“I’d never contemplate doing in a lovely new car is put it on a track or test the limits of it’s handling. Or ragging the ar5e off it in boy racer terms!”
I would never rag the bottom off a car and certainly not as a boy racer. But I do want to know what it feels like when things go wrong – and have a strategy to deal. Example: many years back I had the luck to drive a London Transport RT-class bus on the LT skidpan – and then write up the experience for a magazine. Having 7 tons of bus attached to your backside and whizzing around behind you was quite an experience! After the skiddy bit, and snaps, were done, the instructor took me round a few more times to show me “cadence braking” – this was pre-antilock days – which drivers are trained to use in emergency. A few days later I found myself on totally invisible black ice, going downhill with a brick wall at the end. Only doing about 25mph but without using what I had learned on skid pan I would have ended up with a very broke morrie Minor. Cadence braking stopped me in straight line. Point is, learning how to deal with, in this case, a skidding loss of control was not a “boy-racer” exercise.
Different cars lose control in different ways, so I’d like to find out how my present one does it so that I’m ready if it happens on road. A track day is not up my street at all bit I have discovered that there are a few skidpans which will instruct in one’s own car. May give it a go.