I just recently went with a friend to Skip Barber's 2-day High Performance Driving School on 1/28/07 - 1/29/07 at Mazda's Laguna Seca Raceway and wanted to share with you guys how AMAZINGLY AWESOME this experience was. I was at first skeptical about forking over $2750 (holiday discount, usually $2850) for only 2 days of training, when for the money I could go to Evolution's autocross school 3 times! Well I haven't tried Evolution or any other school, but let me tell you after the trip that this buys you an amazing unique experience for which I have NO regrets. I will try to explain in as much detail as I can what I felt about the curriculum, instructors, cars, and overall experience so hopefully you guys can understand what my experience was like, and help you decide to sign up if you were considering it. It's a long read, I hope it's informative and not too boring. Prior to this I had no formal racing instruction, but I had gone to several GM, Chevrolet, Mazda, and Lexus drive events and beat on the cars, and I like to drive my 8 pretty fast.


Day 1 - Sunday, 1/28/07

8:15 AM - Classroom talk
Me and my friend Tony arrived at around 8:05 AM and we waited until 8:15 for all the registered students to arrive at Skip Barber's class room located inside the ring of the racetrack. We had five instructors in the classroom (Bryan Germone, Conrad Grunewald, and three other instructors currently not listed on Skip Barber's site, Andrew, Benny, and John). Seven students attended: my friend and I (both age 23, own an RX-8, my friend an 06 Civic Si) , a couple Jim and Julie (40's, own a brand new Mercedes CLS63), Nisian (late 20's, owns a Lotus Elise), Carlos (40's, forgot what he drives), and Howard (50's or 60's, has owned a several Porsche 911s and autocrossed 12 years). So yea, Tony and I are a young pair compared with the some more well-off people. Everyone however is excited, very nice and sociable, and we all become comrades right away. Anyways, back to the classroom talk. Andrew introduces all the instructors and begins with talk about weight shift and contact patch sizes during a corner. He also covers the basics of understeer, oversteer, ideal racing lines for multiple consecutive corners, expanding/contracting radius corners, and how much brake and throttle should be applied along each point in the line. Most all the students already knew/understood the concepts here, although we all learned something we previously didn't know. For example, I asked about the effect of sudden elevation changes during turns like in Laguna Seca's corkscrew. What I learned is basically the when the track drops to the bottom of the second turn (8A), it increases the overall contact patch area than it would if there was no elevation change, as a result, the driver can demand more from the car (speed, grip) than if there no elevation change at all.

9:30 AM - Lane change exercise with Porsche Boxsters / Skidpad with BMW 330i's
The students were divided into two groups (Group 1: Logan (me), Tony, Jim, Julie; Group 2: Carlos, Nisian, Howard) and group 1 went to lane change, group 2 went to skidpad. For the lane change exercise we drove Boxsters, and my initial impressions were: The car had only 5000 miles on it, but it already felt kind of trashed from miles of clutch slipping and hard acceleration with no warm-up; the brake service light was on, the clutch had some play and rough movement, and the engine was clicking/slightly squeeking. I'm making it sound bad, but overall it was still in sound condition, and had a great smooth precise transmission. The lane change exercise was simple enough: three lanes (made with 4 lines of cones), three green traffic lights a few hundred feet away, you drive toward the middle, and when you almost reach the cones at around 50mph, the two lights would turn red and either the left or right traffic light would remain green and you would make an quick lane change toward that side. I found that the Boxster was well balanced during the sudden changes, though the turn-in was not as sharp as the RX-8, it was very responsive and controllable. The brakes also were strong and had an excellent feel. The acceleration is good, with the overall acceleration similar to the RX-8 except with noticeably more low-end torque. The engine sound is also great, having a hollow throaty note. I pushed the Boxster past 50mph to 60mph to give myself more challenge, but it was pretty hard not to run over cones at that point.

After about 30 minutes the groups switched activities so that we were doing the skidpad. The skidpad is arranged so that there are two circles of cones (about 30 feet in diameter, a few hundred feet apart) and hoses that gush water down the gently sloped pavement to keep the surface wet. The instructors for our group, Benny and Bryan, split us into two BMW 330i's around each circle, and demonstrated to us the feel of understeer by increasing the speed while maintaining the same steering angle. They then let us do it. No biggie, kinda boring. Next, the instructors drove an oval path around the two circles, demonstrating oversteer using the handbrake and trail braking. Now we're talking!! I stepped into the 330i, and my initial impressions were: The interior, feel, and design of this car is solid and nicely laid out. The acceleration surprised me as I thought the car was slower than it was. There is ample torque above 1500 rpm to get the car moving. I think this car is a little faster than the RX-8. The shifter, while not as "bolt-action" as the RX-8, feels solid and precise. But why oh why must the reverse gear be put to the left of 1st gear??? Some pressure to the left on the stick from neutral, you go in 1st, just a little more pressure to the left, you're in reverse! Seems kind of dangerous to me!! Anyways, to the sliding! Trail braking and turning easily allows to car to slide out. The first few tries I did not countersteer early or fast enough to catch the slide, and spun out. But after a couple minutes I was getting better at catching the slide, and then quickly returning the wheel to the center so that the car would not jerk on the exit. I was so excited this whole time that I kept yelling out "dude, Inital D!!" like a retard.

10:30 AM - Autocross with (05) Porsche Boxsters / More skidpad with BMW 330i's
This was easily the most fun part about this day. Group 1 did autocross while group 2 did more skidpad. The instructors rode with us as we drove around the course, with 2 cars on the course simultaneously. The course coming from pit lane was: left turn to chicane to straight to decreasing-radius sweeping left, to slight right to sharp left. The instructors gave us valuable advice as we drove around the course, such as sacrificing the line at the left turn before the chicane so you could accelerate through the chicane and subsequent straight, and then trailing brake and late apex for the decreasing radius left turn. Here is where I noticed the difference of teaching styles between Benny and Bryan. Benny was more technical in his approach; he would explain what to do at the next corner and why you do it ("OK, on this turn don't go too much to the outside so you can prepare for the chicane. Look at the apex cone, because you go in the direction you look. OK now acceeeelerate..."). On the other hand, Bryan was the more charismatic direct instruction type ("GO GO GO! HARD BRAKE! TURN! TRAIL OFF BRAKE! *pushes wheel further left* MORE STEERING!! easy on throttle.. easy on throttle... GO GO GO!!") There was good information to learn from both teaching methods, the first more for the brain, the latter more for the feel. The Boxsters themselves were very well-balanced and easy to drive for the course. I have a much improved respect for them after this event, and wondered how the 911 would compare when we drove them later. Looking at the other students driving the autocross, all of them seemed to drive pretty well, but secretly believed that I was the fastest one there. Julie was the slowest, and her husband Jim had to shortcut the course a few times around her to get more space to drive aggressively.

12:00 PM - Lunch
In the morning the instructors had let us select what we wanted for our complimentary lunch. I had chosen the turkey swiss sandwich. The lunches also came with a side of potato salad, a chocolate chip cookie, a snack-size bag of chips, and unlimited water, soda, and nestea from a minibar. We all sat in the classroom, ate, and talked about cars, racing experiences, and personal/family backgrounds, while watching a Rolex race on the Speed channel (I think it was the one being discussed earlier on this forum, I saw the white Speedsource RX-8 in it). It was a good time for connecting with the instructors and other students.

1:00 PM - Classroom talk
Another classroom talk by Andrew, this one is about slip angles and the physics behind vehicle sliding and proper correction techniques and timing of the corrections. He talked about CPR: correction, pause, recovery. Basically, it's countersteer, wait until you feel the car stop sliding, then recover the wheel. He explained to us what happens when incorrect inputs are made during a slide (brake, gas). He also talked about his drifting experience and why it is not the fastest way to drive. It was pretty funny how he used drawings of oak trees on the white board for reference when you do stuff you're not supposed to do.

1:30 PM - Tour of the Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in Mazda 3's.
We walked out into pit lane to find 3 Mazda 3's sitting there. Not too much to our surprise is an idling ambulance that is also present, ready to give assistance if needed. With two or three students per car, my friend and I got in with Benny as our driver and drove out of pit lane. This is my first time riding in a Mazda 3, and I figure that this is going to be a relaxing tour of the corners and straights on the track, so i buckle myself into the center back seat to get a good filming location in the car. WRONG MOVE. As I turn on the camera, I realize Benny is flooring the accelerator toward the tight turn 2. Fine, no worries, the Mazda 3 is no RX-8, I remember thinking, as I start recording. Before I know it, my seatbelt locks as I fly to the right and my camera is now aimed toward the door jam. I am struggling to stay in my seat as Benny tosses the car around subsequent turns. "What kind of tires are you guys running on these Mazda 3's?" I ask. "Oh, these are stock." is the reply. I frantically look for an oh-**** handle, but there are none to be found in the backseat. Eventually I was able to keep myself in place by literally pushing against the door opposite the turn with my legs. During the lap, Bryan had the ***** to pass us in his Mazda 3 (with Carlos and Nisian) entering the corkscrew. Freakin nuts. When we finally got back to pit, I felt high on adrenaline and also a little nauseous stepping out of the car. We went to the classroom and rested a little bit.

2:30 PM - More classroom talk
This time Andrew talked about turning radius and how a larger radius travelled in a turn translates to faster exit speeds (15GR = mph^2; G = lateral g, R = radius of driving line). He also showed with that formula why taking the shortest path (hugging the inside) or going along the outside of the turn isn't the optimal solution.

3:00 PM - More autocross with Porsche Boxsters / Skidpad with BMW 330i's
The last part of the day was intended to use our gained classroom knowledge about slip angles and driving line, compounded with earlier experience, to be faster on the autocross. By this point I had ingrained into my head the line that I should be taking around the course and I was starting to get pretty dang fast around it. One part I kept screwing up on was the left turn before the chicane, where I would go too fast and not set up properly on the left side of the course for the chicane and straight. I was trying to compete with my friend Tony, who was driving on the course at the same time, trying to close the gap between him and me. We were both pretty equally matched, and I didn't see any discernable difference in the distance between us after our 10 minute run. Julie, who had been initially slow around the autocross, now had improved dramatically this time around. She was starting to be faster than her husband Jim! What I didn't realize until now is that you actually get a workout from autocrossing. I remember stepping out and feeling my arms a little bigger, and sweating a little.

4:00 PM - See you tomorrow
We left the track toward our room at the Carmel Resort Inn and reflected on that day's experience. At that time, Tony and I felt that while the experience so far was great, it probably wasn't worth half the sign-up cost ($1375). We looked forward to the next day with the track driving.

 

Day 2 - Monday, 1/29/07

8:30 AM - Classroom talk
Having slept at 9:00 PM the previous night (we were both pretty tired from the first day), Tony and I were well-rested and ready for what coming the next day. This time Conrad was the instructor giving our classroom talk. He talked about tires, and the differences in performance with respect to tire width, aspect ratio, compound, tread area and design, and construction method (radial, cross-ply). He also plotted graphs of grip vs. slip angle for each kind of tire, which was quite interesting. I didn't know that street tires (radial) actually have more grip at around 7-8 degrees of slip than straight, and that cross-ply tires have the most grip at even higher slip angles. He then goes on to talk about heel-toe downshifting, why we use it and different ways to properly accomplish the task. They recommended that we use the half of the left side of your foot for braking, pushing the throttle with the right half method. Personally on my 8 I have been practicing the Best Motoring's use your ball of the right foot to brake, swivel the heel around to blip the gas method, so I decided to stick with that.

9:30 AM - Braking exercise with (05) BMW M3's, (05) Porsche 911's and Boxsters / Downshifting exercise with Porsche Boxsters and BMW 330i's
This was getting a little exciting for me as I've never stepped foot into the M3 or 911 before. Group 1 did the braking exercise first, and we all got the opportunity to test the ABS and threshold brake with the 3 types of cars. Setup was simple enough: a few hundred feet away there are two lines of cones forming a lane. When you pass the first pair of cones, stand on the brakes to feel how ABS works. Then next time threshold brake, to the point right before ABS kicks in, and observe that the braking is more effective this way. Stepping in the M3, my initial impression was: really nice-looking exterior on the car, I like it a lot. Starting up the car and revving the engine, wooow this engine sounds really good! I've always thought that the M3 sounded too tinny and raspy from videos I've seen online but those don't do the real thing justice. The higher frequencies of the engine may sound the same in person, but videos don't include the mid and low frequency tones that's present here. As a result, it sounds powerful, quick-revving, and uniquely authoritative. Acceleration is pretty damn quick, but that's also what I expected. One thing that disappointed me about the M3 was its crappy feeling shifter. I know the car has been beat up upon for its 5000 miles but seriously, the shifter felt like it came out of a worn out 2nd-gen RX-7 (no offense 2nd gen owners). Shifting was rubbery and imprecise. The brakes, however, are pretty awesome though, strong, but not as responsive as the RX-8. When slamming on the brakes, it's hard to feel the ABS kick in, which is so quiet and buttery smooth. The next car I tried was the 911. First impression: it's not as beat up as the Boxsters, still looks great on the outside and inside. Clutch is VERY hard, but I don't mind that too much because of the more positive clutch engagement. Just like the Boxster, the transmission feels great and the steering is nicely weighted. Starting up the engine, it is freakin nice! It sounds really deep and throaty, like the Boxster except with twice the muscle mass. And it also accelerates like a mother, with a harmonious engine sound that seems to drown out the rest of the world around you when you floor it. Braking however, doesn't feel as positive as the Boxster and M3 as I would have expected. I needed to have lots of pedal travel before I felt good braking force.

After 30 minutes the groups switched, so that we went to the downshifting exercise. We use the two circles that were used earlier for skidpad, driving an oval around it, shifting to 3rd on the straight, braking, doing the heel-toe then shifting to 2nd. This was simple enough to do on the Boxster that I was driving and I picked it up pretty fast with the training I had done previously in the RX-8. One difference with the Boxster is that the gas pedal is farther down than the RX-8's, so reaching the gas was sometimes hard if I wasn't pushing the brake pedal hard enough. The instructors had told us not to rush, as we were supposed to concentrate on getting the downshift right, but with both Tony and I on course we were soon pushing the cars to the limit around the oval trying to catch up with one another.

10:30 AM - Autocross with BMW M3's and Porsche 911's / Skidpad figure 8's with BMW 330i's
Now I'm even more excited, as we have the opportunity to test out the capability of these nice cars on the autocross. Group 1 does the autocross first. I step into the 911 with Benny as my instructor and we do a warmup lap. Tony is in the M3 driving on the course simultaneously, so both our competitive sides flare up again, and I feel the excitement. I notice Tony is starting to pick up the pace after the first lap, so I also go for it. During this time I had a hard time remembering to look at the apex cones during turns, especially the late apex in the decreasing radius left sweeper, and Benny kept reminding me to look at them. I found that I had a harder time driving the 911 than the Boxster, mainly because it felt heavier and and less maneuverable than its cheaper counterpart. I was experiencing understeer on turn-in, oversteer on powering out the corner exit. Overall, I felt I was a lot faster with the Boxster. Next, I stepped into the M3 with Conrad. I found Conrad's teaching style to be more reactive when you make mistakes ("Good... Good... OK you went too much to the outside. OK that turn was good, but be more in the middle the turn at that point.") The M3 itself felt very balanced and easy to control, much like the Boxster. The car actually felt lighter that I expected, with great turn-in and track-out stability. I felt the fastest around the course with this car compared to the Boxster and 911.

On to the figure 8 skidpad exercise. It was pretty much the same as the other skidpad exercises, but instead of travelling in an oval path around the two cone circles, we did figure 8's so that we can practice oversteering to the left and right. In addition, the instructors tried to teach us how to powerslide, basically maintaining the slide by applying gas at the right point in the slide. I never really got it right, either spinning out when I applied the throttle too soon, or not having any real effect when I applied it too late. Tony and Jim had some great powerslides though, and I was jealous. Finally, instuctors Bryan and Benny stepped in the 330i's and demonstrated how it should be done. Man are these guys good. Bryan was going showing off his powersliding skills, flooring it around the cones, sliding through the straight all the way to the opposite circle!

11:30 AM - Autocross competition with Porsche 911
This was our only timed competitive event for the class. We were ran a relay race Group 1 vs. Group 2 with one of the maintenance staff, Steve, added to Group 2 so we would have 4 participants in each group. The setup was the same autocross course, but pit lane now had four large cones delimiting the area where the driver changes would occur. Each driver would run 3 laps then drive to pit lane to switch drivers. Group 2 went first, all raced quite well without hitting any cones. Group 1 went second, with me as the last driver in the line-up. Our group also raced pretty well, with Tony hitting 1 cone. Total times were really close with group 1 running 6:04 and group 2 getting 6:01. Even though we lost the competition, we held the honorable mentions of fastest driver change (from Julie to Tony) and fastest laps for all 3 laps (all by me, buahaha I knew I was the fastest).

12:00 PM - Lunch
Liking the turkey swiss sandwich from the previous day, I ordered it again. Everyone got their lunches and sat in the classroom discussing their autocross times, which an instructor had printed copies for everyone to review.

1:00 PM - Track tour with a van
Andrew took us around the track in a van to show us in slower motion (than the Mazda3's) the proper line for each corner on the track. There were reference cones placed on the side of the track before the corners, which in order was: 3 cones = start braking, 2 cones = apply light maintenance throttle, 1 cone = start turn-in, apex cone, then track out cone. Andrew drove the correct line for one lap then demonstrated the negative effects of turning in too early and too late on the second lap.

1:15 PM - Track time on Laguna Seca
Finally, what I've been waiting for in this entire trip!! The students walked got out of the van toward pit lane to find a line of cars: 2 Boxsters, the 911, the M3, and in the front, the Official RX-8 Pace Car! It's velocity red and has all genuine Mazdaspeed parts installed. Sweet. So the way the track driving worked was pretty simple: We follow the pace car driven by an instructor in a single file line, and after a lap is completed the first car goes to the back of the line so the next car in the line follows behind the pace car. We repeat this for 15 minutes or so then stop in pit lane to switch cars. Liking the M3 from the autocross, I decide to take dibs on that. My adrenaline is rushing as we pull out on the track. I can't believe I'm driving on THE Mazda Laguna Seca, with the entire track to ourselves!! Here were my impressions going around the first time: I was surprised how easy it was to pick up driving on the track. With the reference cones on the side for each turn finding the ideal line was relatively easy, and following the braking and acceleration references are right on target for smooth fast driving. The track itself seemed a little narrower and distances closer together in real life than it did in videos and Playstation 2's GT4, but there is plenty of room for passing. Most of the time the car is in third gear, occasionally reaching 4th after turn 4 and 11. What really surprised me was how pronounced the elevation changes on the track were compared to what I thought it would be like. The first time down the corkscrew shocked me outright; when I rounded the first turn (turn 8) I realized I couldn't see the next turn because it was down the drop below my field of vision! Then I remembered what Andrew had said on the van tour: aim your car toward the oak tree. So I did in blind faith and thankfully after the surprisingly HUGE drop I saw that the second turn (8A) was perfectly lined up for me. The following turn (Rainey curve) was an also pretty insanely steep downhill left sweeper. No video could accurately portray the feeling of flying down this corner in person. Going through the track was just surreal and plain awesome.. hanging on every turn, powering down the main straight listening to the metallic roar of the M3's engine, upshifting as fast as I could, 2nd..3rd..4th... Yokohama and Mazda bridges flying overhead... seeing dust and smoke flying from cars that pushed the turn a little too much... it's an intoxicating feeling that's hard to describe and something you just don't experience anywhere else. I was following the RX-8 pace car and noticed that I was keeping up well in the more straightforward turns but getting left behind in more technical ones (8, 8A, 9) even trying to push the M3 to its limits, but that's probably due to the fact that I'm up against a professional driver. I usually would catch up in the straights before we reached the next corner though. After several laps we switched cars and I got into the 911. I had got the impression earlier that this car felt unfamiliar and hard to control, and on the track it was no different. It felt heavy during turns, understeered on turn-in and track-out, and braking felt a little labored. Turns that I had made comfortably with the M3 I was nearly flying off the track in the 911. This car definitely requires a different style of driving to use its full potential, maybe more trail-braking to get more weight on the front tires. Aside from the uneasy handling, the power on the straight is amazing. Even though I was being left behind in every corner by the RX-8 on the track, I could easily come up behind it before the next turn. Even so, the whole time I felt like I was continually fighting to catch up. The sound of this engine is really just great, and on the main straight I would kind of zone out just to concentrate on the ferociousness of the sound through the acceleration and during gear changes. After several laps, we switched for the last time, with me in the Boxster. While not as ferocious as the 911 and as fast as the M3, the Boxster was the easiest car to handle on the track and also in my opinion the most fun. The shifter is excellent and less notchy than the RX-8, the car is really well balanced (I'd say equal to the 8), and I could stay right behind the pace car with reasonable ease. I really think that I was generally faster in the Boxster than I was in the 911!

3:30PM - Hot laps with instructors
This was the final event for the day. The instructors got into the cars and everyone took turns riding in each type of car to feel how the cars should be driven. I picked up some valuable tips as each instructor drove me around the track. For example, when the instructors drove over the apex berm at turns where the apex is at a bottom of a trough, they took avantage of the increased grip from the road curvature and turned the wheel more, further rotating the car and carrying more speed out of the turn. I also noticed their downshifting was smooth and not rushed, performed after most of the braking before the turn. I had been doing it incorrectly, trying to do it too fast and too late in the turn. The
instructors are also not afraid to cut close to the apex cones and use the berm on the outside of the track.

4:00 PM - Graduation Ceremony
The whole experience had been wonderful and we were all sad that it was over. All the students received a graduation certificate, some hp-adding Skip Barber car stickers, and information about future Skip Barber classes. We all said our goodbyes and left Laguna Seca feeling very satisfied with the whole experience.


Well, that's all I have to say about my experience at Skip Barber's High Performance Driving School. I hope I gave all of you a good idea of what it's about. I've posted pictures here:

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/lshu

I also have some other sightseeing pictures of Carmel-by-the-Sea (where Tony and I stayed). We visited restaurants, Carmel Beach, the 17-mile drive, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Beautiful places!

 

Great post. I've always wanted to do one of those. Too bad they didn't give you a couple laps in your 8!

 

I wish I could! I was tempted to ask if I could drive the pace car.. haha

 

Wow great write-up! I enjoyed reading it, thansk!
________
BUY BUBBLERS

 

It doesn't seem too expensive when you think about how much track time has to cost on Laguna Seca.

 

Nice write-up. Someone want to sponsor me?

 

Great write-up! Hopefully I'll be attending Mid-Ohio's three-day school this summer. Should cost about $1600. The catch is I don't get to drive all those cool cars, just mine.

 

I'm a little jealous, sounds like you had a blast.

 

Outstanding write-up. You definitely get a gold star. A+.

 

I want $2,750 now.