High Performance Driving School

[NickCats]

I am seriously considering signing up for this :

http://www.skipbarber.com/driving_school/one_day_hp_school.aspx

Any of you fellow Chicagoans interested ?

Anyone else ever tried this ? Thoughts ? Is it worth the money ?

Thanks,

Nick

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

Skip Barber is a great school - I did it back in '00 at Leguna Seca (now Mazda Raceway). Excellent school, well worth the $$.

But, if you wanna step up to racing, I'd recommend Jim Russell Racing School in Sonoma, CA. After racing SCCA for 18 yrs., Mrs. MNBoxster gave it to me as an Xmas present and I wasn't expecting much. But I really did learn a lot on how to polish what I already knew, and identify a bad habit or two...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[ChrisZang]

unless money is not an issue for you, why don't you attend a DE event from your local PCA chapter?

[racer_d]

$1300-1500 seems a bit high to me, but I am spoiled by great local PCA events that only cost me $100-200/ea.

I did do a Skip Barber "intro to racing" school at Lime Rock park about 5 years ago. It only cost about $700, was a 1/2 day thing but got to drive a Formula Dodge single seater - and given my physical size, nearly got to take it home with me as I struggled to get out

[z12358]

Nick, give DE a try first. Best fun and learning bang/$ deal, hands down. I just had my second 2-day event this weekend at Limerock, and I feel like I learned so much already. I actually got to drive my two last runs solo (no instructor), which is a sign that I'll probably be moving up to the Yellow run-group very soon -- that and the fact that I outlapped a few cars twice during a single 20min run. My instructor this weekend was a guy who races his Cup car in Porsche club races and he was just phenomenal.

This is just anecdotal but last year the Skip Barber students (people called them "skippies") had their lessons at Limerock after we finished our DE runs in the afternoon, and I got to watch them for a while. Maybe those were beginner's classes but I wasn't impressed. They were really taking it easy on the track, even compared to the Green run-group during DE.

Z.

[BuffaloBoxster]

I've said this a bunch of times and I'll keep saying it.. The most cost-effective way to learn high performance driving is to take a karting course. I've done the two-day Jim Hall 100cc course, and the Intro to shifter karts at Bondurant. The Jim Hall courses are excellent, the Bondurant course was good, but I'd have ideally gone in for a longer course - the intro course is more like a test drive.

If you really want to learn what it's like to drive at the limit, and the basics of how to navigate a track, this is the most cost-effective way to do it. And it's a hell of a lot of fun. As for speeds, for an autocross style circuit you're not going to get around faster than a shifter kart.