Anyone posting a video of themselves on YouTube had best prepare themselves for personal criticisms varying from the borderline psychotic to the downright weird - a personal favourite has to be the disgusted 'Bro, do u even lift? #chickenarms' comment to one
onboard vid
Dan's not quite an F1 star yet
Sorry YouTube, my lack of rippling guns isn't keeping me awake at night. I am, however, slightly conscious of forensic examination of my driving style having recently written in extensive detail about my 'ready for F1'
driver training
from driver coach to the stars Rob Wilson. Because having detailed all that fascinating information provided by Rob in the story I'm now conscious any time I'm filmed in a car everyone will be looking for the evidence his input has, indeed, transformed me into an F1 star in waiting. And then ripping me to shreds when the evidence very clearly points to the contrary.
But isn't the ability to adapt our driving 'personality' according to taste, situation or supervision one of the endlessly rewarding things about getting behind the wheel? I will attempt to put Rob's training regime into practice if/when I'm really going for a time or pure speed. But as we know from F1 onboards this doesn't always make for the most exciting onboard footage and, for the purposes of this job, driving 'incorrectly' but in a crowd pleasing manner is sometimes required.
Family onboard? Engage parent mode
Which is basically my excuse for being a chicken-armed idiot occasionally given to over-dramatic arm-twirling in an attempt to bag a few more likes. But at a physical and mental level don't we operate the same way? Forget electronic driver modes for a moment - what are your personal ones?
I definitely have a 'motorway mode' for instance, regarding any application of the brakes as a demonstration of failure to read the traffic and road situation and successfully adjust my speed through managing the throttle, gradients or other tricks. There are limits of course - I'm not about to pile into the back of someone simply on a point of principle. But it's a good way of alleviating the boredom.
Then there's 'wife/parent mode', in which harsh throttle or brake applications are monitored more closely than any insurance black box snooper device. I like a challenge though, the goal being to 'make progress' without raising any alarm bells from the passenger seat. If you can do that true zen-like calm can prevail, steady steering inputs, considered road positioning to create 'long corners' the opposite of what Rob Wilson advocates and strict control of revs, power delivery and braking all being essential.
Parent mode not necessary now!
Then there's 'Sunday morning' mode. In Internet speak this would equate, I guess, to the fabled 'spirited drive' technique. Personally this favours contrived sense of speed over actual points or ban speed, enjoyment combined with social responsibility the goal. So I'll deliberately downshift perhaps more than necessary, stick to the lower gears to enjoy more of the rev range and generally over-dramatise the whole process. One of the reasons Porsche's insistence on long gearing in its manual cars is so frustrating, given this basically gives you first and second gears, with perhaps third at a stretch. And why I'll always enjoy a low-geared, close-ratio car like - ooh, picking a totally random example - my Eunos. See also cars with characterful power deliveries, be that turbo lag, dramatic cam shifts or whatever. They may be considered 'flaws' but playing around with them is fun. Which is why the Golf R has never excited me at any speed.
So driver modes CAN be a good thing. Anyone got any of their own to share?