AAMI under 25 drivers course

[skippy]

I am doing the AAMI under 25 drivers course on 26/02/05 yes bloody febuary, booked solid till then.

Why,

So I can save 10% on insurance for the rest of this year and all year till 25.
Drive a bit better
Know a bit more,

Why not.
Full day 9-4
Its only in your car,


If anyone else in thinking of doing it PM and I will organise AAMI for us to do it the same day, reckon it could be fairly boring for a full day and knowing no one.
But keen lemme know otherwise I will give it a review once done.

[CHiMPY]

A mate of mine did that.
He said it was good fun. There is a bunch of theory which was the most boring part.
He said it was very interesting to see how your car actually responded to the scenarios they give you.

I will try find his review.

[Astro Boy]

yeah, i did it about a year ago... it was pretty funny.. we had two types of ppl: 1. bogans with commodores.... 2. little girls that were too scared to take their barinas[1]/excels/echos/etc up to 40km's to do the tests... pretty funny to watch...

they seperate you into groups of three, and each time someone has a test, the other two sit in the back and watch, with the instructor in the front...

awesome day, yes the theory is boring... BUT YOU GET TO KEEP THE PEN :lol:

and you get a funky certificate, then i defected to RACQ anyway :P

[1] no offence nate :wink:

[CHiMPY]

found it..

Yesterday I attended the AAMI Skilled Drivers course out at Quakers Hill in Sydney. Since I have comprehensive insurance with AAMI, it was free, and I get 10% of my premium back for completing it, which was one of the reasons for attending. I've heard people ask what goes on during the course, so I thought i'd post here with some details.

At 9:30 you start the theory part of the course which basically revolves around common sense road safety stuff like following distance, speed, lack of concentration etc. People get to share stories they've got about accidents or other incidents on the road, and it was a surprisingly fun experience.

At about 10:30 everyone heads out to the large sealed area they have for an emergency braking excercise. It basically involves driving up to 45kph and then slamming on the brakes when the instructor yells stop. Then you get out of the car and the instructor shows you how far it took.

Keeping this distance in mind, it's back to the classroom for some more theory where following distance and braking distance is looked at more thoroughly. I think everyone was actually pretty surprised at how long it really does take to stop, even on a perfectly good surface in great weather.

After lunch, the practical stuff starts back up. There are four excercises, a cone slalom, hairpin turn, an emergency lane change, and another braking excercise.

The cone slalom is just a simple line of cones set 12 meters apart, and you have to weave through them at varying speeds. This was possibly the hardest excercise, as it's not something that you would do very often and it feels pretty unnatural.

The hairpin was my favourite. They set up a fairly tight one lane wide hairpin (not as tight as a genuine racing circuit hairpin though) and made you drive at it at 35/40/45+ and take the turn without braking, while maintaining your speed. The Verada handled way better than I expected, and I managed to get through the first two runs without taking out any cones, and only clipped a couple with the back of the car on the faster run. The tyres were sqealing like crazy, and there was definately a massive lack of traction.

For the emergency lane change excercise, the cones were set up like this:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/admiral/images/aamicones.gif

Basically you had to drive down the middle "lane" at 45kph, and when the instructor tells you, either swerve left or right into the other lane without taking out any cones. The coned off middle section reprezents a hazard such as a stopped truck which you've only just noticed when the large vehicle in front of you swerves out of the lane suddenly to avoid it.

They give you a 3, 2, then 1 second reaction time, and nobody managed to miss the truck with only one second to swerve. After that, you use the same cone setup, but just have to jam on the brakes at the same reaction times. With the one second time, everyone went straight through the cones, by about half a car length to well past the length of the car.

Overall it was a fantasic day, the practicals are fun as hell, and really do show you just how much difference 5kph/a second or two can make. Yes I know it sounds corny, but it really does make a massive difference.

I'd reccomend it to anyone.

[Red Frog]

Why,

So I can save 10% on insurance for the rest of this year and all year till 25.
Drive a bit better
Know a bit more

hey james,
should i do the whole spiel about what else you may learn/pick up from a AAMI driving day? :wink: :wink: :wink: well.....

skippy, u may find true love out there in hot ole quakers hill ;) we're 3 yrs on 20th january :D have lotsa fun! and if dawn is there say a BIG hello to her :lol: hehehe :wink:

[sacah]

I liked it when I did mine, I was put with 2 chicks who were not scared of taking their cars to the AAMI limits (-;
It was a great day, I got along with everyone there really well, and had fun...
The theory was really funny, the guy doing it made it humorious and the answers some of the other people said were pretty funny too.
You will enjoy the day.

[platypus]

meh it was crappy, but hey discount, do it for that at least

and tell dawn i'm living in agony, as ai started dating the girl i had to go with that day


what happened to my dads tale that i'll meet some hot girl in a laser? ended up with a girl in rio

[KittyKatSmack]

hey james,
should i do the whole spiel about what else you may learn/pick up from a AAMI driving day? :wink: :wink: :wink: well.....

skippy, u may find true love out there in hot ole quakers hill ;) we're 3 yrs on 20th january :D have lotsa fun! and if dawn is there say a BIG hello to her :lol: hehehe :wink:


Don't go skippy! run away, run now while you can, very fast, run forrest run!

condolences Red Frog

[QNC-29T]

do u need a lincens for this advent? (iget mine back 2 days after)

[platypus]

yes, and a AAMI insurance policy, or you can pay for it out of pocket which i think was about $150?

[skippy]

Red frog saidskippy, u may find true love out there in hot ole quakers hill

my Girl might have some objecions to that, I'll ask her tonite hehehehehe


Reckon I should have decent tyres for it?

might be a bit late to book it in for that date for anyone interested but PM me if you want in and I will see what they can do.

[platypus]

Red frog saidskippy, u may find true love out there in hot ole quakers hill

my Girl might have some objecions to that, I'll ask her tonite hehehehehe


Reckon I should have decent tyres for it?

might be a bit late to book it in for that date for anyone interested but PM me if you want in and I will see what they can do.

its not motokhana, you'll be fine in anything

[Laser the Amazer]

very interested

I'm with Just Car so does that mean I am included with getting 10% discount seen as its the same company

Rob

[platypus]

AAMI are just cars under writers meaning when they go belly up AAMI backs the company, and pays out the policies

well basically

hence they are different companies, kinda like going guarantor for someone, and then supporting them by giving them extra business

[skippy]

Go AAMI,

I have changed my booking to the Sydney center as they has me booked in for the melbourne one, dunno why or how.


Anyway tis now on 06/03/2005

2 spots remaining remaining @ 11.00 today

Get in quick,