Quote:
Originally Posted by mastek
Thats the 1 thing that sucks aabout the ring = traffic. Especially on tourist days.
You have a good point about the M School at VIRi closed track, intense instructions, corner by corner analysis... those all contribute to a great VIR experience.
However, if your doing 8:30s in a e9xm3 at the ring ... thats fast ....and ur def nota noob. So if you can go to the ring in a private event that limits the amount of people on track = thats the way to go. And if you can get a veteran ring instructor with you = even better.
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The number of people is completely limited. 8 groups of 4 cars with 2 students each.
During the section by section training you are in and out of the car looking at pavement changes, road camber, bumps, curbs, rougher pavement (for traction), crests, off track reference points, etc. You then run that section repeatedly switching order. You only see the other groups when you are turning around to rinse and repeat.
Then with full laps you put it together. They manage very well to limit the amount of overtaking and passing by staggering the groups. Of course a particularly slow group will eventually get lapped depending on breaks and driver changes.
Everything is instructor led. These guys know the 'Ring, even race on it, and have eyes in the back of their heads. The quality of the instruction is at least as good as that at Spartanburg. Their English ain't so bad either. The instructors knew very quickly that this was a repeat trip for me. They were very accommodating and allowed me and another repeater some solo, but still instructor-led, laps on the second day.
Now an instructor-led lap might be a bit of a cheat when you are behind the Instructor. So what they told me was that with some established confidence, say your third or fourth event (which I can understand, you better have a pretty good idea what's coming even if they talk you around -- by the way part of learning the 'Ring in my book is learning a spoken/thought cadence that describes each approach and turn while visualizing the track ahead as if you can see through the ground), they will allow a solo student car to lead the Instructor. VIR/Advanced M School does instructor-led laps but then they require helmets too. No helmets at the 'Ring, then the Germans might be crazy, but I'll bet there's no chance for a student-led lap at VIR.
I think I'll be canceling my VIR trip.
Thanks for the inputs.