Stuart,
I think you made a very good decision with the Sierra. Obviously, being members of a forum claled Big Power you are going to want to own a powerful car and occasionally get to use it to it's full but, as you have found, this can be hugely expensive and whilst great fun is perhaps not the best car to learn driving technique (but hey, there is more to life than learning driving technique but I guess, if your reaidng this forum, it must interest you).
Some basic learning could actually save you wear & tear and money as i'm contantly surprised at how drivers are seduced to the dark side of late and very hard braking. In racing, we simply don't do it unless we are deliberately trying to outbrake an opponent. Proper braking technique gives faster lap time with less wear & tear .. stop there and get back on topic!
Well, on to your off topic. Don Palmer. I've worked with Don and consider him a friend but he frustrates the hell out of most people and he's been close to being punched on more than one occasion. Firstly, he really knows his stuff and can really drive a car, the frustration lies in his coahing technique which follows very strictly the principals of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). If you've never heard of it then it's waaaaaaaaaaay to complexed to explain here. In a very, very, very simplistic nutshell it involved telling you nothing but putting you in a position where, with a bit of luck and an hour or two, you'll discover it for yourself. That really is a bit simplistic and my tone sounds quite negative but it's a valid coaching principle for everything in life (most life is actually like this anyway). It's big in business and thats were I learnt all about it and used some of it's principles when I thought appropriate, I also do use some of it's principles in track/race driver coaching if I think they'll get the point over better than the numerous other methods. The thing is I like to go to battle with more than one weapon, if I meet a foe with full bosy armour my knife or gun or bow are no use but my poison gas will work a treat. Don just takes his gun but he is a very expert shot with it and will most time get you in the eye
One area where Don is flexible is tailoring the content to suite your needs (where possible) thats why there is very little structure or itinerary to his courses. I do think that good track driving is a combinaation of guided, commented and explained ON-TRACK driving and exercise based stuff but it's also important to introduce those at the right time. If not they can be much less effective and at worse, counter-productive. If the first thing you do is learn to drift then thats often counter-productive to you learning to hold a car, stable at/close to the limit.
Oddly, this has tuned slightly into what I was just going to post anyway about the upcoming "Technique" posts I plan to do so we'll leave it there.
Hope I've not put you off Don, most folks I've seen do come away with some new distinctions and, if they don't get too frustrated with Don's style, they do have a great day. If you do book him, make it clear what you hope to get out of the course and remind him of that during the day.
Maxx
