I also struggle with TBO, as anyone who's ever sat down to an STCC broadcast will surely attest.. but I really must agree with Becky. Genuinely GOOD drivers can drive anything fast. At least, fast in comparison with those around them. I'm bloody fast in a GTR (I licenced in ConeDodgers without actually putting in a fast lap, for me..) and although I never race online in it, I pwn in the BF1. But in the slower cars, I always sucked.. and it's because of this that I knew there were big holes in my driving skills. I knew it anyway, but getting in an underpowered and "loose" slower car bore it out with foghorns on.
The process of earning a gold licence, for me, is one of my major achievements in LFS. From here on, I do honestly consider it pretty well plain sailing to Platinum and beyond.. but the run from Copper to Gold will always be where I got my grounding in driving skills. (even if they ain't that good now, they're buttloads better than they were!)