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Originally Posted by garek
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Thanks for the link--I read through the thread. Sounds like you had a great time, too. I was tempted to do the Scuderia as well, but was limited to two cars and wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I passed up the 458 opportunity.
Interesting how your thread turned into a bit of a beat up on the instructor party. I agree that asking you to short-shift at 6000rpm is silly--these cars do have rev-limiters, after all--but, other than that, I would defend the instructors. I think a lot of their clientele is made of thrill seekers with no prior high performance driving experience, or even worse, bachelor party groups composed of a bunch of yahoos bent on proving to each other how big their penises are.
The capital investment made by this outfit is obviously enormous. They change the cars out yearly, which is likely a huge depreciation hit--who wants to buy a one-year old Ferrari or Lambo with 25-30k hard track miles on its clock? And they've had enough incidents or close-calls that the cars are now outfitted with a passenger/instructor brake pedal.
I've got enough HPDE experience now that I'm running in high intermediate, but I wouldn't have the audacity to tell an instructor who happens to be a pro driver to STFU when I'm driving a $300,000 car I've never driven before on a course I've never driven before. It just makes sense to keep your ears open and listen to their instruction--show them you're smooth and willing to listen, and they show you the fast way around the track. In fact, one of the guys there said that the hotdog clients who hop in the cars and go full tilt on lap one end up being a slow, sloppy mess on lap 5 or 7...
Thanks for pointing me to your writeup--loved the videos!
