Cheers to the Wife!

Gentlemen,

I would like to share with you the amazing 40th birthday present my wife surprised me with. I had been hinting at couple of razors I was interested in adding to my collection, but she would have none of that. All she told me was to take a few days off and plan on a short road trip to Phoenix and to trust her...she had a plan. We checked into the Arizona Grand Hotel, went to dinner that is when she gave me my gift. She gave me a gift certificate for 2 days at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performace Driving. I LOVE my wife!!! I spent the 2 days driving a 2008 Corvette Z06, it was a blast! The days consisted of many driving exercises, accident avoidance, salom course, heel-toe downshifting, a timed Autocross, lots of time on the Maricopa Oval, and finally lead and follow on the main track. The facility and the instructors are great. Here are a few photos from the trip. I am curious though if any other members here have had the chance to spend some time at the Bondurant school or similar schools as I am very interested in hearing other's experiences.

this is AWESOME! that sounds like an awesome experience. too bad you have to go back to driving NOT a Z06 as a daily driver.

I've never been to any but I've always wanted to go to some of the classes Blackwater hold on driving and concealed carry, but unfortunately I've never had the cash. Congrats to you sir and you have a wonderful wife on your hands.

I've been to a number of the Pro racing schools ( inc a one day program at Bondurant) as well as a bunch of Club track days or driving schools. That is a great gift. Hats off to your wife. Next to shaving that's about as much fun as you can have.;)

Great pics, by the way. You're nailing the apex in the second shot.

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Originally Posted by hcintineo

this is AWESOME! that sounds like an awesome experience. too bad you have to go back to driving NOT a Z06 as a daily driver.

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The Z06 was a lot of fun, my wife was afraid I would want one soon after. However, I told her even the '08 was still a ways out of my price range for a while. My daily driver feels like driving a dead snail afterwards, even though it's the ugly, red-headed GM slow step child, ('97 Camaro). But none the less, I have been able to pull off the heel-toe downshift a few times in it since...SWMBO just rolls her eyes saying she has created a monster.

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Originally Posted by Bill S

I've been to a number of the Pro racing schools ( inc a one day program at Bondurant) as well as a bunch of Club track days or driving schools. That is a great gift. Hats off to your wife. Next to shaving that's about as much fun as you can have.;)

Great pics, by the way. You're nailing the apex in the second shot.

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Thanks Bill. As for the nailing apex, I seemed to have the most trouble with the "increasing radius" corners. Much more early braking, short amout of time to heel-toe, lots of steering input before throttle. I was surprised when the instructor told me I wasn't trying hard enough to turn the car. On a side note, on one exercise, I pulled up to the start point, at which point he said, " Hold on, you have something stuck in your door." He opens the door, then closes it saying, "It was just your skirt...now drive it like a man."

Congrats on your gift and cheers for your wife. I've never understood women that never know what to buy for their man. Or the other way around for that matter. When you love someone and you're with them everyday after awhile don't you kinda figure out what kind of stuff they like? Well anyway the guys in my life have always been happy with the gifts I give them. A few months ahead of time I just pay attention to the latest thing they get excited about. I'm glad someone else has figured that out.

Lori

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Originally Posted by ReardenSteel

As for the nailing apex, I seemed to have the most trouble with the "increasing radius" corners. Much more early braking, short amout of time to heel-toe, lots of steering input before throttle. I was surprised when the instructor told me I wasn't trying hard enough to turn the car. On a side note, on one exercise, I pulled up to the start point, at which point he said, " Hold on, you have something stuck in your door." He opens the door, then closes it saying, "It was just your skirt...now drive it like a man."

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Well...I hope your skirt was OK.:rofl2: Tell me that you at least tried to run over his foot.:)

Increasing radius corners......simple really.....trail brake through the turn in, get your downshifts done, rotate the car on the brakes, feed in just the right amount of throttle through the apex, unwind the wheel, track out under max throttle to the exit. I mean, you have at least a couple of seconds to do all that and the only other thing you have to think about is how much Z06 fenders cost.:)

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Originally Posted by Bill S

Well...I hope your skirt was OK.:rofl2: Tell me that you at least tried to run over his foot.:)

Increasing radius corners......simple really.....trail brake through the turn in, get your downshifts done, rotate the car on the brakes, feed in just the right amount of throttle through the apex, unwind the wheel, track out under max throttle to the exit. I mean, you have at least a couple of seconds to do all that and the only other thing you have to think about is how much Z06 fenders cost.:)

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You know, they did not mention how much the fenders run, but they did say just one headlight component was around a grand to replace.:dropjaw:

As for your info on increasing radius corners, I find it interesting the instructors taught us the opposite. On the Maricopa Oval running counter clockwise, it has a constant radius and an increasing radius corners. They had us trail brake the constant, heel-toe, hit apex, then unwind and throttle up. However, on the increasing radius, we did hard straight line braking while heel-toeing, then turn in, hit apex and unwind and throttle. There must be other schools of thought on this and I am always interested in improving my driving skills or maybe they had us do it that way just because this was only the 2 day course. They have a 4 day advanced road racing course I would love to do when I have the extra moola. There is a small track here in Tucson, mainly used for karting, but can be rented out for a small fee for full size cars-I just might have to check in to that so I can practice as most of the "fun" driving should be kept on the track.

You're not a KISS fan are you?.........

There are few things better than a straight, your wife managed to find one... I've never been to an advanced driving course but have always planned on something similiar, my dream is to go on a trip to Hawaii where a company has a one day package to drive around in 6 top of the line cars (lambo, farrari, MB Mclaren, zr1, Porsche carrera GT....) switching off every 2 hours or so.... No as much an advanced driving course as an extended test drive of some really nice cars in a one of a kind landscape.