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Rob Colbourn is proud to have been asked by Porsche Club GB to lead its Driver Training Programme, introducing members to a carefully selected group of outstanding trainers delivering exceptional, road-based driver training to Porsche owners across the UK. The programme builds on a tradition of driver development that began nearly four decades ago.

We all have a unique relationship with driving, and Rob’s began at the age of six, sitting on his father’s lap and learning to steer. By the age of 17, he had already covered some 10,000 miles as a learner driver. This was followed by time working as a cycle courier in central London, before progressing to life as a van courier — driving approximately 100,000 miles in his first year alone, and more than 300,000 miles over the following five years.

Like many drivers, this experience was rich in real-world mileage but limited in formal education. When Rob began his teaching career in 1999 at the age of 24, training with BSM to become a driving instructor, he found the prevailing approach to be competent but conventional — and sensed there was far more depth to driving than he had yet explored.

Then he met Bernard Aubry.

Described by Richard Attwood as “simply the best road instructor in the country,” Bernard was the first — and only — full-time instructor employed by Porsche Cars GB from 1988. In the space of a single morning, he fundamentally reshaped Rob’s understanding of driving. The mentorship that followed, combined with broader experience within the driver training industry — including time at the Porsche Experience Centre — provided Rob with insights that continue to shape his work today.

Alongside this practical foundation, Rob’s long-standing interest in human psychology and behaviour, together with extensive study of established driving principles, has informed an approach that challenges assumptions and encourages drivers to see their own abilities differently. His aim is not to prescribe a single “right way” to drive, but to help individuals better understand themselves, their environment, and what it truly means to pursue mastery on the road.

It is often said that the best way to truly understand a subject is to teach it, and this has proven true throughout Rob’s career. Today, he brings together decades of experience, exceptional mentorship and continual learning in his work with drivers — sharing insights that are practical, considered and firmly grounded in real-world driving. His hope is simple: that drivers leave with greater clarity, increased enjoyment, and a deeper sense of confidence behind the wheel.

“Robert’s enthusiasm and constant striving to achieve the highest standards in his clients reflects his own personal level of ability and the need to search for that extra dimension of skill in the art of driving.”
— Bernard Aubry

“Rob is very much the spiritual successor to Bernard Aubry… After a day with Rob, even experienced drivers will find they get a great deal more satisfaction from their driving… I couldn’t rate or recommend his techniques more highly.”
— A. Congreve