Winter Semester: Grading on the Curve.(News)(a discussion of the Bridgestone Winter Driving School)

Byline: John d. Stoll

Anticipate.

That's the lesson you'll cart away from the Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based Bridgestone Winter Driving School, which offers a two-day performance program and half- or one-day safety programs, in addition to its rally school.

As its class menu reveals, the school is tailored for all driver types, many of whom aren't so much looking for rally stardom as a comprehensive set of skills. It teaches essential principles, such as throttle steering, which is especially valuable on ice and snow where braking and steering don't always behave predictably.

In the case of throttle steering, average drivers don't always understand the benefits of gently tipping throttle to maintain control and subtly change direction. Instead, drivers tend to react to ice-induced oversteer by cranking the steering wheel aggressively toward opposite lock while slamming the brakes, which only locks the wheels and creates four-wheel drift. Instructors help students to understand understeer/oversteer dynamics, how to anticipate such conditions with eyes and foot, and to trust throttle application and counter-steer-even when such action seems counterintuitive.

``You should drive in dangerous conditions like you're afraid to break an egg between your foot and the pedals,'' our instructor said, ``and keep your eyes positioned ahead of you; your body will follow.''

Rally Art Organization, which manages the school, passed its know-how on to us in ...