GuthNW

Cool. Thanks all for the input (and the book suggestions) — it is truly appreciated.

Jub

Check out your local SCCA autocross chapter. My local group offers autocross schools at various times of the year with some very good instructors. Between the instruction and significant seat time at test-n-tune events, I've gotten pretty comfortable with the car over the last 2 years.

white98ls

x2 for an autocross-based school. If you can attend one of these, usually they'll offer a skidpad/slalom-type exercises and an autocross portion. Great for getting your feet wet. Then you can enter some autocrosses to really learn how to drive the car on the limit, since in a typical autocross the entire run is on the limit. From then, if you want you can start on HPDEs since those involve greater speeds, costs, and risk.

That's the way I approached it over many years and it has served me well.

GuthNW

I looked into the SCCA info provided by the local chapter and the autocross schools sound like a lot of fun. It seems like the types of skills that I'd develop in that setting might translate well to a lot the local twisty country roads that I enjoy. I probably encounter more turns within a short drive from my house now than I would have within an all-day drive from where I grew up in Illinois.

huy33

I've taken a couple Porsche sport driving courses and they're a BLAST. They are not cheap though but the way I see it is that you're going to go through a set of tires/brakes anyway. The instructors are great and they do a great job teaching/giving you confidence on the track. The only cons is that it's out in Birmingham, AL so you'll need to travel. Also, if you're going to take the sport driving classes, don't take the experience classes in Atlanta. They're short and a waste of time/money compare to the driving classes in AL.

https://www.porschedriving.com/porsc...ol/experiences

ishtori5

I had the opportunity to do this as well in Atlanta and I agree i is a blast. I got some seat time in both Turbo S and GT3 RS and came away really impressed. However, I don't think I learned anything because it is short and expensive and pointed out already. Not recommended for anyone looking for driving education.

DanielB

Last summer a buddy and I did a Porsche Club 2 day track event. The more experienced club drivers go out alone, but the rest of us were assigned an instructor - which was what I really wanted anyway. Turns out my instructor was just ok - I don't think her driving skills were much stronger than mine, and she seemed a bit afraid so I was never able to drive to 10/10ths. And for one corner sequence, her advice was just plain wrong. On the other hand, my buddy was paired with a guy where they just clicked, and he received fabulous feedback and advice. We both sat with him at lunch and I learned things just listening to his experiences in a few of the harder corners.

I still found the event to be enjoyable and I'll probably do another with the Porsche Club again this summer. But as with just about all these types of events, your experience is going to be heavily influenced by your particular instructor. The club events probably have greater variation in the quality of instruction as, after all, the instructors are volunteers. The professional schools seem to have higher quality instructors - as they should given how much they cost.

gerry100

I would recommend a convenient nearby HPDE first ( convertibles an Issue for some although a few years ago Porsche events allowed Boxsters to run top up).

Your first track session will reveal how much you don't know and your first event will teach you a lot of basics/fundamentals.

After that ,a lot of what you learn can be applied , enjoyed and practiced on the street at reasonable speeds. More events will depend on how addicted you get.

Contact you local chapter ( PCA,BMWCCA and others), they'll happily advise you on that you need.and when.

Smooth is fast

gerry100

DanielB makes a good observation, I did about a 10 events with instructors, A few were excellent teachers with passion, a few dead weight just looking for a discount on the event fee. The worst were the one who thought they were driving the car " BRAKE,BRAKE,GAS,GAS......".

Either way you'll learn a lot.

If you learn enough basics to get signed off, you'll learn a lot out there on your own

Fokker

I've found that PCA events are kind of hit or miss for instructors. I would recommend NASA HPDE for track instruction on the more affordable side of things.