I just wanted to post a brief review of the BMW Car Club-Golden Gate Chapter‘s HPDE high performance driving school, held over two days at Thunderhill track (SCCA-Northern California’s track up near Willows).

In brief, it rocked. It is definitely the best $400 upgrade you could ever do for your MINI; if you’ve never done one (I hadn’t) it will improve your driving skills immensely.

The club requires you do a Car Control Clinic beforehand (I mentioned one in an earlier thread), but these are getting so crowded that they allowed some folks to attend without having done it. It’s still better to do the clinic first.

The format is pretty simple: if new, you’ll be put in with the D group, the slowest, and will ride on the track at all times with an instructor. They take your car out with you as the ride along for the first three laps, which is a real eye-opener (you’ll be clinging to the hang loop for dear life). It gives you the knowledge that the car is gonna stick to the track at much higher speeds than you ever thought possible. After 20 to 30 minutes on track, it’s into the classroom to debrief. The same pattern follows both days, so you get four on-track sessions each day (more than enough; some folks even bailed on the last one).

You aren’t allowed to measure your time; the idea is to increase speed with increasing confidence. Passing is allowed with a point-by; people handled this really well and you rarely get hung up for long, and it’s pretty easy to let people go by.

And, since I was in a car with about the least displacement of anyone (08 Just-a-Cooper), lots of folks go by...but I also passed lot’s o’ Beemers. The only car slower than me on the track on specs was a Solara; everyone was happy to see Coopers out there, and commented favorably on how much fun I seemed to be having in it. It definitely holds its own, and is an ideal car to learn in, since the only way to go fast is to be smooth, have the best line, and to be consistent. One of my instructors said it would be hard to throw it off the track even if I tried (and the worst that would happen is some dirt flying everywhere).

The car held up well; some tire and brake pad wear obviously, and you sure drop in the gas mileage, but no mechanicals. You can even get insurance if you are worried you might hurt it, but that’s highly unlikely.

Next one is up at Infineon; I might go again I had so much fun. The BMW folks are fantastic, and love to see new people. You learn a lot from fellow drivers; there were two other Coopers there, although that was a low turnout according to regulars. And you see some really cool M5s, E30s, 2002s, Porsche Carreras, Lotuses, etc etc. They were running a race school the same weekend, and it was a blast to just watch them, and you learn from them as well.

Give it a shot; it’s fun and a worthwhile upgrade to your car’s software, if you will.

Rob

 

Hey how do I find out about the next one??

Thanks

 

I'd also love to find out more about this. Do you know if convertibles are allowed?

 

http://www.ggcbmwcca.org/ You can join BMWCCA for pretty cheap, and it's a good deal. You get Rondel mag for free, discounts on service and parts at a lot of places, and on and on....

If you liked Thunderhill, you'll LOVE Infineon (I have enough grey hair to still think of it as Sears Point). While the big sweeper (turn two) a T-Hill is totally fun, it's nothing like the Carousel, that is a huge, banked dropping sweeper where the faster you go, the more compression you get, and the car sticks like it's held down with superglue! THere's really only one (one and a half) pucker turns at Infineon, but there are more places where you can screw up and hit something, like a wall than at Thunderhill.

For those that want to learn more about driving the various NoCal tracks, there are some great driving guides at the Nor Cal Shelby Club site.... Even if you don't drive Mustangs or Ford powered stuff, you can go there and download the guides... Click here for more info....

Matt

 

I was afraid that Infineon would be no fun in a regular Cooper, but was pleasantly surprised at how well the car did there (the driver, however... ). I'd highly recommend the BMW driving school. There will be several instructors there with MINIs, no doubt, and getting a ride with one is an experience not to be missed.

Another cool thing about Infineon is that after you drive it you have a new appreciation for the big-time racers that compete there. It was hugely fun to watch in-car video of Boris Said negotiating the turns there in his Cup car, especially since they had a camera on his feet.

You need to sign up for the car control clinic first, and they fill fast. So get on it!