Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Back in 2003 when I got my first Boxster after a load of high mileage (50k miles per annum) company car driving and racking up 9 points and a driving ban all by the age of 25, I arrived at the rather sensible conclustion that something was missing in the observation department. I've had a clean licence for over 10 years now.

As most of you know, I employed the services of John Cave who has become a good friend over the years. He's an exceptional road instructor with Porsche speciality having owned a couple of 997s himself. I've now done 3 full road days and a couple of track based limit handling courses with him.

One day with him was knackering and awe-inspiring and I've spent the time since trying to get as good as I can, hence joining RoSPA and taking my advanced test every 3 years.

I've had 3 tests in the past and achieved 3 Silver grades on a scale of Gold, Silver, Bronze, Fail.

I did the latest re-test this morning which involved a few weeks of revising roadcraft and the highway code again then getting up early, cleaning the car and dealing with a wasp sting (I'm allergic) at the diesel station!

An hour under the scrutiny of a serving Police Class 1 Driver on various roads of Oxforshire is not for the faint hearted but I did it!

The result was that I finally achieved a Gold which I'm really pleased with:

Gold
This grade is recognised as the highest driving award available to the public. It will
be awarded only to the driver who displays a complete understanding and
appropriate application of the principles outlined in Roadcraft. With all this in place
the gold standard driver will be able to make unobtrusive, planned, polished progress
consistent with safety and the law.
The candidate will display a confidence and ability throughout the whole test which
leads the examiner to consider that the candidate has the potential to do well on a
police advanced course. The candidate’s performance must be consistent throughout
the whole of the test and so any lapses may result in a lower grade. Awards of this
grade must therefore be reserved for the very best drivers.

Details of it all below for reference:

http://www.roadar.org/drivers/info/car- ... e-2012.pdf

well done Mister

Well done Paul!

ooh! Now that's impressive Paul...well done

Well done Pal

Maybe the person who pulled out in front of you would benefit from this?

Seriously though, well done Paul.

Thank you everyone.

I agree the girl would benefit from some tuition be able to analyse her own actions.

This is a point I made to her insurance company but sadly it fell on deaf ears which I find quite unbelievable.

Congrats Paul on exceptional achievement.

Must admit I've never joinrd IaM or taken their test (is this same as RoSPA test?) but am huge fan of the principles in Roadcraft and of applying defensive driving principles while making progress.

No accudents in 37 years driving - though as joke goes I've seen many in rear view mirror!

So are you oing to join the force now <g>?

cheers

Adrian

RoSPA and IAM are two totally different organisations. I have never been involved with RoSPA but have done IAM car and bike tests. IAM is only as good as the observer assigned to you, in my experience. My car guy was, umm, how shall we say - not the best, maybe? Ended up doing the drives with the local IAM secretary and she was really quite interesting. My bike IAM was much better - went out with the local group chairman plus another guy and girl. All had a slightly different take on the 'right' way of doing things and a lot of it was interesting. However, on the afternoon of my examination it was pouring with rain and the retired 'class 1' Police driver/rider struggled to keep up (I kid you not) - I was hacking about on my old CB500 commuter and he was on the then latest and greatest ST1300 Pan European. My how I tittered to myself when he got all sweary with me at the end of the ride, effing this and effing that, getting redder and redder in the face all the time... I thought he was going to have either a breakdown or a heart attack. He still gave me a pass though

I do think that there is plenty for any driver or rider to learn from either 'advanced' training or even just some sort of referesher - when was last time anyone sat and read the Highway Code? How often do you consider your following distance, your speed in a built-up area, your sight-lines and vanishing points on twistier roads, your forward planning, your scanning of the road ahead, reading all the road signs that provide useful information...

Excellent! well done Paul, must have been those burgers I was feeding you yesterday contributing to your prowess

Richard speaks sense, worth reading that. Sound like your instructor need a roadcraft refresher, making progress and red mist

I've never tried IAM so can't really offer a comparison but I went with RoSPA as John was involved with them in our area. I also like the grading and regular retesting rather than a single year resulting in pass or fail. The RoSPA system I think encourages further development of technique and finesse. Just my opinion though they are both week worth doing.

Sam, You're right the protein influx fed the brain!