If you dont own a farm, how do you teach a kid to drive? I want to teach my 13 year old about clutches and gearboxes etc. I have a desire to get my girl into motorsport. I dont think mother will ever let it happen, but I'd like to give it a go, under the guise of safety. Teach the kid to drive as early as possible on the safety of a track and maybe she wont die as a P plater.

Give Garry Willmington a call at Marulan Driver Training Centre - this is exactly the kind of thing they are good at.

Abandoned car-parks in the middle of nowhere? That would be my best bet?

CACA come and try motorkhana. Eastern Ck or Ansell Pk Richmond (on grass). I'm spose to be going to one at Richmond tomorrow, but I think we're gonna get rained out.

yeah I think we're a bit before the come and try days though. She has never sat in the drivers seat of a car before. I think it would be too stressful for both of us to learn easing out a clutch with an audience and a stop watch. I really need to get a farm.

just stick on some P plates, apparently they magically give people confidence and knowledge of how to drive , but seriously what about going up to some quiet industrial areas? For short stints, atleast using the clutch would be handy to learn before going to the track.

every single school kid should learn how to drive in motorkhanas "competently" before leaving primary school,,, add to that some go-kart driving & maybe even some speedway to get them used to controling the sliding & understanding how avoid the bumping & bashing & crashing

it`s the only way to stop the carnage on the roads

the really really stupid thing is that for some reason "society" has created a very very poor timing problem,,, a time where the pressures from pubity & drinking & teenage arrogance & higher-school cert studies & sex & drinking & all that other stuff is in play all at once,,, then they add learning how to drive at the same/similar time,,, stupid stupid stupid !!!!!!!!!!!!

getting the "Learning correctly" part out of the way & over & done with in primary school is the only way,,, kids of that age are actually quite capable & are also very very good sponges for the info & experience , so they actually learn very well & very quickly at that early age... then it stays with them for life

making sure at that young age that they learn where the right time & places are to drive & how to drive competitively will give them an open door for future prospects as race car drivers & at the same time it will Negate-stop-cease that Poser, wanker, show-off atitude at the wrong age of 16/17/18-ish where it is at it`s highest

starting them "ALL" early will stop anyone else from jumping into a car as a passenger with some idiot drunk or show-off


ah,,, crickey i could go on & on about this subject but for some reason it just doesn`t get through to the government, the police, the schools & the insurance companys

if they all just took this exact picture & actually tried it as a primary school program, the world`s roads would be a much safer place , the hospitals beds would be free-d up from all those stupid young car crash patients, we`d all be paying far less insurance, kids around the age of high school cert would have far more common sense & focus on study & the exams instead of trying to show off in some shitbox commodore hooning around the streets killing their friends & also Australia would lead the world even more than they are already in having the fastest race car drivers in the world... these kids would be taught to race fast in controlled evironments like propers race tracks & obviously the public roads are "NOT" the place... oh & obviously car-clubs would boom with all the extra people involved :-)

end rant,,,sorry, very passionate about this one

I was fortunate to have my dad teach me on an old WW2 UK air base runway in a Mk2 escort van when I was 14. He was pulling up the runway to make way for houses. Passed my test 3 days after my 17th birthday first time.

I think nowadays a driver training centre is your best best if you can't find some private land.

Cheers

Steve

MG car club Newcastle run great junior driving training days for kids
maybe some car clubs down your way do also.

apparently all you have to do is get your kids a push bike
when they are younger and let then ride it to teach them motor skills. eg braking for corner , judging distances and to feel whats it like to fall off and get hurt. Cause I know when I had a stack I said shit I will try not to do that again
I think half the trouble is that these days parents drive their kids every where.
so they don't even get to walk across a road to even judge how traffic flows or car speeds.
Do your kids ride bikes??????

take her to the gokarts before she does any seat time, just get her to follow you around a few laps.

she has already done dodgems since forever and has done a few half hours in karts over the last year. Thats all good for learning how to steer a car where you can reach out and touch each corner. Any 5 or 6 year old can do that. Now, now I'm looking at actual "driving" which is more to do with judging where the bits of car that you cant see are, as well as starting and stopping using a clutch pedal.

The Marulan centre looks like its the go and very reasonable pricing.

Couldnt disagree with you more mini man. I dont think anyone dies because they cant control a skid. They die because they arent mature enough to drive sensibly and not get into a situation where a skid is possible. You have already failed at being a safe driver before the car starts to slide. They dont put trees and power poles in the middle of the lane. When everyone drives sensible and slow enough to keep between their own lines you will cut the road toll by near 100%.

If you decide on MDTC, it would be good to see the results posted here. Could be helpful to others who face a similar problem.