AZHEAT
Active Member
Background: I am by no means a track rat, but have done a few track days in the past 20 years. I don’t abuse them, but I run my cars relatively hard and I’m not shy about approaching my talent limits in a car (which do NOT approach the car’s limits). I’ve run out of talent many times!
For those of you on the fence or considering not taking advantage of the school, just do it. No matter what your driving experience/skill level, you will take away valuable knowledge about your car and be a better driver. Wonderful facility and terrific staff. Roughly 45 minutes outside Vegas and the drive is very easy with little traffic and nice scenery. Great group of students and I really enjoyed spending time with like-minded, good people. Condo accommodations were very nice.
Regarding the insurance deductible, the course comes with coverage for vehicle damage that caps your deductible/out of pocket at $10k in the event you wad the car up. (At least that was my understanding.) You have the opportunity to buy down the deductible to $2k for a $250 charge, which I elected to do. (My thought process was that this would be my opportunity to explore the limits with very little downside potential.) Well, with the track configuration when I just did the school, you really can’t hit anything. Yes, you can go off track, but you will be sliding in flat desert/dirt. You will not roll and I simply don’t see how you could realistically hit something. (I’m sure they do have configurations where going off track could involve a tire barrier, but for these classes I’m pretty sure they avoid setting it up that way.). Bottom line is that it’s cheap insurance, but even though I pushed it hard and was out of control many times in the 2 days, the most that would have happened to me would have been getting a rock in the bead or damaging a couple rims sliding into the dirt. The point is, you would REALLY have to screw up to have a huge incident. We’ve all seen the videos of someone coming out of a high speed sweeper and getting on the throttle too early, leaving the track at over 100mph and getting into the tire barrier sideways at 50mph, but that isn’t this track or configuration for the school. For me, I would not buy the deductible down if I did it again. Maybe buy some extra swag in their welcome center instead.
The school is a very good mix of classroom instruction, track time, autocross, launch control runs, parking lot exercise with sunshade in front window using your vision out the side of the car to look ahead for the next cone/apex, and wet “skid pad” braking exercise. I would have liked to replace the wet skid pad exercise and parking lot cone exercise with another couple track sessions. Although most seemed to really enjoy the autocross, I like the track time much better. That being said, track time is mentally and physically exhausting, so you can’t spend near as much time on the track as you may think before needing a break.
The school is appropriate for all skill levels, as they do a very good job of separating drivers into groups based on skill/speed. The instructors will let you go as fast as you can safely get around the track. This isn’t their first rodeo and they’ve seen it all.
In my group, only one other driver in a 5 had the manual. I‘m glad I ran the manual at Spring Mountain, but it will cost you several seconds per lap compared to the A10. (With the track configuration when I was there, 3 areas of the track required me to be in second gear to keep the instructor from running away on exit from a corner, which then resulted in a couple spots making another shift to third in an area that there was a lot going on. I felt the problem was magnified by the errors I made. The frustrating thing is you start to get to the point that you’re relatively happy with your pace and limiting the errors per lap only at the very last track session. Then you go home! At the end of the school, you feel like you could shave another couple second off your lap time with another few dozen “hot laps” of experience on the same track. It is very addicting.
I know there are several Spring Mountain threads, but hopefully somebody get’s some questions answered based on my impressions.
Again, take advantage of the Spring Mountain opportunity. You will not regret it.
For those of you on the fence or considering not taking advantage of the school, just do it. No matter what your driving experience/skill level, you will take away valuable knowledge about your car and be a better driver. Wonderful facility and terrific staff. Roughly 45 minutes outside Vegas and the drive is very easy with little traffic and nice scenery. Great group of students and I really enjoyed spending time with like-minded, good people. Condo accommodations were very nice.
Regarding the insurance deductible, the course comes with coverage for vehicle damage that caps your deductible/out of pocket at $10k in the event you wad the car up. (At least that was my understanding.) You have the opportunity to buy down the deductible to $2k for a $250 charge, which I elected to do. (My thought process was that this would be my opportunity to explore the limits with very little downside potential.) Well, with the track configuration when I just did the school, you really can’t hit anything. Yes, you can go off track, but you will be sliding in flat desert/dirt. You will not roll and I simply don’t see how you could realistically hit something. (I’m sure they do have configurations where going off track could involve a tire barrier, but for these classes I’m pretty sure they avoid setting it up that way.). Bottom line is that it’s cheap insurance, but even though I pushed it hard and was out of control many times in the 2 days, the most that would have happened to me would have been getting a rock in the bead or damaging a couple rims sliding into the dirt. The point is, you would REALLY have to screw up to have a huge incident. We’ve all seen the videos of someone coming out of a high speed sweeper and getting on the throttle too early, leaving the track at over 100mph and getting into the tire barrier sideways at 50mph, but that isn’t this track or configuration for the school. For me, I would not buy the deductible down if I did it again. Maybe buy some extra swag in their welcome center instead.
The school is a very good mix of classroom instruction, track time, autocross, launch control runs, parking lot exercise with sunshade in front window using your vision out the side of the car to look ahead for the next cone/apex, and wet “skid pad” braking exercise. I would have liked to replace the wet skid pad exercise and parking lot cone exercise with another couple track sessions. Although most seemed to really enjoy the autocross, I like the track time much better. That being said, track time is mentally and physically exhausting, so you can’t spend near as much time on the track as you may think before needing a break.
The school is appropriate for all skill levels, as they do a very good job of separating drivers into groups based on skill/speed. The instructors will let you go as fast as you can safely get around the track. This isn’t their first rodeo and they’ve seen it all.
In my group, only one other driver in a 5 had the manual. I‘m glad I ran the manual at Spring Mountain, but it will cost you several seconds per lap compared to the A10. (With the track configuration when I was there, 3 areas of the track required me to be in second gear to keep the instructor from running away on exit from a corner, which then resulted in a couple spots making another shift to third in an area that there was a lot going on. I felt the problem was magnified by the errors I made. The frustrating thing is you start to get to the point that you’re relatively happy with your pace and limiting the errors per lap only at the very last track session. Then you go home! At the end of the school, you feel like you could shave another couple second off your lap time with another few dozen “hot laps” of experience on the same track. It is very addicting.
I know there are several Spring Mountain threads, but hopefully somebody get’s some questions answered based on my impressions.
Again, take advantage of the Spring Mountain opportunity. You will not regret it.
