Since 2008, Bridgestone has taken the initiative to teach drivers in Malaysia a little more about driving. The Potenza Driving Lesson, as it’s called, is fundamentally a basic defensive driving course aimed at equipping everyday drivers with on-demand driving skills when they are faced with unwanted situations on the road.
In conjunction with the launch of its latest Potenza Adrenalin RE003 road tyres, the company recently organised the Potenza Driving Lesson for both its customers and the media at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) with the presence of Jo Takegawa, MD of Bridgestone Tyre Sales (Malaysia) and Tengku Djan who was the lead driving instructor. Of course all four cars, a Proton Preve, Persona and two Honda Civics were all equipped with Potenza Adrenalin RE003 tyres.
After dividing us up into teams of four, we set off to an empty parking space scattered with cones and were given cars which played a specific role in the four-part course. We began with a briefing, where our instructor, Admi, who was also our team leader, took us through the basics of driving which included the proper upright sitting position, the proper way of wearing seat belts and gripping the steering.
Setting off, we ventured onto the Slalom Course in a Proton Persona. This involved steering the car in and out of a zig-zag motion, the goal of course was to avoid dropping the set of cones in the middle. Sounds easy? Well, yes, but that’s only if you have the correct driving style. The steering technique that was recommended to us – the hand-over-hand method, one commonly used in performance driving.
This writer uses the ol’ push-and-pull technique, which although isn’t wrong, curbs the ability to turn fast smoothly. This was evident in the first run, when I clipped a number of cones – Admi eventually advised me to try out the hand-over-hand technique instead, and it worked. Even at higher speeds, I found out how much easier it was with this method, moving fluidly around the cones.
Next up was Threshold Braking, which was a little bit tricky. How do you perform an emergency brake without engaging the ABS? By finding and applying the right amount of pressure to the brakes. But why wouldn’t you want to engage the ABS? Well, to cut it straight, in the event of a full sudden halt, ABS works to lock and unlock the wheels, which isn’t really bringing the car to a stop, even though it will – eventually.
Threshold braking does, when the right amount of pressure is applied without engaging the ABS, the stopping distance is significantly shorter than when the ABS takes over. It took some time to get used to as an ambulance was conveniently parked about five metres in front of the braking zone. But after awhile, we did it and found this to be true, braking distance was indeed shorter by many more centimetres.
Avoidance Braking was next and it was carried out in a Proton Preve. Unlike threshold braking, we engaged the ABS this time. With an obstacle (cone) placed in front of us, we had just a fraction of a second to swerve left or right to avoid hitting it. A very important piece of advice given by instructor Faidzil was not to look at the obstacle in front when swerving, but the direction in which one needs to swerve the car towards.
“If you look at the obstacle, you will hit the obstacle when you are turning,” Faidzil explained. Unknowingly, I tried doing both. We had to approach the obstacle fast – within a two-metre range before braking, followed by a quick swerve. In my first run, keeping in mind Faidzil’s instructions, I hit speeds of 60 km/h, looked towards the direction I needed to swerve to, slammed on the brakes and I successfully veered away from the cones.
On my second attempt, I was a little bit more “energised,” in that I had forgotten about his number one tip. As I slammed the brakes, looked at the obstacle face-on and swerved, this sent a few cones flying as my side kicked it (somehow, another was underneath the car). “See, you looked at the obstacle,” Faidzil quipped. My next try (his instructions in mind), was again a success, I took my eyes off the cones and towards the corner.
The final part of the course was Cornering Lines. “Slow in, fast out” was the main rule for taking each bend. The makeshift track, in an ‘S’ form, was probably the most fun of them all – driving through curves at speed but in a controlled manner. Instructed by Suhaimi, this writer went through each corner perfectly on two tries while on the third, it didn’t go too well – I went too fast into the corner, losing some steer.
The trick was to brake upon reaching a bend, turn and accelerate through. Another key takeaway is to always plan ahead before taking corners at higher speeds; to estimate how much braking is needed depending on the sharpness of each oncoming curve. While defensive driving skills will not turn you into a race car driver, they are proper skills that drivers should have when on public roads.
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wow….
look at the haze
Most are Proton, so you know where the pollution came from
Terima kasih Proton!
Campro emission is rated to a higher standard than dinosar 1NZ-FE so which is more polluting?
You think Toyota doesn’t have Euro 5 emission compliant engine? Toyota just don’t have to bring it in Malaysia since unnecessary.
Proton instead DOESN’T have any euro 5 engine. That’s why you see the pathetic Iriz driven in Europe, tested in Europe but can’t be sold in Europe!
Lying through your teeth like a Dracula again
Vios CO2 Emission: 147g/km
Preve CO2 Emission: 191g/km
I urge the readers to check the facts yourself before believing what this person said. He’s clearly biased towards Proton
Is Toyota cheating like VW? LOL
gud pandai use real fact..please apply to other article or news ok.
vig3, the only one cheating is Proton, cheated Malaysian for 30 years
Euro std is not dependant on co2 alone. 1Nzfe here dun even reach euro 5 but CFE with higher co2 emission
Toyota cheats for gens. Same gearbox same engine , obsolete overpriced nuff said
What did you mean by cheating? If you mean the emission issue. So far, there is no such issue happen in MY.
Why no vios altis camry? Too shitty to take part?
No ESC. But Sam Loo, George Abdul and Albert will say the T badge in front is stronger than Captain America shield. Will protect you from anything one.
im using the re003 for around 2 weeks now and they are simply awesome , although i dont think they have long life time but there is no bad thing to say abt it , bye bye understeer! very grippy on dry , normal on wet roads , and surprisingly they are very decent noise ….n its slightly cheaper than the toyo T1R !
Yes, drive more aggresive and masuk longkang please. We need more car scraps to be exported to MARS.
actually i have heard so many driving lessons like this only for people who bought certain sports car…i wonder are there any courses like this for driving enthusiasts who do not own a sports car but wanted to gain knowledge on this?
Anyone here knows where i can find defensive driving for public? Need a refresher course.
we offer defensive driving course, contact us for more info. www.aada.com.my
There are some but not well publicized.
Paul should do one themselves.
Its actually quite a simple course, where you would only need 2 days to get most of it (1st day theory, 2nd day on road/handling. I can teach 1 to 1 but the challenge is to find a suitable location.
Yeah this driving course is more crucial for sports car owner, however it’s not wrong for drivers with normal cars to attend this kind of training in order to learn more about their cars’ limits and being a better driver.
Why Preve knock down all the cones? Handling too shitty?
Maybe ESC was turned off to show ignorant pipu like you what is the consequence of loosing control in a non-ESC vehicle (ie UMW toyotas & Peroduas).
Usually defensive driving classes has this session to show skeptics why safety features is important.
Saga don’t even have ABS, much less ESC. So don’t talk about safety features, ok? Ignorant people like you only talkok all day, worship Proton like its praying idol
Finally someone come out with a good statement.
Lets put it this way, and I will be fair to you, how many current selling P1 models have ESC? And compared to how many models UMW is selling with ESC?
Please compare up to the toppest spec for each model but dun include extra safety pack.
Pathetic Suprima S with VSC sold even less than Mini Cooper in Malaysia.
People don’t buy Proton because it has VSC, look at the best selling Saga you already know.
People won’t buy Proton even it has VSC, look at the our Vios you also know.
Proton VSC is nothing more than an topic for Proton fanboys to Sendiri Cakap Sendiri Syok.
Where are Proton VSC-ed cars? Parking at showroom/warehouse with RM10,000 discount.
Hello same lorrrr you compare diff segment lor. Suprima is C segment hatch while mini cooper is B segmenter
Kinderganten kids also know da answer la bro..
Our Saga no VSC put this tyres also no use what
No use of testing with Milo tin aka Junk cars… Just a waste. I understand ur company forced to test with milo tins made junks. If u declined, u vil be in trouble… So rather do a test with a milo tim, dont test at all.. There is still hv knowledgable consumers knows which tyre to use for their car.
Which picture did you see junk? I din see any toyotas or peroduas there.
You’re a blind Proton supporter, that’s why you don’t see the junk in front of you
You’re trully right! I am so blinded that I dun see any toyota or perodua junks in front of me. No eye see, as they say.
I guarantee you are either idiot or retarded who say proton is milo tin. No doubt Proton Wira and Perdana have very bad chassis and low impact resistance but it does not apply for Waja onward. Please do not under estimate the impact resistance of Preve, new Saga, Suprima S, Waja, and Persona. FYI, the metal and steel of Proton using is not crony company, it is local chinxse and metal direct imported from Korea. Proton has already applied ultra high tensile steel in its models since Exora onward.
FYI, bridgestone does not has contract with Prxton and they will not get into trouble if not using them as demo car. Bridgestone is an japanxse brand tyre and it would not be fair of promoting Japanxse car. Instead using national car regardless P1 or P2 the result will be moderate and more acceptable since these cars are occupied highest market rate.
And FYI again, P1 handling is far better than most Japanxse or Kxrea car. Dont be fool of talking Civic handling is better than Preve, ask the professional driver to get the answer right. No doubt P1 have lousy engine, noise, vibration and harshness control is bad, low response CVT and terrible after sales service, but P1 has very good safety control and handling.
I am not hardcore supporter of P1 after having 6 years nightmare with Gen2, but Gen2 having very good handling. I am currently working in automotive industry and if you still want challenge to know more.
I think u nvr went out of the country. De whole world knws Proton n Perodua is rubbish regardless of handling n so on.
OMG you never read foreign reviews? Saga’s handling is better than 10k more expensive cars, that’s quite level up to higher segment car (C segment) lor.
Oh and that’s in Aus Dollar
Jaguh kampung spotted. Grow up boy. Your proton is nothing but a piece of junks. Even koreans are much well accepted globally thans your piece of shit.
Please go back to your chow kit and main telur dengan ah kua ok.
Popular doesn’t mean its good. P2 is popular but it’s moving coffin. Dun let me start with virus
Drivers are caught up with ‘blind spot’ and i would appreciate if you could add it in your defensive driving technique.Thanks!
If they are seriously want to teach car handling and defensive driving, they should be fitting old hard tyres that offer little grip. Fitting grippy tyres is counter productive.
I did our handling section on an ice/snow track. You don’t need much speed to get the car out of shape. Yes, it makes you feel like a rally driver. Sadly no ice or snow here.
Its safer for students since the low speed required means if things go wrong you don’t get big damages.
Defensive and advanced driving is something close to my heart (other than car safety systems and child seats) as we all know just how poorly our drivers training equipes us. Many do not realise just how much NOT in control we are when the car’s handling balance is upset by sudden braking, cornering, and are ill equipped to anticipate and take evasive or corrective actions. Sticky tyres, hard suspension all make cars more difficult to “save” when you exceed its limits, so think twice before slapping on those gumballs and race shocks.
But the most important skill that these courses teach you, is that you will have to be aware of your surroundings at all times, and how you can recognize fatigue and how it would affect your awareness.
Hmm.. Interesting that they should advocate a ‘hand over hand technique’ for quick steering. I gather the ‘push-pull’ technique is actually safer in the event of an accident, as your arm (and face) may be injured if the air-bag deploys! I think for the majority of us average drivers, the push-pull technique would be the safer option.
I never agreed with wheel shuffling. Your steering speed becomes too slow and wheel shuffling isn’t natural. In an emergency evasive maneuver, the last thing you would think about is to keep your hands clear of the airbag.
You would want to stay clear of the obstacle you were going to hit. Its almost like saying, its better for not getting hurt from the airbags, then getting out of a potential crash. This is as bad as saying better not buy a car with airbags since you could get injured by them.
Trying to avoid an accident takes precedent over all else.
Tengku Djan the lead driving instructor?… I will pass…
Yes, teach more drivers how to masuk longkang. Tow truck business rejoice.
a fine example of ‘knee cap brain’ commentator hihihi