Over the past couple years, I’ve had several encounters with the Land Rover driving instructors. And after every experience, I always learn something new about driving, and I’m always impressed with the caliber of their instruction.
Usually, my touch points with the instructors are media-only experiences -- off-roading at media driving rallies or Land Rover specific new vehicle launches.
Recently, however, I attended the Land Rover Experience Driving School at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. And this isn’t a media-only opportunity. It isn’t even a Land Rover owner only opportunity.
The beauty of the Land Rover Driving School -- which has three North American locations -- is that it’s open to everyone, and you can build an entire vacation around the experience.
At the driving school in Asheville, for example, you can actually stay on the grounds of the Estate, lodging at the Inn on Biltmore Estate. Then you can spend a day at the driving school and plan other days around a tour of the Biltmore Estate Winery, the Biltmore House and gardens and the Farm Village. In addition to driving school, other outdoor experiences include fly fishing, wagon rides, biking tours, horseback riding and kayaking.
With the amount of outdoor experiences that the 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate offers, you’d imagine the landscape to be stunning. And it is.
It’s also the perfect setting to test your limits as an off-road driver as well as learn something new.
From courses built by the Land Rover instructors to natural obstacles, there are plenty of opportunities to finesse your way through sticky situations. In the two days I spent at the school, I dealt with deep muddy puddles, steep inclines, hills with sharp turns at the bottom, tree stumps and jutted rocks. All three of the vehicles I drove -- the LR3, the Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport -- handed each obstacle magnificently. Of course, that was due in no small part to the instruction and spotting of the folks at Land Rover.
Even though I walk away from my Land Rover encounters with the knowledge that Land Rover vehicles are incredibly capable and with the confidence to drive them in most situations, I also walk away with invaluable knowledge about every day driving.
And I’m utterly convinced that everyone should attend one of the Land Rover Driving Schools if they have the means and opportunity.
In the meantime, however, her are some of the key things I learned during my stint at driving school:
Watch your grip on the wheel. The very first thing my driving instructor, Greg, told me when I got behind the wheel of a 2006 LR3 was: You're holding the steering wheel wrong. Though my hands were at the standard 9ish and 3ish position, I had my thumbs hooked around the wheel. Greg said my thumbs should be positioned on top of the steering wheel rather than hooked around it. This is because an obstacle could cause the wheel to spin and thus sprain the thumb. In everyday driving, hooked thumbs could get injured in the event that an airbag deploys.
Drive the whole vehicle. Oftentimes, people forget that there's a back seat and trunk to their car. As Greg said: "For a lot of people, the world stops at their shoulder." But whether you're driving around a tree on the path or a concrete pillar in the parking garage, you have to remember the two-thirds of a vehicle behind you -- in the case of a Land Rover Range Rover Sport, that's about $30,000 to $40,000 worth of vehicle. A good rule of thumb: As you are moving forward when your C pillar passes an obstacle, you're clear to turn and maneuver around that obstacle.
Use the side mirrors. An interesting tip that Greg and the other instructors shared was tilting the side mirrors to get a good view of the rear tires. While you don't want to keep your mirrors perpetually tilted, there are very good and specific uses for this tactic. On the path it ensures that you don't puncture your tire with an unexpected jagged rock or stump. When parallel parking, it enables you to slide into the space without hitting the curb.
Keep it slow and steady. “It’s all about that control,” Greg said. When you hit an obstacle or muddy patch, the natural inclination is to try to power your way over it or through it. Slam your foot on the accelerator, and go, go, go! But this isn't usually the best thing to do.
When you try to power your way through an obstacle -- whether it's dirt or snow -- you lose control of the vehicle. When you're off-roading or dealing with difficult road situations, the idea is to maintain control and clear the obstacle, while at the same time you're protecting the vehicle from damage.
Always look forward. This is not as obvious as you may think. Just as people often forget the world behind their shoulders while driving, they often ignore the world in front of the car they're driving behind. That leaves a lot of room for error. While driving, you should always look ahead to the next obstacle: the car in front of the car you're behind, the next stoplight, the next rutted hill you'll have to climb, the next hairpin turn you'll have to make. This allows you to plan ahead and to be prepared when the unexpected happens. If you see the brake lights of the car in front of the car you're behind, well, you know what happens next.
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