Who was your worst student and what did they do?
 

In another thread here, one of you instructors mentioned something about having a terrible student.

Obviously without calling anyone out, I'm quite interested in hearing some stories about who your terrible students were and what made them so bad.

Firstly because I'm sure there will be some amusing stories.

More importantly though, to hear about what makes some people terrible students so us newer DE drivers have a heads-up on what not to do.

I mean... most of it will probably be obvious but if there are stories to tell, then obviously they're not obvious to everyone.

My worst could not remember a single thing about the track from one lap to the next. It was like Groundhog Day every single lap.

guy pulls up to meet me in his 650hp C5 corvette. i knew this was not going to be fun. all the guy wanted to do was spin the tires and try and scare the crap out of me. from the beginning i told him to not try and impress me, so i guess he took that for meaning i wanted to get pissed off! anyway, after several o-xxx moments, i settled him down and was able to get a decent lap without wheel spin and he started to grab the very basics.. (brake straight, turn in points, basic line, etc)
that thing did have some get up... just wish i wasnt in the car that day!

LOL. That's me for what seems like at least the first day on a new track. :jumper:

Frankly, I have the exact same problem in Gran Turismo. I tend to recognize the corners as I'm coming to them but couldn't begin to describe what the next 3 are going to be.

The trick I've adopted to get past this is to NAME THE CORNERS. For some people, they just remember. For me, it wasn't until I could start thinking of the corners as specific numbers that they finally started to stick. Otherwise I'd just take them as they come and sometimes get them mixed up if they looked similar.

FWIW, if you get a student like that again, maybe have them speak out the corner numbers as they're going. "Turn 1, sweeps to the right. Turn 2, blind left double-apex, turn 3... " etc.

I had what mglobe had but in a Toyota Camry, so it was a fight to just stay in the seat of the SS AboutToRollOver and then not hurl....

I had one that absolutely knew everything already and didn't have to listen to me :mad:. Then when his car broke, he "took over" his wife's ride because "he was the better driver". :rolleyes:

Had another autocrosser who would just not smooth out. Kept setting off the traction control and insisting it was getting in his way. The second day was wet and I let him turn it off, he made it two turns...:icon501:

Some students have showed up in marginal cars.

The best thing a student can do is simply listen and be willing to learn. Once they are listening, they can be dialed back to whatever their proficiency requires. At that point, it is safe, and with any luck they may learn something that weekend.

Oh, if you want more, brew up a pot of coffee or whatever beverage you like and read the Bimmerforums Instructor Stories Thread. Just be careful when you take a sip, as it may end up coming out your nose.

-Mike

Haha at this thread!!! I am not saying a bloody thing :eek:

Oh come on, I wasn't that bad... :)

-Mike

Lol it wasn't you or Globe :)

I wasn't the instructor but he was a cool c5 corvette racer in NASA.

Someone asked him to check ride me into hpde 4 last time I was at TWS.

we had a great run for a few laps, then I took turn 1 with a bit too much trail braking/rotation causing a seriously oops oversteer moment.

I was was able to save it but apparently being in a street 911 with an hpde student over steering at >100 mph didn't bother him and he said, "ok so what happened there?" (As he said this a c5 zo6 flew off turn 1 behind us as he was trying to catch me. He and his car were ok than God LOL)

i said "too much trail brake, caused oversteer".

His response was something like "well you scared me but you saved it and you understood what happened, I'll pass you.

he was a really cool guy and I still feel bad about it.

While I have not instructed on a track. Teaching my daughter, who is not a car person, to drive has created some code brown moments.

Based on your post, I doubt that you'll be among any instructors worst students.

I've had a lot of students, and the vast majority have been a pleasure to work with. The relatively few students who were more challenging tended to fall into these categories:

- The opposite of a natural (may be elderly). Inconsistent, unpredictable, very difficult to make much progress, usually on the slow side, may overestimate how well he's driving. But usually has fun and wants to come back despite all of this. Instructor needs a lot of patience and readiness to deal with the unexpected.

- Has some ability, but lacks self-awareness, can't relax and find flow, and has difficulty absorbing and implementing instruction, which slows progress substantially and often leads to frustration. Instructor needs to be a bit of a psychotherapist.

- Has above-average ability, but aggressive and prone to red mist. Imperative that the instructor keep this student reined in while trying to keep the relationship with the student positive and constructive.

I think I had the same guy once.... lol

Most have been great.

Worst is funny in hindsight: Was wearing Porsche everything, including sunglasses. I said hi and he responded with his resume, arms crossed. Not sure he heard anything I said. Made it 2-3 laps before we spun exiting a relatively slow corner. Spent the rest of the session in the pit talking about what went wrong and how the rest of the day would work if he wanted any track time. Ended up making some progress on smoother inputs.

LOL! I'm not too worried about that. Every instructor I've had has been great. There's been some amusing moments but nothing I think has ever really concerned any of them.

For my part, I think my favourite line out of any of them was "Where's your sense of self-preservation??" :D

This is probably the closest to how I'd consider myself. Whether my ability is above-average is debatable obviously but I was always the quickest in every instructed group I ran in. What do you mean by red mist though? I've had times where I REALLY wanted to catch the guy in front of me, but I heeded the instructions to slow down if they were given.

In my first ever DE, the instructor knew it was a friend up ahead and that I wanted to chase him down. He had me slow right down and then gave me a talk about what to do if we go off track. Then he let me go and we ran him back down and passed him. That sticks with me as one of my favourite single moments of DE so far. Having the instructor have enough confidence in me to let me loose for some pure fun was a great feeling.

I've been spending WAY too much time reading that thread on Bimmerforums. There's some good stuff in there! :D