review: Russel Test Drive @ Sears Point
07-30-2003 | 01:17 AM
#1
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Joined: May 2003
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From: Vegas baby!!
first and foremost, this is the coolest birthday gift I've ever received! big thanks to the momma for forking out five Ben Franklins so I could go tear it up at Sears Point today.
ok, arrive at 7:30 am, they fit you in a full-body cotton racing suit and helmet. we sit in a room, are briefed for about 15 minutes then watch a video of a driver doing heel-n-toe downshifts. the video taken from just in front of the drivers seat (as well as a few other angles; gear shift, etc.) and gives a very good idea of how to do heel-n-toe. pretty straight-forward actually.
as soon as the video is done, another very short briefing then then we go out to the track. we are paired off according to height, divided into groups A and B and group A gets in the little open-wheel, rear-engined race car (2L motor from what I remember). plenty for what we're doing today.
we're given a brief run-down of everything then it's "fire 'em up!" I was thinking we'd have an hour or so of theory and technique, but nope they drop us right into the cars. NICE!! they said, "Follow the pace car's track as closely as possible. The closer you follow his path, the faster we get to go." on every lap, right after the hairpin in turn 11 the lead student car pulls over to the right and lets all the other students pass so he can go to the rear, so then everybody gets a chance to be right behind the pace car. since I was in group B, after group A drove off, they packed us into some SUVs and took us on a turn-by-turn tour of the track.
as soon as everybody in Group A has had a chance to be the lead car (approx. 12 laps), they come in, group B hops in and we GO! for those of you who know the track, they had it set up in the 1.9 mi configuration, namely going down the outside from 4a to 7a, through "the esses" of Turns 8 and 8a, then straight down to 9a for the hard 90 degree R turn followed 20 ft later by the hard 110 degree L turn into turn 10. damn I loved heel-n-toeing straight down to 1st for 9a, with a tire chirps and squeals on the edge of traction as you're laying down power and fighting the Gs.
lemme tell ya, this shit is so fun you'd think it was illegal. if you screw up heel-n-toe and grind the gears, they couldn't care less. they literally told us in the debriefing between track times, "It's a rental! You're here to learn, so experiment and learn." the brake and gas are set up perfectly for heel-n-toe (right next to each other). my feet are pretty narrow, and my shoes weren't very wide (not as narrow as wrestling or driving shoes), but I still had to push the gas with the outside of my foot, with the inside just barely over the brakes due to the narrowness of the pedal area. a little ackward at first, and they're probably designed to be that way, and I couldn't have cared less.
the only thing that I had to get used to was shifting so soon. they set the rev-limiter fairly low and I'm so used to my S that I kept bouncing off the limiter. no biggie.
I cannot say this enough: after just a couple laps to get used to the car, and gain some confidence in it's abilities, every single moment is a f*cking thrill! during the briefings we were given some basic pointers about braking before turning, powering out of a turn, etc.-- nothing I hadn't heard or read before, but it was really nice to finally put some practice behind the theory.
you only get three rounds on the track-- 2 behind a pace car (and that "pace car" is moving-- you never feel slowed down), and a third one on your own-- and these rounds are done long before you're ready to stop. I coulda done laps all day and into the night. naturally, since almost everybody there was a novice driver who had received the Russel Test Drive as a birthday or Father's Day gift, they don't allow any passing. and on the third round, when we're going solo, they stop us twice on each lap-- once in the straight-away in front of the pits, and once just before "the esses" (turn 8). this is to stop us and make sure we stay nicely spaced, and really wasn't too terrible. it pretty well discourages people trying to go for personal bests and putting themselves into danger. the only real rule they had was if you spin out, that's it, you're out, thank you have a nice day. frankly, even though I had the car on the edge of traction, I'm not sure how anybody could spin out in such a light and grippy car, but sure enough, two people did. I think one guy ran off the course too.
a few things to note: they don't serve any food, so eat a good breakfast, and definitely bring a sandwich and some juice. I kinda think this was actually one of the few things they really should've included. I was starving by noon, and there is *no* time to run to the cafe between track times.
the 4 hours from when group A leaves to the last lap by group B goes by very very quickly. too quickly. I cannot stress enough how much fun it is on a track. if you've never done this before-- DO IT. I don't know if the Jim Russel offering amongst the better ones out there, and it does seem like they try to maximize your track time, but $500 for 4 hours and maybe 40 laps seems a bit steep to me. trust me, you will want to be out all day. look into what is offered at a track near you and give it a go. personally, I would *not* want to learn how to heel-n-toe in my S on the track because of the severe wear and tear. it was very nice to feel okay about grinding and so on in their car, esp. since they made very clear that it did not matter one bit to anyone and not to feel ackward about it.
getting into my S2000 afterwards was weird. I felt like the car was HUGE, and that I was sitting 3 feet off the ground. I had grown so used to the little 1-seat cockpit 3 inches off the ground that driving my S for the first 10 miles felt like driving a truck.
This is the first time in my life when I have considered the possibility of going thru all the training necessary to become a professional race car driver. It is that fun. Expensive, but when you hit one perfect apex after another and are able to carry a lot of speed through, wow man, that's the greatest feeling I've ever had in a vehicle... well, a moving vehicle.
ok, arrive at 7:30 am, they fit you in a full-body cotton racing suit and helmet. we sit in a room, are briefed for about 15 minutes then watch a video of a driver doing heel-n-toe downshifts. the video taken from just in front of the drivers seat (as well as a few other angles; gear shift, etc.) and gives a very good idea of how to do heel-n-toe. pretty straight-forward actually.
as soon as the video is done, another very short briefing then then we go out to the track. we are paired off according to height, divided into groups A and B and group A gets in the little open-wheel, rear-engined race car (2L motor from what I remember). plenty for what we're doing today.
we're given a brief run-down of everything then it's "fire 'em up!" I was thinking we'd have an hour or so of theory and technique, but nope they drop us right into the cars. NICE!! they said, "Follow the pace car's track as closely as possible. The closer you follow his path, the faster we get to go." on every lap, right after the hairpin in turn 11 the lead student car pulls over to the right and lets all the other students pass so he can go to the rear, so then everybody gets a chance to be right behind the pace car. since I was in group B, after group A drove off, they packed us into some SUVs and took us on a turn-by-turn tour of the track.
as soon as everybody in Group A has had a chance to be the lead car (approx. 12 laps), they come in, group B hops in and we GO! for those of you who know the track, they had it set up in the 1.9 mi configuration, namely going down the outside from 4a to 7a, through "the esses" of Turns 8 and 8a, then straight down to 9a for the hard 90 degree R turn followed 20 ft later by the hard 110 degree L turn into turn 10. damn I loved heel-n-toeing straight down to 1st for 9a, with a tire chirps and squeals on the edge of traction as you're laying down power and fighting the Gs.
lemme tell ya, this shit is so fun you'd think it was illegal. if you screw up heel-n-toe and grind the gears, they couldn't care less. they literally told us in the debriefing between track times, "It's a rental! You're here to learn, so experiment and learn." the brake and gas are set up perfectly for heel-n-toe (right next to each other). my feet are pretty narrow, and my shoes weren't very wide (not as narrow as wrestling or driving shoes), but I still had to push the gas with the outside of my foot, with the inside just barely over the brakes due to the narrowness of the pedal area. a little ackward at first, and they're probably designed to be that way, and I couldn't have cared less.
the only thing that I had to get used to was shifting so soon. they set the rev-limiter fairly low and I'm so used to my S that I kept bouncing off the limiter. no biggie.
I cannot say this enough: after just a couple laps to get used to the car, and gain some confidence in it's abilities, every single moment is a f*cking thrill! during the briefings we were given some basic pointers about braking before turning, powering out of a turn, etc.-- nothing I hadn't heard or read before, but it was really nice to finally put some practice behind the theory.
you only get three rounds on the track-- 2 behind a pace car (and that "pace car" is moving-- you never feel slowed down), and a third one on your own-- and these rounds are done long before you're ready to stop. I coulda done laps all day and into the night. naturally, since almost everybody there was a novice driver who had received the Russel Test Drive as a birthday or Father's Day gift, they don't allow any passing. and on the third round, when we're going solo, they stop us twice on each lap-- once in the straight-away in front of the pits, and once just before "the esses" (turn 8). this is to stop us and make sure we stay nicely spaced, and really wasn't too terrible. it pretty well discourages people trying to go for personal bests and putting themselves into danger. the only real rule they had was if you spin out, that's it, you're out, thank you have a nice day. frankly, even though I had the car on the edge of traction, I'm not sure how anybody could spin out in such a light and grippy car, but sure enough, two people did. I think one guy ran off the course too.
a few things to note: they don't serve any food, so eat a good breakfast, and definitely bring a sandwich and some juice. I kinda think this was actually one of the few things they really should've included. I was starving by noon, and there is *no* time to run to the cafe between track times.
the 4 hours from when group A leaves to the last lap by group B goes by very very quickly. too quickly. I cannot stress enough how much fun it is on a track. if you've never done this before-- DO IT. I don't know if the Jim Russel offering amongst the better ones out there, and it does seem like they try to maximize your track time, but $500 for 4 hours and maybe 40 laps seems a bit steep to me. trust me, you will want to be out all day. look into what is offered at a track near you and give it a go. personally, I would *not* want to learn how to heel-n-toe in my S on the track because of the severe wear and tear. it was very nice to feel okay about grinding and so on in their car, esp. since they made very clear that it did not matter one bit to anyone and not to feel ackward about it.
getting into my S2000 afterwards was weird. I felt like the car was HUGE, and that I was sitting 3 feet off the ground. I had grown so used to the little 1-seat cockpit 3 inches off the ground that driving my S for the first 10 miles felt like driving a truck.
This is the first time in my life when I have considered the possibility of going thru all the training necessary to become a professional race car driver. It is that fun. Expensive, but when you hit one perfect apex after another and are able to carry a lot of speed through, wow man, that's the greatest feeling I've ever had in a vehicle... well, a moving vehicle.
Thanks for sharing your exciting experience. 
07-30-2003 | 05:14 PM
#6
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 909
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From: Bay Area
Try their karting class. It's not much cheaper than the test drive, but it is much cheaper than their racing classes and you learn similar techniques. In my opinion, karting is way more fun and affordable. 
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