Learning plan Driving Course

Vehicle control

The controls of the car should be “automated” to be a safe driver. When you still have to think about what your left foot, or your right hand must be doing: it is hard to solve traffic situations. Therefore, the beginning of the course is aimed at “mastering the car”. There are only some key points here, you’ll learn to master by practice.

1 Preparation 

Adjust your seat, mirrors and get ready.

2 Steering- and looking technique corners

Mostly a poor looking technique results in poor cornering. You have to try and look “through” the corner in order to determine what a safe pace is to enter the corner. Use your side windows for optimal view in corners.

View in corners

Often your view in corners and on curvy roads is limited bij buildings and/or vegetation. Good visibility in a corner means you can see the end of the corner (use your side windows). If you are not able to see the end of the corner you should adjust your speed and proceed cautiously. Only when your view opens up (you can see the end of the corner and make a good judgment of the traffic situation) can you increase speed again.

Driving corners

Mostly you will drive corners with a constant speed. At corners with good visibility the speed can even be increased while driving in the corner. Slowing down always must be done before you enter a corner. So in general we’re not using the brake- and clutch pedals in a corner. An exception to this are corners with speeds below 20 km/h. In these situations you will need the clutch (in combination with 1st or 2nd gear and sometimes your footbrake) to control the speed. Otherwise the car would be going at an uncontrolled speed.

3 Driving away

If you want to drive away smoothly and/or quickly, you should use both your accelerator and your clutch pedal. Get the RPM up to around 1500, then release the clutch. Keep the clutch steady for 3-4 seconds when the car is moving. After this release the clutch slowly and increase RPM at the same time.

Note: RPM means revolutions per minute. If you press the accelerator, the RPM will increase. When you release, it will decrease. It will decrease even faster when you brake. You can compare it with a bicycle with gears: every circle that you make with your feet is one revolution. If you make more revolutions you’re going faster. The moment you shift up your revolutions are going down again (the pedaling gets heavier). In the car it works the same.

4 Braking and stopping

There are three correct ways to slow down with a (manual) car:

1. Engine braking: release the accelerator whilst in a gear, without pressing the clutch pedal. This will make the speed drop until you reach the idle speed of the gear you are in.
2. Gearing down: if you gear down and put the clutch up, the car will decrease speed until the idle speed of the lower gear.
3. Brake pedal: when using the brake pedal, we use a progressive braking technique. This means that you build up brake pressure by starting pressing light and keep increasing pressure on the brake pedal.

5 Clutching

You need a clutch to change gears. You also need a clutch to avoid stalling when driving low speeds or coming to a stop. Engines will start to struggle/stall with a too low rpm level. The engine needs a clutch when the RPM meter is getting below stationary level, around 750 RPM. You can let the car run in a gear on idle speed without stalling, but it will stall/struggle when you start braking (making the rpm drop more) without using the clutch. So here you need a clutch and a brake at the same time. In general we are clutching around 1000 RPM. Idle speed of the gears: 1st gear 10 km/h, 2nd gear 20 km/h, 3rd gear 30 km/h, etc. When you use the clutch, always press it all the way down to the bottom. If you’re not using it, place your foot next to the clutch.

6 Shifting gears

Shifting up always goes in a 1,2,3 etc. sequence. When shifting down however, you pick the gear you need immediately (after slowing down). Shift gears at 2000 RPM under normal circumstances. When quick acceleration is necessary, for example when merging, get the RPM’S up to 3000 before shifting up. Most engines have maximum power between 2000 and 3000 RPM’S.