Weight and motion are vital

In a car-centric nation like New Zealand, it pays to know defensive driving skills. Photo / Martin Sykes

I have been at pains over the years to castigate the standard of driving on New Zealand roads and mostly it has fallen on deaf ears. Of late though, more and more people are taking notice that Kiwi drivers are appalling when put in charge of a motor vehicle.

Maybe not as bad as the badlands of Afghanistan, or the back roads of Gaza or Iraq, but we are a First World country and not some Third World back water still fighting over "my God is better than your God".

A perfect example of crap driving happened on Monday morning on my way to work. As I was approaching the rear quarter panel of a silver Holden Captiva in the outside lane of the Northern Gateway, the driver put his indicator on and proceeded to pull out right in front of me. I pulled back and gave a honk to inform the driver I was there.

Having done a number of defensive driving courses, I decided to keep braking to give the idiot even more room. Luckily for me I was on the case because numpty got miffed I had hooted him and slammed on his brakes at around 100km/h right along side the car he was passing. The car behind me saw all this unfolding and thankfully pulled into the inside lane giving me more room to brake.

After the Holden driver had almost caused a major accident at speed, he then decided to speed up again. Small-minded, petty and extraordinarily dangerous. It's that utter lack of comprehension, re: the chaos lunatic driving like that could cause, which beggars belief as far as I'm concerned.

The driver in question then slowed down and pulled into the inside lane and when I finally passed him, it didn't take much working out what he saying. What was a little more concerning, was he followed me off the motorway, then at the next junction turned right and followed again. By the time I was turning into my place of work's car park I was a little concerned as he was right there.

I didn't recognise the car so knew he wasn't a staff member. As I got out of my car he approached and said he was sorry he'd braked in the fast lane. I accepted the apology but then he went on to accuse me of causing the problem. At that instance I walked away.

The point of the story is not only the bad driving, but also the audacity of thought you can use a tonne-plus of metal, at speed, as a plaything because you're a bit pissed someone passed you.

It really reiterated to me that Kiwi driving skills are not up to scratch. Recently I had the privilege of driving a saloon car around the new Hampton Downs track with none other than Australian V8 Supercar driver, Kiwi Jason Richards in the passenger seat. He's a strong advocate for improving driver skills and is none too happy with the standard of driving on most roads.

"First, before we even get going, let's talk about how you're sitting," said Richards. "Put your arms out and if your wrists sit comfortable on top of the steering wheel you're about right. In a drama situation you don't want to be tripping over your arms and it's better to be a bit too close rather than too far away from the wheel.

"Vision is important. To catch a ball you've got to be looking at the ball. It's the same in a car. You've got to be looking where you want to go, not where you've been. There are lots of instances where someone's hit the only tree in the paddock because they've been looking at it. You've got to be looking at the gaps.

"The further in front you look, the more time you have to react to a situation and become a smoother driver. A pet hate of mine is shuffling the hands on the wheel because you wouldn't be able to find centre if you needed it quickly. I like to keep the hands at nine and three, or 10 and two, or somewhere in there. By not shuffling the hands you become smoother.

"A big problem is people go into corners too fast and try and slow down through the corner, upsetting the balance of the car. Always remember the old adage: slow in, fast out - within the speed limit of course. If you're slow into a corner it allows for a safety margin if something goes wrong. The problem of going into a corner too fast, which most drivers do, is the car will veer out over the medium strip and into oncoming traffic. Not a good place to be.

"One of the big keys in making sure the car doesn't move all over the place on the road is transferring the weight smoothly when either braking, accelerating or cornering. The less sudden changes in direction the less likely the car is to become unbalanced and the driver lose control. The quicker the weight is shifted, the more likely the car will get away from you.

"Cars are heavy and when the weight shifts it has a big effect. Car control isn't only about the steering, brakes and acceleration, it's also about where the weight is at any given time. Being smooth means weight is moved smoothly. Sudden changes in direction cause the weight to move too quickly and the car will break traction and go into a slide or skid, causing all sorts of problems."

So there you have it, from a bloke who makes his living out of driving. The key things are to anticipate, be aware of your surroundings, give yourself room and be smooth. And, I might add, don't have an ego when driving.