{"id":1037,"date":"2019-03-12T08:10:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T08:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2019-03-13T08:49:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T08:49:32","slug":"i-dont-like-any-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/i-dont-like-any-distractions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Don\u2019t Like Any Distractions\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
Highway\u00a0<\/em>caught up with Russ Swift at the Singapore Motor Show 2019. In this exclusive interview, the precision driver shares how being safety conscious and having a keen awareness of his vehicle\u2019s dynamics saved his life.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He can parallel park between two cars that are just over a car\u2019s length apart. He can spin a car in circles like you see in Hollywood movies. He can drive a car on two wheels like it was a walk in the park.<\/p>\n

He is Russ Swift, one of the world\u2019s best precision drivers, with three Guinness World Records under his belt:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • parallel parking in the tightest space<\/li>\n
  • J-turn in the tightest space<\/li>\n
  • the fastest donut manoeuvre<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Given his obvious driving skills, you would think that for him to drive on regular roads would be so easy as to make him complacent. But you\u2019d be wrong. In fact, Swift is even stricter with himself on public roads. \u201cWhen I drive on the road, I will never have the radio on, and I will never talk to anybody on the phone. I don\u2019t like any distractions,\u201d the gregarious Englishman firmly says in a Yorkshire accent. The 68-year-old insists on absolute silence even when his wife, Christine, is in the car with him!\u201cWe hardly talk to each other in the car for thousands of miles,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n

    \"\"The reason Swift is so careful on public roads is not that he has no faith in his own driving skills; rather, he feels the need to stay alert so that he can react to the poor driving displayed by other road users.\u201cWhen on the road, you\u2019ve got to be aware of everybody else\u2019s potential actions,\u201d he advises.<\/p>\n

    However, being a seasoned precision driver has its advantages. Swift explains that a lot of driving actions and reactions have become instinctive to him, as he has faced them countless times over the years. \u201cBeing able to do things instinctively allows you to do things much quicker than when you have to think, \u2018Oh, what do I have to do now?\u2019,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

    \"\"Swift reveals that this instinct probably saved his life. About 40 years ago, he was involved in an accident that caused his right leg to be an inch and a half shorter than the left.He relates that a car was overtaking on top of a hill and he was heading the other way on the opposite lane. \u201cIf I had not been able to take evasive action, the car would have hit me head-on, and I undoubtedly would have been killed,\u201d he surmises. \u201cBut I was able to get out of the way because I reacted instinctively.\u201d To this day, he insists he saved his own life because he knew how to control his vehicle and was aware of its dynamics. Swift adds that many people tend to freeze on the car brake in a crisis situation.\u201cThey won\u2019t be able to react instinctively like I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \"\"What advice does Swift have for people who tend to get nervous behind the wheel? \u201cNervousness comes from lack of confidence,\u201d he affirms. \u201cI am not a particularly confident person, but because I am so confident of my skills, it allows me to go out there to do what I do.\u201d He contends that passing the driving test is just the first step to gaining this needed confidence, and advises taking advanced motoring theory and driving tests, as well as staying observant and undistracted.<\/p>\n

    He has these parting words for newly passed drivers. \u201cBe aware of the dangers of being a young or new driver \u2014that\u2019s when most accidents happen!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Highway\u00a0caught up with Russ Swift at the Singapore Motor Show 2019. In this exclusive interview, the precision driver shares how being safety conscious and having a keen awareness of his vehicle\u2019s dynamics saved his life. He can parallel park between two cars that are just over a car\u2019s length apart. He can spin a car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[492,429,280,490,491],"class_list":{"0":"post-1037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-insight","8":"tag-guinness-world","9":"tag-highway","10":"tag-insight","11":"tag-russ-swift","12":"tag-singapore-motor-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}