Bonster

Okay, by "popular demand", and since nobody else did it yet, I'll now start up a thread about the worst experience you all may have experienced with an instructor. As with the worst student thread, please do not publish actual names. This is mostly for educational purposes, and a little for fun purposes. We instructors are not mind readers -- this thread will help us all to see how we might be able to improve.

RickBetterley

Never had one, though I suppose there might be exceptions.
BONNIE - you are such a rabble rouser.

Bonster

***Who, little ol' innocent me? Nawwww!

Gary R.

I had one but I got it out of my system yesterday.

Chaos

Nasty lady from BMW club kept hitting my hand on the shifter( MID OHIO event years ago ) in the pouring rain. Perhaps I should have hit her back ?

SundayDriver

Well, there does happen to be one instructor who has been kicked out of 10 (give or take a couple) of clubs. In many, not only banned from instructing but asked not to show up as a participant either. Said instructor, as told to me by his student at one event, spent the entire session telling this student how cool his car was and how much the instructor wanted to drove it.

I would offer a prize for the first person to guess which infamous race car crahser, wannabe racer and chicken extraordinaire this is, except that is too easy. Maybe he would like to defend himself here - oops, along with all the clubs that have banned him, so has Rennlist (from the real forums).

cooleyjb

Wow it took 5 posts to get here. I'm shocked it took so long.

ckkrause

Well...back in 2005 I was at a PCA DE event at Laguna and got an instructor who did everything right before we got on the track; he asked about my goals, talked about his philosophy of teaching, the line, etc... Then once on the track I don't think he said more than 10 words for the 2 morning sessions! He kind of moaned a couple of times coming around turn 9, but really no instruction... And I am not a young go-fast hot shoe, I was (and still am!!) an old fart and my car was on street tires and they weren't even making any noise... I though maybe he was just too new and I got a new instructor for the afternoon and ended up finally making some progress. Nice guy though...

-CKKrause

cooleyjb

I've gotta say that having my dad as an instructor when I was 16 was possibly the worst, just because I was a snotty teenager who wouldn't listen to him that well. Plus I was just as fast if not faster depending on the car and that stroked my teenage ego to the point that I didn't pay attention to him very well..... Maybe I was his worst student too..

jester911

Hey Sunday, he really doesn't count. Let his name be stricken from the record.

BobbyC

Been very lucky to have had very good instructors and the opportunity to make new friends. And I shall forever be thankful for what they taught me.

There was one who got off to a shaky start at VIR last year because of bad information, but by the end of the event we understood each other much better.

tkerrmd

Have to agree with Bobby, I have been luck to always have awesome instructors!!

BostonDMD

I think I know exactly who you are referring to .....

BTW, I have had my share of many instructors, some better than others, but overall, I always have learned at least one nugget from even the "greenest" instructor.

Plus, I give them all credit to sit to my right.......

911/Q45

The guy that kept grabbing my steering wheel!

nkhalidi

I've had a couple not-so-hot instructors, but one guy was uniquely awful.

I was at an event a few years ago; I had driven the track before and knew the line, but I was new to that particular car and to that particular club. I was assigned to a guy who said he drove a 6C4S, but his car was "out of commission" that day. No big deal. Real big boy, probably 260+lbs, he had some trouble getting in the passenger seat. Again, no big deal.

The trouble began when, on the second lap, he asked if my car had ABS and PSM. Yes, I responded. That's when he got excited; he told me to pound the brakes as late as possible and to "let ABS do the work for you," as well as to "leave PSM on so that you can go through turns faster." These new ideas seemed strange to me, but I wanted to impress the instructor, so I obliged him. After a couple more turns though, I felt pretty uncomfortable, so I voluntarily pitted. I told the guy I didn't like what he was telling me to do.

He responded by signing me off to solo, and having the chief instructor do a check-ride with me.

By far the worst instructing experience of my life. I learned exactly nothing about driving from this guy.