Jack Raccoon!
Power User
Subtle mock towards Cam. My take of your post is that you are a pilot. Lives are at stake...
Ron Fellows Spring Mountain Driving School - A must!
- Thread starter CamsC8
- Start date
Idiot, you are not (Yoda voice)Video attached... I realize I made tons of mistakes feel free to critique without using terms like..."what an idiot" or "how'd you get a licence" Youtube vid etc
Well done!
Great job GPHey CamsC8 after watching your PDR I was reluctant to post mine. However, I will expose my - first time on a track - hack skillset.
The video is my second track session of day two at Ron fellows, and for a guy who's never driven or owned a spirited car like the C8 (on the road let alone a track) I came away with a sense of confidence and newly acquired skills that are learned in a controlled environment with great instructors. Perhaps those of you who've tracked before will find it way to basic but for hacks like me, it was way better than rolling my car up into a ball a few hundred yards into a farmers field trying to find my limits on some of the wicked roads south of Calgary.
I can tell you that for someone who gingerly maneuvers a 560,000 lbs Boeing 787 around 90° corners at 8knts in unfamiliar places, driving like this is counter-intuitive but incredibly stimulating.
For those of you who are like me and have never done this and don't think you need or want to go because you'll never track your car (I know I never will), you'd be missing out on an incredible opportunity to learn some of the limits of your driving and also gain some major confidence in what the car is capable of when you mess up.
Video attached... I realize I made tons of mistakes feel free to critique without using terms like..."what an idiot" or "how'd you get a licence" Youtube vid etc
gone
Power User
I’ve just finished day one of two at Ron Fellows and echo the comments of others above: it’s a don’t miss opportunity for a subsidized rate (US$1,000.00) compliments of GM, instead of the regular rate of US$3,600+. Also a great way to hang out with fellow Corvette enthusiasts with the added bonus of seeing all the C8 colours if you’re looking to order another and won’t otherwise see them all. And the best is yet to come: day two tomorrow with a lot more track time!
Interesting they continue to expand their tracks and whereas they usually held 2 Corvette classes each time, they’re expanding to 3 at a time (like today) plus they’re also teaching a Cadillac course today. They plan to teach 4 Corvette courses at the same time when the new track opens up. Teaching time competes with the member’s track time (16 days/month) and opening up more track will allow more teaching w/o stepping on the toes of members.
Interesting they continue to expand their tracks and whereas they usually held 2 Corvette classes each time, they’re expanding to 3 at a time (like today) plus they’re also teaching a Cadillac course today. They plan to teach 4 Corvette courses at the same time when the new track opens up. Teaching time competes with the member’s track time (16 days/month) and opening up more track will allow more teaching w/o stepping on the toes of members.
It's been a long time since we've been able to do a road trip to the USA but we were able to do so this year. We really enjoyed taking the two day C8 Owners course at Spring Mountain Feb 28/Mar 1. We met a lot of great people and had an awesome time. The C8 is pretty impressive on the track and it was great to see what this car can actually do. We decided to drive down with a C7 as we also want to visit with friends in Scottsdale and Palm Springs. We ran into to some pretty nasty winter driving conditions which added so excitement to the 7,000km road trip.
Attachments
My Ron Fellows Driving School Review.
Did Spring Mountain Corvette Owners school April 1/2. This Stingray is my first Performance car and after a 38 year career at General Motors of Canada, aptly plated as my BUCKETOY. Other than some “Parade Laps”, I’ve never been on a race track, or participated in an autocross event. My very limited knowledge of racing comes from the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” lol, where they document the previous F1 seasons events in detail, and occasionally watching NASCAR on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Although interested, I never thought I would realistically be able to afford any hands on racing training or experience it first hand. That is, until I heard about GM’s subsidize Spring Mountain Owners School. For $1,000. USD. It was now, at 63… or never… so I made it a priority. Let me concur with every other review from anyone who has ever experienced this program, that it is a must do, if you’ve bought a new Stingray. If for no other reason, learn what the car can do. The teaching methods of the instructors are outstanding. Never criticizing anyone, regardless of their skill level. Always offering positive meaningful instruction for each individual whether it be over the car radios each car was equipped with, or one on one in the classroom. It was a perfect balance of classroom and lots of in car instruction. Our class of 18 were divided into 3 groups of 6, and that group of 6 were further divided into 3 for more personal on track teaching. We were at the east classroom and 1.5 mile track with white wristbands. There are 3 other classrooms, Blue, Purple and Yellow/Silver and 2 other tracks. Each track have multiple configurations. They occasionally move people to different sub-groups to match skill level
. The first day included basics like common sense rules, safety equipment and how things on the C8 work, different driving modes, including cycling through the modes while driving a wet figure 8 with an instructor sitting beside you. Anti-lock-brakes, with in car accident avoidance maneuvers. Simple explanation of how to use the marker cones they placed on the track to brake, corner to the apex cone, and properly accelerate out of the corner. They wanted you to look ahead out of the side windows of the car to the apex of the next corner. One slow motion parking lot exercise (called the serpentine exercise) forced you to do this by maneuvering through 2 rows of pylons with your front windshield completely covered so you could only see out your side windows. When the first row of pylons came into view through the side window, you would then start to maneuver the car around that pylon, and have to look blindly out the opposite side window for the 2nd row of pylons before turning back around them, and so on. First day also took you out onto the track to play follow the leader and familiarize yourself with the track layout, as well as an autocross track set up in the parking lot. In car radio instructions always included simple instructions on where we were going next, why, and how. The second day built on what we learned the first day but included more advanced things like how to feel for the “balance” of the car while trail breaking on track corners. On track was never about how fast you could go down the straight, or lap times, but how to execute each corner perfectly. Just when I thought I was doing great, an instructor jumps in the drivers seat of your car to show you the proper way to corner. Then reality sets in and I can truly say, I suck! Once I accept reality, I continued on with my huge learning curve and fun aspect of it. We also had instruction and tried out the launch control feature on these cars. After playing with the different modes, best I could mange was 0-60 at 3.3sec. The second day we finished up with a friendly timed competition on the auto cross track with awards for winners of each group. The winner in my group had a time of 30.62 and I finished 1/100th behind him with a time of 30.63. Needless to say, I learned a tremendous amount in a short time, all due to their outstanding patients and instruction.
I am not going to talk much on the after hours social aspect of the experience except to say, the resort on a whole, food, service, and staff are awesome and I have never had this much fun with a group of people for a long time. I have contact information from people I met that I will be getting together with again in the near future.
The 8am to 4pm days were busy and went by quickly, so my advise would be to enjoy every second you’re there as the 2 days go by quickly.
One of my typical laps and my 2nd place autocross time...
Did Spring Mountain Corvette Owners school April 1/2. This Stingray is my first Performance car and after a 38 year career at General Motors of Canada, aptly plated as my BUCKETOY. Other than some “Parade Laps”, I’ve never been on a race track, or participated in an autocross event. My very limited knowledge of racing comes from the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” lol, where they document the previous F1 seasons events in detail, and occasionally watching NASCAR on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Although interested, I never thought I would realistically be able to afford any hands on racing training or experience it first hand. That is, until I heard about GM’s subsidize Spring Mountain Owners School. For $1,000. USD. It was now, at 63… or never… so I made it a priority. Let me concur with every other review from anyone who has ever experienced this program, that it is a must do, if you’ve bought a new Stingray. If for no other reason, learn what the car can do. The teaching methods of the instructors are outstanding. Never criticizing anyone, regardless of their skill level. Always offering positive meaningful instruction for each individual whether it be over the car radios each car was equipped with, or one on one in the classroom. It was a perfect balance of classroom and lots of in car instruction. Our class of 18 were divided into 3 groups of 6, and that group of 6 were further divided into 3 for more personal on track teaching. We were at the east classroom and 1.5 mile track with white wristbands. There are 3 other classrooms, Blue, Purple and Yellow/Silver and 2 other tracks. Each track have multiple configurations. They occasionally move people to different sub-groups to match skill level
. The first day included basics like common sense rules, safety equipment and how things on the C8 work, different driving modes, including cycling through the modes while driving a wet figure 8 with an instructor sitting beside you. Anti-lock-brakes, with in car accident avoidance maneuvers. Simple explanation of how to use the marker cones they placed on the track to brake, corner to the apex cone, and properly accelerate out of the corner. They wanted you to look ahead out of the side windows of the car to the apex of the next corner. One slow motion parking lot exercise (called the serpentine exercise) forced you to do this by maneuvering through 2 rows of pylons with your front windshield completely covered so you could only see out your side windows. When the first row of pylons came into view through the side window, you would then start to maneuver the car around that pylon, and have to look blindly out the opposite side window for the 2nd row of pylons before turning back around them, and so on. First day also took you out onto the track to play follow the leader and familiarize yourself with the track layout, as well as an autocross track set up in the parking lot. In car radio instructions always included simple instructions on where we were going next, why, and how. The second day built on what we learned the first day but included more advanced things like how to feel for the “balance” of the car while trail breaking on track corners. On track was never about how fast you could go down the straight, or lap times, but how to execute each corner perfectly. Just when I thought I was doing great, an instructor jumps in the drivers seat of your car to show you the proper way to corner. Then reality sets in and I can truly say, I suck! Once I accept reality, I continued on with my huge learning curve and fun aspect of it. We also had instruction and tried out the launch control feature on these cars. After playing with the different modes, best I could mange was 0-60 at 3.3sec. The second day we finished up with a friendly timed competition on the auto cross track with awards for winners of each group. The winner in my group had a time of 30.62 and I finished 1/100th behind him with a time of 30.63. Needless to say, I learned a tremendous amount in a short time, all due to their outstanding patients and instruction.
I am not going to talk much on the after hours social aspect of the experience except to say, the resort on a whole, food, service, and staff are awesome and I have never had this much fun with a group of people for a long time. I have contact information from people I met that I will be getting together with again in the near future.
The 8am to 4pm days were busy and went by quickly, so my advise would be to enjoy every second you’re there as the 2 days go by quickly.
One of my typical laps and my 2nd place autocross time...
Jack Raccoon!
Power User
Glad you enjoyed it. Awesome being in a track environment, totally different than being out on the streets...
Jack Raccoon!
Power User
You don't have to be the fastest or the best one there. You have to be the best you there, and have the urge to get back on track...
Bucketoy I could not agree more. I took the class before you March30th/March31st it was a great experience a must for all novice and none novice C8 owners. The key to cornering is all in the car balance only achieved with weight control slight braking to make the front of the car heavier in the corners. As stated the food was awesome. The instructors where kind and I never felt hey this guy does not know what he is doing.
One learns better with positive criticism.
I flew Air Canada to Vegas was treated to a 20000 foot overview of the track happened to sit on the right side of the plane. This of course got me primed for the next day. It’s a 1hour and 10 minute ride from Vegas to the track. Left at 5:30am and arrived in time for breakfast.
The pictures taken professionally are great and I think are a must. Taken with a 32mega pixel camera they can be enlarged up to a 3x5 foot picture.
The cost was $175 for all of them.
At the end of class a tip for all the instructors was warranted.
Be careful with the dip when you see the water towers the car can go sideways on you quickly again it’s all in the way you break as explained the brake pedal is more important then the throttle.
Can’t wait for my Z06 allocation so I can take the class again.
One learns better with positive criticism.
I flew Air Canada to Vegas was treated to a 20000 foot overview of the track happened to sit on the right side of the plane. This of course got me primed for the next day. It’s a 1hour and 10 minute ride from Vegas to the track. Left at 5:30am and arrived in time for breakfast.
The pictures taken professionally are great and I think are a must. Taken with a 32mega pixel camera they can be enlarged up to a 3x5 foot picture.
The cost was $175 for all of them.
At the end of class a tip for all the instructors was warranted.
Be careful with the dip when you see the water towers the car can go sideways on you quickly again it’s all in the way you break as explained the brake pedal is more important then the throttle.
Can’t wait for my Z06 allocation so I can take the class again.
These comments are getting me revved up; I’m doing the class April 29-30; taking a little road trip from BC.
HI all, will be there on Apr 27 and 28th - any other Canadians there those days? Also is the track layout set so I can review it or do the groups get randomly assigned to different parts of the track? thanks
gone
Power User
You'll likely have a track designated for your class right now however that can change at the last minute. That's what happened to me: I was told I'd be on the North track and "studied it" by watching YouTube videos and looking at a map with the course lay-out. Then when I arrived I was told my class had been assigned to the West track. All good: you'll get used to the track by driving it. Enjoy!
Awesome aerial view Cam! I was looking when we were landing but I must have been sitting on the wrong side of the plane. I flew out on a red-eye after my last class too so it was dark
. I actually checked in on the 31st of March right at 3:00 so I had time to walk over to the track wall and watch the last few hot laps of the the class before me. With my car in winter storage, it has been a long time since hearing the sweet roar of those C8. Can't imagine what it will sound like when they have Z06's out there. Was that you out there? What track were you on?I learned that carrying a lot of speed into the corners is very important so as to utilize that 10/20% of trail-braking to get the front tires to bite around that corner. With not enough speed going in, I found myself getting on the gas too soon in the corner. Even a little throttle resulted in a very unbalanced feeling! As soon as you touch the throttle, you can feel the E-Diff. clutches on the Z51 locking up the rear axle. Not a nice balanced feeling going around a corner at all then! There is no question shifting the weight to the front tires around the corner, and your line, is the most important skill to learn. After that, its a timing thing when you should be slowly rolling on the throttle as you unwind the steering wheel. I found myself trail breaking (basically coasting fast) around the corner, until I could get on the power again. I had to learn to be patient before getting on the gas. No better feeling than getting it all right.
As for the pictures, I bought them. I felt a little different about them than you did though. I was a little disappointed with what I got. Not so much of how many I got, or the quality, but I guess he uses "burst mode" on the camera to take a bunch of pictures all at once. You end up with 5 pictures that look very similar. Do that a dozen times and you end up with 12 different shots of 5. I didn't think they were worth $175.USD. Everyone gets the class photo, which is kinda cool.
According to Murrays spreadsheet, my next C8 should be built tomorrow morning (Thursday April 5th) VIN: 21018. Looks like I'll be heading back there again as well (let me know when you are going). Couple of my instructors recommend the "Intro
To Open Lapping - Level 1" next time. A little less about how the C8 works and a little more seat time.
Keep the rubber side down...
BUCKETOY
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