Chris Bingham
Member
Registered: 30th Mar 02
Location: In Scotland
User status: Offline
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This may have been covered before but just wanted to post up my thoughts about a driving experience I bought my girlfriend for Knockhill.
She wanted to learn a bit about car control and I thought it would be good to get her a Skid Control course. I'm quite near to Knockhill so decided to book one there.
The blurb on the website reads thus:-
“Learn life saving driving skills!
Come along to Scotland’s only Skid Pan at Knockhill Racing Circuit and take part in our Skid Control experience. Learn new driving skills to help you when driving in wet road conditions, skidding on black ice or even aquaplaning. This is a must for all drivers and is all done in a safe and relaxed environment in our front and rear wheel drive cars. Learn advanced driving skills that will help in all adverse driving conditions.
A Skid Control course is a perfect gift idea”
Images that go along with the text show a Seat Ibiza and also a stopwatch and clipboard
Total Cost – £119
So we booked up and went over....
We got there and the 2 instructors came out and took my g/f and the three other people on the course at the same time into a room. I remained in the 'waiting room' I presumed at this point that they would give them a talk about skid control, teach them a bit of theory, tell them what they would be doing over the next couple of hours etc. After about 3 minutes, I hear a video being played to the people on the course. This probably lasted about 10 minutes. I felt it was pretty lazy to show a video instead of actually explaining it.
I was hoping that the driving would make up for it.
I’ve been on a skid control course before with the police and I was driving an Omega with the full rig and castors etc. All kitted out to simulate different conditions etc, you know the one.
Knockhill use 3 cars in total for this – 2 Vauxhall Vectras and a Ford Sierra. Total cost from auction would have been under £1000 I reckon. As far as I could see, they are prepared by having bald, over inflated tyres.
They went out to the skid pan where all 3 people on the course piled into the car and the instructor gave them a demo of understeer in the Vectra. Each person in turn then took a shot of doing the same thing which was basically driving in a figure of 8 and putting the power down during the turn to invoke power-on understeer. My g/f came to take a shot and was asking a lot of questions and the instructor was pretty sarcastic at points. Total time behind the wheel for each person – 7 or 8 minutes.
The rear wheel drive was ever so slightly more exciting, again figure of 8s while pushing the tail out in the Sierra. My g/f was pretty nervous of this and was looking for a bit of reassurance that she was in a safe environment, couldn’t crash etc but that reassurance never came. When the instructor did his demo figure of 8s, he was just basically using this as a drift demonstration and, I felt, showing off. Time behind the wheel – 10 minutes maximum.
The final part was the braking control. Vehicle of choice – Vauxhall Vectra. This has been prepared to turn on and off ABS. This time they went up and down a straight bit of road with a traffic cone at either end. Instructor taught them cadence braking. Not that useful given that most vehicles now have ABS. When I did this with the police, they were able to demonstrate black ice braking etc as they had a proper car. This was not possible in the Vectra. 10 minute driving time maximum
So, in total the 2 hour course had 30 minutes of actual driving, 10 minutes of video and the rest of the time was sitting in the back of either of Vauxhall Vectra or Ford Sierra whilst someone else or the instructor drove.
I perhaps should have known better for the money, but I though that it may have been a proper skid car they used. The course I was on with the police was fantastic with the Policeman, and 2 other people in the car and we spend all of the time being the wheel.
To be fair, my G/F said that she did learn something but I don’t think it wasn’t anything I could have taught her if I had an empty car park.
I rarely complain, and usually mark these things down to experience but I as it is coming up for Christmas and many of you may decide to buy these as presents then I wanted to give you an insight into what actually happens on the day.
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fir3vip3r
Member
Registered: 14th Jun 06
Location: Stevenage, Hertfordshire
User status: Offline
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that sounds Dire,
like you said you couldve taught her that in a clapped out old snotter.
write them a letter airing your concerns and see what they say?
i dont think id be happy after paying out a fair whack for that
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BarnshaW
Member
Registered: 25th Oct 06
User status: Offline
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 good review matey, people need to know about these things
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davieslim
Member
Registered: 15th Sep 08
Location: Glasgow City
User status: Offline
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its al ot of pish mate, my mates bird went and got the same treatment and i know people who have went on a few of there other experiences and all have came back and said it was a total let down
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John
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Good review, best to stay away by the sounds of it.
I'd recommend IAM for your girlfriend, if you're a boy racer it's a bit boring but if you want to increase confidence in driving it's really good.
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Corsa_Sport21
Member
Registered: 13th Apr 08
Location: Leven, Fife. Drives : 205 GTi
User status: Offline
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Would never pay for any of Knockhills driving courses.Infact i hate paying the entry fee for track days etc.
The rally course they use old Sierra GLS's.probably with a welded diff.
The Rarri 360 they have for that experience is a pile of shit.I know a few folk who have wasted their money on it and were not impressed.
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AK
Member
Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
User status: Offline
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Fee did a 1 on 1 session with an instructor at Knockhill
(was booked as an experience)
very worthwhile
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Edd
Member
Registered: 8th Nov 04
Location: Glasgow
User status: Offline
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been on an experience i chose the single seater to do mine in, was a brilliant day fucking roasting hot and i had great fun
wee guy scored my driving 90/100 said i was to aggressive on some parts though
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AlunJ
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
Location: Newport
User status: Offline
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Always fancied doing a course like this, puts me off a bit now 
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wilson_sri
Member
Registered: 31st Aug 04
Location: Dunfermline Drives: Technics 1210s
User status: Offline
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The legends experience is awesome!
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deano87
Member
Registered: 21st Oct 06
Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta
User status: Offline
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I did a Lotus Exige, Ferarri 360 & fast lap experience for my 21st birthday that my girlfriend bought. This was at Silverstone.
Very over rated imho. Time in the car was about 4 full laps, by the time I was getting into my stride and comfortable, the experience was over, so no chance to really experience the car.
We was in a group of about 15. And when we moved from the Exige, another group of 15 turned up for that whilst we were in the Ferrari.
Granted it was rainy on the day I did it, so hampered the experience. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone really.
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