Episode 6
Soaked And Wet
Original Airdate: 30 November 2015
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Canada's Worst Parking Lot: For this challenge, each driver is placed at the wheel of a different car, and they are all sent at the same time into a simulated parking lot. Spaces will periodically open up, and the drivers must reverse into them in one clean move in order to pass. If drivers fail an attempt for any reason, they must take a "penalty lap" around the periphery of the course before making another attempt. Renee gets parked up almost immediately, and easily passes. Polly also gets parked up quite quickly, though asks to continue in the challenge and get more experience of parking successfully, which Andrew agrees to. Jordan has a lot more trouble, and on his first attempt is incredibly slow and hits the car behind him; his second attempt doesn't go much quicker, but he does eventually get parked up. Jillian has a lot of trouble to begin with, as she hits the car behind on her first attempt, and as soon as she completes the penalty lap her car breaks down, forcing her to switch to the car that Renee was using. She nearly gets parked up right on her second go, but hits the car behind her again, forcing her to take another penalty lap. On her third attempt she finally gets parked up correctly, but her overall performance is not judged worthy of a pass. Sholom never once comes close to parking up correctly, and as the last driver remaining on the course, fails the challenge by default.
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The Water Tank Challenge: In this year's variation of the challenge, the drivers have to drive a Volkswagen New Beetle with a shark-inspired livery and roof-mounted water tank down a straight section of road at 50 km/h, then through a course of wheel rims, over a pair of rails, then stop before they hit a suddenly-appearing baby carriage, and finally turn the car around in a section made up of concrete Jersey barriers and blocks. Despite his best efforts, Andrew loses 18 litres during the course of his demonstration, mostly because this year's incarnation is designed to soak drivers who spent too much time going up or down the rails.
Sholom is the first to take the challenge, and loses a lot of water on the initial straight thanks to uneven acceleration and sharp braking. He gets through the wheel rims without hitting anything, though misses the rails altogether, causing him to lose even more water. After that, Sholom hits the baby carriage and pushes it all the way to the concrete barriers, where he breaks the foam tail fin that's been attached to the car's rear. This, along with the amount of denting and scraping that he causes while trying to turn around, and a total of 140 litres of water lost, causes Andrew to comment that Sholom looks not only like Canada's Worst Driver (something that even Shmuel has to agree with), but very possibly the single worst driver who's ever appeared on the show. Polly doesn't fare much better, losing a lot of water on the initial straight after failing to brake at all, and then accelerating and braking erratically throughout her run; she loses 120 litres. Jordan gets off to a bad start by braking sharply at the end of the initial straight, but after that he loses even less than Andrew did in the corresponding parts of his demonstration, and has an overall water loss of just 23 litres, by far the best of the day. Renee does well initially, but she rapidly loses her nerve (and a huge amount of water) when she hits the baby carriage at some speed. Subsequently, her acceleration becomes very erratic, and this combined with a lot of hits while turning around in the concrete barriers causes her to lose a total of 130 litres. Jillian is exempted from this challenge, as the experts are not worried about her pedal control; instead, Andrew drives her into Dunnville, then asks her to drive a short journey to a nearby coffee shop, guided by talking GPS, this time without anyone else in the car. She proves so nervous that it takes her ten minutes just to get going, and during the journey she goes considerably off-course, though thanks to the GPS' turn-by-turn navigation it doesn't take too long to get to her destination. Once she arrives, Andrew asks her to make the same journey again in reverse, but she declines, claiming that she's too nervous to do so.
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Charger Challenge: Reverse Flick: Philippe gives each of the drivers a lesson in how to unbalance the car with a swift, slight turn of the steering wheel, and then spin it around 180 degrees with a larger turn of the wheel. The drivers are then given five chances to reverse the Charger into a turning area bordered by foam blocks, and spin it around in the area. Sholom is up first, and defies the dire predictions of Andrew and the experts by succeeding on his first attempt, finally passing a challenge. Actually getting the car into the turning area proves to be Renee's major issue, as it takes her until her fourth attempt to get in there without hitting the entry lane markers; once she actually does so however, she passes with ease. Andrew then tells her that with all the extra lessons that Jillian's been getting to help with her anxiety, it's only fair that Renee get the same for her fear of the highway. She's then sent with Tim for a drive on-and-off the Chedoke Expressway, which she then has to repeat three times; though she's initially very nervous, by her fourth and final run she's able to handle being on the expressway relatively calmly. Jordan fails his first attempt when he fails to steer in the reverse portion and hits the entry lane barriers, but on his second attempt he manages to pass despite not quite turning the car around fully. Polly fails to get into the turning space in four out of her five runs, and in the remaining run doesn't turn the wheel nearly far enough and skids through one of the side walls. After her run ends, Polly admits that her reversing is so bad that she had to cut down two trees next to her driveway at home, as she was constantly hitting them. Jillian also hits the entry barriers in her first run, after which Mitchell volunteers to monitor her speed while she focuses on where she's going; Andrew overhears this, however, and orders him out of the car for the rest of her run. All her subsequent attempts end with her needlessly hitting the brakes, which causes her to lose control and repeatedly crash through the walls.
In her meeting with the experts, Jillian admits that she's still not ready to face the roads, though is also confident that she is not Canada's Worst Driver. Sholom also admits that he's nowhere near ready to graduate, as does Polly, who asks for the same public lessons that Jillian and Renee have been getting. Renee wants to graduate, though admits that she doesn't quite feel confident enough to take her son on the highway, and wants to get used to doing it herself first, which perturbs the experts. Jordan also wants to graduate, feeling beyond any doubt that he is ready to drive in public again; Cam also compliments him on the huge improvement he's shown in his previously selfish attitude.
Andrew and Shyamala favour graduating Jordan for being more confident in himself, while Cam and Tim feel that Renee deserves to graduate for her superior technical abilities; Philippe is therefore left with the deciding vote. At the graduation ceremony, Andrew tells Renee that while there was a strong case to be made for letting her go this episode, she ultimately talked herself out of graduating by admitting that she lacked the confidence to take her son on the highway. Jordan is therefore this episode's graduate, and he vows to never again be as blatantly selfish as he was before coming to rehab.
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