Advanced driving: Putting Reg Local to the test
Even for an experienced driver, a day with Reg reveals a lot...
We're in a Golf R sprinting north on the B6479. It's one of those loping Yorkshire Dales roads that spears straight for decent stretches, then darts left or right, pops over crests and plummets into dips. It demands attention but delivers rewards. In today's bright sunshine, it's an inspiring place to be driving.
As we near a crest that the road sign says is followed by a left hander, a silver-haired head pops into view on the right verge. It belongs to a chap who's poking a camera over the dry-stone wall to photograph Ribblesdale as it stretches east, glowing golden brown in the sharp light.
Instantly, Reg Local, the front passenger, commands the driver: "More brakes please Georgia. There'll be a car stopped around the bend." Sharp-eyed Reg has spotted that the picture-taker is lightly dressed. The wind is icy and it's just three degrees out there. Reg's swift deduction is that, because the guy isn't wearing much, he's hopped out of a nearby car to take his snap. The verges are narrow so it's probably blocking the road.
And sure enough, as we ease over the crest into the left-hander, there it is: a silver Vauxhall Corsa, parked half across our lane. Georgia stops in plenty of time. The cameraman suddenly seems aware of the hazard he's created and turns to look at his car and us. Yes, mate!
Why Reg?
It's a prime example of the traps awaiting unobservant drivers that former police advanced driving instructor Reg is so good at highlighting. As PHers familiar with his posts well know, reading the road and its surrounding information properly is an essential part of his approach to better driving. Reg's insightful and witty books and videos are as good a guide to driving at a high level as any I've ever seen.
We're out with him today because my 30-year-old daughter Georgia has been itching to do an advanced driving course. She got her licence at 18 and down the years I've passed on tips, but we don't drive together often and most of her driving now is in town or on motorways. She wanted more technique; to be smoother, swifter, safer, more composed, relaxed and capable on open roads, in any car. I reckoned she couldn't do better than a day with Reg, who takes pupils for eight hours' instruction over the moors and through the dales north of his base near Bolton.
The ideal car
A Golf R would be an ideal car to take, I thought. Discreet, surefooted and flexible, while agile, responsive and fast, it's rewarding yet easy to drive - with refinement and comfort for a 400-mile day.
Matt Prior's comment in an Autocar review that "you could make an argument for the Golf R being the best car in the world" had stuck in my mind. To recap: its 2.0-litre turbo four produces 310hp between 5500-6500rpm, with 280lb ft from 2000-5400rpm, and puts it through electro-hydraulic four-wheel drive. It hits 60mph in 5.1 seconds and goes on to 155mph, all for around £33,500. This one ran a 6-speed manual 'box. Georgia hadn't driven a manual for a decade, so Reg spent a little time sorting out rev-matching in her down-shifts.
Seeking the limit (point)
What he taught her next, using a diagram sketched on his iPad, is perhaps the most important single thing about swift and safe road driving: limit point analysis. It sounds complex but isn't. The limit point (or vanishing point) is the furthest point you can see along the road.
"As you approach a corner, it's the point where the road's nearside and offside edges appear to meet," Reg explained. "That point will tell you very early on how tight the corner is, and whether you need to slow down or can accelerate through.
"It's not where the limit point is, it's what it's doing. First, as you approach the corner, it will be getting closer. Second, at some stage it will stop getting closer and stay at a constant distance. Third, it will then start to move away. That's where the corner is opening up, and you can push the accelerator harder and harder and keep the car balanced."
Layered on top of the limit point work, Reg urged Georgia to get her eyes "on to high beam" and look as far ahead as possible to absorb information: lamp or telephone poles suggesting where the road goes; signs showing whether S-bends go left or right; peering over hedges and walls; spotting the roof of a car coming down a side road; anticipating cyclists' moves; mud on the road from a tractor somewhere ahead. One of his handiest tips: the second corner of a right-then-left S-bend is usually tighter.
Cornering's four phases
Then, into the bends, using the four phases of the System of Car Control outlined in Roadcraft: The Police Driver's Handbook, he showed her how to:
1: Position the car to the near side into right-handers to increase her view, and, into left handers, to edge to the right - including using the offside on a clear road.
2: Adjust her speed using road features like a rise to slow down; or backing off, and braking if necessary. "The aim is to have everything sorted so that all you have left to do at the start of the corner is to turn wheel and the press the accelerator."
3: Select the right gear to use through the corner - "low enough for strong acceleration but high enough to get all the way around without running out of revs". In the extraordinarily elastic Golf R, third was perfect, with its vigorous response from 1500rpm (17mph) right through to 75mph at 6500.
4: And finally to accelerate - earlier than her previous inclination - to balance the car through the bends.
To bring it all together, Reg asked G to drive eight miles of the winding, undulating A682 without using the brakes. "It seemed hard initially but soon taught me how to anticipate and get my approach speed right," Georgia said. "I kept remembering Reg's golden rule: always be able to stop within the visible distance."
Through the day, over a couple of hundred miles of demanding roads, her driving - and previous unease about corners - was transformed. Reading the limit points set her up properly for each bend. She was never taken by surprise. The moment the limit points moved away, she got on the throttle assuredly, revelled in the Golf's pep and learned how good a car with this much grip feels when it hunkers down through a bend. She got into a rhythm of slow in, fast out and was able to enjoy the R's prowess with confidence. Using Reg's overtaking discipline - hang back, move to the offside for a good look, and then go - she nipped past dawdlers with new-found mastery.
Georgia learned invaluable technique in those eight hours; and so did I. Down the years, from the first advanced driving course I took at 23, through sessions with aces including Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Hannu Mikkola, Bob Wallace and many of the world's top test drivers, I've gleaned much from greats. Reg added a lot that was new. I firmly recommend giving a son, daughter, partner - or yourself - a day with him.
The Golf R, by the way, was ideal; everything it's cracked up to be.
Further reading...
Mel Nichols's book And The Revs Keep Rising - Great Drives in Fast Cars is now available as an e-book. A longer version of this story will be in the second volume, to be published next year.
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