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My wife and I attended the Aero Academy last weekend, and anyone who is entitled to it and doesn't go is missing a real treat( the only exception would be an experienced compettion driver, who might be bored). I had to twist my wife's arm to get her to go, but she was really impressed - the instructors, all experienced racing drivers, were enthusiastic and extremely good, both in the classroom and out on the grounds. I've got 40+ years of driving behind me, including some fun cars, and I learned a lot about control and safety, some of which was quite surpising to me (one example being that wrenching the wheel to a right angle turn left or right at 60 to avoid a crash will not turn the car over, unless you leave the pavement). The skid pad was fun and instructive (more spin outs in two days than in my entire life, and learned a lot about controlling them). It's about 80% driving.
Actually, what i can add to what others have said is that this course would be really great for a new driver. and if i could get my daughter down to Atlanta to take it (she's in Baltimore and I'm in NYC), I'd pay for it in a minute. They have two courses at that track tought by the same crew that she (or your son or daughter) could do: a driver ed certified (Georgia, anyway) course with the autocross, lane changes, skid pad, etc), and the Audi Experience, which is tought in new Audis, also by the same guys. The latter course is open to anyone over 19(?), and is $975 for adults, $875 for teens, and both of these run two days. The SAAB course is up to $1350 for two days. I thought that was steep (I paid less, it's gone up) but there were about six instructors for 24 people, a dozen cars, 2 decent lunches (they either changed the food or the others who complained are wrong), and a full dinner which we skipped to see friends. They change the tires on the cars every two days or so, the brakes a bit less often, and have to pay for the grounds. There's profit in it, but not as much as you might think at first.
Everyone could tell the difference between the wagons and the sedans: the wagons are more stable, (weigh 100 lbs more) and the sedans are bouncier and faster- the instructors said 1 second faster on a 26-34 second autocross) The wagon (I own one, MT) is the opposite of what your old fashioned wagon was like, holds the road like glue)
My only reservation about the automatics for this is the paddle shifters on the steering wheel. On the autocross you have to stay in 2nd gear, and when you move your hands fast, you flip the shifters, then can't find them to shift back. My only reservation about the group was that they took the Autocross competition a bit a bit too seriously, and when my wife made a major mistake and possibly scuttled our team, no one said, "that's okay." We should lighten up.
That track aslo has formular car racing classes, and I learned that there's a public Porsche 911 school near Birmingham, same idea, but 3x the $.
posted by 68.173.15...
, Sat, 6 Mar 2004 10:22:42
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