does anyone know of any good driving schools in southern california. i know thats like asking if there is any bread in a bakery because im sure there are plenty out here but im just wondering if anyone has gone to one they reccomend. also any pricing info would be much appreciated.

 

Yeah emergency braking while turning in a FWD car results in understeer and going straight. The same thing in RWD is big time oversteer and spin. There you have to make a choice on what to do, that's where knowing the car's limit and situational awareness is important.

I don't know locally, which are the best schools, but here are some links to explore. The safe bet is to contact the regional SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) chapter and ask about novice schools. They are the defacto driving car club, but there are probably a bunch of Porsche, BMW, etc. clubs that do schools too. Also, the two schools below are $200-$300 for a day of instruction, that will cover all the basics for street driving and emergency manouvers. That's the cost of ONE cheap car mod, no way that is expensive. It'll be the best mod you ever do to enjoy your car. There are other racing schools that are thousands of dollars, but they supply the cars, and it is for racer training.

SCCA region selector
http://www.scca.com/Inside/Index.asp?IdS=0...egionalSites&~=

Northern California SCCA chapter
http://www.sfrscca.org/index.phtml

The Thunderhill Driver Education school linked from N.Cal SCCA
http://www.thunderhill.com/school.html

Miscellaneous other school I googled
http://www.ncracing.org/th040806.html

 

That's really too bad. I always advise people to do this type of driving in a controlled environment first before taking it out on the road. This car WILL bite you in the ass.

My opinion is...fix it right. Get it aligned and fix the bodywork. By saving some pennies now, you may make it worse in the future. Rust and corrosion are better attacked early. It's a new car, don't be cheap with her. JMHO.

 

Similar exp to andy as well. My first toy was a 2nd gen rx7. Talk about ass happy

 

My first car was a gs eclipse. i pretty much learned how to drive on a FWD car, but all of the other cars in the driveway were RWD. so with the FWD eclipse and the RWD sl500 (moms car), i had a lot of practice with each beast. the s2000 does scare me though around turns still.

 

agreed. lots of first time RWD owners around here...perhaps getting a RWD car with stability control could have prevented these accidents
way too many posts stating something like "I was taking a turn at 30mph, then i slammed on the throttle and I spun into a tree! What's wrong with the car?"

 

Hey man, where do you live? Is palm springs in florida? I'm in atlanta, GA and i've got a buddy who owns his own mobile painting business and he has done some AMAZING work on my car(people like to back into it in parking lots, happened 3x in 2 months!!! i used to park far from everyone else, now park FARRR!) and he has low prices. If you wouldnt mind driving up here from florida he could do a 3 inch scratch as long as it is just paint damage no body damage for under $200 for sure. Email me if your interested Brianm96@aol.com

 

no im in sunny palm springs california. thank you for the offer though on the body shop. a friend of mine said he went to a racing school and it was around $1500 so i am happy to hear that the one day sessions are remarkably cheaper. has anyone actually gone to one of these one day sessions, im just somewhat skeptical as to just how much can be covered in one day. maybe im just to naiive to see it, but does anyone have any experience with them?

 

The $1000+ schools are typically racing schools which also supply the race cars, with race car driver as instructors and other stuff like in car telemetry, performance analysis and other fancy stuff. They focus on racing and typically end off with a wheel to wheel race session. This is not an advanced driving school.

The $100-$200 driving schools, you supply the car and the instruction deals more with driving techniques for car control and accident avoidance. This is the type of course to take for novices learning their own car. Trust me, you'll learn plenty from these types of courses. To give you an idea, here are 3 different club level courses I've helped in or taken locally. There should be equivalents where you live.

Ground control / Autocross school ($120 canadian!)
- classroom session (basic traction theory, weight transfer, driving vision, proper driving line, accident avoidance, oversteer/understeer and proper corrective actions)
- practical exercises -> skidpad, slolam, emeregency lane change, threshold braking, figure 8, increasing/decreasing turn oval
- final mini-autocross
- around 1-1.5 hours (this is a lot) total seat time per student

High Performance Driving Event ($150 CDN)
- classroom sessions (all of the above and more on how to drive fast in turns)
- practical exercises at a road course -> wet and dry skidpad, theshold braking and accident avoidance wet and dry, slolam, 3-4 20-min lapping sessions with instructor

Winter driving school ($120 CDN)
- class room sessions (same stuff in autocross school with winter specific tips)
- practical sessions on a ice/snow track -> slolam, braking and emergency lane change, 3-4 30-min lapping sessions with instructor

 

and you use your own car for the less expensive classes? or is a car provided for you?