Zaid

I've been going over some of my driving books lately and of course they all emphasize the point about being smooth with steering, brake and throttle inputs.

I happened to notice a little trick that's pretty neat for practicing smooth steering, braking and accelerating, and I wonder anyone has done this. Put a wheel with a tire on it, properly inflated, in the back seat of your car. Stand it up so that what would be the contact patch is flat on the seat and the hub is facing the front-to-back line of the car. This wheel will give you TONS of feedback (i.e. slamming between your doors, and flying forward to smack you in the head) about how smoothly you're operating your steering wheel, brakes, accelerator and clutch.

I discovered this little trick while transporting my new Prodrive P1 wheels for my WRX in my S4. Having enough room in the trunk for only 2 wheels, I had to put the other two in the backseat. I got myself QUITE a few driving lessons on that short trip home!

Zaid

Duck Sick

I put the .5 litre coke bottle on the passenger's floor and try to keep from knocking it over

Duck Sick

I forgot to add that it usually doesn't work

RKA

This was part of the "driving test" for the limo company I used to work for. If it splashed or spilled, you're no good.

Principles still apply here, if you want a good gauge of how smoothly you're providing inputs. Problem is the location of our cupholders...don't want to be putting liquids up there! The solution is to bring along a passenger, and have them hold the cup of water in their lap. If you finish and they have dry pants, you did good! If you finish and they have wet pants, but all the water is still in the cup, you did REALLY good! :-P

Pete RD

The Ford sedan had a large, shallow "bowl" on the hood with a ball in the bowl. The idea was to drive the car thru the auto-cross WITHOUT letting the ball out of the shallow bowl. The intent was to show that a smooth driver did not have to be a slow driver. To demonstrate Jackie made several "runs" to set the fast time. If anyone beat that time, they got a gold Rolex watch.
Well, this lorrie (truck) driver went out and beat Jackie's time! When he asked for his watch, Jackie took the gold Rolex off his wrist and gave it to him. Jackie then went out and beat the lorrie-driver's time. The lorrie-driver asked for another go...and yes, beat Jackie's new time! Yup, asked for another watch, too!