[CnoteMD]

Thanks to my wonderful wife, I spent this past Friday driving at Lime Rock Park. As a total surprise she enrolled me in the Skip Barber High Performance Driving School. She kept it a complete secret and handed me the confirmation literally 2 days before the event.

I would highly recommend this program if you're serious about driving. After taking this class, I see that all the power in the world is useless if you don't know how to use it.

I had the opportunity to drive the following cars.

-Dodge Dakota Pick-up (I had this massive thing drifting around a wet skidpad)
-BMW 330i (E90)
-BMW M3 (E46)
-Porsche Boxster (987)
-Porsche 911 Carerra (996)
-Porsche 911 Carerra (997)
-Dodge Viper SRT-10

We did understeer and oversteer in the pick-up. Talk about an enlightening experience! I realized in less than 5 minutes that I had a LOT to learn about vehicle control. But after the right technique, I was able to do controlled drifts and even how to come out of a complete spin.

The Boxster was used for braking and lane-change exercises. And it's true, if you learn how to do threshold braking, you can beat ABS.

Then we did a short autocross course with a few tight curves and a chicane down one of the straights with the M3, 911 (996), and Viper. The Viper is a BEAST!!! I can't believe that thing is street legal. I've never driven a true race car, but the Viper did NOT feel like a street car, the handling was so immediate and the power is brutal.

At the end of the day, we did a "follow the leader" exercise on the main track at Lime Rock in the 997, M3, and E90 330i. It's very humbling when you are in a Porsche 997 and you are struggling to keep up with a Dodge Neon with 4 people inside (granted it's being driven by a professional race driver).

The final event was riding as a passenger with the professional for a few laps in either the 997 or the M3. On the front straight, I got the 997 up to 105mph (briefly), but he got up to 121mph! The corners that I was taking at 50mph, were going by at 70mph.

Overall, it was a GREAT day and I can't recommend this program enough.

[findtom]

Sounds awesome.

Here's the site for anyone interested: http://www.skipbarber.com

[Lucid4000]

Thats awesome I have to try and convince my wife to send me. I know she liked the Performance Pickup in SC. So she might like this.

[CnoteMD]

Update:

Here are a few pictures of the event. These were taken by my wife while I was driving. She even got a shot of the Porsche Carerra GT that was doing laps that day.

[Nikki]

Wow looks like fun! I am from CT and one of my friends did the driving school there and said it was so much fun.

[06330i]

sounds like you had alota fun. gonna have to try this sometime.