BlueAdder
11-07-2016, 02:03 PM
I attended the Bondurant GPR-4 (Gran Prix Racing 4 days) last week and it was a total blast.
It's quite expensive but since I bought the ACR this year, I got $1000 off and ended up paying some $4300 (with $300 worth of insurance) for the 4 days. It's actually on par with the Ford Racing school which is about that amount for 3 days.
If you do the 4 day course, you get to drive a Viper TA 2.0 for the first 3 days and a little Mazda race car for the last.
I got to Chandler, AZ on the Sunday and drove to the track on Monday morning at 7:45AM or so. The track was 6 min from the hotel (basically one exit away on Hwy 10) which was convenient.
As you get to the race track you are welcome with this view:
21070 21071
Of course, you don't get to drive that thing but it's still pretty sweet to look at.
There's also another ACR (Non Extreme).
The first thing we did was to introduce ourselves and then we visited the premises. They have a cool little museum, which is quite nice to see.
Day 1 is pretty much all about car control, braking, accident avoidance and skid car.
My favorite (and I guess every one else's in the group) was the skid car:
21072
It's pretty damn sweet and a lot of fun. I did that last year at the ST Octane Academy but it was a FWD and not a RWD, which is a little easier and more fun.
Day 2 & 3 are mostly on track with the Viper and that was great. Exhausting but I loved it.
The focus of the course are Vision and car balance. Vision is probably the bigger aspect of the class and now I understand why.
Coming off motorcycle racing, I was already looking through corners but I didn't realize that you have to look even further in most cases.
There are a lot of cones scattered all over the track. Some are for braking point, some for apex, turning point and exit point. Interestingly, they use two cones for the Apex so that you can see where your car you should pointed at when you reach that point.
They had us practice heel & toe downshifting, which caused some troubles to a few guys but overall everyone did OK. I practice H&T all the time when I commute or whatever so it wasn't too difficult for me but my technique isn't that great on the Viper and I need to correct it. As a matter of fact, my flawed technique caused me to be on the brakes and the accelerator at the same time while braking hard at the end of the straight, which had a few of my hair go a little whiter than they already are :D
The instructors do a lead and follow initially and then you drive solo for a while. Then, the guy hops in and you drive him around for a few laps (2-3) and then he tells you what you can work on. He shows you on the track map where you kind of suck and then he drives you around for 2 or 3 laps and shows you what he meant. That was awesome (and humbling) since not only the dude will tell you what to do and he will then show you what to do. I really liked those sessions and it made me improve quite a bit where I was struggling.
I never pushed myself to the limits because I wanted to work on the vision and the techniques and also because I didn't want to wreck the Viper or the Mazda. I didn't spin the cars and didn't go off either but I did get a few slides here and there, to remind me to keep my ego in check and to remind me that I'm not that good a driver. The Viper is actually very forgiving where the Mazda will punish you if you don't respect it.
At the end of Day 3, I had car #26 and I think I took good care of it.
21073
Day 4 was all about the open wheel car.
21074
Those are a ton of fun!
I think I enjoyed driving that thing even more than the Viper.
It's uncomfortable, it's really loud, it stinks, flames come out of the exhaust but it's fantastic to drive. It's like a Go Kart on steroids...
There no traction control, nor stability control. No ABS, no power steering and the stick shift is tiny and the throws are ridiculously short. That thing is glued to the track once the tires are warm but if you overdo it, it will snap so fast that you won't have time to say "Oh snap!" before you spin. A few guys spun but nothing major. I had a couple slides but I managed to keep those at the threshold of grip and the car didn't make me regret it.
That last day was pretty interesting because for one, it started to rain as I left the hotel. I was bummed out and everyone else was because we thought that we wouldn't be able to drive the Mazda. So, instead of the Mazda, we drove the Vipers for a while and essentially, we dried the track. The rain stopped anyway and the sun showed up. By 10AM or so, the track was dry enough and we took the Mazdas out. We practiced on the Oval for a while, to get a feel of the car, how it shifts, brakes etc...
Then they opened the track...
Towards the middle of the afternoon, I spotted a yellow cloud a few miles away and while I wasn't worried about it, I didn't know what it was.
Well, it turned out to be a sand storm and it cut our 4th session short and we had to put the cars back into the garage at about 3PM. As soon as the sand storm ended, a thunderstorm started and it rains very heavily for awhile. The storm was bad enough to delay most planes, mine included :mad:
I ended up being back in California by 11PM and the wife wasn't amused.
All in all, if anyone on here can do this, they definitely should.
Todd posted an excellent report about the ACR class and I am considering going but probably next year, unless I do another GPR-4 and hone my skills.
As soon as I have the necessary mileage on the ACR, I'll track it as much as time and finances allows. I'm really looking forward to driving the Viper at the track and according to the instructors, it will be easier with the ACR-E than with the TA that they provide :D
Great program! I'm really glad to have done it.
It's quite expensive but since I bought the ACR this year, I got $1000 off and ended up paying some $4300 (with $300 worth of insurance) for the 4 days. It's actually on par with the Ford Racing school which is about that amount for 3 days.
If you do the 4 day course, you get to drive a Viper TA 2.0 for the first 3 days and a little Mazda race car for the last.
I got to Chandler, AZ on the Sunday and drove to the track on Monday morning at 7:45AM or so. The track was 6 min from the hotel (basically one exit away on Hwy 10) which was convenient.
As you get to the race track you are welcome with this view:
21070 21071
Of course, you don't get to drive that thing but it's still pretty sweet to look at.
There's also another ACR (Non Extreme).
The first thing we did was to introduce ourselves and then we visited the premises. They have a cool little museum, which is quite nice to see.
Day 1 is pretty much all about car control, braking, accident avoidance and skid car.
My favorite (and I guess every one else's in the group) was the skid car:
21072
It's pretty damn sweet and a lot of fun. I did that last year at the ST Octane Academy but it was a FWD and not a RWD, which is a little easier and more fun.
Day 2 & 3 are mostly on track with the Viper and that was great. Exhausting but I loved it.
The focus of the course are Vision and car balance. Vision is probably the bigger aspect of the class and now I understand why.
Coming off motorcycle racing, I was already looking through corners but I didn't realize that you have to look even further in most cases.
There are a lot of cones scattered all over the track. Some are for braking point, some for apex, turning point and exit point. Interestingly, they use two cones for the Apex so that you can see where your car you should pointed at when you reach that point.
They had us practice heel & toe downshifting, which caused some troubles to a few guys but overall everyone did OK. I practice H&T all the time when I commute or whatever so it wasn't too difficult for me but my technique isn't that great on the Viper and I need to correct it. As a matter of fact, my flawed technique caused me to be on the brakes and the accelerator at the same time while braking hard at the end of the straight, which had a few of my hair go a little whiter than they already are :D
The instructors do a lead and follow initially and then you drive solo for a while. Then, the guy hops in and you drive him around for a few laps (2-3) and then he tells you what you can work on. He shows you on the track map where you kind of suck and then he drives you around for 2 or 3 laps and shows you what he meant. That was awesome (and humbling) since not only the dude will tell you what to do and he will then show you what to do. I really liked those sessions and it made me improve quite a bit where I was struggling.
I never pushed myself to the limits because I wanted to work on the vision and the techniques and also because I didn't want to wreck the Viper or the Mazda. I didn't spin the cars and didn't go off either but I did get a few slides here and there, to remind me to keep my ego in check and to remind me that I'm not that good a driver. The Viper is actually very forgiving where the Mazda will punish you if you don't respect it.
At the end of Day 3, I had car #26 and I think I took good care of it.
21073
Day 4 was all about the open wheel car.
21074
Those are a ton of fun!
I think I enjoyed driving that thing even more than the Viper.
It's uncomfortable, it's really loud, it stinks, flames come out of the exhaust but it's fantastic to drive. It's like a Go Kart on steroids...
There no traction control, nor stability control. No ABS, no power steering and the stick shift is tiny and the throws are ridiculously short. That thing is glued to the track once the tires are warm but if you overdo it, it will snap so fast that you won't have time to say "Oh snap!" before you spin. A few guys spun but nothing major. I had a couple slides but I managed to keep those at the threshold of grip and the car didn't make me regret it.
That last day was pretty interesting because for one, it started to rain as I left the hotel. I was bummed out and everyone else was because we thought that we wouldn't be able to drive the Mazda. So, instead of the Mazda, we drove the Vipers for a while and essentially, we dried the track. The rain stopped anyway and the sun showed up. By 10AM or so, the track was dry enough and we took the Mazdas out. We practiced on the Oval for a while, to get a feel of the car, how it shifts, brakes etc...
Then they opened the track...
Towards the middle of the afternoon, I spotted a yellow cloud a few miles away and while I wasn't worried about it, I didn't know what it was.
Well, it turned out to be a sand storm and it cut our 4th session short and we had to put the cars back into the garage at about 3PM. As soon as the sand storm ended, a thunderstorm started and it rains very heavily for awhile. The storm was bad enough to delay most planes, mine included :mad:
I ended up being back in California by 11PM and the wife wasn't amused.
All in all, if anyone on here can do this, they definitely should.
Todd posted an excellent report about the ACR class and I am considering going but probably next year, unless I do another GPR-4 and hone my skills.
As soon as I have the necessary mileage on the ACR, I'll track it as much as time and finances allows. I'm really looking forward to driving the Viper at the track and according to the instructors, it will be easier with the ACR-E than with the TA that they provide :D
Great program! I'm really glad to have done it.