How to Drive... is a unique product which takes circuit instruction to a different level.
Until now, circuit guides have been two-dimensional, words and diagrams on a printed page. That is certainly better than no guide at all, but it doesn't show you what the road looks like from the all important position. Behind the wheel.
How to Drive uses exclusive new technology, first to hover you overhead and provide an overview, then to sit you in the seat and show you what the road really looks like. How to Drive takes the lap apart - slows it down, speeds it up and flattens it out wherever necessary - to give you a better understanding of the track and how best to drive it. Using How to Drive is like being out there, sitting alongside an experienced tutor, at a fraction of the cost.
How to Drive is a quick and convenient means to a better lap. Whether you’re a novice driver on your first trackday, or a race driver looking to save tenths of a second, you can expect to save hours of valuable track time – and therefore money – getting up to speed beforehand.
Andrew Smith
"I'd never been to Oulton before, did one day's testing as well as watching the DVD, using the circuit guide and playing on the PS2, and I won!
The main difference it made was that I was able to go out on the first session of the test day knowing where the circuit went. I'd watched the DVD several times and so remembered the key points about each corner. That is particularly important at Oulton where a lot of the corners have either a blind entry, a blind exit, or both! My best lap times in that first session were only about a second slower than my ultimate pole position time, so it certainly gave me the confidence to attack the track that I wouldn't otherwise have had. It accelerated the learning process quite considerably.
I particularly like the aerial views and the blue 'sighting' lines for the corners, I thought that worked really well and was very clear."
Caterham Graduates Championship, no.55, Oulton Park, 17-06-06
How to Drive… delivers an exclusive preview to the track using clever moving graphics to demonstrate the optimum line through the corners, but it also explains a little of why a particular line is as it is. This is something your on-screen tutor Mark Hales believes is essential to learning the way round; if you know why, then you can more easily work out how.
If you have never been to a particular circuit, or are having trouble with part of the lap, How to Drive will point you in the right direction. The DVD format allows you to learn at your own speed, repeating sections until the point cannot help be made. It won’t replace a day at the track with an experienced instructor, but it will certainly make their job that much easier.
The on-car footage has been shot from a track-day favourite in the shape of a Caterham R300 Superlight, together with an extensive corner by corner guide. You can choose from the menu whether to play the lap continuously or to watch the corner by corner analysis with its extensive commentary and additional camera angles. There is even an overhead view of the track with the line painting itself on the road in real time.
By taking you through the corner many times and doing so from differing vantage points, the footage helps you build up a detailed mental image of where the circuit goes. When you do it for real, the image of the track – which way the road turns, what lies beyond that crest and so on, will already be familiar.
There is also a bit of fun; a ride round the same circuit in a top-spec Porsche road car, and a virtual race which will allow you to compare the cornering, braking and acceleration two very different cars. The result is not always as predictable as you might think.
Your tutor - racer and writer Mark Hales - has a unique talent which combines race-winning driving skills with an ability to analyse and describe the driving process. A multiple national champion, and winner all over Europe, his racing cv spans more than 30 years during which time he has driven a wider variety of cars than almost anybody. Such diverse on-track experience combined with a parallel career as a professional journalist and writer makes him the ideal guide to a better lap.
Andrew Hawken
"I qualified about 10 places higher than my previous best – so, really great stuff for the novice/mid-field driver!"
Caterham Graduates Championship No. 117, Oulton Park, 17-06-06
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You can use the DVD Request Form to order How to Drive DVDs
