Just did spring mtn
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Race Director
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 11,070
Likes: 1,291
From: Central Ma
Just did spring mtn
Another in the long list of you have to do it.
I'm a cheap **ck but well worth it.
I'm from outside of Boston so expensive for me.
I've also never been west so quite the experience.
Flew in on sunday. Hoover dam that day. Grand canyon next. Track next two days. Ended on strip for two.
Everyone at Spring Mtn were awesome.
I guarantee the car is better than 99.99% of us.
I'm a cheap **ck but well worth it.
I'm from outside of Boston so expensive for me.
I've also never been west so quite the experience.
Flew in on sunday. Hoover dam that day. Grand canyon next. Track next two days. Ended on strip for two.
Everyone at Spring Mtn were awesome.
I guarantee the car is better than 99.99% of us.
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 2,562
Likes: 1,579
I just got back as well. I learned some bad habits I have, and suggestions for anyone that is planning to attend:
1) Get a better driver position and get used to it before you arrive. Sit closer to the dash and practice getting hands on the wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock positions. Practice making all turns where you are pushing with your hand, vs pulling the wheel. This helps to keep you planted in your seat. I found myself drifting back to old habits there.
2) Manual shift only. I had known about this and do a lot of manual shifting anyway, but for anyone that drives in D-Auto, you might have issues. You'll spend most of your time in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears most likely though.
3) if they use the same team / group assignments to driving exercises, I think you want to be in the last / third group. This lets you practice braking hard, serpentine/figure 8 before you go out on the track. Also, it means the track has been "cleaned up" a little by the other two groups in front of you. On the second day we had some sand on the track due to wind storm end of previous day and being the first people on the track, you find out there are some slippery spots especially if you don't maintain the line just right.
4) Make sure you maintain the best line, see #3 above.
5) Make sure you are fully slowed down to the speed you need to be when going into balance, letting off the brake and turning in too soon then applying a little extra brake is far worse than just braking longer in braking zone and taking your turn a little farther out. You have probably never braked this hard before if you haven't tracked a vehicle before.
6) No gear shifts when in balance. You don't want to upset traction and if you are going as fast as I did, wheels will be squealing around many high speed turns, so you are already slipping a little. Not the time to break the rear end loose.
7) Make sure you bring any cameras you want to use and appropriate camera mounts. Also bring very large SD cards, because you won't have time to move content off of them. They let me use a gopro both outside and inside the car, with a large suction cup mount. Have them ready to go before a class session ends because once you are going out to the vehicles you will have very little time to get them situated. You might also consider bringing extra batteries in case you accidentally leave one running like I did.
8) I never have problems with motion sickness, but we had some that did. They were advised to take dramamine at beginning if needed, but didn't do so. If you have ever had any issues with motion sickness, looks like you should heed that advice and you might consider taking the meds early enough to give them time to work for you.
9) If you want to bring your own helmet, it needs to have HANS clips already installed. They told me it needed to be "compatible", but the truth is it needs to be ready for attachment to the simmons HANS clips they use so you need to talk with SpringMtn to have them show you the exact clips you need. There are different kinds. They use the spring loaded pin types vs the D-ring style clips.
10) They tell you to limit your PDR usage or the chip will fill. The 32GB SD card was about 70% full in my case and I did quite a bit of recording. I would recommend just running the PDR recording 100% of the time, and swapping your own 32GB SD card in at the beginning of day 2, or just bringing a 64GB chip and using that at the start. I wish I had done that instead!
I will definitely be back for the level 1 or 2 class. It's the most fun I have had in a long time. Definitely leave a solid tip for these drivers too, they did a fantastic job.
1) Get a better driver position and get used to it before you arrive. Sit closer to the dash and practice getting hands on the wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock positions. Practice making all turns where you are pushing with your hand, vs pulling the wheel. This helps to keep you planted in your seat. I found myself drifting back to old habits there.
2) Manual shift only. I had known about this and do a lot of manual shifting anyway, but for anyone that drives in D-Auto, you might have issues. You'll spend most of your time in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears most likely though.
3) if they use the same team / group assignments to driving exercises, I think you want to be in the last / third group. This lets you practice braking hard, serpentine/figure 8 before you go out on the track. Also, it means the track has been "cleaned up" a little by the other two groups in front of you. On the second day we had some sand on the track due to wind storm end of previous day and being the first people on the track, you find out there are some slippery spots especially if you don't maintain the line just right.
4) Make sure you maintain the best line, see #3 above.
5) Make sure you are fully slowed down to the speed you need to be when going into balance, letting off the brake and turning in too soon then applying a little extra brake is far worse than just braking longer in braking zone and taking your turn a little farther out. You have probably never braked this hard before if you haven't tracked a vehicle before.
6) No gear shifts when in balance. You don't want to upset traction and if you are going as fast as I did, wheels will be squealing around many high speed turns, so you are already slipping a little. Not the time to break the rear end loose.
7) Make sure you bring any cameras you want to use and appropriate camera mounts. Also bring very large SD cards, because you won't have time to move content off of them. They let me use a gopro both outside and inside the car, with a large suction cup mount. Have them ready to go before a class session ends because once you are going out to the vehicles you will have very little time to get them situated. You might also consider bringing extra batteries in case you accidentally leave one running like I did.
8) I never have problems with motion sickness, but we had some that did. They were advised to take dramamine at beginning if needed, but didn't do so. If you have ever had any issues with motion sickness, looks like you should heed that advice and you might consider taking the meds early enough to give them time to work for you.
9) If you want to bring your own helmet, it needs to have HANS clips already installed. They told me it needed to be "compatible", but the truth is it needs to be ready for attachment to the simmons HANS clips they use so you need to talk with SpringMtn to have them show you the exact clips you need. There are different kinds. They use the spring loaded pin types vs the D-ring style clips.
10) They tell you to limit your PDR usage or the chip will fill. The 32GB SD card was about 70% full in my case and I did quite a bit of recording. I would recommend just running the PDR recording 100% of the time, and swapping your own 32GB SD card in at the beginning of day 2, or just bringing a 64GB chip and using that at the start. I wish I had done that instead!
I will definitely be back for the level 1 or 2 class. It's the most fun I have had in a long time. Definitely leave a solid tip for these drivers too, they did a fantastic job.
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From: In a parallel universe. Currently own 2014 Stingray Coupe.
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on completion of the course. Some day I hope to attend - nothing but very positive comments on the school.
