A careful search of the Internet reveals many sites dealing with driving, as well as basic human behaviour. Unfortunately, much of what is written does not withstand careful scrutiny. This brings us to the subject of the difference between a self-appointed driving expert, whose advice is as likely to be dangerous as helpful, and an actual driving expert. I'm biased in this, having spent quite a few years teaching advanced driving, high performance driving, and coaching other racers, for the biggest and most prestigious companies in the field.

Working for a major player, when you are learning the craft of coaching driving skills, has one huge advantage. You are surrounded by professional racers and instructors, as well as exposed to a body of knowledge that has been tried and tested. This means that pet theories, voodoo physics, outdated information, and prejudice tend to fall by the wayside. What matters is performance, pure and simple. Go out on the skidpad and correct not one skid, but hundreds. Work against the stopwatch on the track, not once every third weekend, but every working day. Listen to other instructors deliver information, and learn from each other. Chances are that by the time you become a lead instructor you will have honed both skills and understanding.

I am strongly in favour of both national and international certification for advanced driving instructors. The British have had such a system for a while, with graduated levels, each requiring certain standard of performance.

This would cut down the level of rubbish we read in both newspapers and on the Internet regarding automobiles, vehicle dynamics, and driving skills. After all, if you haven't been able to demonstrate emergency braking, lane change, cornering, and skid control skills to a high level, why should you be writing about these things from a position of authority?


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Off-Road

We were in the United Arab Emirates doing an off road racing show for Jeep. On a day off, we all headed for our adventure of choice. The Americans went deep sea fishing, while a trio of us with a bit more of an international outlook headed for the border with Oman, and the Hatta mountains. In these mountains, in a wild desert, lie two deep, cool, pristine pools, a true oasis. Naturally, they are called the Hatta pools.

We headed out of Dubai in a Land Rover Discovery. While these things have traditionally had less than user-friendly dashboards and spotty reliability, off road they are superb. They continue the tradition of the original Land Rover, nicknamed the Drover by the many farmers, ranchers and shepherds around the world who use them as the ultimate utility vehicle. A few years ago my girlfriend and I were hiking along a rocky outcrop in Wales, and heard engine noises. Up a twisted track crawled an old blue Land Rover, a shepherd checking on his flock.

The key here is crawling. Unlike the Hollywood or advertising industry version, proper off-roading calls for the lowest possible speed and also for a very supple suspension, with lots of wheel travel. This certainly flies in the face of North American tradition. My Ford F250 is sprung so stiffly jumping on the rear bumper barely makes it quiver. Unloaded, in two-wheel drive, it can get stuck on the most mild of snow-covered hills. Throw a cord of firewood in back and it becomes a traction monster, but otherwise it, and all but a few of the latest generation of pickups, are crude world war two designs that have gone for a facelift and some fancy clothes.

Off-road racing pickups, such as those that compete in the Baja 1000 or the Paris-Dakar raid, are generally built on a tube frame racing chassis, with long, soft springs which permit huge suspension travel. That is why they land gently after being airborne, instead of bending like a paper clip, which is what would happen to a stock ladder frame pickup.

Another point about softer springs. In a wet weather race, we always soften the springs and anti-roll bars. More suspension movement makes for much better handling in rain or on snow or ice. You want body roll, well controlled, so load is progressively transferred to the outside tyres, which will be doing most of the work. In these circumstances, overly stiff springing makes a vehicle feel like a go-kart on steroids with the steering disconnected.

Back in the Hatta Mountains, we were crawling along a wadi, or dried out riverbed. On each side the banks rose steeply, with a few heavily eroded trails going to the top. We were going to have to try one of these, and they all looked dicey. I was driving, since the guys had a blind assumption than anyone from Canada would be a master of backcountry situations.

The track we chose went off on a diagonal, it was barely wide enough for the vehicle, and was washed out on the downhill side in several places. If a corner of the Rover dipped sharply at any of those places, we would roll down a good one hundred feet of rocky ravine, which was not a pleasing prospect. Remembering my Land Rover lessons, I just let the Disco walk its way up the hill. That remarkable suspension travel kept us stable over the washouts. The guys never even stopped talking, though I admit to holding my breath on a couple of tricky sections.

The Hatta pools were great. A couple of us even went for a quick dip, which I hope did not break any cultural taboos. We saw no one else. The mountains are officially in no man’s land, a disputed area between Oman and the U.A.E. Our route back, which did not, thankfully, involve descending that ravine, led us into Bedouin territory, and these proud desert wanderers watched impassively as we drove by. The gates of their permanent houses have the most beautifully intricate gate designs. We made it back to Dubai, dodging camels along the way in the desert darkness.

I can’t think of too many SUVs that could have climbed that ravine. The majority would have lurched at one of those washouts, then rolled over and played dead, especially if the driver was trying to go too fast. The message here is that if you want to improve your vehicle’s off road or snowy road behaviour, softer, longer travel suspension works better than stiff short springs, skinny tyres work better than fat ones, and going slowly enough to let the underpinnings work will enhance your chance of success.

Leave those dramatic dirt road charges to the advertising folks. They can afford to go through a lot of vehicles to get that one good shot.