I'll be attending my first formal autocross education event this weekend in Virginia Beach... an Evolution Phase I school. I'm really looking forward to this. I've been autocrossing for about two years now, and in the S2000 for the last 7 months. I'm on stock everything with a UK alignment. I'm really hoping to learn some good things and improve my times consistently. The instructors will be be Jinx Jordan and Tim Aro. I'm guessing Jinx will be teaching the FWD guys and Tim will handle the RWD folks, since that seems to be their cars of choice. Has anyone ever been to an Evolution school? How did you like it? Did you learn a lot? Were you faster at following events? Was it worth $200? Thanks

 

I haven't been, but I'm thinking about attending the 29-30 Nov Phase I & II in Tuscon. Let me know what you think.

 

The instructors will trade off several times throughout the day, so you'll get time with each of them. Jinx is an excellent instructor -- he and Darrin DiSimo (also excellent) were my instructors for the Phase 1&2 in July. Well worth the money, IMHO. You'll get somewhere around 22 runs. I'd be there this weekend for Phase 3 if there wasn't a local event on Saturday.

 

That's cool that instructors swap around. I was thinking I'd get more like 30+ runs in. There's only 12 students in the Phase I school. Our local SCCA president asked us to get there at 7am so we can be driving by 8am and finish up around 4:30. That's like 8 hours of autocrossing with a half hour lunch! Sweetness! So were you faster at your local events following the Evo schools? How long had you been autocrossing before the school?

 

Well... The event before the Evo school I had an awful day. Excluding that event, I was usually finishing ~.75 seconds behind the boxster that usually finishes 1st or 2nd at the local events. The last event (1 week after the Evo school), I finished .7 seconds ahead of the boxster and 12th of 92 cars overall in raw time. Our courses are typically in the 45 second range. The biggest difference I noticed is how I can now take my first run and not worry about 'finding' the course. My first run is now a 'test out my plan of attack' run. When I did Phase I & II in July, I think I figured up around 45ish runs combined.

 

I have done the phase I school. Frankly I thought it was a waste of time until 4-5 events later when things started to make sense. Even if you think it was not worth it, look at it from the # of runs/money spent....it is worth it!

 

Wow! If I pick up 1.5 seconds from the Evo school, I'll be happy. $200 for 1.5 seconds on a 45 second course is a great $/second ratio. I usually finish about mid-pack PAX wise (still on S-02's )... sometimes a little better, sometimes worse. I can't wait!

 

I wouldn't bank on picking up one and a half seconds right after the school. Phase One's lessons are basically:[list=1][*]Look ahead.
[*]Look ahead more.
[*]Why aren't you looking ahead?[/list=1] Having an instructor in the car is always helpful, and Evolution's instructors are some of the best drivers in the country, but it's not like they're installing a turbocharger in your car or anything. As with all seat time, it takes time and experience for the message to sink in, and it's impossible to quantify how much of a difference it will eventually make.

Don't get me wrong -- I recommend taking the school, but don't expect it to work miracles, especially instantaneous ones.

Steve

 

I've pretty much got the looking ahead thing down after two years of autox. I'm usually looking about two key gates in front of where I am. I've started walking the course at least 4 times, and drawing a map of it, and studying my map, and coming up with "the plan". I have no confusion on my first run. I'm hoping that since I've been autocrossing awhile now, and have the fundamentals down, I can learn a lot more. I really need seat time more than anything... 8 hours with a pro riding shotgun should help out. I'll definitely post my review after this Saturday and let you guys know what I thought. I'll also post my before and after autox results from the same site after a couple of weeks.

 

I'm supposed to look ahead!?