a large, parked station wagon when I was 16. Going a blistering 25 mph...why, she was very cute, funny, liked me and .....in the backseat! while I was supposed to be driving. Never saw it. just bang. No recovery from the bad decision, no turing into the skid, no brake pumping or antilock planted foot. no brake modulation, no understeer avoidance no understanding of wieght transfer. blah blah blah. No experimentation here, just my poor decision to look at the hottie in the backseat while putting around a side street curve. Forgot I was driving the car. I was lucky. just going 25. I had been know to go a lot faster most of the time... same scenario on a unmarked back road going say 50ish hitting a big tree? and it would be a different story. Nobody forgets they are driving or is distracted during a driving clinic. They are really focused. somehow we have to teach our teens how important it is to not to be distracted, when, as a teen, you are easily distracted by just about everything. Focus First.
Best lesson I ever learned was in drivers ed. After stopping at the stop sign the instructor place his clip board over the guage panel and asked how much fuel we had? I said enough? He said when you are driving the car your head needs to be driving the car.
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