Defensive Driver Training

21 May 2023 / Words and photos John Chapuis

Canberra Chapter – MX-5 Defensive Course 26 April 2023

Thirteen members of the Chapter and two guests arrived at the appointed time at the Sutton Road Driver Training Centre, several remembering with a shudder the drag of driving half-way across Canberra to work during peak hour. Some were waiting with anticipation, some with excitement and some were just downright scared! At 8:30 we met our five instructors and got introduced. First step of the day, immediately after the introductions, was a vehicle inspection, checking tyre pressures and that the vehicles had the requisite fluids (especially brake fluid) to get through the day. We not only had MX-5s (no NAs) but a Mazda 2, a BMW, a Subaru and a Merc.  Once the instructors were happy, and we knew why tyres needed pressure, and engines oil and brake fluid, we headed to the classroom for a coffee.

The coffee – or more correctly the lack thereof – caused some folk more trouble than their cars. We followed our break with a briefing on cornering, apexing and braking. Then into our cars for some laps around the tight and twisty track. The instructors hot seated themselves between the cars and we maintained three-second intervals, starting off very conservatively, as we acquired confidence, the speeds increased and the cornering, shifting and braking became much smoother. I think we all learned a little more about our skills and gained an appreciation of what our cars could do.

Mike stretches the legs on his toy

Following track work, we went into braking practice. For this exercise several imaginary 8-year-old children were to be employed as well as witches’ hats and our ABS brakes. The mantra we all had to whisper was ‘Trust Your ABS’. Unfortunately, one car did not have this feature and he stood out after the first run, smoking tyres leaving skid marks along the road. At 60, 70, and over 75 kph we drove down a straight and applied our brakes fast and hard to engage our ABS. Several 8-year-olds were sacrificed in this first attempt. But once we learnt that the car and its brakes would not explode, we became more confident in our abilities and the cars’ abilities to stop and steer when the ABS was applied. 

There where skid marks everywhere after the brake testing

Once we had done this on multiple occasions we headed of back to the classroom for lunch, coffee/tea, and lies. Having completed that we then had a session which involved a Motorkhana event. Those with the bigger cars had to work a little harder to achieve the goals, weaving in and around orange cones to reverse ‘park in a garage’, negotiate (in reverse) a winding track, escape a small enclosure with a 5-point turn, and zip through a tight four/six/eight-leaf clover track. Those who had their necks on a swivel had no real problems and those of us who could not remember a simple sequence got terribly confused, lost and knocked over lots of witches’ hats. 

Meanwhile two cars at a time were on the skid pan. With traction control switched off, we were all a little tentative, but quickly realised the tail-end of an MX-5 can catch the front if you squirt the go-peddle hard enough. Once we got the hang of it we realised that the MX-5 could do what we wanted with ease, and it became lots of fun.

Plenty of sideways experiences

The day finished back in the classroom where we discussed situational awareness (or the lack of it) and a quiz on give way rules, which was easily the noisiest part of the day. I’m happy to report that nobody got a 100% and yet we are still on the roads.

Learning some give way rules

It was an enjoyable day. We all learnt about our driving and our cars and learnt to appreciate the safety features of our cars and the modern MX-5.  It was impressive, under controlled conditions, to experience the difficulty of trying to create under and over steering in the MX-5. We all left with a new mantra – TRUST IN YOUR ABS. Hopefully we will all be better drivers as a result.

There are plenty of more photos on our Facebook page.