[SCOBRAC]

The most important thing you will learn in (or out) of a driving school is the limitations you and your vehicle. They will all teach you proper geometry, braking, turn-in (apex) and exit, how to set a vehicle up for a corner and control a skid. They might teach you how to dirve fast (most do not, some do) But the most important lesson you will learn is how to slow down. Not how to slow your car, but how to slow the process to a controllable rate and process each piece of information you have available to you. By doing this, with practice, you will learn to drive fast.


The one thing every good instructor should teach you is that he most important instrument you have in a car is between your ears. Alchol, ego and impatience are killers. The second most useful thing is time. Two days of instruction is not enough. It is a good start but the biggest mistake you can make is attending a school and coming away believing you are a good driver. Few schools teach you how to crash. Most tell you that in the event of a crash you must try to relax. That's the number one reason drunks are often less injured than the people thy hit.

In my opinion no driving lesson is complete without a crash course. I remember once in an ITS race at Sears Point, our car was being rented by a very talented off-road racer who wanted to learn road racing. The car was pretty unfamilliar to him and for whatever reason he ended up coming out of turn 8 and into a berm. He went over once and was able to keep the car facing the direction of traffic, and avoided all the other cars. It was a pretty cool looking flip. Long story short, he pretty much totalled the car. We asked him what he was thinking about while he was rolling, he said simply "landing it". Not crashing, he thought he could land the car and keep going. The thing is, he almost did.

It was his presence of mind and experiene that kept him from panicing hitting anyone else, as well as almost being able to drive out of the situation. It's that kind of experience that you can only get from doing.