One slick gift

START YOUR ENGINES: Driving lessons from Pro Drive Driving School make for a practical and unique present

By JEFF ZURSCHMEIDE

The Portland Tribune, Dec 15, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Photos Courtesy of Jeff Zurschmeide

Pro Drive Driving School skid cars help teach simple skills for driving in rain, snow and icy conditions. Todd Harris says at Pro Drive they teach drivers to think and use a new skill set that will help them in a skid.

Surveys indicate that most people believe that they are above-average drivers – and that all the other drivers on the road are the ones who need driving lessons.

Clearly, some people are fooling themselves.

So with the giving — season upon us and the winter weather making for challenging driving conditions, a gift certificate to a fun but practical driving school may be the perfect way to say, “I care.”

In three hours, Todd Harris and his Pro Drive Driving School instructors can teach you or your loved ones some simple skills that can help avoid a winter driving accident.

“We start with a half-hour classroom session, and the rest of the time is spent in the skid car,” Harris says. “We present the ideas and then get in the car and practice.

“It seems easy when we present in the classroom, but as soon as someone gets into the car and goes into the first skid, it’s a different story,” Harris says.

The skid car is an ordinary Toyota Camry with an automatic transmission that’s outfitted with hydraulic “training wheels” that the instructor controls from the passenger seat.

During the session, the instructor can raise the car’s front or rear wheels enough to simulate snow or ice on the road.

“What’s great about the skid car is that we can give them the worst-case scenario. We can re-create rain or snow, and we can even make it as slippery as an ice-skating rink,” Harris says.

Pro Drive instructors set up a driving course on the large parking lots at Portland International Raceway, simulating normal road turns that a driver may encounter.

The instructor works with the students to help them understand the dynamics of car control under limited traction and how to respond, rather than panic, when the car loses grip.

“We try to teach people to think. They’re getting a knowledge base and a skill set that can help them in a skid,” Harris says. “When we’re out here at a nice slow speed, we can tell them what they did and then the information starts to sink in.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit