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PICS from Bob Bondurant School of Racing --?56K?-- Well last week from Sunday to Friday I was in Pheonix at the Bob Bondurant school of racing. The class I took for the Gran Prix Road Racing which was a 4-day class. It was a ton of fun. http://www.bondurant.com The first day we spent on the skid pad doing training and what not. We learned how to steer by using the throttle, threshold braking, ABS braking, oversteer and understeer, sudden lane changes, heel-toe downshifting, and lines through corners. We got to use the Cadillac CTS's for some of it and the Corvette C5's for the rest. Also, the instructors took out 15-passenger Chevy vans out on the track and drove them like nothing I have seen before with all of us in them. It was insane. The second day we did a little more skidpad work to get used to the cars then we went out to the track and got used to that. It began to rain so it was a little slippery but pretty fun. The third day we got to go out on the track for the entire time. It rained half of the day and it was dry for the rest, so again I got a lot of wet driving expirience in. The fourth day was the best. We got the enitre track all day. Instead of C5's, we raced in Formula Ford cars. They are extremely fast simply because of their light weight. The school overall is a great place to learn how to race. The people are awesome and very expirienced. The facilities are also very nice and organized. The school trains about 85% of the NASCAR drivers and many of the CART and SCCA racers as well. While I was there there was a student in the advanced class who was going into the Nextel Cup. The track is well taken care of and offers a ton of variety of corners and what not. It is about 1.6 miles long. Top speed is about 100mph in the C5's at the end of the straight, and about 110mph in the Formula Fords in a back section of the track. The slowest section is about 15mph in some very tight turns in which you grab 1st gear. The Corvette C5's are pretty nice cars, especially since they are beaten on for a living. On average they had about 10,000 miles on them, and they were all 2003 M6's. All are equipped with 6-point roll cages and 4-point racing harnesses. They also have a fire extinguisher system, new fuel system, Borla exhaust, oil, tranny, and rear end coolers, Z06 brake vents, and upgraded brakes. The tires are Goodyear Eagle F1's. During the whole class, I went through two full sets of tires. The Formula Fords were the best part of the class. They are 900lb open-wheeled race cars with 180hp Ford 4-cyl motors. They run open headers and are loud as hell. They have no power brakes, not ABS, no nothing. They are pure race cars and fun as hell to drive. Halfway through the last day I figured out to shift them without the clutch which made it even more fun. However, only a couple years ago some guy missed a shift and went 2-1 and spun the car. He hit a concrete wall and broke both femurs. They are fun to drive but you have to be careful. They also many Ford Mustang GT's and Cobras for some of the other classes. They also have some police cars to train police car driver to do manuvers and what not. They also have shifter kart classes which are go-karts that are insanely fast. They are six-speed go-karts which only weigh about 300 lbs with driver. They go 0-100mph in about 6.5 seconds and can pull more than 2.5g's in corners. I'd highly reccomend this school to anyone who is wants to learn how to race. When you graduate, you get a novice SCCA licence. They also give you a grade based on your overall performace. They grade on a scale from 0-5. I got a 3.4 and the highest score given out was a 4.4 to Tony Stewart. The main garage and maitenence area: http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3944.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3943.JPG The tower box over the track: http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3907.JPG Bob Bondurant's dog Rusty: http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3945.JPG Bob's Escalade, Bob is in the background in the black shirt: http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3946.JPG The Corvette C5 student cars: http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3927.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3926.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3930.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3932.JPG My dirty #15: http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3909.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3910.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3908.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3914.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3915.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3918.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3917.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3911.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3912.JPG http://www.greenravine.net/gallery/a...4/DSC_3913.JPG |
Those vettes look nice. And I do pity the people on 56k that open this. ;) |
Awesome pics. :thumb: |
Good post! Thanks for the pics. :cheers: |
Thats awesome Mike, I'm jealous you lucky bastard. |
bad ass pics... i want to take that class soo bad |
I'm sure everyone wants to know... How much did everything cost you? I'm interested. |
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I think it's well worth it because I went through two full sets of tires which is about $2k alone, then numerous tanks of gas, etc... I think it's well worth it, especially if you are planning on entering into a racing career. If you aren't then you might want to do one of the cheaper classes. |
I was looking at there site tonight before I read this and I am thinking about going this year sometime. Where did you stay? |
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Great pics. I hear that they now have some C6's; any truth in that? |
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is that a gto in the first picture? Cool pics |
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