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Replaying 1929! |
Skip Barber's Toys
Front the December 8, 2000 Update
I'd like to thank my colleagues for the best weekend since I learned basic aerobatics in a Citabria. I had the pleasure of going through Skip Barber's one day driving school at La Guna Seca on Sunday. If you have about $700 that you want to spend on someone, this is the place to go. Here's the rundown on the day's activities:
8:30: Check out the cars...
8:45: Put on theNomex fire suit, flame sock on your head, helmet, and then discover you need to use the head...
9:00: Jump in 35-40 MPH go karts for a grueling hour of warm ups. Think carts are easy? Wrong oh. These machines are set up to go fast enough that you are drifting every corner on what's about a 1/3 mile track. You book, you cook, you get thrown around and the shoulders hurt like hell.
10:15: Jump into the little Formula (open wheel) racers. Powered by the indestructible Neon engine, you go around another 1/3'rd mile autocross..this time aboout a dozen laps drifting around corners and doing more sliding.
11:30: Jump into obscenely over-powered and under tired Dodge 4 door pick ups and hit the (water soaked) skid pad. You go into corners at 40+, and with the ABS disconnected, your instructor hits HIS emergency brake handle and you slide like crazy. You learn CPR of speeding through turns (Correct, Pause as the suspension loads up, Recover fast as you can)
12:30: Out onto the road course of La Guna Seca in the open wheel cars. Everyone's favorite turn? Turn 8 - the Corkscrew. You nail the brakes doing up the hill into the turn, take a right angle left, and then in about a block you drop stories down into a sweeping right turn, and set up for an even faster left sweeper after that.
1:30: Shaken and amped, you wolf down a sandwich. Then it hits you: You're tired.
2:30: Go cart racing, this time, winners stay in and go more laps. Grueling and painful.
3:15: Dodge Vipers in the autocross. course. Timed. These cars get thoroughly wrung out. They go through a set of Michelins finest paws every 4 days...
4:00: Champagne Autocross in the Neons. With a tennis ball rolling around a pie pan on the hood, you try to go like hell, smoothly, to work on weight transfer in the corners. It sort of brings you down for the street drive home
4:45: You are given the Oath: "I (insert name) won't use the skills I learned for unlawful purposes." Riiiight..... Then they give you a $20 phone card in the take home package so you can call your attorney when you get busted in a neighboring state for doing some multiple of the speed limit or the yellow advisory signs.
Now a serious note. One of our colleagues in the company suffered a heart attack on Monday night following the day's activities Sunday. We hope it was only a coincidence and he is in our prayers. But when someone tells you this is the real "no shit deal". they are not kidding. You get to push yourself to the limit - and then some. At the end of the day you are wiped out. It took 3-4 large rums to get the adrenaline down to a level when sleep (or exhaustion) could set in. And I don't think there's anyone in the group who wouldn't drop everything to go to the three day school next.
If you missed it last week, check out http://www.skipbarber.com. Tell your wife Christmas (or your birthday) is coming and you want something a little different this year.
All contents (c) 1998, 1999, 2000 by George A. Ure, MBA, except authors as linked or noted