well ive decided i want to attend a driving school of some sort, rally, or stunt. i have been doing research and honestly it is quite overwhelming... first i was shooting for one in California but determined that my options are slim their. for close to a grand a day i really would like to get my moneys worth.. teamoneil's school looks great but i live in alaska and something more west coast would be nice lol.

does anyone have any recommendations on credible schools, where i will gain the most from attending. im not to fond of just a day or two course, the longest one i have seen is about 5 days. but im not going to be picky and sacrifice distance for a quality school... ugg my head hurts lol any input would be greatly appreciated and any past student experiences would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance

 

Hey, Scott here...

Chief Instructor for Primitive Performance Driving / Rally School as well as a lead instructor for the European Rally School in Florida.

PPD takes the school to Alaska once a year if there are enough students to warrant the expense. I don't recall who is in charge of the event this year up there but get ahold of the local chapter of the SCCA Rally Cross program and they should have information on the PPD school in your areas.

PPD schools are generally 3 day schools with Classroom studies on Friday Night with All day Saturday and Sunday behind the wheel with instructors in sectioned exercises with emphasis on perfecting specific and needed techniques for navigating rally courses. As the days progress, the elements get larger and interconnected to give you the best, graduated exposure and push your limits. Sunday is then a full competition environment in which to have your new found skills tested against peers. Always the best way to gauge your improvements.

ERS schools are more focused on a longer class schedule where you sit with an instructor in a variety of vehicles on a variety of courses, also in a graduated manner. Typically, a full class is 5 days comprising of daily classroom sessions in the morning and noon with quite a bit of element and stage driving.

I enjoy working with students in both environments and while ERS gives you much more actual stage time, it is quite a bit more expensive than the PPD school. But on the other hand, the PPD will likely come to you or, at most, you will drive down to Portland, Or for classes.

If you would like more details and/or contact information, just drop me a PM and I'll get you hooked up.

welcome to our addiction

Scott

 

I've been to Bob Bondurant School of Racing, DirtFish Rally School and a couple others. I have to say, Bondurant and DirtFish were both really fun and a great learning experience. Both schools offer real race cars. And the seat time is 90% of your schooling. Instructors were AWESOME!

Bob Bondurant:

1. Real Race Cars
a) Corvette C6
b) Formula Mazda
c) Cadillac CTS-V
d) Karting
2. Lots of drive time
3. Great Instructors
4. Arizona is HOT...so picking the right time of year is key. (I went in August...115')
5. Covers all areas of "Intro to Racing"

DirtFish:

1. Real Rally Cars
a) Subaru Sti's
2. Lots of seat time
3. Instructors are awesome at driving, instructing and also really cool people.
4. Located in the Pacific Northwest...so year round rally weather.
5. Teaches you how to drive fast on all types of surfaces...without needing hands

Well, hope you find this helpful

 

I went to Skip Barber @ Lime Rock and it was worth every penny. Drove all sorts of stuff, not much of it was AWD but I still learned a ton and became a safer and better driver as a result. LOTS of seat time.

 

What are you looking to learn? Car control, proper race lines, braking techniques, J-turns, Bootlegs, ramming, pitting, tarmac, snow, gravel, etc?

You can see in my signature I've been lucky enough to attend quite a few schools. Each one has it's own flavor addressing different skill sets. Of the list I would recommend Team O'Neil and Bondurant. Both are top notch schools in their respective fields. With that said, I would like to try out "DirtFish" up near Seattle as it looks like a professional, well done school with great equipment. Again, what's your goal?