Sustained revs gear change.

[fungus]

This is something that I teach learners once they have a grasp of how to change gear with reasonable smoothness.
It seems that most ADIs do not teach rev matching even though Driving the Essential Skills mentions raising the revs when changing down for instance, where you need the power of a lower gear to overtake.

Do any fellow ADIs teach techniques such as sustained revs or double de clutching?

[kfae8959]

I can't answer for all your fellow ADIs, but I have recently enquired of a few whether they would be comfortable teaching rev matched gear changes and double de-clutching if a client asked them to. My enquiry to BIll Plant was apparently considered so extraordinary that their head of driving standards rang me up for a chat!

He seemed rather jaded in his view, but he said that he hadn't heard anyone ask about those techniques for a long time, and thought that his colleagues might not understand them. In his view, it was possible that an examiner might regard using gas in the gears as "incorrect use of the throttle". (I rang the local test centre and spoke to an examiner who said that that wasn't the case.) The person I spoke to at the AA driving school wasn't able to comment, and the two local driving schools I emailed haven't replied. So, you may be in the minority!

David

[fungus]

The reaction of the driving schools does not surprise me at all, as the comments made by some instructors at the Bournemouth test centre when discussing the IAM advanced test, making progress up to the level of the advanced test was seen as unnecessary, and rev matching being seen as racing technique that wasn't necessary in road driving.

A DSA examiner should not regard rev matching as incorrect use of the throttle as the technique is mentioned in a positive manner in their book Driving the Essential Skills.

[WhoseGeneration]

Why bother?, it's all about lowest common denominator and eco these days.
Afterall, don't synchros do the work?

[gannet]

Why bother?, it's all about lowest common denominator and eco these days.
Afterall, don't synchros do the work?

Well yes, but not particularly smoothly... I hate to feel the car lurch forward when changing down in preparation for some hazard or other. More to the point I don't think passengers would appreciate it either.

Sad to think people aren't even being told about it when learning - though come to think of it I don't think my instructor ever did either. I learnt from my parents and later through the IAM.

[MOOEY]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum and an ADi. Alot of younger instructors wouldn't even know what you were talking about. Myself I teach these techniques as part of Pass Plus, which they do after they have passed their driving test. Aside from the instructors not knowing, the pupils probably wouldn't be able to take it on board, well not until they were confident, so thats why I incorporate it into Pass Plus along with a skid pan session. A proper skid pan not a wheely thing.

I'm sad to say that driving instructing along with window cleaning and building is one of those industries where everyone thinks they can do it and the training ADi's receive is geared to get them through the tests and do not always give them the right skills to teach. Knowing a subject and teaching it are not the same. Which means there are a lot of instructors who really don't want to or shouldn't be doing the job.

If your one of those instructors who only teaches pupils to pass a test then shame on you.

Mooey

[sussex2]

Driving instruction depends on the raw materials. In this case the quality of the pupil and the same as regards the instructor.
Many instructors will be working hard to do what they can to help their pupils, of vastly different abilities and backgrounds, pass the driving test and add some bells and whistles on top of that.

Some pupils you will have to do just that with, get them through a test. With others you may be able to introduce finer points but not to all.

To overestimate the ability of a pupil will be one of the biggest mistakes any instructor of any subject can make.
You can only deal with what you have in front of you and the whole driving test system (ab initio) is geared towards that.

[ROG]

There is enough to learn without going this far

We must remember that the training by an ADI is for the basic DSA test and anything which is not really required for safety will be just an extra burden on the learner

Expanding from the basics is what a driver can opt to do post test

[TripleS]

.

[jont]

[Dreamworld mode] I wish we could get around to setting the stall out so that we produce drivers with a nice style, being safe and versatile, rather than just aiming to pass a test! [/Dreamworld mode]

Unfortunately the same sentiment applies to the whole education system Our entire system is geared to measurement/targets, so we end up valuing things that are easy to measure rather than working out how to measure what is valuable.

[TripleS]

.

[martine]

...I still feel that the DSA syllabus and test should be altered to get rid of items that are not really relevant...

Like what?

[TripleS]

.

[waremark]

There is enough to learn without going this far

We must remember that the training by an ADI is for the basic DSA test and anything which is not really required for safety will be just an extra burden on the learner

Expanding from the basics is what a driver can opt to do post test

Very difficult to unlearn the way you do something once you have learned it. Much easier to learn to do it right the first time.

What sort of thing are we saying would just be an extra burden on the learner? If you are talking about making smooth gear changes, I don't agree.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

The two ADIs I've had as associates so far didn't know how to rev match until I taught them.