voda

Has anyone attended both of the PDE and Skip Barber? I'd like to hear your opinions of each.

simsgw

Not completely sure what you want compared, Voda. But I'll do my best.

Decades ago, I began with SCCA classes, then I attended Skip Barker and since buying our C2S, I've read several articles about the Porsche School in the Southeast. Carolinas I think? The PCNA school in any case. (I'm fighting the temptation to attend just because it sounds like a hell of a good time.) The most obvious difference between these choices is the car used. Barber and PCNA provide the car, while the SCCA and DE days put on by your local PCA chapter teach you in your own car.

I took the Barber three-day class in Formula Fords before going racing. Excellent class and I learned a lot despite having had twenty years experience competing in road cars and those SCCA driver classes that correspond to the DE days offered by Porsche Clubs.

I would say that Barber offered a better ratio of instructors to students than the SCCA classes. On the other hand, the SCCA classes were in my own car and they gave me an instructor with racing experience in my car, so the time we spent was more applicable to my road driving and to autocrossing my road car. I would expect a similar comparison is valid between Barber and PCA DE days.

The course offered by PCNA is unquestionably a notch above those two choices. First, it is their car, which means the racing time is put on it instead of your own; but they assign you a car that matches your own P-car in terms of model and transmission. So if you have a PDK C4S, that's what you'll drive in the school. Or so I understand it. Second, though I can't vouch for this, it sounds like they provide very accomplished race drivers for the instruction. Not just good drivers with race experience, but names you'll recognize. (Or perhaps I mean should recognize, if you follow racing.) At Skip Barber, it is more like flight instruction in civilian schools: young accomplished pilots working their way to higher levels of experience are the most common sort of teacher. I did my own training with a fighter pilot turned bush pilot turned married man who settled down and opened a flight school. I was fortunate to have that opportunity and I have to say that the PCNA school sounds as close to that as you can get with a Porsche instead of a plane.

If you plan to go racing in any formula class, then go to Skip Barber. Open wheel cars are a gas to drive and they differ in significant ways from road cars. For example, once you can spare attention for it, a lap in an open-wheel car is a graduate course in tire response to cornering and braking. You can watch the tread sections heat (and overheat when you make mistakes), and then cool as you exit the turn. You can see that on Speed Channel's coverage of Formula One, but you can't feel the car as it happens and correlate the visual with the somatic senses.

Barber offers a couple of tiers of training and wheel-to-wheel student races to get you ready. The drivers in those races are often experienced and coming back for a refresher course, and they are uniformly aggressive people of the sort you see in SCCA and other sanctioned races later. You will be tested and you will learn if you're up to it.

On the other hand, if you plan to race a Porsche, then go to PCNA's school and explain your goal ahead of time.

If you are new to high speed precision driving, then I highly recommend a few DE days before you commit to the cost and travel of attending the PCNA course or Skip Barber. (Unless that's not an issue for you.) The DE days will bring you to a new level of driving skill. Honest. And that will prepare you to take better advantage of the PCNA school or Barber as your needs dictate.

The instructors at a DE day are usually very competent teachers as well as having the obvious skill at driving that is a prerequisite for instructors in all these schools. If you're new to serious driving, the DE days will do fine for the first tier of instruction and the next couple as well. You can go back several times and find yourself learning more each time. If you are just new to the Porsche, DE days are also your best bet for learning the particular nature of this fine car.

Then when you feel competent at those levels, sign up for the PCNA course.

Gary

MJones

I have not done Skip Barber...but open wheel cars are different.

PSDS (PDE) I have done, and I can highly recommend.
The track, Barber, is beautiful and daunting with it's many blind fall away corners.
The instructor base is second to none with drivers who are great communicators.

Just sign-up and attend!
You will not regret doing so....

simsgw

Damn, damn, damn. Just when I suppress the impulse to sign up, you post this.

Isn't that a gorgeous course?

Gary

Nugget

Skip Barber is not just open wheel. They also have an MX5 Cup school.

savyboy

Just attended a Hooked on Driving event today at Thunderhill. I made liberal use of several of their instructors and they were great for helping me with the line and nuance of a new track. However, My PSDS training was the fundamental underpinning of my driving today.

If you enjoy DE's or, (equally so) have never done a DE, then PSDS is a fantastic experience. Do all three progressive offerings:

Performance (2-day)
Masters (2-day)
Masters Plus (3-day)

Worth every cent of the financial investment if you are a real driving enthusiast. And especialy if you aspire to drive compentantly under a variety of track conditions.

Enjoy!

russo

You forgot to mention that you own stock in PSDS.