I was recently invited to enrol on a stunt driving course with 1st Take Action Drivers, a new joint venture between David Hornsey and Stewert Lyddall. I’ve known David for many years – he has extensive race and road car experience and has coached me in the past; Stewert is an establish TV and movie stunt driver. The course is possibly the only one in the UK that offers to teach the skill of driving a car on two wheels.
The course takes place on the big expanse of tarmac on Thruxton circuit’s infield and consisted of the following sessions:
- Driving to mark
- Tracking car driving and following
- Handbrake turn into a coned area
- Drifting
- J-turns
- Driving on 2 wheels (side ski)
The first two are skills very specific to TV and movie production. The next three involve controlling the car beyond its grip limit. I did pretty well at J-turns but just couldn’t get the timing right for the handbrake turn and with the drifting, kept pushing the car into understeer rather than provoking oversteer – in both cases, possibly because these actions are so opposite of circuit racing!
The final section – driving on two wheels – was the most challenging and only one of us really managed to get the car to balance. The car is fitted with an outrider to prevent you from being able to roll it completely – probably just as well given we were all completely new to this.
