My 1/2 day at Skip Barber school

[RELAYER@aol.com]

Well, I survived the 1/2 day at Skip Barber. what a good time.

It was not a Nissan commerical or promo like I had suspected, it was just
about driving fast and having fun.  It was from 8am to 1pm and it focused of
3 areas of driving: Autocross, emergency lane changes, and classroom
instuction about car dynamics.

The autocrossing was a blast...the little nissan 200SX SE-R was quite good
after all.  We did a fair amout of time running the course with the
instructor giving pointers as we went through the course.  I am ashamed to
report my time was not all that great, 37 seconds around the course when the
average was 35.5.  I thought I would be a kick butt driver, just goes to show
you not to be cocky (hear that Michael Schumaker).

Part 2 was a auto dynamics, which was nothing new...just about apexes, how
fast to enter a curve, how to correct understeer and oversteer, when to
accelerate out of a curve and such.  There was alot of questions I had for
the instructor, but time was limited.

Part 3 was the accident aviodance/emergency lane change.  This was good
stuff.  you would be traveling at 45mph toward a cone barrier and the
instructor would yell swerve right or left at the last moment.  You would
dart out of the way and then have to correct you steering to avoid another
barrier.  I spun the little nissan out real bad here on one run.  I slammed
on the brakes (no ABS) while still steering to miss the second set of cones
and started spinning in every direction...wow, that was a cool ride!

Overall, I am now sold on doing a one day Skip Barber at Sebring for $495
(minus $100 if you sign up for their credit card), I am saving my $ now!
 This mostly taught me that i have a lot to learn about racing and need some
professional training!

                    /\        _I             Christian J. Long
                  /    \ I_I I_I I           Orlando, Florida, USA
                                             UCF Alumni 1994
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1990 Coupe Quattro      Red/Black, K&N cone, BBS wheels, 82K          
1990 90                       Gold/Tan, 72K
Past Audis:  '80 5000T  '84 Coupe GT  '85 Coupe GT  '87 Coupe GT 2.3 
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