I am participating in this weekend's Car and Driver/Road and Track "Ride and Drive" in Tampa. I got this invitation in the mail, (I subscribe to both mags) and it said to call for an appointment. You get to flog three cars for 90 mins- BMW 325i, Subaru Legacy GT, and Volvo S60. So I called the next day and signed up, it's free!

Does anyone know about this? I am sure it has to have been to other towns...

 

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how can i sign up.. haha.

 

Ha, didn't know they had that. Course, I haven't been a C&D subscriber for that long. Interesting though. Probably are going to want you to fill out an extremely comprehensive survey about the cars afterwards. I've done a few test drives and I can't remember any that were short of 8 pages/vehicle.

 

Yeah I am excited, they just sent me a conformation. Looks like they were only going to 8 cities. Check it out at Rideanddrive.net

 

too bad im in NJ

 

The courses are very tight and very regulated with folks watching all over. They want to collect marketign information, and its a good way to do it without and pressure from manufacturer folks like sales people and such spoouting biased opinionated factoids. It's interesting, but you don't get to flog them really.

 

Ummm, my company runs the whole thing for C&D/R&T! Go have fun. Chris Munroe is my lead instructor for the program. Tampa is the first city of the tour. This is a link to our company's site if you claim B.S. on this one www.get-emotion.com

 

Depends on the parking lot but we always make our courses as large and fast as possible. You can drive as hard as you like as long as you're doing it well. As soon as the cones start flying we clamp down up to that point...have at it . It's true we are gathering marketing information but the information we are looking for you can only feel when you drive quickly. I promise you will not regret going, we don't do low speed (below limit) programs! Let me know what you thought when you get back and try to remember some instructor names, ok!?! Thanks, Paul

 

We are doing the BMW UDE progam in Long Island 8/21-29. Go to www.bmwusa.com and sign up, fun and free

 

wow i may sign up for the philly one..

 

Go do it you'll be hooked on them after that! I won't be in Philly because of a racing conflict. Have fun without me

 

Hopefully this will be run differently than ones I've attended in the past. Last one I was first told take out cones and your out, figure that's fine, as a guy with a few emod mugs on the mantle over the past few years, looked forward to driving, ya know really driving, with just a light amount opposite lock around the cones.. without touching them of course.. They didn't like that though.. Did I touch a cone, no. Hopefully this one will allow more "flogging" and really testing the limits of the cars..

 

If you know what you're doing we will NEVER shut you down (can't speak for our competitors though). Realize that everybody thinks they know what they are doing, imagine riding right seat for hundreds (no thousands) of people you have never meet before all who claim to be "great drivers" . It is not a low stress occupation! The place we draw the line is where the person is driving so hard that they loose the ability to feel what is happening around them, i.e. how does this car feel compared with the last car? This level is different in everyone. If the instructor senses that you are just there to "Flog the car" he will be more critical of your driving, if he feels you are driving hard for a good reason (to feel the differences between the products) he will let you have at it. See the difference?
It is how you present yourself and how well you listen and showing respect for the instructor (who in our company has many, many times the racing experience of anyone one this site) and can help you go quicker if you are willing to listen. Many companies use low caliber "local" (read cheap) instructors, not us, we fly them in from all over the world depending on the needs of the specific program. Didn’t mean to go on like this , just so you understand that “ride and drives” are not all created equal. Again check out our web site @ www.get-emotion.com

 

I hear ya on all counts. and agree. I don't keep up with who ran the ones in the past, and they do vary widely. I've particpated in independants, ones for tire manufcturers, and for car manufacturers, so they do tend to vary and as someone who has climbed in the passanger seat to help strangers get around a track safely and hopefully quicker each lap, I understand the concern for an unknown driver. One just stood out in my memory where an instructor and I didn't mesh well. I went easy and let him know as we warmed up I'd really like to feel the car out at 10/10ths and some of my background,blah blah balh.. in the end he just found getting familiar with the 3's tail out controllability too much.. no biggie. I'm a few hundred yards from where the one in my neck of the woods will go on, as a matter of fact I am looking out my window at the ballpark. It should be fun either way and your involvment and explanation of how you organize it should hopefully put it up with some of the more enjoyable "tests"..