Hi! wondering if anyone on this forum has tried the high performance driving classes offered through either Pro Drive or Cascade Sportscar Club. Both provide a half day theory class followed by a day of driving at PIR with an instructor. I'm thinking of signing up for one of the programs schedule for September. Pro-Drive is $599.00, and Cascade is around $200.00.
I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who's tried either these classes or classes like these. Are they worth the money? Are you a better driver because of the class. Any fun?
Assuming I do participate I'll follow-up here and describe my experience.

 

I would love to hear the follow-up, I haven't done it, but have thought about it.

 

I was going to go with the Cascade club this year after I install my reinforced diff.. But unfortunately, the only 2 class left this year lands on a day I'm already booked.

Gonna try to join one next year for sure.

 

I have done the Pro Drive HPDE program twice. It's the real deal. Their business is located at the track full time. They do all kinds of race training and support work. I think the primary owner works with the Ferrari Challenge team from Seattle, and placed second in the last Rose Cup race at PIR, driving a crazy $250k Corvette. They fill up their schedule for HPDE days early for a reason. You can't go wrong with Pro Drive.

I have never talked to anyone who worked with Cascade in any capacity.

Please do report back if you go. You might be surprised what the S can do. I passed 4 Porsches during one 20 minute session. In another session, a guy in a GT3 couldn't get up to and around me during the session, after starting right behind me. I had noticed that he was setting up a video camera before the session. I asked him for a copy of the video after we came back to the cool down area. He was kind of pissed. I'm guessing he deleted it.

 

I'm doing a cascade HPDE this Friday, I'll let you know how it goes

 

[QUOTE=Harpoon,Aug 11 2008, 08:34 PM]I have done the Pro Drive HPDE program twice.

 

The GT3 guy told someone later that he wasn't pushing his car because he had just purchased it and was getting used to it. (Don't know why you would bring a camera under that situation). The other Porsche guys were just taking horrible lines through the corners, and I was driving half-way decent.

The second time I went, I only got around one Porsche. A guy in a supercharged NSX made life hard all day for me. I think the quality of the driving varies a bunch from group to group.

My posts make it sound like you go out to the track and race, but that's not the case. You go out, get tons of instruction, and get to pass slower drivers on the straightaways only.

 

Well, the cascade HPDE was awesome. The class on the night before had some good info and some not-so-helpful, like heel-toe shifts - "just practice on the way home tonight, you'll be good at it by tomorrow". The track time was just right, although every time the session would end I would be seriously concentrating on catching the guy in front of me so it felt like getting cut short. All the instructors I talked to were very friendly and very helpful, they are 100% focused on not giving you a bad first time track experience.

While passing people is fun, it is very clear that in the entry level HPDE's it is not the car that is limiting the drivers. I passed several cars that are a lot faster on paper but have cautious drivers, and for the most part I was in that group. It was kind of scary in the first group blasting (read: granny cruising at 90) down the front straight not knowing what to do about braking for the chicane, and then having a modded WRX pass us on the right without the required point-by. By the end of the day I was topping out 4th (that's all I have the balls for) and if I got passed, I could at least hang on with them for another lap before I got killed on the straights again.

So yeah, it was a blast. They moved me up to the next level which means fewer newbs holding up the track and more chances of clean laps. I'm definitely going back in a month or 2.

edit: It was also over 100 degrees that day, with a track temp of 127. My kumho ecsta spt's held up great as did my stock rotors and pads. I never had fade all day, but I'm pretty sure I have one or more warped rotors now. I popped the hood after each run and was not blasted in the face by waves of heat, but the only car I could compare with was my friend's FD which was overheating all day.

 

Sounds like a blast Thanks for describing your experience. Question: what do you think helped improve your driving the most? real-time driving tips by the instructors? Or just getting on the track and experiencing fast driving for yourself? Do you think the class gave you the tools to be a better driver?

 

My instructor did give me a bunch of good advice on smoothing out my driving that I probably wouldn't have figured out until my 2nd or 3rd day if I was alone. Not having to worry about traffic / unknown corners / animals really let me focus on building confidence in pushing how fast I could go. I know the car has a lot more in it than I can give, hence the need for another track day