caco666

Pics are amazing! I would love to do this.

Apexsports

Great pics and I'm sure you had a blast! The first time going down the corkscrew at speed is sure an eye opening experience.

My uncle used to work for SCRAMP as a volunteer, so I've been lucky enough to put in quite a few laps at Laguna over the years on motorcycles, but your great write up and pics have me drooling to get out their in the F now.

It sais a lot about how confidence inspriring the IS-F is that they would use it for the driving school you attended.

If you have more pics, please continue to post em up!

DCoolBeans

The pics def look like allot fun ::thumbs up::

So any free tips for us people that don't have the 1800 bux to spend??

TerrySmith

After only one day at this, I would not want to give too much advice as I'm not qualified and might get it wrong.

But one basic technique that you can actually practice on normal roads and freeways is: eyes up! Look down the road where you want to be and not right in front of the car. The faster you're going, the farther you should continue to look. If you're going into a turn, look around at the turn, not straight ahead. Of course, you still have to keep track of what's up close. Harder than it sounds - mostly just to remember to do it. If you do this on the freeway, you can also be more aware of what the traffic further ahead is doing.

Beyond that, if you're interested, you might want to get one of the books (Bondurant's or Skip Barber's) mentioned by others earlier in the thread. I found a used copy of Bondurant's book (2003 Edition) on Amazon for $11 plus shipping.

Thanks,

TerrySmith

I took the paddock pix with my iPhone 4S. The amazing track pix were taken by a professional and all at the same corner. Cost me another $100 for those, but worth it, I guess.

I recommend it - the school, I mean.

Thanks,

DCoolBeans

I def do that on the autocross runs but not on the street. I'm always looking ahead of the car and down, looking for objects on the road that might damage my car(ex: tire chunks, hubcaps, ect)

Thanks!

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Head and eyes are the most basic and most important thing no matter what you drive - bikes or cars, it's all the same from that perspective - you go where you look, so look where you want to go. No one really wants to go just to the end of the hood...

The first few times out on track with the F are pretty much overwhelming if you've never driven a track before. If you're a bike guy transitioning to cars, you'll have a lot of problems pure car guys don't have, AMHIK. But after 15 to 20 hours on track, you'll get a good feel for what you can convince the car to do and most importantly, you'll figure out how to get more out of the car without making it understeer horribly.

Congrats! I've done Sears Point and Willow Springs on bikes, but never Laguna Seca. It must have been a blast!

I8ABMR

Sounds like a cool experience but being in AZ I think I would stick to the NASA and SCCA events. Much cheaper and you get a lot more than 20 minutes behind the wheel. Its been about 4 years since I did a track event but I miss it. Once I got my GS and LS that stuff ended . I miss the excitement to pushing the car to limits and not having to worry about cops, speed limits, or losing you license.

TerrySmith

That all sounds good for advanced drivers but this is a driving school, not a track-day event so the purpose is different and price comparisons do not apply. The idea is to learn to drive better. In fact, I'm planning to go back for even more school and after that, I will get into the cheaper track-day events - probably hooked on driving.

Also, to be clear, at the school, most of the day is spent behind the wheel on the skid pad, emergency lane-change course and autocross course and then you get your 20 minutes of actual track time. At the one-day school you get maybe an hour of class room instruction and an hour for breaks and lunch. The rest of the day is behind the wheel.

The track time came at the end of the day so we could apply the lessons of the day on the track and that really helped. We also actually got about 35 minutes (not 20) on the track.

In considering the price difference with a track-day event, remember the price at Skip Barber includes everything: professional and structured instruction, use of the paddock and track, use of their cars (multiple types), helmets / hemet socks, gas and even lunch. You don't have to pay for wear and tear on your own car (tires and break pads, etc.). You don't have to prep your own car.

I was considering a road trip to the Bob Bondurant School, which is near Phoenix, but was happy to discover the Skip Barber classes just 1.5 hours away.

Thanks,