Coochas

On a boat it helps to stare at the horizon if you are motion sick. I suppose this is similar to keeping the eyes up. I've seen a few instructors get out of cars when nauseous. It's the only cure.
I would be a little nervous taking something like meclizine (Bonine) before driving at the track as it can be sedating. Likewise Scopolamine patches can sedate and blur vision.

gbuff

....which is why, again, I'd REALLY rather not take anything.....I'm extremely fortunate in that at my age (60) I'm taking no prescribed meds for anything and I'd like to keep it that way.

Besides, the LEFT seat is a blast!!

Gary

roastbeef

my experience was a mustang gt guy bragging about "destroying" m3's and that he "hadn't even put it in track mode yet." i'm thinking; ok... you're at the track, maybe this is the place to use it? casually checked his times and he was a solid 7+ seconds above a quick pace for that track. he later had to get towed back into the paddock because he ran out of gas, and he got towed by his strut brace because he didn't think he would ever need tow hooks. thankfully, he was in a slower group, so i didn't have to deal with the mess he probably was on the course.

AO

Great thread! I'm an instructor in waiting... Taken the PCA national instructor course, will probably get my first student sometime this season.

I'd like to think I was a good student. Tries to listen, concentrates on a single corner or two and works to get it. Tries to be smooth, etc... Each of the instructors I've had over the years have each given me some good tips that I've been able to incorporate into my driving style. Some more successfully than others. I hope to emulate each of them in some ways when I begin instructing... but I think the key is that each student is different and it's up to the instructor to find a way to get through and communicate with him or her. It won't always happen as evidence in this thread, in which case self-preservation should be a number one priority.

As for motion sickness, I was surprised that I suffer this. Usually a dramamine will take care of it and not eating just before an event. Recently, I was watching the YouTube VLOG from La Vagabond (a your couple sailing around the world) and they were commenting that when they encounter rougher seas, they avoid coffee/caffeine and instead drink herbal tea.

I was at VIR last weekend so I decided to skip the coffee and instead drank herbal tea. AMAZING! Not a hint of motion sickness. This is still pretty much a small sample for me, and I plan to continue this approach for a while, but some of you might want to try it.

docwyte

Only time I had issues with motion sickness was when my student had a Toyota Camry. Zero roll control on that thing, it was like getting a ride in the HMS Barforama.

surlynkid

Not exactly. It is OTC in Canada. Just mail order it for about $10/patch. I don't need it on smooth, flowing tracks, but there is one particular local track that throws me around a lot in the right seat. I need the patch. I don't have any drowsiness people mention. I only get incurable cotton mouth.

cmac

I had a student last year ask me to grade their heel-toe shifting. After looking down at his feet during several turns I remember thinking that I probably shouldn't be doing this. Didn't vomit but that was the closest I've ever come. After the session wrapped I had an Alka-Seltzer... :-)

996tnz

^^This is why I no longer go deep sea fishing the day before a race. I had researched the anti-seasickness medication effects ahead of time so avoided them and relied on chewable ginger tablets instead but those things were disgusting and only half helped. Not overly prone to motion sickness either as most trips I take nothing, but it can take into the next day to get my land legs back properly, and I don't really want to be racing then.

Only motion sickness in a car since a kid was when bedding race brakes at lower than recommended speeds (and so using a greater speed differential with a few more cycles) while watching my speedometer most of the time. I suspect that if I co-drove a rally I might get it too though.

Back on topic a bit, I am in awe of the risks instructors take to help guys like me out. Not sure if it's good or bad, but I drive just the same with an instructor on board as I do when alone (weight aside), unless I'm working on some specific advice. I do remember one very wet session though where we were the only car still out on track and on returning to the pits I mentioned that I could possibly do with "maybe one more brave pill for turn one". At which he - one of our country's fastest Porsche racers and a most experienced instructor - looked at me like I was mad. I probably learned more from that look than I did out on track!

PorscheDoc

I always was lucky and had really good students. One funny story though, when i was doing my PCA checkout ride to become an instructor, my instructor was driving and i was playing instructor in the right seat....he was just constantly doing wrong stuff, I couldn't keep up with the corrections fast enough from the right seat before he threw something else at me. I was getting a little frustrated, and then about the 4th lap, he shoots in the pits out at full speed as if still on the race course. This was at heartland park. If you have ever been to heartland, you know once you pit out, you basically 90 then 90 again following next to the racing surface. I finally yell at him, WTF! He laughed and said, he had had a student do that to him at full speed. I called BS thinking no one in their right mind would do that and we went on. I swear, it wasn't my 2nd student after becoming an instructor, their first session, i had drove 2 laps to show them the line, corner worker stations, etc. Pitted out, switched seats....They were on their 4th or 5th lap when they pitted out full speed thinking they were still on the road course! I could only laugh thinking back at my checkout ride.

With that being said, I have put my instructing days in the past. Cars are getting too fast, drivers too unskilled for the hp they bring to the track, etc. Getting 2 students a weekend, plus trying to drive and support customer cars, and putting your life at risk just isn't worth the effort. Glad there are still instructors who will do it though! I wonder how long the days of in car instructing will last.

Wild Weasel

I think when it comes to DE, this shouldn't ever be a barrier so long as expectations are set properly right from the get-go.

I mean... if someone shows up in Green group with a really fast car, couldn't it be a policy that you leave it in 3rd gear the whole time until you get comfortable with the guy? If some ******** doesn't want to do that because he thinks he's Mario Andretti or something, then he gets parked.

So long as the rules are stated up front so people don't think the instructor is being unfair to them, it seems there are some safe ways to bring people up to speed in high-powered cars.

It's different when it's a one-day event and someone just wants to go fast... but people enrolling in a DE programme with a goal to actually learn things should understand that they need to start slow.

ExMB

Was "Al" playing the student from hell?



I heard similar from my old CDI when he went for instructor training at your region and HPT.

Earlierapex

I've moved two student rear view mirrors so they couldn't watch the cars catching them.

I've also been a bad instructor and pushed an intermediate student too hard. He went off at the end of the back straight at VIR - was entirely my fault for pushing his braking point too much.

Gofishracing

I have too many stories to list. BUT this one I'll share. I'll never run another night event. As the sun is setting my student says he has trouble seeing at night- He signed up for a night event? Needless to say he couldn't see- turned in between track and flag station- onto the grass- then was going to stop- My fear others follow him. Well- into the pits- sent him home- done. I left as well. Didn't even stop to speak with Chief. Never again a sunset event. So easy also to out drive headlights on track.

jlanka

Night event without track lighting?

Wild Weasel

Can I ask why? I think I posted a video in this thread where my instructor told me to stop watching my mirrors but he explicitly said he'd be doing it and let me know if I need to point someone by. He told me to concentrate on my line.

In general though I tend to think people don't look in their mirrors enough and if they're conducting a train in an instructed group, I tend to blame the instructor.

Of course, not knowing what's going on in that car, I also tend to give them the benefit of the doubt, wondering if the instructor already has their hands full just staying on the track and that watching the mirrors is secondary at that point.