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Learn New Driving Skills — at a Skid Pan!


(Image Source: Flickr)

Skid pans offer a great way to learn new driving skills, and can be a particularly good idea for young drivers (or new drivers at any age), making them an ideal gift for Christmas from a thoughtful friend or relative. Skid pans offer a multitude of driving experiences that are realistic in nature, while ensuring a safe environment for drivers to be able to test out their handling skills. They offer practical experience in dealing with the control of a car in the event of a skidding scenario.

Skid pan training courses offer fun and experience

Skid pan training courses are actually a lot of fun for drivers, while also teaching important lessons in skid control. These courses cover a wide variety of topics and scenarios including how to deal with adverse road conditions, how to track on slippery roads and the importance of steering into a skid. The problem that many drivers face when confronted with a skidding car is that the brain often tells you do something that is actually the opposite of what should be done, making it vital to have the training and know-how to ensure you will be able to fight that impulse, and do the right thing in an emergency situation.

Getting hands on

Hands on courses with instructors who are fully qualified in the field are a great way to become more confident, by knowing you will be able to handle yourself in a skidding scenario – while having a lot of fun at the same time. There are a number of opinions as to the best kind of skid surface on which to train drivers, with a dedicated tarmac or concrete area hosed down to become wet and slippery often seen as the ideal setting. A rear wheel drive car is the ideal vehicle in which to learn the ropes.

Modern vehicles and skid pan training

Many people have ABS on their cars today, but the reality is that no gadget is ever completely capable of preventing skids from happening. In adverse road situations you are sometimes forced to react in a particular manner because you have ABS. This means it is actually all the more important to be taught by an experienced driving instructor what to do, and when to do it, if such a scenario unfolds. Skid pan training sessions are enormous fun, but also provide drivers with an extremely useful skill, and the best possible preparation to be able to deal with anything bad weather and slippery roads may confront them with.

Knowing how to cope

Even one skid pan training session can help to improve a driver’s ability to cope with sliding and skidding situations, whether they have driver safety technology in their motor vehicle or not. However, the most important thing is that these sessions help drivers to be able to identify the kind of conditions that increase the likelihood of a skid, and drive in such a way as to lower the chances of it ever occurring.