S PAW 1

I have to share my experience with you all.
In late Sept., I attended the 2 day Acura High Performance Driving School at MidOhio Raceway. What a trip!!! Slightly modified Acura TSX's (CAI, A-Spec., hi-po brakes, Kumho stickies). The TSX when set up this way reacts much like my '07 TL-S. Top notch instructors, all with racing backgrounds.
They put you in 2 sessions use with a modified "skid car" Honda Civic, so you experience how the car will react on the race track if you brake outside of a straight line. They teach you sooo much before letting you set foot on the track. Second day spends several hours on the track. I could chat about this for hours!
I would highly recommend it for any Acura enthusiast. I don't care how good of a driver you think you are, you will be a better driver after taking this course. You will understand that you can get much more from your Acura. Your limits will increase at least 100%. You can check out www.midohioschool.com
Save your money....maybe we can put together a group buy next year.
See how a 220hp 4 cylinder can run with a 600hp Saleen Mustang first hand,
because you're driving the 4 cylinder!!!!!!!
For you west coasters: one of the instructors teaches a school in Calif., only they run Toyota Celicas.

Evader

I'll have to do some research and see if they have this in my area. How much did it cost?

Bearcat94

Cost info would be nice, but




Glad you had fun. I'd love to go to something like this; Even an open track day with an instructor drive would be great.

Furious Coder

Back in the late 90's I attended Skip Barber Racing School at Lime Rock Speedway in Connecticut. This was a bonus from work, since, at the time, I had neither the interest nor the money to attend this school on my own. Still, it was a blast.

We were paired up with someone our own height and weight and switched off between classroom time and time inside an open wheel Formula V, based of a souped up Dodge Neon. Over the course of three days, the class and track time covered apexing, turning, knowing the limits of the car ("squealing tires are happy tires!"), and just some driving philosophy. Needless to say, I never drove the same after that, and I still tell people it was the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on.

Even if you never intend to race cars, but you have some enthusiasm for driving and want to really understand your car, I highly encourage some kind of multi-day racing school. I suspect the Acura one is probably on par with Skip Barber, and if you can swing it, definitely schedule some time to attend.

Glad you enjoyed it SPAW1.

S PAW 1

Cost is $1500 if you use their cars. I believe it is $1250 if you use your own. Some guys had used the track cars before, and decided to return using their own cars for another session. That's when I was able to race with one guy's Saleen.
What do you want a picture of???
I suppose I could have tried to take a shot of my grin with a small digital camera, but I needed both hands on the wheel
The website does offer a video of the course, but it doesn't do justice to being there.

ballinfizzle89

iTrader: (6)

Checked the price out..it's 1250 for 2 day and 1950 for 3 day.

Sounds awesome and a shitload of fun! Honestly though..if I had 2000, I'd put it into the TL

S PAW 1

EXACTLY I left out much information due to brevity.
Learned new lines like your "squealing tires are happy tires", and "if I ain't driftin', I ain't liftin".

Eoanou

I wish I had the money to go, I have $1000 right now, but I want to spend it on the TL.

01tl4tl

Dont worry- that tire noise goes away when you start really going fast

For most people- a good start is a high performace Track Day School in your own car- with a Pro licensed race driver riding in the passenger seat. You get instant line correction, braking, turn down, apex, exit, and throttle- you only go 70% of the cars and your limits at any time- cant learn if scared and instructor cant teach when terrified
Speeds increase with each session- usually 5, 20-30 minute on track sessions for each group with a debriefing after each session.
You will be sweating from 25 minutes of full throttle full effort braking turn full throttle full brake turn full throttle...

Groups divided by skill- experience- and approval to advance to faster group
Most charge about $250-300 for a full day with helmet rental
Some have 2 day events- some have midweek days- Thunderhill in Willows Ca and Reno-Fernley have great hi speed tracks with smooth 35 foot wide asphalt surface to play on

Track days should be required by law to operate a fun car

darksom1

Hahaha...S Paw 1 glad you had fun man! Sounds good! But I have to agree with Ballin' - that's half the price of a SC foer 3 days! I'll go if I can take TLFourPlay's or dan...k's car! Then I could really kick some ass!! Hahahahaha!

Thanks for sharing!

LuvMyTSX

Sounds pretty cool!

black label

One of my techs was down there in Sept as well, its possible you guys were at the same session. His name is Corey and he has Pistons tattooed on his arm (I figure thats the easiest way to spot him).

He was talking with them about how long the cars last. Apparently they use them for about 10K and on average they put 3 clutches in over that time period. I don't think a TSX would even get 3 oil changes in that amount of time.

Mid Ohio is a fun track, did you ever get out of 4th gear?

HiTEC

It would be nice of the local Acura groups had more organization behind they. They mostly seem like get together (parking lot hang out type events). With past cars I've had I've been involved in local Audi and Porsche clubs. They have a lot more driving events where local tracks have been rented out.... instructors are present and you get to drive your own car and get instruction at the same time.

My TL is the only car I've owned that hasn't been on a track. :-(

S PAW 1

I don't know about that. Our most experienced instructor was EFR (Elliot Forbes Robinson) from the Carolinas, and he could make those tires squeel louder than the exhausts on the Saleen! And he was the fastest. Maybe it depends more on the limitations of the particular tire you are on. Our top speeds were only around 110 mph, but the idea was to keep your speeds at or near the car's limits when a straight line was nowhere to be found.
We too, played "follow the instructor" at gradually increasing speeds so your comfort zone moved to a higher plane. Everyone got the opportunity to follow directly behind the leader. Then the instructor would ride with you to REALY move your limits up. The he would drive the car to show you how badly you screwed up so you could go even faster!!!

MidOhio also offers entry level courses for teenagers. 24 teenagers die every day in traffic accidents across the country (or was it every hour?) Anyway, it would be a good investment for them to make. We could do a much better job at educating our children how to drive...without the cell phones

S PAW 1

Yes, I believe Corey was in our class. Was it the 17th & 18th?
We used 3rd & 4th almost exclusively (except for launch, of course). I did see EFR use 5th one time when I was riding with him. I remember it well, because I thought the passenger "oh, god" handle was going to break.

black label

That was it. The lucky bastard won the trip in some service competition they had in the shop. He's a great tech, but not a great driver, there's no way I should be able to beat him in the 1/4 mile with my CL S 6MT when he drives a Audi S4 (twin turbo and AWD), but I can.

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

This belongs in Car Talk or Ramblings....