This isn't meant to sound contentious, so please don't take it as such.
I used to think I was a pretty good driver until one day I had a front end tyre blow out on me hitting debris in the middle of a dual carriageway at night. Totally straight piece of road, no other cars in sight. Was I going too fast....yes. It looked like half a broken brick in the road but I never went back to check. I stupidly stamped on the brakes when I heard the front tyre go, car nearly 720'd round up the carriageway and at one point the car tipped up slightly so I did start to wonder if it was going to roll. When all came to a standstill I got out wondering what state the car would be in (an old Mk2 Jetta GTi 16v). 4 kerbed alloys and that was it. The kerbs seemed to keep me in check and saved me for heading off in another direction as I bounced between them. Now I love driving, you can't keep me out of a car, but for a week I just couldn't drive.
My family paid for me to go and do a skids and skills car crib test at Silverstone to get my confidence back, then a few instructor led track days where you learn high speed car control. I've since done single seaters, track days on my own in our car, have signed up to do IAM, and did a whole days instruction with BTCC / Seat Cupra Championship drivers at Prodrive in Warwickshire.
To any of you who haven't yet done these kind of activities I can't rate them highly enough. I realised that whilst on the whole I am quite a considerate driver, I had a few significant holes in my armory that I didn't really know were there (you only do when you are trying to recover a car against the laws of physics).
We drive pretty powerful cars (I was watching Dave ja vu Top Gear the other night and they were saying some modern cars are as fast as 1960/70's rally cars out of the showroom - eg. no mods).
I'm not trying to be wise after the event, but it does make you realise by having the privilege to drive these nice powerful cars we have a responsibility to ourselves, other road users, and our families/dependents to be well trained and competent, if not to get the best use out of the money we spend improving performance.
Track days/instruction have never been so reasonable as they are today. Audi have just dropped some of their prices for days at Silverstone, you can join a club like 'Yourracingcar.com' which entitle you to benefits at race meets and subsidized car training, and the IAM is a great way to look at getting better rates on your insurance whilst brushing up on your skills.
I'm incredibly pleased that Andy is safe, and all is well, but at worse case scenario this could have been a VERY different thread. His car is repairable, he has his health, it doesn't look catastrophically expensive to remedy the issues, and there are no further implications - a great result. However I would IMPLORE you NOT to rely purely on Haldex, Quattro or electronic fail-safes as there is no substitute for outright skill and experience in a difficult driving situation which to be fair most of us get very little practice in dealing with regularly. We spend a fortune on mods without so much as a second thought, however never often enough do we spend any money enhancing the capability of the soft fleshy organic bit that guides it!!!
for admitting it was your goof
