Instructor stories

[Chrome Horn]

Originally Posted by JClark

Anyone else REALLY get a kick out of making your passengers sick? Not necessarily puking, but when people get out and hit the ground on all fours, I always get a good laugh.

Wow, I sure don't. Exactly the opposite.

[jtower]

Originally Posted by AMFTime

I've brought a ridiculous built-out Audi S4 turning ~535 rwhp

add the power going to the front wheels and that IS a monster!

[Conechaser]

Originally Posted by JClark

Anyone else REALLY get a kick out of making your passengers sick? Not necessarily puking, but when people get out and hit the ground on all fours, I always get a good laugh.

Sounds like someone else needs to go play with NASA/PCA/whatever.

OR

Maybe you'll be MY instructor at O'fest?

[AMFTime]

Originally Posted by jtower

add the power going to the front wheels and that IS a monster!

As a friend put it, "a fat understeering pig." The motor ate trannies, too. Still, very fast. But it redefined "undependable." Was my brother's first race car, he suckered me into taking it off his hands, and a few weeks later, I made him take it back. Now he's got an E30 and I've got an E36, and life is good.

[yoda888]

Story from a student...

Was up at Thill a couple of years back in my GSR with an ITR JDM suspension. It was a Thill event, so you would get 'random' instructors each time you went to grid in your run group.

My instructor throughout the day (guess I didn't scare the crap out of him in my first session and made a good impression on him) was a guy that drives a Z3 convert. Really nice guy and great instructor.

By my third session of the day, I'm going at a pretty good clip and he's talking about moving me up to the next group, etc... We'll we're coming down the front straight and approaching the turn (and at this point of the day, I'm braking later and later into each zone) and I lift off the gas. He proceeds to yell "WHY ARE YOU LIFTING AND BRAKING SO EARLY!?" and is looking at me while I'm trying to concentrate and not cook the turn. Then it dawns on him "do you have brake fade?" and I say "yup," "oh, ok...let's slow it down for a couple of laps then..."

On a side note, I miss that car. For a FWD car, it handled really really neutral with the JDM ITR suspension. It wasn't obnoxious at all in terms of harshness, etc. And when the VTEC and 2nd intake kicked in, it sounded GREAT. Eventually sold it cause I drove it so rarely and the insurance was killer on it.

[bmwdirtracer]

Damn near thirty years ago, damn I'm old:

I was a race and skid control instructor for Brands Hatch Racing School, and we took the whole school to Mallory Park, to do a special "corporate day". Sir Stirling Moss was the guest instructor, and spent most of the day giving rides in our two seat Sports 2000, while we ordinary folk thrashed around in Chrysler Sunbeams. At one point, Stirling was driving a Sunbeam, and I was giving a pretty young thing a ride in the Lola. We came upon the legend's Sunbeam, and he gave me a gentlemanly point-by. Half a lap later, we returned to the pits, the young lady removed her helmet. She was breathing hard, and bright red in the face.

She said, gasping:" You just passed Stirling Moss!.......I just had an orgasm!

[Evergreen Dan]

Originally Posted by Chrome Horn

Somehow (cough cough) he was granted a racing license, despite NO instructors wanting to ride with him...

What's the surprising part?

'Bout time, BTW. You say you have all these great stories, and then keep us waiting for days for the goods. You delivered.

[BobWright]

Originally Posted by bmwdirtracer

She said, gasping:" You just passed Stirling Moss!.......I just had an orgasm!

Ummm....Was it good for you too?......

[Chrome Horn]

Originally Posted by Evergreen Dan

What's the surprising part?

'Bout time, BTW. You say you have all these great stories, and then keep us waiting for days for the goods. You delivered.

Hahaha! Sorry it took so long. I have more....

[JClark]

Originally Posted by Chrome Horn

Wow, I sure don't. Exactly the opposite.

Originally Posted by Conechaser

Sounds like someone else needs to go play with NASA/PCA/whatever.

OR

Maybe you'll be MY instructor at O'fest?

NASA maybe, PCA definitely not.



Maybe I should preface that with a story. Big time drag racing tough guy comes to the track to get his first taste of road racing. The guy drives a 8 second something-or-other every weekend and thinks real race tracks are a joke. He gets in, and makes some comment like "you arent going to drive like a pussy, are you?" So I proceed to not drive like a pussy. I had a little chuckle when he needed to sit down.

[Evergreen Dan]

I had been stuggling with my chatterbox all weekend, trying different configurations of looping the cord and holding my head just so. At first, I thought the student just didn't have the speaker right by his ear. I would be wiggling the plug and repeating my mantra ("Can you hear me?") all throughout the demo ride. I was driving a bit off my pace to keep it smooth, but, as it was an instructor run group, I was still going at a good clip.

I was busy pointing out flagging stations and reference marks for the line, thinking about how he had been driving and editting my commentary to the minimum so that he would remember it. I was doing the one throttle & steering input per turn thing to help him smooth out his foot and keep the ride comfy.

He had been quiet for a bit. Approaching the braking point at the carousel at LCMT:

Me: Are you OK?
Him: Gumpfstuer. Luken staticky bits.
Me: Are you OK?
Him: Leskspurever. Statik frumpenwords!
I give him the "thumbs up?" sign as I start braking hard.
He replies with the doubled-handed enthusastic "thumbs down."

Checker comes out. I've never driven smoother back to the pits.

Maybe I should require students to run with their visor down when they're in my car....

[Chrome Horn]

Only 2 times I have ever been truly scared in students' cars, both at TWS:

-going CCW in a Boxster S, intermediate student, bad habit of fully lifting just as he turned down the banking into T1; I kept coaching against this, saying he needed to be on at least some throttle to stabilize the car; he started to do it right, then seemed to forget on one lap when we were coming in at a much faster pace due to his excellent exit from T15; I knew we would spin if he lifted at this speed....and we did, doing full rotations down the banking & into the infield grass just after pit out; my fear was that we would catch a tire on the moist soil & flip; however, he followed my "both feet in" yells and did a decent job of countersteering so that one rear tire caught...I could feel the car lift slightly....and then it came back down, rolling backwards, the frong wheels straight.

-going CW in a then-brand-new C6 Z06, advanced driver, his first weekend with the car, no seats/harnesses/roll protection; he made an excellent exit from 2-1 onto the main straight, and this car is so fast I looked over and saw an indicated 175 on the speedometer; early C6 Z06's were VERY tail happy & twitchy, and this guy was waiting way too long to brake; I was very concerned that he would brake too late too hard as we came off the banking at 175mph, and we'd spin right into something very immoveable, w/o any protection; thankfully, as I began to speak to him, he sensed the same thing, and altered his line to a much lower one, giving him a longer and flatter braking zone; the car was very twitchy, but he kept control.....and started braking noticeably earlier after that!

[Z3SpdDmn]

Originally Posted by bmwdirtracer

Damn near thirty years ago, damn I'm old:

I was a race and skid control instructor for Brands Hatch Racing School, and we took the whole school to Mallory Park, to do a special "corporate day". Sir Stirling Moss was the guest instructor, and spent most of the day giving rides in our two seat Sports 2000, while we ordinary folk thrashed around in Chrysler Sunbeams. At one point, Stirling was driving a Sunbeam, and I was giving a pretty young thing a ride in the Lola. We came upon the legend's Sunbeam, and he gave me a gentlemanly point-by. Half a lap later, we returned to the pits, the young lady removed her helmet. She was breathing hard, and bright red in the face.

She said, gasping:" You just passed Stirling Moss!.......I just had an orgasm!

Come on... Seriously. If anyone can top this story, they deserve a medal!!

[Chrome Horn]

Originally Posted by Z3SpdDmn

Come on... Seriously. If anyone can top this story, they deserve a medal!!

Unless she was faking it.

[Damon in STL]

Nope....can't top that one.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch rents GIR for an "Advertiser Appreciation Day" each year. It's basically a 1/2 day of open track for instructors in the morning, a catered lunch and in the afternoon the advertisers get paired with an instructor for the second half of the day. Many of the people who come out have never been on track before. And, many have high end cars. Some were people who work for the advertiser and were lucky enough to get to use the free track time in their personal cars. On this particular day we randomly assigned instructors to drivers without looking at what types of car each was driving.

I was kinda bumming since I'd gotten paired with a hopped up '90s Mustang show car and a early 944 P-car. But, I was okay with it. After checking out the drivers/cars I was assigned, another instructor approached me asking if I wanted to switch students. I asked what kind of experience each had and the instructor said "None". But, he went on "...they are both really nice guys....I think you would have fun!" So, then I asked "...what kind of cars are they driving?" The instructor told me one was a new GT40 that had been modified and was putting out over 750 HP. He wanted to keep it. And, the one he wanted to "let me have..." was the 750+ HP Dodge Viper show car with the six LCD Screens and the 5000 watt stereo. I respectfully declined. Telling him it would probably be best for "consistency" for him to stay in the two high powered cars.

Damon in STL

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by Z3SpdDmn

Come on... Seriously. If anyone can top this story, they deserve a medal!!

Can't top it, but this is probably along the same vein and safe to tell now...

We have an instructor with some connections in the model industry and at a California Speedway school, being so close to the glitz and glam of Hollywood and all, a few models were invited and came out to the event. The chief instructor had a stock M3 that I wanted to get a ride in, but he took one of the attractive model out first in the session. When he came back, I was going to hop in the passenger seat, he promptly stopped me...

And pointed to a nice wet spot on the leather seat.

[Murph]

Originally Posted by The HACK

We have an instructor with some connections in the model industry

Possibly a slight understatement?

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by Murph

Possibly a slight understatement?

[doeboy]

Originally Posted by The HACK

Can't top it, but this is probably along the same vein and safe to tell now...

We have an instructor with some connections in the model industry and at a California Speedway school, being so close to the glitz and glam of Hollywood and all, a few models were invited and came out to the event. The chief instructor had a stock M3 that I wanted to get a ride in, but he took one of the attractive model out first in the session. When he came back, I was going to hop in the passenger seat, he promptly stopped me...

And pointed to a nice wet spot on the leather seat.

I think you might be getting some people and years events mixed up. And I don't think the M3 was exactly "stock".

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by doeboy

I think you might be getting some people and years events mixed up. And I don't think the M3 was exactly "stock".

Done on purpose to protect the innocent...

[genesismachine]

On my first track day, my instructor took me out for the first session. Man, he had a million things to suggest, and chatted my ear off. I started to fix a lot of the 'thought' problems like not leaving your hand on the shifter, always holding at 9-3, etc... but as far as driving went, I was all over the place. I mean I was BAD. Looking back, I have no idea how he stayed in my car

Anyways, towards the end of the day, my brakes were fading, which just made everything 10x messier since now all of the brake points were different, my pedal was sinking to the floor for a lot of the braking zones. It was just getting ugly, and I ended up having sudden brake fade in one braking zone where the pedal was good good good ... and then suddenly shot to the floor. I went straight off track like I was supposed to

But anyways, my instructor went from really talkative to NOTHING. I mean in our last session, I don't think he said a single word. He was probably terrified out of his mind

But then I came back the second year, and first HPDE of the year, my instructor loved me, saying that I was better than some of the guys who've been out 11 times with him Talk about an ego-booster

[Evergreen Dan]

This isn't so much a funny story, but a recount of a very memorable experience I had as a student. I was an intermediate drivers at the Glen and my instructor was driving his stock Corvette. He was clearly very fast and was a super nice guy as well. He shared his instructor garage spot with me (generous) and I had a nice time chatting with his wife and family. We all enjoyed laughing at the Porsche driver who pulled into "my" spot and proceeded to file his new brake pads rough for the DE.

The biggest improvement he did for me was just to wave his hand forward, in the universal "squeeze it all on" gesture. I'd be in the outer loop (T5) and out would come "the hand." I'd be terrified that the car wouldn't stick, but he knew better. I must have gained a good 5 seconds from him just encouraging me to go faster where I my robin-sized eggs wouldn't otherwise let me.

[///Madman]

Originally Posted by yoda888

Story from a student...

Was up at Thill a couple of years back in my GSR with an ITR JDM suspension. It was a Thill event, so you would get 'random' instructors each time you went to grid in your run group.

My instructor throughout the day (guess I didn't scare the crap out of him in my first session and made a good impression on him) was a guy that drives a Z3 convert. Really nice guy and great instructor.

By my third session of the day, I'm going at a pretty good clip and he's talking about moving me up to the next group, etc... We'll we're coming down the front straight and approaching the turn (and at this point of the day, I'm braking later and later into each zone) and I lift off the gas. He proceeds to yell "WHY ARE YOU LIFTING AND BRAKING SO EARLY!?" and is looking at me while I'm trying to concentrate and not cook the turn. Then it dawns on him "do you have brake fade?" and I say "yup," "oh, ok...let's slow it down for a couple of laps then..."

On a side note, I miss that car. For a FWD car, it handled really really neutral with the JDM ITR suspension. It wasn't obnoxious at all in terms of harshness, etc. And when the VTEC and 2nd intake kicked in, it sounded GREAT. Eventually sold it cause I drove it so rarely and the insurance was killer on it.

Hmmm? What color was the Z3 vert? I used to instruct at the Thunderhill Street School some years back and drive an Imola Red M Roadster. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me because I think I would remember that exchange.

[einzlr]

Hey guys, i'm just popping in here to let y'all know how much I'm enjoying reading all your stories (although I haven't read the entire thread yet). I've been trying for a while now to save up for a HPDE event. I was thinking no way do I ever want an instructor like JClark... until I read his backstory lol. I'm the cooperative, wants-to-learn type student, not the arrogant I-know-better-than-you type, so I guess I'm not worried


Edit: lol and although I know already that driving on the track will be a huge rush, I am not planning on leaving a wet spot on the seat

[Z3SpdDmn]

Originally Posted by The HACK

And pointed to a nice wet spot on the leather seat.

I guess you're not suggesting he scared the piss out of her