Schooled in Winter Driving

Kanishka Sonnadara went on assignment to the ILR Car Control School to learn something about standing on ice (i.e. don't) and quite a few things about driving on it. This is his report.

In good weather, driving in your car at 100km/h has a modest potential for disaster. Throw down some snow and ice, toss in some cold and gloom and that disaster potential is not so modest anymore, it's flagrant - more so for the drivers that don't seem to know dry from ice.

Not to overstate the obvious, but having driver's license and road experience does not mean you automatically qualify as a skilled driver. According to Transport Canada, more people have died on Canada's roads in the last 50 years than the number of Canadians killed in two world wars. It averages out to six Canadians dying in road crashes every day.

Continued after the jump.

Also according to Transport Canada's latest tally, there were 4,220 fatalities and 172,883 reported injuries on Canada's roads in 2009. Meanwhile, the Insurance Bureau of Canada reports that the large majority of vehicular collisions take place in December, January, and February, when the Great White North is at its wintriest.







This knowledge, coupled with a new found humbleness about my own driving skills, led me to readily accept an assignment and partake in a winter driving course at ILR (Ian Law Racing) Car Control School.

Based in Minden, Ontario, ILR delivers a full day program comprised of both classroom theory and 1-on-1 in-car track time with an instructor. It is widely regarded as one of the best winter driving programs in the country.

ILR focuses on advanced driver training and collision avoidance techniques. In the spring and summer, the program is offered as the Car Control School on a dry track. The Winter Driving School course, of course, is set up to thoroughly familiarize drivers with a variety of vehicular experiences where traction is limited. In each of these on-track exercises, I found my both my skills and my comfort level pushed to their limits - but never beyond them, which is the upshot of going to extremes in a controlled
environment with skilled instructor.

As it happens, ILR's instructors are all highly experienced individuals; many of them are racing veterans with vivid professional backgrounds. Ian Law, namesake and founder of the school, holds multiple championship titles in both auto slalom racing and ice racing. Ian's enthusiasm for safe driving coupled with a clear aptitude for effectively communicating sometimes-difficult driving concepts was not lost on us students that day. For what it's worth, a day with Law and his talented co-instructors certainly made a better driver of me!



Interestingly, again according to Transport Canada statistics, there has been a fairly steady decline in fatalities on Canadian roads between 1990 and 2009. This doesn't necessarily mean we're becoming better drivers but more likely attributable to advances in automotive safety technologies as well as regulatory changes that require automakers to employ them.

Foremost among those safety advances are Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC). The ILR Winter Driving School covered these technologies in depth, not only in helping students understand how they work, but also to fully experience them in real life - and in their own vehicles.

During my time at the school, I watched a diverse bunch of vehicles have a go; a brand new all-wheel drive executive sedan, for example, then a middle-age, mid-size SUV, a 20+ year-old rear-wheel drive cargo van and so on, all piloted through the ILR winter track. Importantly, the exercises were adapted to each drivetrain being used - all-wheel drive (AWD), rear-wheel drive (RWD) and front-wheel drive (FWD) - because each behaves differently in low traction situations - both in getting into a pickle and in finessing your way out of it.



Now in its 17th year of operation, the ILR Winter Driving School was recently named the official advanced driving school of the Toronto Automobile Dealers Association (TADA). The ringing endorsement also includes a discount for anyone considering the program. A registration discount code is available on TADA's website (www.tada.ca).

It would seem that the difference between a mediocre driver and a good one is knowledge, what differentiates a good one from a great one is practice. The ILR Winter Driving School spends its in-class time teaching you the theory behind good driving skills, and then puts you on ice to practice those skills. The winter course runs every Saturday until March 10 (icy weather permitting).

My takeaway was better technique, a stronger grasp of winter driving etiquette, more overall confidence and a new found appreciation for sensible shoes.

News Source: Evergeek Media
Photo Credits: John Stoneman, Gary Grant, Lesley Wimbush