Drive to Survive (Motorbooks Workshop) [Paperback]

Curt Rich (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0760305250 | ISBN-13: 978-0760305256 | Publication Date: January 31, 1999 | Edition: 1st

It's a hostile world out there! What do you do if you're being followed or harassed in your car? This dynamic guide teaches you evasive driving techniques such as the legendary bootlegger hairpin, J-turns, and how to run your assailant off the road. Filled with combat survival and race car driving techniques that are crucial for keeping your options open in life-threatening situations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks; 1st edition (January 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760305250
• ISBN-13: 978-0760305256
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #740,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Professional & Technical > Automotive > Driver's Education

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Drive to Survive' should be required reading, January 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Drive to Survive (Motorbooks Workshop) (Paperback)

'Drive to Survive' should be required reading

This is an excellent book on many levels. Curt has taken Colonel Cooper's color code, adapted it to the road, and added proper day-to-day driving tips, as well as high performance survival driving techniques, and turned out a fantastic book.

For years, ever since my API 250 class, I have been saying that defensive driving is 'condition yellow' behind the wheel. This mindset has saved me money, because I have avoided citations for moving violations by revenue collectors. More importantly, it saved me from several potential collisions, where I (and loved ones) could have been killed or seriously injured. Years later, I would hear that attitude echoed in the words of my flight instructor: See and avoid.

In addition to Curt's advice regarding everyday driving, he has some valuable insight into those 'close range interpersonal conflict' situations which can occur in, or around, your car. Drawing on his experience as a combat veteran, an API graduate, and an SCCA champion, Curt Rich shows readers (through photographs and line drawings) the high performance techniques which may save your life, if you need to use your automobile to escape criminal predation... or to counter-attack. These high performance driving techniques must be practiced, in order to be most effective. Perhaps many readers may choose not to conduct these sort of exercises, and that's certainly their choice.

Even so, there is a wealth of knowledge to gain by reading this book, and applying the more general techniques to everyday driving should help to greatly reduce the risk of a collision. As Curt points out, it doesn't matter if the collision was the other guy's fault if you're the one who ends up in the hospital, or the morgue. Heed Curt's advice and you'll probably prevent yourself from falling victim to the mistakes of other drivers, whether those unsafe drivers are stupid, drunk, aggressive, or just not paying attention...

I finished reading the book last night, and now I'm going to loan it to my girlfriend.

Read this book, and... Drive to Survive!

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! DTS is a must-read! I'll buy 15 more copies!, January 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Drive to Survive (Motorbooks Workshop) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed "Drive To Survive", because it is apparent from word-one that author Curt Rich knows what he is talking about. As a former SCCA National Rally winner and combat shooting veteran, he presents decades of real-world driving experience in direct language that is both engaging and funny.

Rich covers everything from mirror positions (betcha don't know the right answer to this one) to everyday commuting strategies that will help you avoid being an accident victim--both unintentional accidents and staged, intentional accidents that are a pretext for insurance scams or worse (car jackings).

I have attended driving schools and this book, DTS, is far more realistic in conveying information that "connects" with drivers of ALL ages--from 15 to 80. If you're smart enough to own ANY of the following--a fire extinguisher, smoke detector, radon gas detector, alarm system, self-defense firearm, etc.--you can profit from what's in this book to have a safer, more secure environment EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Be forewarned--you might as well buy multiple copies because you'll want to have extras to pass out to anyone you care about. I'm getting 15 copies to give as gifts to my family and friends.

As that cajun cook says, "I GARE-RON-TEE you won't be disappointed."

PND

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No excuses are asked or accepted, January 21, 2005

By 

Maxim Masiutin (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drive to Survive (Motorbooks Workshop) (Paperback)

The author looks to the problem of road safety from many points: perceptivity, awareness, consciousness, vigilance, alertness, carefulness, perfectness in high-performance driving, evasive driving techniques, prevention of kidnapping and carjacking, keeping your car always in perfect condition, wearing the seatbelt, having the right safety equipment and useful gadgets, and so on. The writer finds analogies between survival as a solder in Vietnam war and survival as a driver of a car on public roads in the U.S (and in the other countries as well). The main point of this book is situational awareness: what is the difference between a relaxed person, unaware of the surroundings (so called condition white), and the relaxed, aware one (condition yellow)? When the people describe their car accidents, they tell that everything were OK but suddenly something bad happened that caused the accident. "Suddenly" is the key word that presents in almost each accident description. It confirms that the victim of the accident was unaware of the surroundings, being in the condition white.

The author writes: "No excuses are asked or accepted. Someone hit you while you were stopped at a traffic light. It was the other guy's fault. That's no excuse. Your car is still damaged, and you could still be dead. If you are in the hospital, and the emergency room is working to save your life, "It wasn't my fault!" doesn't mean a thing to them. Right now it doesn't mean anything to you, either."

The writer presents a concept of the "invisible car", which I liked much! Being invisible just means going with a flow, not standing out, driving smoothly and unremarkably, watching everything that is going on that affects you, avoiding the crazies and not "punishing" them.

An advise that impressed me deeply was not to behaves foolishly in your own nest. That's how the author explains this: "I'm constantly amazed at the bad driving habits exhibited by people within sight of their own garages. Soon all your neighbors know you are a jerk:.. Even if you drive like a total maniac, measure a couple of miles from your house and declare a truce there"

The author expresses a strong argument for wearing the seatbelt: If you are kidnapped, fasten your seatbelt and look for an opportunity to cause a collision at speed 30 to 40 mph (48-64 km/h). The criminal probably won't fasten his seatbelt and will be incapacitated or killed, but you will be in good enough shape to open the door and exit. This case happened several years ago in the city where I live to confirm the author's statement.

A big inconsistence of the book is that the assertion that the method of passing the wheel through your hands (also known as "shuffle") is far superior than the hand-over-hand technique. There are chapters in the book about spin correction and recovery, the bootlegger hairpin turn (180-turn), and the Moonshiner's turn (reverse 180-turn). The inconsistence is that the effective spin control and the Moonshiner's turn are hardly possible with the "shuffle" technique, which is slow. If you send me a video clip of this turn where the driver uses such technique for Moonshiner's turn, I'd be grateful. As soon as you never keep your arms statically crossed, the "hand-over-hand" method is good for both smooth city driving and extreme evasive maneuvers, because of the faster movement from lock-to-lock (left to right extreme) and immediate precise return of the wheels to the straight position.

There is also the information in the book that the speedometer doesn't work in reverse, which is not true for the modern cars with electronic speedometers.

The author also encourages visiting two-day advanced driving schools. I don't recommend attending such schools because two the days are not enough to acquire permanent habits to react correctly in tough cases. Good exercises, when effective, give strong physical and emotional stress to the student, and require a couple of days to recover before the next lesson. An hour or two per exercise should be enough; there is no need to spend the whole two days. So I suggest finding such courses that give at least 10-20 lessons during a month or two.