I'm not talking about driver's ed either.

I had the opportunity to witness the beginning of a chase last night and Dallas' finest threw his Charger into the corner and excuted a rather impressive turn through an intersection at high speed.

I know they get training for driving aggressively and such, but where can *I* get some?

I guess it would be similar to Autocross. I mean, I know I can read on techniques and practice where I can, but I would love to have some professional advice and the ability to practice safely in controlled conditions.

Burnouts and donuts and such are one thing. I'm talking about finding and maintaining apex in a turn, maintaining a line and mastering braking. Cutting through traffic is one thing. This is about precision. I don't mean to be an Indy car jock, but I would love to be more confident with my driving.

I've done some web searches for such a place around DFW with no luck. Surely such a place exists?

And if not, where do you guys learn this stuff?

 

go to an autocross and enter as a novice. this will get you a ride along with one of the more experienced drivers, and they can teach you a TON. also, sometimes clubs like SCCA or porsche/bmw owners clubs put on driver safety courses, where they show you how to push your car past its limits and how to control it safely if thats more of what your talking about. but if your talking about performance driving, do some autox's or see if your local SCCA club is having a track day with a PDX event anytime soon. at PDX events, you usually get an experienced club instructor to ride around with you and teach you a lot about performance driving. i know when i did it i learned a ton from just 2 ride along sessions. also SEAT TIME. thats the best way to learn lol

 

I figured Autocross might be a good place to start. I've never heard of an event around DFW though.


But...there has to be, right? I'll check with SCCA and my local Mustang Club.

 

texasscca.org

looks like they run most of the events at texas motor speedway. also they have some club races at eagles canyon coming up where you can do the PDX. although i would suggest getting a couple autox's under your belt before stepping up to a full bore road course

 

Well hell, suspension mods here I come...

 

im not sure if you know this so ill say it anyways, but dont feel like you have to upgrade the mustang to have fun. you can always go try and run a couple autox's in the stock class and see how you do! and then youll really be able to tell the difference once you add the mods to your car

 

I'm actually plannign on taking a mustang performance driving class in salt lake through Miller Motorsports.

did the cops do that thing where they push the rear quarter of the car to put the guy into a spin?

 

Make that "suspension mods here I come, eventually".

In the beginning, drive the car the way you sort of know how it behaves, and don't try to learn two completely new things at the same time. Good mechanical condition, a helmet of appropriate size and spec (big hint here - get a SA2010 full face if you have no helmet that meets event requirements), putting 3 or 4 more psi in the front tires than in the rear if they're the same size, and cleaning your windshield is really all you need to be concerned with the first couple of times outside of learning how.

There are a few differences between driving well at autocross and driving well out on the big track, so not everything transfers with 100% similarity between the two.

What you're trying to learn in terms of driving bears little or no semblance to any of the hooning around that you see on TV and in the movies, and it's enough beyond anything in street driving that even hard street driving should still fall well short. You may even find that you need to unlearn a few things.

Modifying the car will change how it feels, both in the sharpness of its response and in how you relate the feel to how close to the limit you are. Mild and somewhat progressive understeer is still safer for the novice than higher peak cornering grip that goes "loose" with less warning than you're perhaps accustomed to.


Norm

 

We have one in austin @ www.drivewayaustin.com

I plan on taking some courses there someday.

 

I may come down for that, I love Austin.

And thanks Norm, always good to have your input on these things.

Yeah, I doubt I'm going to become a stunt driver or anything. And it's not like I have any problems driving. I just wish I knew a bit more about the car when pushed to it's limits. Or at least pushed closer to them. Frankly, I have no idea how the car behaves under hard cornering. I see autocross or even one of these ridealongs as a good place to start to test these things under safe conditions. I love my car. And I want to feel comfortable pushing it just so that little bit of uncertainty about how it handles when it loses grip in a turn is gone.

And bones302, no. They were exiting the highway onto city streets and the "runner" just went over the curbs to turn a corner in his lifted Ram. Cop took the corner hard, rear end stepped out just a bit as he accelerated our of the corner and they were gone. Nothing on the news so I assume it was a quick chase. Damn these new Hemi interceptors are quick.