I did a driving safety course. It was the biggest waste of money of my life.

 

And not just any driving safety course, I was at the Linthe driving safety center in Brandenburg, Germany, one of the biggest and most advanced in Europe, run by the ADAC, Germanys automobile club and Europes biggest motoring association. You may remember them from that one TopGear special where the trio had their cars inspected by the ADAC in a state-of-the-art mobile inspection center.

The training I did went beyond a basic driving safety course, it was called "intensive training for frequent drivers". So I figured it would be well worth the 200€ (about $240 USD) price tag and I would surely learn something about myself, my car and car control in general. Boy, was I wrong. So if you consider doing a driving safety course yourself but money is a very finite ressource for you, please read this.

The first hour or so was just introductions. The trainer introducing himself, us introducing ourselves, questions, expectations, experiences, blah blah. Afterwards we finally went to the track itself, where a small slalom course with maybe 9 or 10 cones was waiting for us. "Please drive through this slalom course with 30 kph (18.6 mph)". The brave ones should try to hit 45 kph (27.9 mph) on their second of two runs. We then gathered around in the sun to talk about HOW TO ADJUST THE SEAT for what feels like ages.

By the time we did all that, about two hours of our times have passed. Let me do some maths. The training goes from 9am to 5pm. I paid 200€ for 8h of "training", that's 25€ per hour. With two hours passed, that's 50€ ($60 USD) down the toilet like it was some turd. That's some money, right? This almost buys me an hour on the Spreewaldring race track about as far away as that test center. Sure, it's arguable if I learned anything there but atleast I'd have fun?

Actually, considering all I did so far was do some talking and drive a slalom at bicycle speed, I would've learned more if I picked up a car magazine at a petrol station. But there's more! We were now mere 2 hours away from lunch break (1pm to 2pm). I want to dedicate a paragraph to the fact that the food was advertised with "a cost effective way to buy food at the course". It was 15€ ($19 USD), drinks not included. 

Yeah, it was buffet stlyle, I could get more if I wanted to, but how much could you possibly eat when you have to try not to get a heatstroke? A 0.3 liter water bottle (ZERO POINT THREE LITERS) was 3€ ($3.60 USD). I had to buy atleast two of them to not die, eventhough I brought about my Mazda MX5s displacement worth in liquids with me, they were long consumed by lunch time. So plus the coke I had with my lunch (it was a 0.5, so like 5€?), I spent 15+5+3+3=26€ ($31 USD) for some pasta and a couple of drinks.

Because I was being a stupid idiot for not just going to McDonalds during the break, (THEY SAID COST EFFECTIVE) I'm not going to consider the money spent as expenses for the trip. So what did we do during those two hours before lunch? Well, we drove to a giant skidpad with sprinklers. In fact, we drove past it once before doing a small lap around it and arriving a second time because we SHOULD GET A GOOD LOOK AT IT. It's a giant, gray pad on the ground, what am I supposed to see? Not that I could get a good look anyway because we were driving in one big convoy so all I could see is the rear of some family estate car. We did this sort of thing at almost every exercise.

Talk about and visualize stomping on breaks, then get in car, stomp on breaks from 30 kph and 50 kph (31 mph) on dry tarmac, then on the skid pad. The skidpad simulates grip conditions on snow. We all had summer tires on. Sure, it's sort of useful to experience that summer tires are useless on ice, but that's something most of us either know or have even experienced by thermselves. I didn't need to pay another 50€ for that.

So at 200€ for 7 instead of 8 hours, the hour costs 28,57€ ($34 USD). With four hours killed, I have wasted about 115€ ($136 USD). This was the point where I realized how big of a mistake it was to do this course. The remaining 3h after lunchbreak from 2pm to 5pm were spent at a four-laned roundabout and a corner simulating a highway off-ramp, both with sprinklers. We learned something about under- and oversteer. And when I say "we" I mean some others hopefully?

Me, doing the ADAC trainer's job whom I paid 200€ for, by explaining under- and oversteer to the others with a toy FD RX7 and some chalk

If you're a frequent driver, you don't have to know what those words mean, but surely you won't need 3h to understand the concept? That concludes a wasted day. 200€ are grilled, so are 26€ for a plate of food and not even a liter of liquids, and about the same money for fuel to, at and from the center. Think what 250€ ($300 USD) could buy you.

This course has it's purpose.

If you don't care about cars much and see them as tools to get you from A to B, a day like this is money and time well spent. Your aunt would surely learn a things or two by trying to get a car to full stop on a skid plate. But if you've ever played a sim game with a wheel or ever went to a snowy parking lot, you are overqualified. Ask yourself: Are you a good driver? No need to lie here. It's not me asking you, it's you yourself.

You likely have a few years of experience. If you can say that you can and did control your car in difficult situations, you don't need a driving safety course. If you have honest doubts about your ability under stress situations and are ready to pay the sum to have a "professional" with you, you could do it, but in all honesty, I think you should ask your dad (or someone else you consider a good driver and trust) about driving tips first. Google "driving safety tips". Wait for a snowy day and go to an empty parking lot. Play a sim racer game, pick a car that behaves similar to yours, turn all driving aids off and try to race AI's.

200-300 bucks are a lot of money and if you find a course considerably cheaper than that, it likely has its reasons. In conclusion: If you are someone who doesn't know what "205/40/15" means, do the course. If you think you genuinely need some lessons in car control because you're scared you might crash at an emergency situation and are ready to pay the sum, do the course, I guess. If you want do do it for fun and money doesn't matter, do it, although I didn't have a lot of fun that day. If none of this applies, fuel your car for the money and just enjoy it.

Photocredit title pic: Reiseland Brandenburg