Audi Performance Drive Experience course

The Advanced course is designed primarily to teach car control away from the pressure cooker situation of daily traffic. If you’re able to identify a problem before it happens, you can deal with it with a sound mind, not a panicked one.

Most people are confident in their own abilities and are happy to spruik that they’re a good driver, but the foundation on which Australians get their licence is quite shaky compared with other countries. Chief instructor and all-round nice guy, Steve Pizzati, explains.

“Think back to your licence when you got it. What was the highest speed you got to? 60kmh? I got mine at Carlton Vic Roads and I did not go over 50kmh once,” said Pizzati. “But as soon as I passed, what was the next thing I did? I went straight to the freeway and did 100kmh.”

“I was trained and assessed at 50kmh and as soon as I got my licence I was allowed to do more than double that. Let alone at night, let alone in the rain.That right there is why [the Australian licencing] system is nuts,” said Pizzati.

According to Pizzati, Audi is giving participants “life skills”in the next rung up, the Performance course, by teaching them how to control a slide, something that they never got in the early stages of driving.

“Everybody, especially young males, has had a skid on the road at some stage, whether you meant it or not,” he said. “No one ever teaches you how to deal with it. It’s something that we’re told ‘don’t do it and if you do, you’ll sort it out when you get there.’”