Comments | mrgeddylee: High Performance Driving Class at the Mid-Ohio School

mrgeddylee

High Performance Driving Class at the Mid-Ohio School

Oct 03, 2010 17:09

Two sentence summary: Full of valuable info, but I would have liked more one on one instruction. Probably still the best course available at the price. I am completely sold on sending L to their teen defensive driving course when she gets her license.

( More details inside the cut )

Comments 7

technolope October 3 2010, 21:32:30 UTC

Sounds like a fine way to spend some time in Ohio. I enjoyed reading this. Were all of the cars manuals?

mrgeddylee October 3 2010, 23:18:47 UTC

They had some automatics for people who somehow thought they could sign up for a performance driving class without truly knowing how to drive. As it happened, shifting played almost no part in the class. They told us to drive the autocross in second and the entire track in fourth. Even in good weather, only one or two corners have to be taken slow enough to justify a downshift.

technolope October 4 2010, 08:54:27 UTC

Interesting. I figured it would take so long to get used to the shift points and pedal pressure of a different manual that I wouldn't be able to be fast. It's nice to hear that you can take the whole course in one gear.

mrgeddylee October 13 2010, 17:43:31 UTC

I forgot to post this earlier but it may be relevant. They explicitly told us that if we did need to shift, we were to complete our braking and shift before turn-in. Dave the instructor said something along the lines of, "We've got really good pads on these brakes and we expect to replace them anyway. We don't expect to have to replace the clutch and we don't want you to destroy one."

ext_274463 October 4 2010, 02:06:24 UTC

Harnesses make a real difference, eh? Add to that hip and shoulder bolsters, and you'll start thinking you can do anything with a car. (Yeah, I've only ever had a 5-point harness in a Festiva... Still!)

As for traction control, or rather its sister, skid control: The Scion xB had that. For the autocross, I shut off TC, just on principle. But skid control wasn't optional. And damn if it wasn't the most frustrating thing -- here I am, throttle-off in a tight turn, *wanting* the car to rotate (oversteer) some more, but no, it just beeps at me. "You're going to die! You're going to die! Oh my god you're going to diiiieeee!", it said. And I said, "no, dammit, I know what I'm doing, turn, turn, TURN!" But no luck.

But hey, in someone else's $20k+ car, I guess skid control is okay.

By the way, I don't remember you being smooth in the parking lot of Oakland Mall in 1994. Good to hear you've improved! ;-)

ext_275005 October 4 2010, 14:50:26 UTC

The rider training Andrew and I took years ago was really a pretty lame class, but it made a huge improvement in my riding. I still rode (and one day will ride again) somewhat cautiously on the street, since, well, i don't want to die when I screw up.

Learning about how good tires really are, well isn't that just awesome?

Sorry to hear your hot laps of the full course weren't; I've always wanted to go out on that track.

The skid car really sounds like a valuable lesson.

This all sounds like something I'll have to do when I have some time and money. Which won't be for a while, sigh.

mrgeddylee October 4 2010, 15:17:18 UTC

The only problem with learning how good tires are is that it increased the priority I place on new summer tires for me and snow tires for Julie, but not the funds available.