Hello. I'm seriously considering attending a 3 day skip barber race school some time in '08. I was thinking of Laguna Seca (always been a dream for me) or Road Atlanta (I watched a "Ferrari Challenge" there a couple of years ago and really liked the track).

Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone could provide any feedback on the skip barber experience.

Thanks.

I attended the class at Laguna Seca about seven years ago. It was a blast in the little underpowered formula dodge. Think I got up to 105mph and that seemed real fast. That was no where near the fastest I've been in a car or motorcycle but it felt like it. Spun it out a few times including half way through the corkscrew. You really learn car control with a car that can go into heavy over-steer so easily. Let up on the gas at the wrong time and around you go. On one of the days we had a light rain which made it even more fun.

Laguna Seca is great fun in itself and quite a challange. Two blind turns (turn 1 and the corkscrew) that force you to use points near the track (telephone poles, trees, etc) to determine your turn-in points. On top of that there is a nice long straight section to build up speed. Off camber turns, double apex turns. Fun fun. Going to have to do it in my CS if it ever gets here.

I'd consider taking the advanced driving class first if you have any doubt about your driving skill. I didn't but I have an unrealistically high opinion of my driving

Russ

There are several threads on various driving experiences if you run a search. School opinions are going to vary.

Both Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta are great tracks, with (IMO) Road Atlanta being a "higher speed" venue and, Laguna Seca's corkscrew not withstanding, a much higher, again IMO, pucker factor for Road Atlanta's Turn #12.

It's a crying shame Skippy's taken over, and I'm afraid will kill off the kind of program the Panoz Racing School offered. Skippy's three day school makes EXTENSIVE use of something they call the "stop box." It cuts deeply into your working seat time at speed. Also consider carefull the kind of car experience you are looking for. A Skippy open wheel car and "race school" is quite a bit different ride than one of their "car control" or street car offerings. In a purely street car track driving school experience, I'd personally recommend the 3-day Spring Mountain Corvette driving experience as probably the best bang for the buck that I've seen out there. For a "race" school in a "race car" the Panoz program was miles ahead of the Skip Barber experience.

All that said, a lot of what you'll get out of one of these schools depends a lot on what kind and levels of experience you bring to the school.

Last, but certainly not least, if you can arrange to do the school with one or more driving buddies, IMO you GREATLY enhance your chances of having a great time. For example, in the last Skip Barber Open wheel school I observed at Laguna, more than 50% of the group of 16 was probably either right at, or under the age of 18. I'm not trying to say that's a bad thing, but disparities in ages, experience, expectations and goals on the track can be magnified when people in the group feel they are under stress. And believe me, most folks when put on a track, especially if its a first time, are under a bit of stress. Further goals within the group can vary quite a bit. Some folks might be there just for the "experience" of driving on the track; others have serious racing aspirations, for who the "experiential" group are at best a distracting irritation, and at worst become targets or trophies. As I hear middle school teachers saying, some folks in these groups may not always "play well with others." Improve your odds of having a great time by grouping up and going with people you know you play well with.

Cheers

HTH

__________________
'o6 Cayman SArtic Silver/Black leather

I went through both the performance driving school and race school a few years ago at Lime Rock...loved the program so much I went on to race in the series for two years...one of funnest things I have ever done...raced at Lime Rock, Sebring, and Watkins Glen (my favorite). so can't say much about Atlanta or Laguna except I would love to go sometime. the program I went through was excellent...very professionally run with a high emphasis on safety and fun factor...they will black flag anyone making them nervous

There was a wide variety of participants...I knew none of them but became friends with many...so don't worry about going by yourself...yeah it is largely a mix of young hot shots wanting to become pros and old farts like me living a long awaited dream...we all raced side by side...young guns were fearless and impatient, us old guys just the opposite...with almost equal success
not me but some of the old guys beat the young bucks on a regular basis.

So DO IT...its a blast..first time around the track a full throttle I couldn't wipe the grin off my face.

I"ve done both the Skippy 3 day racing and 2 day advanced racing course and learned a lot from both.
In the 3 day course you are going to learn the basics before they turn you loose on the track. I haven't done the Panoz school so I don't know how they compare but the "stop box" is important because you are learning threshold braking and what happens to your ability to steer when threshold braking. All of the instructors at the Skippy course are either current racers or past racers and by the way, Skip Barber sold the Skip Barber School a number of years ago. The school and the racing series only have his name on it.

If you want to learn to drive a real race car in a intensive 3 days, I would recommend the Skippy course. SCCA will grant you a lic to race once you complete the 3 day course if you want to go there.
The 2 day course I just completed at Mont Tremblant took it too the next level and I can tell you we had all the seat time we could handle. Our class was very small, only 8 students so our sessions were only over when it was time to come in and refuel. 85% of our time on the track was at speed with only a few low speed sessions the first day in the morning, after that it was pushing as fast as your ability would permit. There were instructors at all the corners and you were stopped and critiqued if they saw a problem. We had one 16yr old young lady in our class from Columbia who wanted to race professionally in South America and the rest of the students were in the 35 to 65 year old range with the quickest also being the oldest.

I personally will not be going back to take another Skippy course because the only thing left would be computer lapping and actually racing all of which are too expensive for me, I can do 10 or 12 DE events in my CS for the cost of the school.

great program, but be sure to do the 2 day advanced racing school after. oh, in the 2 day advanced racing school, please don't feel bad when 17 year old kids are way faster than you...or if you are the slowest out of them all...it's a humbling experience.

I've done the 1- and 2-day Porsche Performance Driving Schools in Birmingham, Alabama. The school used to be housed at Road Atlanta, but they felt the speeds were too high to properly learn the handling characteristics of the cars - thus the move to Barber Motor Park - lots of curves and elevation changes to influence the feel of the car.

You're split into groups of 3 or 4, depending upon your driving skills, and go from there. Ages range from 17 to 60, a couple of father/son, hurband/wife combos. Wide level of skills: I was (fortunately) grouped with a guy who had done "several schools, including a couple of 3-day SB's at Laguna" and owned/drove a Porsche club racer.

Many of the PDR staff used to be instructors at Barber and Panoz; they are all drivers. The program is exceptionally well run and you get a lot of seat time. You also get to drive about everything Porsche makes: Boxster S, Cayman S, 911, (plus 911S and Cayenne S in the 2-day school) and get an unforgettable, physics-defying, "hot-lap" in a Cayenne Turbo S. The sessions on the skid pad alone are worth the very high price of admission.

__________________
The Croc's Nest:
2008 Targa 4S
2006 Cayman S
2006 Cayenne S

I did the 3 day Skip Barber school at Road Atlanta a few years ago. This was after having raced small production SCCA for 20 years and having taught at driver's schools.

You can always learn something new. And in my case, moving from a production car to open wheels just added to the learning.

Whether you're doing it because you want to race or just want the experience, I highly recommend it.

__________________
Robert

Guys,

What does the course at Limerock cost?