I am a pretty decent driver through my own experience, between beating on my DD's or other cars I've learned some tricks however I would like to get the fundamentals down and or refined... instead of growing with potentially bad habits I want to ax them well I am still an open canvas for drag/auto x/road course racing... and hell maybe even a bit of drifting. I live in Maine, what would be the recommended route to take? I was thinking of a driving school but how much do they cost? How long are they and how much impact do they have?

 

My experience with Skip Barber in FL:

1200 gets you 2 full days of driving and class time, plus a half day of autocrossing with a new dodge viper.

-Drift instruction around a figure 8 in a dodge pickup with slicks on a slippery surface (awesome training)
-Threshold breaking in a SRT Neon
-Autocross instruction in Neon
-Slalom, high speed lange change, off road driving experience (what you would experience if you had to swerve off road on the interstate)
-Racing technique
-Heel Toe Downshifting

Loved the class, worth every penny, but if you already know these fundamentals pretty well, i would go straight into the race school (money notwithstanding)

 

^+1. Race school if you got the cash - regardless of how setup your car is. Lookup local HPDE's, read the sticky thread on this board that starts with "Oh my god," Look in the driving technique thread, bla bla etc etc. It will boil down to how much you want to learn - how much you want to spend - and what is available locally in your area. I don't know if a lot of us live in Maine so we can only assist you to a point. The rest of the searching is up to you.

 

Skip Barber sounds good, hell maybe even an excuse to go down to FLA... however are the skills you learn the type that go away unless applying them daily?

 

Depends on the town you live in. In orlando i get plenty of practice in threashold braking

 

Thats right sister. Gotta love the 'Q-tips' in their 15 foot long mercurys that pull out halfway and gawk at anybody heading in their general direction at any velocity over 15 mph. God bless Brembo.

On the skills side, unless you autocross at least every couple of months, you will lose technique, as practicing at 10/10ths on public roads will not only kill you and your car, but someone else as well.

The biggest thing you gain, however, is car control in any situation, i.e. when you really have to push the limits of the car (when avoiding an accident on the interstate and what not), and can keep it all under control. Thats what I re-use from the classes every time I drive.

I personally think that this type of course should be mandatory to every driver that gets a driver's license, because

A.) There would never be any seat belt violations, because after you have been threshold braking for a 90 degree corner, sitting in the passenger seat doesn't really do much for car control, or your underwear for that matter

B.) People would be much more aware of their surroundings, and less rear end collisions would occur because you learn to look ahead of where you want to go

C.) Mitsu might be a little more lenient about clutch warrantees once people learned how to downshift properly

 

By far the absolute best driving school you can do in the Northeast isn't a track event -- it's the Team O'Neil Rally School in New Hampshire. Yes, it's ridiculously expensive, but it is BY FAR the best education you will ever get in car control.

You can read my blog posts about my own attendance at the school earlier this year here:

Team O'Neil Rally School

I have done Russell and I teach in the BMW CCA program, but I still think the rally school is probably the single best thing I did to improve my driving skills.

 

anything for the west coast? Socal in particular? this sounds interesting

 

Just do an Evo School to start. You can move to road racing schools like Skip Barber afterwards.

 

No rally schools in California. That said, if you're dropping 4G's to go to a rally school, what's a $500 flight?

If you want to do a basic driving school, try NASA (nasaproracing.com). There's a huge program in California, with events 1-2 times per month.