Just a few thoughts after going week before last.

it was a great experience and I’ve never been taught anything about doing turns with an Apex in mind.
I kind of stunk at it because I always tended to turn too early and feel like the shortest path is the easiest ..they kept getting on me about that.

It was also kind of weird to lose a ton of speed and then coast thru the corners.

It is so easy to tend to wanna go faster and keep up with everybody else and lose your form or turning specs.

I was amazed at the braking power of these cars!

The laps when I rode with the instructors were amazing.. They made it look so easy! I swear they were close to drifting in the corners.

When I did a NASCAR type event, we had a person in the right seat for a few laps before they put us out on our own. Sort of wish they did that here at Spring Mountain, I think it would’ve helped some.

The information about the PDR system was helpful. A lot of the information I got from the museum was better, but it didn’t hurt to hear it a second time.

it was unusual for me to see women in the capacity of being so good at driving these cars. That’s not a sexist comment. It’s just something I haven’t experienced before.
I was teasing a couple of the ‘female car aficionados/ racers’… is it more expensive to have them as wives than women that like purses and shoes and jewelry?

They said ‘yeah, we’re more expensive’ LOL

All of the instructors were excellent and encouraging with the exception of this one tall skinny guy who sort of chewed us out all the time.

My best moment was when I won the autocross with a time of 28.5 I did a soft launch at 3000 RPM with both paddles, shifted into second and then used the first straightaway as a drag strip with heavy braking. After that, I ran the rest of the course in first gear …although they told you to run it in second gear..

It’s too much fun. Make sure you go. You can bring your significant other and then go catch a couple of shows / casinos in Vegas.

 

I was taught pursuit driving in 1982 with a front engined car. Threshold braking. Get that inertia reduced so you can “bowstring” the corner, accelerating from the apex out of the turn. Very different from the rear engine where you go into the corner at a higher rate of speed but staying on the brakes to keep the front tires planted for traction.

The serpentine course is enlightening as it teaches you NOT to start your turn too early; which is what EVERYONE without track experience wants to do.

The after action ride with an instructor on day one gives you the opportunity to observe and ask for assistance from the instructors. They are/were extremely helpful when my wife and I went in 2021. Great team of instructors.

I didn’t win any competition at Spring Mountain but learned a tremendous amount of information about the car and about my abilities, or lack thereof.

Everyone that can SHOULD attend COS.

 

I just got back from mine first week of September and I echo many of your comments. The hardest thing for me to get used to was (1) braking hard initially and then letting up (opposite of street driving) and (2) coasting through corners. I always seemed to brake a little too hard and then wanted to get on gas through the corner to make up for it.

Like you said, overall was a great experience.

 

I'll be there in a week. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I was concerned that I would have trouble driving over forty miles an hour on a road with no potholes, road debris, dogs crossing the road, ornery drivers on my tail, loose gravel, and signs saying “right lane ends in fifty feet.” Otherwise, I think it could have been fun.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience at the school. Does sound like a lot of fun and a true learning experience. Hopefully some day I will be able to attend.

 

The way you describe the tall skinny bald guy chewing you out all the time sounds like Jay Moses. He made me the most frustrated because he caught every little mistake I made in my lead-follow laps. Not necessarily frustrated at him--he was merely feeding back truthful flaws he observed--but more frustrated at myself. Other instructors were nicer and I dreaded the stress I'd feel under Jay's instruction. But he had a knack for instant and constant feedback which was much more constructive whereas the nicer instructors weren't as observant of every little one of the driving flaws I made. During Jay's session I was able to shave 14 seconds off my lap time because he constantly chewed me out which lit a fire under my *** and motivated me to do better. Eventually found myself driving calm and smooth by drastically slowing down my steering input, braking hard and early, and modulating the throttle mid-turn while rolling on to WOT elsewhere. Wasn't fighting the car anymore but gently guiding it. In hindsight, I wish I got to face stress under Jay the entire time because I didn't go there to be babysat and get coddled. I went there to learn and got the most of my money's worth out of Jay even though I only had him for one session.

You Tube

 

Your post is completely whited-out on my page unlike the others. Any ideas why?

 

I loved Spring Mountain. I went in June 2023 for my C8 after going in 2015 for the C7 COS. We were on the same track and that was nice because I remembered it but the mid-engine C8 was a game changer. I agree that an earlier ride with the instructor would have made it more fun for me because when I did go the first afternoon I was disappointed in my lap times that day (I was 2/10ths slower in my group than the fastest group). I asked the instructor to talk me through gear selection and when to shift. He rarely used 4th gear except on the long straights - otherwise he was in 3rd gear. On my second morning fast laps I made up that 2/10ths plus some by mimicking what the instructor did the previous afternoon and at lunch was moved to the fastest group in our class for the rest of the class. I didn't win any awards but I was proud of my best lap times.

Autocross - I have learned to accept that I am terrible.

 

I use this site's Dark Mode which makes the background black and text white. So if I copy/paste text while in Dark Mode (which I did for this post), it maintains the white text. I edited the font color back to automatic (black text in regular mode, white text in dark mode) so you should be able to read my post now.

 

Definitely the instructor's ride along put everything in much clearer perspective for me. The hard Braking and late turn ins really helped to show me how to drive the car. Just impressive what these cars are capable of doing right out of the box!

 

I always brake very late into the braking zone, and then you are STANDING on the brakes, 100% applied to the firewall.
Bleed off speed as quickly as possible getting into balance and once you pass the apex you can start into the gas if you have a MSRC / PTM equipped car, it should let you build engine RPM but it is holding the clutch and limiting torque application, so this way you can get into the power band quicker once you are fully out of the turn.
You really have to trust the cars electronics and systems to do their thing.

That said, I had my brakes fail suddenly on the track, no warning, no temperature alert, nothing. Just "BRAKE SYSTEM FAILURE!" on the DIC and suddenly the brake pedal became very stiff and no brakes, none at all.. I was probably half an inch or less from hitting the wall. Fortunately the turn was a banked one and my tires were already hot and sticky, but if I had been eating some charcoal for breakfast I would have been shitting diamonds for lunch.

 

That “trust the car” is something the instructors kept telling me. I back out too early and it costs me time on the laps. I admire those who have that gene that I am missing. Good on you.

 

It's easier to do in a car you aren't making payments on... haha!

 

Thanks! Didn't even know that existed on this site. And let me say that's a very good observation of how Jay Moses' timely critique improved your driving based on your taking it at face value as a "help." Very good insight into his motives, or personality, or both.

 

You definitely have to coast through turns at Spring Mountain because the turns are hella long so gassing too early could put you in the sand. I learned that from Gran Turismo . I'm doing the Ron Fellows course in November.

 

I think the #1 lesson that is most useful after leaving is to focus on where you want to go not what you want to avoid. Works great,

 

@switchlanez Great video. I wish I had gotten that kind of coaching from my lead-follow instructors. It was enjoyable reliving the experience watching your video. I hope to do the school again in the near future.

 

Everyone learns differently. There are several approaches to teaching people. I learn by observing. I would have benefited by having my ride along with the instructor much earlier on. I also think it would have been helpful for them to drive as a passenger with us.

Once I did my ride along, a lot clicked for me. I was able to watch the instructor do certain things first hand. My driving dramatically improved. I for one have never raced, or driven on a track. I didn't trust the car/process. You could have told me 1000 times what to do and what wouldn't happen. I didn't believe it until I saw someone do it. Just my 2 cents. I had a great time, but the way they taught didn't really pair well with my learning style.

 

I was at spring mountain on the 11th and 12th. The entire time we were on the 1.5 mile course, the instructors said you should be in 4th gear except for 2 of the 9 turns