rec.autos.simulators

First, call them at 1-800-529-BUCK and request their brochure.  They
have 1 and 2 day courses that are less than the 3 day deal.  On the
first day of class they had a lot of people there that were doing the 1
day course;  less on the 2nd day;  and only a few of us left on Sunday
(that's when we got to do the passing and running side by side with the
other people in the class - very hard to resist the urge to swap a
little paint!).
They are all very professional there.  The emphasis is on learning.
They want you to go as fast as your ability will allow.  So in that
respect, its a little like jumping through hoops - you do what they want
to see you do ie. run on the line consistently, and they let you pick up
the pace until you miss the line or get a little wild.  Then they slow
you down a little until you run a couple more laps on the preferred line
and then, get back in it!  The first day was tougher than the rest,
because you're trying to do well, go fast, watch the guages, all without
getting ripped at the bonehead in front of you for going WAY too slow
and not getting ripped at the flagman for not moving him over!  Then
they start to separate the men from the boys ;) and group the faster
people with similarly paced drivers.  Then the fun begins because its an
effort to make up track position to gain on the guy in front of you, all
the while trying desperately to hit every mark and throttle point so
they don't slow you down.  As you go lap after lap gaining on your
classmate or buddy, you are absolutely beside yourself when you push
hard enough to get the flagman to move him over or even better, is if he
then turns it up, so it gets even harder! (I had 2 friends there with me
and luckily we all got paired into the fastest group).
They put an instructor in the car (you are the passenger) on the first
set of laps, then you swap seats and give it a try with him poking at
the wheel when you stray off the line.  Then if you weren't completely
out of it, he gets out, and it was like my first solo in an airplane;
here we go!  Then its more rotations of laps;  they always have an
instructor that can get in and ride with you if you want some one on one
instruction.  I highly recommend this at least once after you've turned
a couple of rotations, because you're inevitably missing something and
they can point you in the right direction.
They also have what is called HOT LAPS.  This is where Randy Baker puts
you in one of the cars or the Super truck and he takes you around at
full race speed for a few laps.  This was perfect for my wife as she
wanted to see what it was like without the huge monetary outlay.

All in all a weekend well worth the cost.  They just started Bristol
too, so we'll have to check that out.
Later.

They are REAL Winston Cup cars, probably former WC cars that were sold
or ended up their life as show cars.  I don't know for sure their exact
origins, only because I never asked, but they are full-on WC cars.  They
have all the same adjustments and suspension etc.etc. as the cars you
see on Sunday.  They are the 3400 lb, 358 cid cars.  If you have been to
a NASCAR race and seen WC cars up close, you'll know that these cars
look, smell, sound and feel, just like they're supposed too.  In my
discussions with Randy Baker about the cars, there were some differences
from the race ready WC cars.  After he told me what they were, it was
easy to see why they did it.  First, the engine is detuned;  to between
450 and 500 hp, he said.  This was for a couple of reasons.  Apparently,
the 700+ hp monsters that win on Sunday are much more easily broken if
not handled properly, they are MUCH more expensive to keep up, and they
would also make the whole situation a lot more dangerous for the
students who,  put bluntly, can't handle the horsepower, myself
included.  I think with more track time, sure I could handle the hp, but
only after a lot of practice.  The impression you get from watching on
Sunday and driving the sim is that "hey, I could do that".  The truth
is, sure, you could do that, but only with a lot of practice.  I'm an
airline pilot and I can liken it to my first experience with small
airplanes.  When I thought I was good at that, I found out that flying a
high performance jet was totally a new ballgame.  Not impossible, just
harder and requiring lots of practice.  You will find the Racing school
experience awesome.  You will NOT feel like you are being held back by
the limitations of the engine, trust me.  You will be held back more on
your own ability than anything else.  There were seasoned late model
stocks drivers in my class and they had the same learning curve I did.
Its just THAT different from anything else.
Definitely manual transmissions!  You can't attend the school unless you
can drive a stick.  If you get the chance, get some practice with an
older truck manual shifter.  That's how heavy the clutch feels;
definitely not like a new foreign car.  Some people had trouble with it,
but most were able to get the car going without lurching and looking
like an idiot.  Which brings me to the other difference from a
race-ready WC car.  They are using a T-10 transmission, instead of the
Jericho that most of WC is using.  This is because, the Jericho is
tougher to use and less forgiving of mistakes.  He said that the Jericho
was just different enough to make it hard for people to get used to, and
would take away from the actual driving, while you're trying to learn to
shift properly.
Yes, they have both Ford and Chevy cars.  They even have an older
Oldsmobile bodied car.  That is going to change here in the near
future.  Right now they have Dale Jarret's 88 Ford QC T-bird there,
exactly like the one on Sunday.  They worked out a deal to get it
sponsored by Ford Credit and they wanted it painted exactly like DJ's.
Cool if you're a DJ fan, not me.  They would already have a Dupont
Chevrolet but Dupont wouldn't do it with the Lumina body, so the school
is recovering the Chevys with new Monte Carlo bodies soon.  Then they'll
have a JG car.  They were supposed to have a Smokin Joes car but they
said the deal fell through,  BUMMER.  As you probably know, the only
part of the cars that is either Ford or Chevy is the body shell and the
engine.  The cars' engines are true to their bodies.  The chassis are
all very similar.
You don't get to pick which car you drive initially, because they have
the seats bolted in to different height reqirements.  I spent most of my
time in the Fords, bummer, because I'm tall and the seats are further
back, coincidentally.  After you drive for a while, tell*** (he's the
car to student coordinator) which one you like best or want to try, and
he tries to make it happen for you.
One more obvious difference was the that they had cut a small piece out
of the roll cage on the right side to accomodate the other seat.
Yes, same goodyear eagles they race on Sunday with.  Sticky!  

Ahhhh.  the eternal question, how fast did you get to go?
Unfortunately, I can only speculate, because like the cars on Sunday,
there's only a tach, no speedo.  We started timing each other on the
first day, trying to see who was fastest, etc.  And they busted all of
us.  We were definitely not at WC pace that day! ;)  We're obviously not
the first to do it.  They said simply that if the timing and the stop
watches don't go away they were going to shut it all down.  Their
rationale is that if your trying to beat your buddy or your time then
you're not concentrating on the line and learning how to get the beast
around the track properly.  The tach was a good comparison among
drivers.  You can push the button on the tach and read what the last guy
in the car did.  Without the total drive ratio from the engine to the
wheels, we couldn't calculate it either.  We knew the rear-end ratio and
the tire diameter but we didn't know the ratio of 4th gear.  You will
not be disappointed in this area either.  There are times when you feel
that you can go faster and they hold you back for a while, but generally
they see something in your driving that you probably don't.  Because
once it starts to come together and get consistent they let you turn it
up.  This is not a pace-car school where you're stuck going around the
track like mom and dad on a Sunday ride.  The adrenaline rush is
indescribable the first time you go into turn one at The Rock a little
too hard and wash up out of the line and get a little wiggle out of
her!  That'll wake you up.  I'm sure it wasn't the car's fault, I just
blew it.

As you can see by the amount of typing in this reply, you can tell I
love to talk about it.  If any of you *** drivers out there are
planning a trip there, let me know, maybe we'll be at the same class
next year.  We're thinking Atlanta or Bristol!

Later,  Mike
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Go fast, Turn left!       The reason to live!