How to Drive: Real World Instruction and Advice from Hollywood's Top Driver Paperback – May 3, 2016

As the author notes, Starbucks provides much more training for an espresso operator than DMV asks of a student driver before handing over a license. This book provides so much info about how to become a skilled and safe driver. It is for an average driver, AND a high performance car owner - both will benefit greatly. For example, emergency braking: most brake by applying firmer and firmer pressure, never getting the full benefit of their car's braking potential, or they stomp the brakes to the floor loose traction and skid, or they let ABS do the thinking for them. He teaches the stab/squeeze technique used by professional drivers where the first action is an aggressive stab on the brakes, about a one inch push which throws the cars weight onto the front tires which presses the tire onto the road which creates greater surface area for the tire to grip the asphalt. Then, once this added road contact is achieved, continue to squeeze down on the brake aggressively but never so much that you go into a skid. Having practiced this a few times, I am a complete convert - this stops the car fast. I've change how I hold the steering wheel, how I shift gears, and I'm still only at the beginning of the book! His writing style is entertaining, light and uncomplicated - an easy and fun read. As a parent, I have asked my young drivers to dig into this book and to become not just good drivers, but great drivers who know how to handle their car so as to create the safest environment for everyone who shares the road ... the craziest thing we humans do on a daily basis.

Pros:1. A good instructional book for what I will call, "Applied driving," which is to say that the book focuses on steering, shifting, turning, etc. and is not bogged down with what road signs mean, etc.2. Provides some interesting historical factoids about the evolution of driving and the rules of the road such as which side of the road to drive on.3. Quite a few interesting stories from Mr. Collins driving career and some of the people he interacted with.Cons:1. Many chapters begin with a story about a particular driving episode in Mr. Collins career; sometimes they relate to the material of the chapter, sometimes they don't.2. Several stories, as written, were difficult to visualize at times and required me to re-read the story several times before I felt like I had a good handle on what was being described.As stated above, Mr. Collins has written the applied driving manual and assumes that the reader already knows how to pass the written and the practical driving test. What is more subtle is the perspective that Mr. Collins approaches driving. When I was in drivers education, the focus was on defensive driving or accident avoidance. In short, the instruction wasn't proactive. Mr. Collins, in contrast, instructs his readers to be proactive in their driving by teaching the reader to make planned driving decision through a series of actions that balance the risks inherent to driving a vehicle, with the capabilities of the vehicle to safely arrive at the destination.To that end, Mr. Collins dedicates quite a bit of discussion to the physics of tires. If I were to distill Mr. Collins book to a single sentence describing its content it would be: This book explains how to manipulate the interface between the tire and the road to maximize control in most driving conditions. For example, when entering a turn, Mr. Collins advocates jabbing the brakes and then releasing the pressure so that down force on the front tires is increased for steering. If you watch reruns of Top Gear, you will see this a lot in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment before the driver enters, "The Hammerhead." The nose of the car will suddenly drop down.All of the obvious subjects are covered such as shifting, turning, driving in snow, ice or rain. The final chapter on stunt driving was interesting for me as an academic exercise as I don't believe that I will have occasion to power slide my car into a parking place. However, it was interesting to read about the steps in planning such a stunt.It is clear that the focus of the book is for drivers with manual transmission vehicles. In fact, very little is written with respect to automatic transmission vehicles. This was a big disappointment as it rendered several large sections of the book as thought exercises and not something that can be practiced. Also, many of Mr. Collins descriptions of his own driving experience were difficult to follow. I was able to overcome some of the disconnect by watching the movie or TV show he was referring to, or playing a driving game on my daughter's game console. I also would have liked Mr. Collins to provide some recommendations for driving practice exercises. Before anyone says, "Go driving!," what I mean is that simply reading a book is not going to help me drive around a curve better. I need repetition to develop muscle memory. Driving badly around the same curve over and over only reinforces bad habits.Final thoughts...If you're looking for a story book about Mr. Collins time as the Stig, prepare for disappointment. He has a few anecdotes, but does not dish gossip or make what I would consider disparaging comments about any of the Top Gear hosts or the guests. The general impression that I get is that there was a friendly and sometimes frustrating rivalry on the show but that overall, it was very professional.I would make this book required reading for any new driver, i.e. less than 5-years of driving experience, and as suggested reading for experienced drivers. The experienced driver will likely read the book saying, "I knew that. I knew that. That's interesting... I knew that, etc." There is plenty to learn or relearn to make it worth the purchase.

It's weird but it's true: I have never seen a single full episode of Top Gear. Whether this renders me as an impartial reviewer I don't know, but I say with an emphasis that this is a must read for everyone who will ever be near a steering wheel.An acclaimed stunt driver and racing pilot, Ben Collins could've written way more about the blows and whistles of "pro" driving... but he didn't.Instead, he writes about things that everyday drivers like me and you encounter on the road regularly. And this is what makes this book so valuable.With his ocean-deep knowledge of car behaviour, he reveals tricks that will work for your Camry, just as effective as for the one of those Le Mans supercars.And he does that using simple yet engaging language accessible both for the enthusiasts and for those who didn't know that a car could have three pedals.Just read the book and put your skills to work for your own safety and for the safety of all those surrounding you.

Pretty good, particularly the passages that describe his racing and stunt driving experiences. However, most of this book describes common and fundamental street driving practices. I guess I'll use the biblio in the back to find some real racing driving books.