Fear is an interesting topic as it relates to motorsports. It is arguably one of the most important things you must master in order to be fast. It is also the key to making sure you (and your car) get home in one piece.
The Videogame Mentality v The Real World
If you’ve ever played Gran Turismo or a similar car racing videogame, you are quite familiar with the high rate of crashes you experience in such games. That the controls and various cues are different from actual driving certainly plays a part, but the biggest factor is that you have no fear of crashing. Because, when you crash in a game, you simply point the car in the right direction and try again. There is no need to work up your speed slowly because there is no penalty for not doing so.
The same is decidedly NOT the case in the real world as you might imagine. If you go into a corner too fast and lose control you may very well die.
I fear a student with no fear
Most instructors fear the student with a powerful car. Look at any of the high horsepower cars in the novice group and you’ll probably see instructors tiptoe around them to a lower powered car. To me, this fear is entirely misplaced. As far as I’m concerned, the size of the car’s engine is entirely irrelevant - I want a student that is AFRAID. As long as my student is afraid of crashing, they will keep the reigns on their engine without me having to constantly warn them and be on them to keep their speed down. The worst student I can imagine is someone who wants to go fast RIGHT NOW, regardless of their ability. With such a student, they’ve put their desire for speed ahead of their fear of speed (or perhaps naivety of speed, but in the end it is all the same). Without the fear of the consequences, such a student is a loose canon.
Take 2 examples: I instructed one student with a supercharged Corvette C5, and another student with a stock Scion. The student in the Corvette was a middle aged man who cared about his car and didn’t want anything to happen to it or himself. His priority was getting home safely, and he was very safe and easy to work with.
The student in the Scion was younger, inexperienced and concerned entirely with going as fast as possible. This inexperience meant that we headed into corners very fast, and in one corner too fast - after grabbing some brake after it was too late we had a little brake oversteer and hit the wall, softer than I expected, but enough to leave a scuff on the bumper. All because the student had no fear.
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