Early drive

The Mondello Park based Road Safety programme EARLY-DRIVE was set up in 2004 by Mondello Park and the Irish School of Motoring to provide a new type of young driver safety awareness programme aimed primarily at Transition Year Second Level students.

The EARLY-DRIVE course requires no previous driving experience.

The idea was to use the extensive Mondello Park facilities combined with the training expertise of Irish School of Motoring to demonstrate driver safety in a new and practical manner to young people prior to them becoming drivers.

These aims have been achieved with a mix of classroom, practical sessions, simulated driving and demonstrations which result in students becoming safer pedestrians, cyclists and ultimately drivers.

At EARLY-DRIVE we provide:

– Instructors trained to impart information successfully to teenagers.
– EARLY-DRIVE instructor cars fitted out with dual controls.
– Classroom sessions designed to hold the attention of teenagers.
– Products designed for teenagers and transition year students.
– Practical sessions designed to reinforce learning.

For school / group bookings, please Mondello Park Directly on 045860200

From €50

Early Drive – First Gear

Alongside our School Group courses, EARLY-DRIVE is also available to individuals. We offer the same concept in learning to drive, where you will learn about road safety in a practical and enjoyable way as well as getting the chance to experience your first driving lesson in the safe environment of a closed circuit. While available to individuals, when you attend for your course you will do so with other individuals and will circulate through our activities as a group.

In the enclosed and completely safe facility of Mondello Park, under the guidance of our professional instructors, you will be introduced to the rudiments of driving and road safety.

While Mondello Park is first and foremost a Motor Racing Circuit, at EARLY-DRIVE we show and explain the safety features built into racing cars and the race track itself. We detail how these are designed to minimise injuries in the event of accidents and we emphasise how the same features are not available on road cars, or in normal road design.

 

The course includes:

  • A brief history of Mondello Park
  • A talk on road safety
  • A chance to try our brake reaction simulator
  • Every student gets a minimum of 20 minutes driving in one of our BMW MINI’s with a professional driving instructor alongside
  • A tour of our facilities including our Museum of Motorsport

The course lasts for a half day and will keep you engaged for the entire duration. We firmly believe that EARLY-DRIVE will be of great benefit to you, in terms of your future road safety as a pedestrian, a cyclists and eventually as a driver.

EARLY-DRIVE individual courses are run on specific days.

From €75

Early Drive – The Next Gear

This course is designed for 13-18 year olds who have completed the first EARLY-DRIVE Powered by MINI First Gear course or are capable of driving a manual gearbox car.

The course includes:

  • Sign on, introduction and car safety activities.
  • Driving time with your personal instructor in a MINI Cooper
  • Laps of the circuit
  • Reversing
  • Parallel parking
  • Hill start
  • Emergency braking
  • Driving simulator session which will include a range of scenarios to test the drivers reactions and observation skills such as hazard avoidance and changeable weather conditions. hosted by the Virtual Driving Academy.

The course costs €75 per person and takes approximately 90 minutes to complete. 

 

Click here to book Early Drive