Bealo - Book an Expert MSV trackday and il give the number of some people i know.
They are full time MSV, PalmerSport, Mercedes World, Private instructors and they are excellent. They all race and will tailor the day to your needs rather than a set agenda like at Palmersport itself!!
Which driver training course?????
Yes mate, that was for you 
Thanks, I'll look into that. The other obvious option closer to home (in terms of the forum) is Maxx. Malcolm Edeson has been racing (and winning) for years in many levels of motorsport and should help anyone that is serious about squeezing the most out of their cars. He scared me at Cadwell. Not many people can do that
Thanks, I'll look into that. The other obvious option closer to home (in terms of the forum) is Maxx. Malcolm Edeson has been racing (and winning) for years in many levels of motorsport and should help anyone that is serious about squeezing the most out of their cars. He scared me at Cadwell. Not many people can do that
Sorry for the delay in posting here, did I really scare you Stuartstuart wrote:Yes mate, that was for you
Thanks, I'll look into that. The other obvious option closer to home (in terms of the forum) is Maxx. Malcolm Edeson has been racing (and winning) for years in many levels of motorsport and should help anyone that is serious about squeezing the most out of their cars. He scared me at Cadwell. Not many people can do that
surely not LOLAlways happy to speak to anyone on here about driver training, I don't really do the Andy Walsh/Don Plamer/CAT exercise based days much, I've done the odd one of two for specific drivers and have done them lots in the past but it's generally in-car and on-track stuff I do these days along with loads of other stuff around race driver coaching and such (i.e. none instruction).
Those courses are useful, i've done them (well. apart from CAT) and have put many drivers on them but it really depends what you're looking for. They give the driver more 'data' and, providing the driver is able to call upon that data when he's on track and reference it with what is going on then it's going to be a benefit but it generally doesn't just 'happen'.
Bit involved to go into fully but essentially, in order to take say Turn 1 at Snetterton at faster than you currently do you need 3 things, instruction (telling you WHAT to do), information/explanation (WHY you do it and WHY it works/is better) and experience (what it FEELS like). You need all 3 to make a meaningful/lasting piece of data.
Whenever you approach and run through Turn 1 you are using 'data', information that you have gained from almost everything you have ever done on any track or read about any driving technique .. and of course previous experience whether good or bad/valid of invalid.
However, as you approach T1 you are likely to be 'thinking' about where you can get away with braking at, 'thinking' about and focusing on where you need to turn in, then looking at and forcing the car to the apex, then 'thinking' about where you get on the power and where you exit.
So, where is there room to 'think' about what you learnt on a recent exercise based day? thing is there is very little 'room' to think about anything else as there is only so much your conscious 'thinking' mind can process. Thing is all this stuff is in the database and your subsconcious can reference it, process ALL of it, rationalise it and orchestrate the motor skills required to perform it in a fraction of a second, in fact probably millions of time a second.
So, all you need do is go out there and not think and you'll be quicker right? well, no, not quite, you need to think about what you are doing, how stuff you know or have learnt 'might' relate to it (doesn't always need to be correct). You then have to be prepared to experiment a little and ... god forbid, actually drive a bit slower than you know you are capable of
Get into a rhythm that doesn't see you having to stand the car on it's nose to stop it, that doesn't mean you only make the apex 2 out of every 3 laps etc. etc. and switch your focus to 'awareness' as opposed to 'concentration'. Be aware of what the back of the car is doing, what effect adding the power is doing, whether you are getting understeer, whether the car is pointing pretty much in the direction you want to travel when you add the power etc. etc.
By doing exercise based training you will defintely get better at .. doing exercise based training but only if you can reference and adapt it to track driving will it really help. Where it 'can' help is if you do drive with the subconcious it will be used in the 'processing' that occurs.
Instructors generally get you to do things that a) you hadn't thought of and b) would be a bit uncomfortable for you to try yourself. Even with the Andy Walsh skills you've learnt to control a car with one-finger at 80mph would you really try this at T1 at Snett?
Sorry, ran on way too long. Just some food for thought.
Maxx
True, however, for those that dont understand the basics, such as the system of car control and how a tyre works and what happens to a tyre when taking a corner at high speed, the one day courses can be a great introduction, esp any car control based course, I have don numerous driver trg days, but as you say you reach a threshold where you want to progress, to say your fav track. I have hired instructors for 20/30 sessions and have not been impressed, seems there more worried about you not crashing and such teach you a "wet line" (well this happened to me any way). What I am going to do next, is hire a independent coach/teacher for the day and at a track event, so you get a real one to one based training day. OK so it may be a bit more expensive, but as you say Maxx it will be more beneficial to push your self further at your fav track.
But drivers most know the basic system of car control in order to achieve the above, this is my opinion.
But drivers most know the basic system of car control in order to achieve the above, this is my opinion.
Sonny,
Sorry I never got back on this, I posted it quite late one night after <cough> a night out <cough> and i'd sort of forgotten about it. Used to get an email when had replies here but it seems to have broken.
Am just sat at Heathrow waiting to fly off the Bahrain (I know, I know, lucky bar stud, escaping the snow etc. but will be working hard!) but now I have remembered this will pop back when I get back and comment further.
Maxx
Sorry I never got back on this, I posted it quite late one night after <cough> a night out <cough>
and i'd sort of forgotten about it. Used to get an email when had replies here but it seems to have broken.Am just sat at Heathrow waiting to fly off the Bahrain (I know, I know, lucky bar stud, escaping the snow etc. but will be working hard!) but now I have remembered this will pop back when I get back and comment further.
Maxx