I really want to do a 3 day school but I'm not sure which one to go to. I've been doing DE's for years but want to do a real driving school.

 

I went to Skip Barber. The open wheel thing is very cool, and they travel around the country. I chose Watkins Glen because I went there every year as a kid for the Can Am/Enduro. I balled up one of Skippy's cars with no financial consequence (and they gave me another one)...When you are done you get an SCCA license sign off.

 

I did the Panoz school last summer at Road Atlanta and thought that I had great instructors. Low teacher/driver ratio and plenty of solo track time and an SCCA comp license at the end. (not that I've used the comp license yet and am prolly going to lose it for inactivity but hey, wheel to wheel racing is too expensive for me right now). They also run schools at Sebring and Texas Motor Speedway.

The instructors are all pro drivers and the setup is first class. They also offer a 2 day advanced class which I'll be taking this year thanks to another great Xmas present. (last year he gave me the 3 day class). The cars are 'race prepped' Panoz GTs with full cage, fuel cells, and the whole nine but the engines are limited to ~5500 rpm if I remember correctly.

Can't recommend them highly enough. http://www.panozracingschool.com

 

I've been to one day schools at Derek Daly (Formula Fords, but they also use BMW 3 series), Racing Adventures (Cobras) and a two day school at Bondurant (Cadillac CTSs). The open wheel racers at Daly are cool, but it's difficult to translate the instruction into everyday use. The Cobras at the Racing Adventures are light enough to really help understand the impact of weight distribution when cornering.
However, the Bondurant course was the most throrough and useful for every day and autocross. I can hear you now: "High performance Cadilacs!?!". The cars we used were all manual xmission and the suspensions were heavily tweaked by the Bondurant people - not your grandmother's Caddy. They also have modified a few to unload the front or rear for a very good skid instruction. My heal/toe skills were siginificantly improved there (difficult to do so in Racing Adventure's Cobras) as well. Finally, since I could bring along my son for the "Teenage Driver Education", it turned out to much easier to justify to my wife!

 

If you want to try something different I would recommend this:

http://www.silverstonerally.co.uk/

I don't know what cars they use now (the pictures show old Ford Escorts) but I did this a number of years ago and they used Puegeot 309 GTi (which was a great car).

An absolute hoot and a totally different experience.

Barry

 

Yeah, WRC style driving is fun, but I don't want to go all the way to England to do it.

 

Panoz racing school
3 Day Road Racing [$2,975]
http://www.panozracingschool.com

 

I did the one-day at Derek Daly as well, LOTs of fun. The open-wheel experience was awesome!

 

You might want to consider the Porsche Driving Experience. You get training in a current 911 and don't have to beat up your personal car.

 

PDE is great whatever your level and the MASTERS kicks it up a couple of notches.
Everybody, no matter what level experience should do it.
Interestingly I was just there last month and in my class was another Rennlister who drives a GT3 and had done some DE's at Barber, learned a bunch, and at the end when you do Hot Laps with an instructor was awe-struck at how much farther a 997 could be piloted around the racetrack, and could spank his ability in the GT3.
Driving is all about seat time
View the PDE intro video:
PDE Video

 

If you want the new skills to translate to your car, PDE would be the way to go. All of the schools are great for general skills. Your car is different than a formula ford , mustang or viper. If you want to go to improve in general terms pick the location and the fun car. If you want to get the most skills for driving a Porsche go to PDE.

BTW: the Skip class at Laguna Seca was in of the best things I ever did. Track is fun,Monteray =great sites and weather. Formula car 180hp and 1300 lbs.

 

that video wnats me to drive over to Alabama right now!

 

I did Barber at Elkhart Lake. They've done it so long that it works well. Plenty of equipment. The fundamentals translate to all cars, and the open wheel expereince makes it very simple to experience the positive and negative lessons. That particular track is also uniquely attractive. The scenery and layout compliment the experience.
I found Road Atlanta to be a difficult track to learn. I think that trying to learn that track while learning race techniques will complicate the experience, unless Road Atlanta is a track you want to race on. Others may disagree. AS