As a Christmas and birthday present my girlfriend is sending me to the 2 day Porsche Sport Driving School! A bunch of Porsches and the Barber Motorsports Park has got to be pretty close to auto nirvana. I watched one of the videos on you tube about it and Hurly Haywood is doing a hot lap around the track in a Cayman, talking about how he loves mid engine cars and how he used to race 914s and how much he loves driving them. Has anyone on here done this driving school? Any advice going in?

Nice gift!

tuning the nut behind the wheel will make the most significant improvement of any other modification. it will also help you get the most out of any future modifications.

get a good night sleep before each day. hydrate the day before. read the booklet a few weeks before going to the school. give the new concepts time to smolder in the back of your mind.
buy a $10 head sock (balaclava) especially if renting a helmet!

Thanks! She really out did herself this time!

Thanks for the info. I really want to make sure I get the most out of it. Good call on the head sock. I'm going first month in feb. so no danger of getting to hot.

Most of all........have FUN!!!!

Barber is a beautiful track..
Have you ever done a DE? The experience will wear you out.

Should be a great experience, and is a great gift. I thought "not bolt on" and figured it was her in the car. Hoped for a pic of that...
(have you ever seen the "Everybody wants one" Porsche poster?)

She sounds like a keeper!

Take your time and get the line first before you build speed.
Don't scare the guy in the right seat, it won't end well.
Relax.
As others have said it can be exhausting and dehydrating, be sure to get in a little bit of down time when you can and watch from grandstands if possible.
Be sure to ride with some instructors and watch how they manipulate the car.
Try to navigate the course while giving the car the least amount of input on all of the controls.
Abandon all your bad habits ye who enter here.
Smooth, smooth, SMOOTH!

Have fun!

Ha Ha just googled the poster. made me think of the hagerty insurance commercial. Never done a DE so I'm a little intimidated by it but hopefully that just means I won't take it too lightly.

I'll third that

Good info. Thanks man!

Uh oh...now your in trouble.... This is the beginning of the end of all your money. Look at your bank account....it will never have that much money in it again!

Track driving is an addiction that can be more expensive than any drug habit. You will have an absolute blast, and will want to go again. You will want to do start doing DE's, but will soon learn that your 914 is actually slow compared to the cars you drove at the school, so you will soon either start upgrading your car, or looking to get another track-only car. Then comes upgrading that car, new stickier tires, the trailer, tow vehicle, etc. etc. etc.....

Sorry...you're now toast. Ask me how I know...

Welcome to the insanity. And don't say you weren't warned....

Have fun!!

Haha I've been a member here for long enough to know you have a pretty bad case of the Trackitus. I'm just hoping some people are more susceptible to it than others. I hear there is no cure and treatment is very expensive.

I agree with what they said,, start slow and learn the line... at slower speeds the line doesn't always make sense..at speed it will... when you nail it you'll know... its like hitting that 300 yard drive,,, straight... you'll know it..

+1

I don't know about Barber, but hopefully they have some basic car exercises before they take you out on the track.

Things like skid pads and brake exercises teach you some of the things that aren't intuitive, but very important.

And after the course get out their autoxing so that you accumulate lots of seat time.