Ironlord

Sorry this is late, but I've been busy. About a month ago I went to a Drivers Education experience here at St. Louis' Gateway Int'l Raceway. I got full throttle track time on half the oval and the interior road course. And the best part was, the event was sponsored by the Porsche Club of America and the BMW Car Club of America.

I was on the track with ALL BMW m3's, 911 Carrerra 4s, old school 80's 911 twin turbos, one vette z06, a nissan 350z, a mustang gt-r, etc etc. I had by far the slowest and cheapest car there. Basically, they split the 80+ cars into 5 groups based on experience (1- newbies, 5- race every weekend). I was in group 2 and we were off.

We got 10 periods on the track over the weekend. And the Amazing thing is, after the first two outings, I NEVER got passed. Somehow, my little Maxima was actually out-cornering these semi-exotics. Admittedly, they would play catch up in a REAL hurry in the straight. But I was flabbergasted at what this heavy, front engine, FWD, sedan could do on a racetrack at full throttle conditions. I had no idea she was capable of that. Actually pulling her rear around a bit, only pushing to slight degree so you could power hard through the apex, actually settling in her suspension and not wobbling everywhere. I was astounded.

I highly recommend taking a course like this for everyone who hasn;t. It was my 21st bday present from my parents and was absolutely the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. Just wanted to share my awesome experience and let everyone know that these cars CAN be beasts in the corners too.

Oh ya, as an aside, with all these Porsches and what not, my instructor was still complimenting me on having one of the best sounding cars there!

Tris1

BMW M3

Igor911

iTrader: (10)

How much did this cost?

Ironlord

About $300. It included a few hours of classroom instruction, the track time with you driving your car, and an instructor sitting next to you talking to you over headsets. If your instructor signs off on you then you are allowed to go out solo, I did, and its scary but AWESOME!

This isn;t a racing event, we were not timed and not allowed to time ourselves. But it was semi-competitive because there were certain zones to pass and if someone was riding your butt and you didn;t motion for them to pass you got black flagged.

BTW, I don't know if anyone has ever driven on a banked oval, but WOW! That is scary as anything. Even at moderate speeds (for my car) of 70 mph you feel liek your going to shoot off the bank and into space. When I pushed it (best I got was 87 mph - beat some of the 911s) i was half thinking I was going to die because the g's are crazy.

I think the St. Louis chapters of these organizations are doing another one in Sept. or aug., but I strongly recommend looking into it in whatever metro area you live in.

Ironlord

shameless bump...