There are two words that are often used in the automotive industry and protective driver training vernacular the words are handling and cornering.

To get a better understanding of how the driver interacts with the vehicle requires understanding the difference between Handling and Cornering.

Passing the vehicle in front of you is one driving skill we often do but don’t give it much thought. Once you decide to pass a vehicle in an urban environment, realize, and remember that you and your car will be spending a good deal of time in the wrong lane.

To give you an idea of how much time and distance, consider this scenario. If you are traveling at 50 mph or 80KPH and passing the average sedan or SUV going 40 mph or 64 KPH, you will need about 10 seconds and 736 feet or 225 Meters to complete the pass safely.

Understeer and Oversteer are terms used to explain vehicle characteristics, and they are important signals transmitted to you by the vehicle, it is how the vehicle communicates to you. It is the vehicle’s way of telling you what you should do next. In a nutshell, understeer and oversteer are the interrelationships of the front and rear ends of the car.

Whether driving down the highway, around corners or trying to navigate out of a potentially dangerous scenario, the vehicle driver combination must operate within the laws of physics and specifically within Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion. Understanding vehicle dynamics creates the platform for a standard for one of the most important aspects of executive protection – secure transportation. It is ISDA’s opinion that many training providers take liberty with the phrase Vehicle Dynamics. This opinion is not a criticism but an observation.

When a vehicle is approaching its limit of adhesion, a driver has two conflicting signals. The first signal is the steering wheel getting light, which means that it requires less effort to increase steering input (turn the steering wheel). The reason for this is that the adhesion the tire makes with the road is getting increasingly smaller – quickly.

The second signal is the vehicle load the driver feels at the back of the seat (their butt), which at the limit of adhesion is high.

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