US Driving tests have nothing on the Fins

[Slide Panda]

Just watched the TopGear (season 12) episode where then send James May to Finnland to a little rally time.  And no wonder that country produces some good drivers.  Aside from the race culture they are hard core about their driver training.  To even get your lowest tier license it's a huge amount of training, astronomical by our lax standards.  BUT!  They get to do some cool stuff - You're got to spend time on a skid pad, gravel course and for some level (they didn't mention which tier) you must be able to power slide your car to pass the test.  I bet a couple race schools in the US have nothing on the Finnish DMV guys...

Not related to the drivers instruction program  - James May was entered in a local level sprint rally.  They had a particular name (I can't recall) with an interesting rule.  At the end of the race all the cars are given the same value (say $1000), and any driver can go to another and ask to buy their car.  That car must be sold to the requester.  As a result, all the cars are super cheap beaters since no one wants to loose the investment on slick mods  - but they are all very evenly matched.  So it's not so much about the fiddly gizmos, but just the driving - very cool. 

[Le Pirate]

Not related to the drivers instruction program  - James May was entered in a local level sprint rally.  They had a particular name (I can't recall) with an interesting rule.  At the end of the race all the cars are given the same value (say $1000), and any driver can go to another and ask to buy their car.  That car must be sold to the requester.  As a result, all the cars are super cheap beaters since no one wants to loose the investment on slick mods  - but they are all very evenly matched.  So it's not so much about the fiddly gizmos, but just the driving - very cool. 

they have a variation of this rule at a lot of the dirt tracks....atleast here in TX. I've heard guys that I work with talk about it.

[MaxPower]

Just watched the TopGear (season 12) episode where then send James May to Finnland to a little rally time.  And no wonder that country produces some good drivers.  Aside from the race culture they are hard core about their driver training.  To even get your lowest tier license it's a huge amount of training, astronomical by our lax standards.  BUT!  They get to do some cool stuff - You're got to spend time on a skid pad, gravel course and for some level (they didn't mention which tier) you must be able to power slide your car to pass the test.  I bet a couple race schools in the US have nothing on the Finnish DMV guys...

Not related to the drivers instruction program  - James May was entered in a local level sprint rally.  They had a particular name (I can't recall) with an interesting rule.  At the end of the race all the cars are given the same value (say $1000), and any driver can go to another and ask to buy their car.  That car must be sold to the requester.  As a result, all the cars are super cheap beaters since no one wants to loose the investment on slick mods  - but they are all very evenly matched.  So it's not so much about the fiddly gizmos, but just the driving - very cool. 

Both parts of this are very cool.  Especially the driving test, man I wish we had that.

[Slide Panda]

they have a variation of this rule at a lot of the dirt tracks....atleast here in TX. I've heard guys that I work with talk about it.

That's cool.  The Top Gear was the 1st I'd heard of that format - but I doubt only the Fins do it.  Makes for good competition

[MendoDave]

For my driving renewal test in CA. I had to be able to write a check for $35.00 and stand still long enough to get my picture taken. Good till 2014

[toaster]

That's cool.  The Top Gear was the 1st I'd heard of that format - but I doubt only the Fins do it.  Makes for good competition

from what i remember about it (dad sold race gas at the circle track), in some classes they had a claiming rule on the motors of $500 or so (10+ years ago) and if you thought they won because their motor was better, you could claim it for that price.

[krolik]

I believe that its a fairly common rule on low-end/entry classes of racing to keep someone from throwing a bunch of money at a vehicle to rack up easy wins.

[FatguyRacer]

That's cool.  The Top Gear was the 1st I'd heard of that format - but I doubt only the Fins do it.  Makes for good competition

They should do that for bike racing in the US. That'll cut down on Cat 5 guys racing on $5k + bicycles.

[superjohn]

OMG!!! 

I'm watching the episode now on BBCA. The look on Hakkinen's face while May was driving was absolutely hysterical.

[Scooter Montgomery]

I saw this the other night. I would be all over that racing that James did. Its very similiar to the endurance ice racing that I do in the winter. Granted that is if Mother Nature lets us race.