Name: Tire Rack Street Survival - Ankeny, IA
Start: 2025-10-05T08:00:00-05:00
Location: Des Moines Area Community College

Real world. Hands on.
When your teen driver attends a Street Survival school, we teach them to control your car in unpredictable situations based on its handling limits. They master the application of driving physics using their car. They learn how to make good driving decisions and react more quickly. They become more aware and learn how to begin anticipating the actions of other drivers. The Tire Rack Street Survival school is designed to equip your child with valuable driving skills that will help keep them safe on the road. You are encouraged to spend the day with your student. You will be able to attend the classroom portion while instructors are teaching the students. The instructors will be available throughout the day to answer questions you might have about the course events your son or daughter are going through. The course is $125.
The day is a mixture of classroom and in-car exercises. They spend a total of about two hours in three different classroom sessions. The rest of the time is spent in their car with a coach. When driving, the student is put though a collection of exercises based on real world scenarios while driving their own car. They work on skid control on a wet skid pad; go through a lane change/accident avoidance maneuvers; perform threshold braking/ABS exercises; and drive a slalom course to learn about weight transfer. Where possible, we do a two wheels off exercise and a tailgating exercise. In the classroom, they learn about proper seating position and hand positions, mirror placement, the concept of the contact patch of their tires, the theories of weight transfer, the use of long distance vision, and situational awareness. We talk about the challenges of distractions to the driver, be it the radio, phones for talking or texting or just the simple cause of too many teens in the car. Where possible we stage a semi truck on site and park cars around it to simulate highway driving. We then have each student and all adults get into the cab and close the door to show how little the driver can see and how many of the cars are not visible to the driver. We also may explode an air bag to reinforce what they learn in class about hand placement on the steering wheel.
The schedule varies at each location slightly, but it’s a full day. We feed all students, parents, and volunteers lunch and have some educational demonstrations during that period as well.
For more info check out http://streetsurvival.org/schools/frequently-asked-questions/