Maybe I should try a Racing school
#46
Instructor
1) how do skills transfer across car (types)?
if I budget 5k for a season of driver improvement what is the best way or combination of ways to spend that?
- eg I am going to race a 996 cup. how would doing a bertil roos school that uses Formula cars benefit me? would I benefit more from a school using miatas? hellcats? are there schools that use cars more similar to 996 cups?
- I remember reading that Patrick Dempsey really benefited from doing the dirtfish rally school ( but that was probably a custom program and on top of lots of other coaching/practice)
if I budget 5k for a season of driver improvement what is the best way or combination of ways to spend that?
- right seat coach (in my car)
- coaching using data (using my car's data)
- racing school in a different car
Second: As you mentioned, Patrick Dempsey attended schools with different classes because you learn different necessary skills in different cars. Those different skills are necessary in all driving classes, but different training platforms accentuate the need to perform them properly. Why do the Fin F1 drivers have karting and rally car backgrounds? The problem with driving just a Porsche is that the computer is so good at covering your mistakes. Go out in a Miata or Formula car with no nannies and see how poorly you brake and transition off the brakes to the throttle. It will surprise you how many bad habits you don't realize that you have.
Driving a low HP momentum car is the best way to learn to be smooth and fast.
Last: Once you have done an Arrive and Drive program, you realize the benefit of not having to do anything but drive the car and focus on improving your skills.
#47
Gary
#48
Instructor
Second, you want to learn trail braking and at your old familiar track you have to first unlearn all your bad habits of braking too soon in the straight and turning in wrong. Going to COTA, you don't know where to brake, so you listen better to your pro coach and do it correctly much sooner since there is no old bad habit to break. Third, Arriva and Drive schools are a blast. It is all fun and no work. No checking air pressures, no refueling, no worries about brake pads, etc. Just DRIVE!!!! and learn.
After the school, you go back to your home track and you have had days and weeks to analyze what you did and what you learned at COTA and in your mind you have already developed a plan to apply those to your home track. Then at your home track you immediately apply what you learned.
I believe that going to a school at an unfamiliar track makes you a better student and makes you a better driver. No preconcieved ideas of what works best and no bad habits in corner x to break.
I believe, and there are other guys that do this as well, going to a school at a destination track across the country is a great way to visit and drive that track with the added benefits of having a pro coach help advance your race craft. It is less expensive for me to pay for a 2 or 3 day school 2000 miles away than for me to trailer my car 2000 miles and pay entry fees to an event. Less work, less tired from travel = more fun. Plus I always learn something.
#49
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First: Seat time is seat time regardless of the platform or car. There is no substitute for seat time.
Second: As you mentioned, Patrick Dempsey attended schools with different classes because you learn different necessary skills in different cars. Those different skills are necessary in all driving classes, but different training platforms accentuate the need to perform them properly. Why do the Fin F1 drivers have karting and rally car backgrounds? The problem with driving just a Porsche is that the computer is so good at covering your mistakes. Go out in a Miata or Formula car with no nannies and see how poorly you brake and transition off the brakes to the throttle. It will surprise you how many bad habits you don't realize that you have.
Driving a low HP momentum car is the best way to learn to be smooth and fast.
Last: Once you have done an Arrive and Drive program, you realize the benefit of not having to do anything but drive the car and focus on improving your skills.
Second: As you mentioned, Patrick Dempsey attended schools with different classes because you learn different necessary skills in different cars. Those different skills are necessary in all driving classes, but different training platforms accentuate the need to perform them properly. Why do the Fin F1 drivers have karting and rally car backgrounds? The problem with driving just a Porsche is that the computer is so good at covering your mistakes. Go out in a Miata or Formula car with no nannies and see how poorly you brake and transition off the brakes to the throttle. It will surprise you how many bad habits you don't realize that you have.
Driving a low HP momentum car is the best way to learn to be smooth and fast.
Last: Once you have done an Arrive and Drive program, you realize the benefit of not having to do anything but drive the car and focus on improving your skills.
This is the reason why I will never sell my 944 and why I drive it on track several times a year. Driving a "pre-nanny" car keeps it real.
#50
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The advantage of combining the two is first you get professional instruction of how to properly drive that track.
Going to COTA (or Sebring, or Leguna Seca, or Road America...) with no prior experience there is daunting. There are a lot of corners and each one has it's nuances.
I believe that going to a school at an unfamiliar track makes you a better student and makes you a better driver. No preconcieved ideas of what works best and no bad habits in corner x to break.
Plus I always learn something.
Going to COTA (or Sebring, or Leguna Seca, or Road America...) with no prior experience there is daunting. There are a lot of corners and each one has it's nuances.
I believe that going to a school at an unfamiliar track makes you a better student and makes you a better driver. No preconcieved ideas of what works best and no bad habits in corner x to break.
Plus I always learn something.
I find it much easier to focus on devising exercises to reinforce the "best execution of fundamental skills" after fine-tuning a student's (or in my case, a client's) already comfortable familiarity with a track they know well. I just got done with three days at VIR with a racer who took a few steps BACK learning all twenty-two corner radii (as well as what lay on the other side of the four blind crests in a lap) for more than a DAY before we could move on to our primary work, which was to perfect his fundamental skill execution.
Only when working with the very best ams and pros, drivers who can learn a complicated course and post near (within a small window off) record times, usually after not more than about a dozen laps, do I recommend drivers intentionally picking difficult "destination" tracks, when the PRIMARY objective is to work on the BEST execution of fundamental skills, but that's from my perspective of individual, one-on-one coaching and driver performance analysis, not necessarily a professional school.
Otherwise, only as long as you (as a student) control your expectations and weigh equally the enjoyment of a new track experience coupled with the professional learning environment of a school, will you achieve a good balance and come away less frustrated than you otherwise might be.
Of course, this is just my .02, but most of the folks I work with on a private, individual coaching level are at a very high level in most other areas of their lives, often major Type A individuals that get frustrated when they aren't getting where they think they should be, in the time they've allotted themselves to do it! The typical pro school enrollment is one or two serious folks (out of eight to twelve, typically), a bunch of new or young folks learning and one or two there for "the experience." Needless to say, the serious folks do tend to get more attention and resources because the school instructors respond to aptitude, for sure!
Yes, hopefully we ALL always learn something... That IS the definition of success in doing all of this, right?
__________________
-Peter Krause
www.peterkrause.net
www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
Consultation Available Remotely and at VIRginia International Raceway
-Peter Krause
www.peterkrause.net
www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
Consultation Available Remotely and at VIRginia International Raceway