I finally made it to Driver Skills Day. Sponsored by PCNWA at Bremerton Raceway Park on the Olympic Peninsula in WA state. It was much more cost effective than anything else and was a BLAST!

Pics:
Ones I took
Ones a friend took

Thanks for posting those, Uncle Bob. I'm pretty much in the same boat - I have more car than skills. I just joined the PCNWA and signed my wife up for the skills day in Bremerton in September and I'll be signing up for the November session. It looks like fun!

- Jim

I'm right behind you guys on this. I just sent off the application for the PCA Tuesday. A local shop owner has a 914 and has alot of track time and talked me into it.

I took the 3-day Skip Barber/Laguna Seca Racing Course...
 

...a month before my Porsche Boxster S arrived.

The class was fantastic. I learned an amazing amount of material, and I did it while beating up their car's tires, suspension, transmission and brakes, instead of using my new car.

I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone.

Fortunately, I live on the Monterey Bay, so a hotel was not an issue!

Michael

Look for my (rather amateur) article on the experience in the Spiel . The PCNWR local mag. On the first pic you can see the PCNWR emblem I have in the driver's roll cage mesh. Not one for stickers at all, but that and the PCA sticker I am proud to display. Truly an awesome bunch of guys.

Found a better pic of it....had to do some lookin. Something right about an insignia with a killer whale on it, huh? :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/CIMG0242.jpg

Glad to hear you had a good experience...

I have written about this here before but I was very fortunate to take the Bertil Roos road racing course where you drive an open wheeled, Formula 2000, car here on the east coast last August.

I was absolutely blown away by the experience.

The amount learned in one day was truly impressive.

I am set to take the full day course again this year and I just cannot wait.

Thanks for sharing. We need more write ups like this. :cheers:

We are in Portland Oregon and are signing up for the Prodrive defensive driving and then high performance driving schools as well as already signed up for a track day with full instruction. We want to learn more about every day and then performance driving the S. My wife might be even more excited than I am.

I am thinking that I will try and get my dad to go to the Jim Hall Kart School in California as well. He just bought an 07 S and use to have karts. Way fun!

I think your best option would be a Skip Barber or Porsche Driving Experience. I did the latter - 2-day event - and it was truly spectacular. I still, some 2 years later, recall and work on using the skills I learned there, and this after dozens of track days' worth of experience. You are given instructors of the highest caliber, vehicles, classroom instruction, and even food. They aren't cheap, but when you see all of what you get (particularly the cars, maintenance, tires, and fuel) and start looking at the cost of taking your own car to the track (easily around $1,000 per event with wear and tear, gas, entry fees, etc.), it's a bargain.

EPIQTodd, that sounds like a great deal. You do get what you pay for. For starting out? $85 for an all day class (7:30 till about 7:30!), lunch and a helmet is still a great way to start. The real benefit was to meet fellow PCNWA members as well.