November 2007

The winner of the Driver of the Year competition has been announced. The award will be presented to Lesley Pollard at the Christmas Dinner on 3rd December.

Lesley's driving stood out from all the final assessment drives and reassessments carried out since the trophy was last awarded in 2006.

All associates are entered into the competition by completing a final assessment drive. Full members can enter by submitting for a reassessment with a final assessor.

Speak to an Observer or committee member for more information.

13 July 2007

Today was the last day of the Great Yorkshire Show. We were sharing a stand with the emergency services and we demonstrated the BRAKE REACTION TESTING car.

This works by timing how long it takes to press the brake pedal after a screen lights up. Also, Pete Edwards from Stray FM came to talk to David Oldroyd. You can hear the interview here: INTERVIEW (4mb MP3)

The car had a display in front of it....

The objective was to look for the red lights....

It tells you your reaction time and....

How long it would take you to stop. The reaction time above is about half the average reaction, and was only beaten by a few people at the show. Even at that quick reaction, you would travel one car legnth before you could hit the brakes.

At 30mph the Highway Code breaks down stopping into 9m thinking distance and 14m stopping distance. Total 23m or 6 car lengths. See page 28 of the current Highway Code.

But don't new cars have very good brakes? Tests in magazines often show that a car can stop in 10m at 30mph. This is the pure braking distance. So, lightning quick reactions, a dry road and a new car might be able to stop in 15m, thats still  about 4 car lengths!  

Our thanks to North Yorkshire Police for inviting us.

15 May 2007

The AGM was held today. Thanks to David Stringer for being our guest speaker.

Details of the new committee are in the contact section of this website.