Hi I'm 21, and graduating from college. I plan on getting an s2000, or similar sports car in the future after I graduate, but I want to learn to drive the car properly before I get the car, (or very soon after) and was wondering if there was a driving school that used cars similar to the s2000, and would give me better experience in that direction.

 

Wow...I don't know much about the driving schools in which you use their vehicles. My suggestion would be to find somebody that's renting an S2000 (or maybe the new Miata) and take a local SCCA autocross school in it. You'll definitely learn how to handle the car at one of those. Maybe somebody else knows of some other ideas???

 

Your sig says you are from Carmel - would that be Carmel, CA? If so, there should be a driver's school at Laguna Seca which is practically in your back yard. I think Skip Barber has a school there (or used to).

I have taken driving schools at Skip Barber, Bondurant, and BMWCCA (at Sears Point and Laguna Seca). Any of the driver's schools were great - but plan on being totally overwhelmed the first time out. Especially if you don't know how to heel-toe downshift.

 

My dad has an S2k...and after taking it around curves in the open air...well theres nothing better. I've read a lot, so in book knowledge I know how to heel-toe, and have read about driving rwd, and weight transfers, along with how to drive properly. But I find nothing replaces an instructor actually showing you hehe. I would try heel toe on my honda accord wagon hehe...but I shouldn't drive that car to the point where I would need to anyway, and my foot doesn't really fit with the foot tilting method (I don't know the real names of the 2 methods of heel toe) Not carmel CA...wrong side of the country :-/ hehe. Neway thx for the info .

 

I am happy to learn that you are willing to learn what you may not know. As I have posted on several occasions that if I where a parent (which I am not) I would definitely send my child to a

 

You have many options. You can use your own car in the many HPDEs (check racing and competition for Honda days or S2k days - not sure) in California. As a novice - you should have little worries about damaging your car. You'll have an instructor during every session and do some classroom work when not driving (learning the line, turn in points, what an apex is, classroom discussion on heal and toe, etc. You can probably do 6 days of HPDEs for the cost of one Pro school.

On the other hand there is the pro school option. Bondurant is an option as are many others mentioned. Here you use their cars. There are programs ranging from high performance driving to racing. I really think in using a pro school, the HP driving is better for someone new. Be advised thought...if you destroy their car in an HP Driving school, you still have to pay something! In the Racing schools, this is not always the case.

There are many excellent drivers - who have gone on to amateur racing, who started doing HPDE's and never did a pro (Bondurant, Skip Barber) school.

An excellent choice you (and anyone who enjoys driving really) should look into, is a local autocross NOVICE school. It's not an autocross per se, and you get a lot of runs with very competent instruction. You will use your car but have little chance of damaging it. Additionally you will really get an idea of what your car (and you) can do, and at speeds closer to what you will be (should be) driving on a typical drive (not counting straight line blasts down a highway as anyone can do that). Novice Autocross schools are run by local regions of the SCCA, BMWCCA, PCA and other clubs and especially with the first two, are open to many makes of cars.

...and their cheap - typically about $45.00 or so. In my opinion this is one of the finest ways to get to know your car. I am an autocrosser by summer 'trade' , but regardless, once any car of mine is broken in, it's off to an autocross to really figure out it's idiosyncrasies at or near the limit - something best not done on the street.

Just as a reference, my car has approaching or over 100 autocrosses which is >600 runs and is semi daily driven with my other car. At 36K miles it is running just fine.

Sorry, I know this was a bit long.

 

Go karting on a good indoor track that doesn't allow contact. You learn how to control drifting, how to approach turns for max speed, and it's cheap.

 

What are HPDEs?

Thx for the info everyone. I had heard of Skip barber, in fact that is the one that my dad had mentioned. So from the gist of it, it wouldn't be worth the extra money to go to a professional school or racing school instead of regular driving school? or they teach a different style of driving althogether that is more offensive?. Or they assume you already know about spin control when entering a racing school?

Thank you again I've drivin twisty mountain roads all my life...I've gotten use to recovering from ice...and the car sliding for various reasons..but I want to get better and safer...and it was never with a rwd car. or a high powered car...

Matt I had heard that skip barber uses dodges, yet my dad said that they have a toyota powered division too?...I don't know.

And yes...on ice I've found that hitting brakes makes it worse a lot of the time...and that the best solution is to hit the gas so that the tires are spinning around the same speed as the road is going by for when it comes back and that hasn't failed me yet, well that and light steering. But you probably know better than me how to drive in it. I've only been driving for 4 or 5 years. so...I'm gonna be quite now haha.

 

Karting sounds fun too and less expensive

 

I took this one twice and loved it...probably do it again.

http://www.race2000.com/

The school is held up in Canada, but during both of my dates, we had Americans come up to the class.

I have also taken many schools put on by the Saab Owners club and some others.

I hear the ones put on my BMW are also very good - PM Triple-H he is an instructor for the BMW schools and could probably point you to one near you.