My 18 y/o daughter is home from college and she's been taking my car through the So Cal costal canyons several times per week typically at night.
I'm concerned as she's never received formal training or even been on an auto-x course but I know her well and telling her to cool it will just push her into concealment.
I think the best thing I can do is to work on replacing her bravado with a technical understanding of how quickly things can go from exhilaration to oh E36 M3.
Essentially, I want to guide her from amateur foolishness to informed restraint.
Is there a good book for this???
Edit - here she is learning to drive a stick in Uncle Aircooled's super sweet 1958 Karmann Ghia:
Again, I know her...telling her to cool it isn't going to work, guiding her to professionalism will.
Duke
MegaDork
1/10/23 10:38 p.m.
Paul Frere’s Sports Car And Competition Driving springs to mind.
j_tso
Dork
1/10/23 11:04 p.m.
How to Drive by ex-Stig Ben Collins. About driving dynamics and driving in general like heel-toe downshifting. It's also peppered with anecdotes from racing and stunt driving in the Bond movies.
In reply to Duke :
I'm a big fan of Paul Frere and have his other books, but I think that one's pretty technical and will bore someone who isn't actually into racing.
I recomend Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving. It's out of print but there are copies available all over the web.
ddavidv
UltimaDork
1/11/23 7:37 a.m.
Will she actually read it, though?
Much better doing hands-on skills training such as Doug Herbert's BRAKES program. I used to volunteer as an instructor with them and it is an exceptional program. They regularly get emails from former students who avoided a crash from what they learned. Only takes a half a day.
Duke
MegaDork
1/11/23 7:42 a.m.
In reply to ddavidv :
I was going to suggest Street Survival as well. There is a fair amount of near-limits hand on experience there.
ddavidv said:
Will she actually read it, though?
Yes, she's a thinker and values the power of knowledge.
I want to take a driving class with her but I'm working out of state this week and she goes back to college a week later so I doubt we'll have time to take a class before this summer.
Thank you hive for the guidance.
Sonic
UberDork
1/11/23 9:25 a.m.
I highly recommend these two:
Going Faster! Mastering the Art of Race Driving https://a.co/d/0hb9Wwg
Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques https://a.co/d/bwB01Uc
You Suck at Racing: A crash course for the novice driver. $10 paperback, entertaining,short, and informative.
Books are fine but autocross and track days are better.