Yahoo-ooo I just finished the Skip Barber Performance Driving School at Laguna Seca Motor Speedway in Monterey CA. What a blast! How often in your life can you take a 911 Carrerra out on the Laguna Seca race track and do "trail brake" skids through all of the corners. Talk about pee-your-pants driving, I have never driven so fast in my life. I think I am addicted.
Here is a pic of me doing some cornering drills before we got on the track.
(https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/2577723849_c71a912a74.jpg?v=0)
more please!
I've been seriously considering the class for the past 5 years, would love to read a full write-up of how it went! [thumbsup]
Quotewould love to read a full write-up of how it went!
Will do...
It may take me a couple days to get back to you.
Quote from: sqweak on June 14, 2008, 01:21:30 PM
more please!
I've been seriously considering the class for the past 5 years, would love to read a full write-up of how it went! [thumbsup]
Does mags know. ;D
Very cool, looking forward to the report. ;D
[thumbsup]
If I ever get to move back to Monterey, i am going to take far more advantage if that fine facility. I too am looking forward to your in-depth thoughts.
Okay as promised, here is my write-up for the Skip Barber Performance Driving School.
I just got back from the Skip Barber's 2-day High Performance Driving School at Mazda's Laguna Seca Motor Raceway. I went with a friend of mine. The wives got us both the lesson packages as a birthday gift. They had been rat-holing the money for 3 years so that we wouldn't notice (hmmm I better watch the bank account a little better). This experience was just awesome. I kind of knew what to expect from surfing the net, but you can't really understand it unless you try it. As with any sport, there are some that can do it well, and some that can just do it ok. I was a little apprehensive about which category I would fall into but I had a desire to learn how to push a performance car to the max.
VERY IMPORTANT: Buy the supplemental insurance. With that out of the way I figured that my maximum exposure was limited to $2,000. So what the hell…. knock over a few cones. (You'll see what I mean if you go)
The lesson was about $3,000 for the two day school.
On day 1 there were 16 of us that arrived at Skip Barber's. The lead instructor introduced all the other instructors. We had six instructors to assist us; John, Ricky, Brian, Chris, Benny, and Johnny. During the initial class talk, John went over weight shifts and contact patch sizes during a corner. He also covered the concepts of understeer and oversteer. These concepts would be critical to master during the drills if you are to get the most out of the school. After an initial classroom talk about the event to come, we were divided into three groups: Teams A, B and C. The groups were picked at random and they allowed you to stay with people you came with.
There were three father/son participants, a guy from Boston who said he had three Ferrari's (he appeared to come with his own personal trainer), there was a 20 year old rich kid who owned a 2007 Boxter, and then there was a bunch of guys between 35 and 50. Although there were no women in our class, they said that women do attend as well. The basic itinerary for the first day was to go through six high speed drills; three in the morning and three in the afternoon. With the three teams, we were rotated between the drills such that you were always busy. The drills included, full throttle and ABS breaking, full throttle and then trail braking, high speed lane changes, oval and figure eight skid drills on wet pavement and then the auto cross. All of these drills were conducted on the paddock parking lot. I especially liked the figure eight skids (drifting) and the autocross; small track racing.
We were in Porsches for the autocross and high speed drills, and in Mazda 8's for the skid drills. I wasn't sure why were doing some the drills but I thought it was good experience anyway. Little did I know that all of this was building up to the sills that are needed to drive the speedway. When we were doing the autocross, I had a Boxter and a Carrerra 911. I basically ripped the snot out of these cars going full throttle and full brake as I tried to maneuver the autocross curves. The picture on my first post is the autocross. They set up cones for the track route and had special cones for break points and the apex. I didn't fully understand what outcome they were trying for me to achieve. I went as fast as I could until I was actually breaking so hard I was skidding into the corner. Well that is exactly what they want you to learn.
To get us to understand understeer, they put us into two BMW 330i's and had us drive around a circle while increasing our speed. Eventually the front will loose contact and the car will feel pushed. Basically the car is going into the direction of momentum rather than the direction of steering. Then to understand oversteer, the instructors had us drive an oval path around the two circles. Now this was fun. They had us go full throttle up to the break cone and then hit the break. They had the cars set up with new tires on the front and bald tires on the rear and the track was wetted down. When you hit the breaks in the corner the rear end would swing out in a skid like you were skidding on ice. I spun out several times at first, but by the second day, I was catching nearly every spin and recovering in the corner, only to hit the throttle and do it again and again. Some people call this exercise "drifting". This exercise and the auto cross are enough to put a big shit-eating grin on your face. Most of us would get the thumbs up as we got done with our turn.
In the afternoon on the second day we finally got to the Laguna Seca track. They had two 911 Porsches, six Boxters, four Miata 5s and BMW 330s. You were supposed to try one of each. I saved the Porches for my last two track sessions. There were eight sessions and you were to drive one session and then observe one session so you had a total of 4 sessions of driving. I started out in the Miata. It certainly did not have the revs that the Porches had but they were fun and cornered well. Since the instructors are professional drivers, they were in four door Mazda sedans. The instruction was to follow them at three car lengths. If you could keep up, they would go faster. Each instructor had two student cars that followed. Each student got their own car and would trade off the lead-follow positions after each lap. You could also drive with the instructor as a passenger during your observation sessions. I did OK on my first session and was trail breaking into the corners. I teamed up with a instructor on the second session and asked if he would talk as he went through the lines, breaking and corners. This really helped me out as I understood what they were doing and why they were driving the lines as they did. Look out… here I come! I got into the BMW on session three and all of that training finally gelled. I felt as if I had passed through a driving threshold. I could literally go into a turn at full speed, hit the breaks hard, trail break, kick the back of the car out into a skid, re-steer the nose and hit the gas. WHAT A GAS! This time I was able to accelerate much faster and I noticed the instructor had sped up.
My next time in the car was the $90,000 Carrerra 911. I felt good, apprehensive, cocky, a little scared, and drunk on adrenalin. What a bunch of mixed up feelings, but as soon as we left the pits the only thing I could think about was my driving. I went hard and stayed right on the instructor's ass. He went faster, I went faster… As we set up for the corkscrew turn, I was on him so well I noticed the back end of his car fish out. We hit the corkscrew turn and I couldn't even see him as he dropped 50 feet below me. I swung the car through a hard skid turn to the right and then full throttle through the next apex. Coming into the final straight, the instructor stuck his hand out the window and gave me the big thumbs up. In the pits he told me that I had beaten him. Yeah man… Although my car had more capability, I had not only caught him but pushed him past his car's capability. What a feeling.
My last session was in the Boxter and I wanted Brian as the instructor again since he was fast; so fast that we caught up with the group ahead of us.
Oh… and as for Ferrari guy, he forgot to be on throttle in the “dip†and his car left the track. He did limp it in. But I am sure it was a little embarrassing to bring the car into the pits (in front of us) with a mangled front end. He thought he was all that and I guess that was not the best approach to learning [bang]. If you listen and learn, I think you should be fine. Carry an attitude and do your own thing and end up in the field somewhere.
All in all that was a great experience and I signed up for another school. This time it will be three days.
Sounds like an absolute blast! Thanks for the review.
Great report, thanks for taking the time to write it up! [thumbsup]
awesome!!!! i want to do something like this so badly...
<looks for pennies under couch>
Quote from: Ash on June 16, 2008, 06:30:23 AM
awesome!!!! i want to do something like this so badly...
<looks for pennies under couch>
Dude, You're a hot asian chick. U can make money super easy if you wanted to!
i may be a slut, but i ain't no ho!
check yo'sef!
Next on your list should be:
http://www.jimrussellusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=98
HOLY make the beast with two backsING SHIT!!! is an understatement for those two days.
How about Hyundai Driving School?!!!
http://www.youtube.com/v/kv5d2mXy7dY&hl=en
Quote from: Bick on June 19, 2008, 06:29:44 AM
How about Hyundai Driving School?!!!
rockin' the yanni and everything... hehehe.
Very cool, & great write-up! Thanks for taking time to share [thumbsup]
You can color me jealous [laugh]
Quote from: Bick on June 19, 2008, 06:29:44 AM
How about Hyundai Driving School?!!!
That was pretty durn cool, Hyundai or not. [thumbsup]
That looks like fun...cars and motorcycles...spooge