B.R.A.K.E.S. Teenage driving school | FerrariChat

B.R.A.K.E.S. Teenage driving school

Discussion in 'Tracking & Driver Education' started by Dom, Sep 11, 2016.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

  1. Dom

    Dom F1 Veteran
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Nov 5, 2002
    8,475
    #1 Dom, Sep 11, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Did this today with my teenage daughter.

    https://putonthebrakes.org/

    It's put on by a former drag racer, Doug Herbert.

    It's a 4 hour class that teaches Accident avoidance, distraction, panic stops, skid avoidance, etc. They use cars provided by Kia, and the cost is $99 for the class (which is technically a donation- you pay the $99 to hold your spot, and you can ask them for a check back at the end of the class if you really want).

    There were 3 students per instructor, and I thought they did a pretty good job with the kids. They even take the parents out for a few laps on the accident avoidance/slalom and panic stop portion of the class.

    I think it's a great start if you have kids that are learning to drive. The biggest downside that I could find is that it is only a 4 hour class. Wish it were a full day, or even a weekend.

    There are other teenage driving schools, which I would like to do with her eventually, like Skip Barber, or BMW, but these schools tend to be $1000+ per day of instruction.

    Here in California, kids need only 6 hours of driving instruction to get their license. I think it makes a lot of sense to get them into additional driving schools as much as possible, and this was a nice start. I think it helped her gain a little more confidence behind the wheel, and better control of the car.

    Any other schools you guys recommend?
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  2. fatbillybob

    fatbillybob Two Time F1 World Champ
    Consultant Owner

    Aug 10, 2002
    26,292
    socal
    I did AROSC.ORG high perf driving school with my daughter. They run school 2x a year for HPDE, TT and Race all concurrent at WSIR street course. Next school is in November. They run a great 3 part school on skid pad, in the class room, and on the race track, I got my 1st race license with AROSC years ago so I know and trust the group. Their HPDE school is less about being distracted driver and more about actual road skills and it is a full weekend long. You learn stuff and do stuff on saturday and prefect it sunday and individualize. For some of the on track part knowing the group and having multiple race licenses I was allowed to be in car with my daughter during a session to try and push the student's skills and boundry (but way inside the envelope of the car). It was awesome. My kid went just a bit faster than she had skills for and left the track 2 and almost 4 wheels off. She remembered her training to not jerk the wheel, look where you want to go, ease off the gas retaining control and quickly getting all 4 back on pavement. That is a hugely valuable skill people take for granted. My friend fell asleep went off road jerked the wheel when he awoke and rolled a rental car and he was in his 40's. That is just a taste of what you can learn with AROSC and the weekend is like $275 bucks!

    Another good school less about track and performance and more about distraction wearing your belts not drinking etc is teensurvival.org with input from tirerack and SCCA. It is a great course too.
     
  3. Dom

    Dom F1 Veteran
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Nov 5, 2002
    8,475
    Thanks Fatbillybob!

    I've done the AROSC school and it's great. I need to find a car for her to use first. I've thought about letting her use my Porsche, but it may be a bit much. Ideally, we would do this after we get her first car. Unfortunately, we won't be able to do it until next year, as I'll be traveling for work that weekend in Nov (12-13th).

    I'll look into the tire rack one, as that looks pretty good too.
     
  4. jcurry

    jcurry Two Time F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Jan 16, 2012
    21,378
    In the past
    Full Name:
    Jim
    Thanks. Appears the name is now streetsurvival.org.
     
  5. Lenvo65

    Lenvo65 Formula Junior

    Apr 3, 2005
    293
    Bergen Cty NJ
    Both my daughters have done streetsurvival, and i recently became a coach for them. In our region it is sponsored by BMWCCA and Tirerack, I think PCA sponsors in other regions. Its a full day event 1:1 instructor to student, however you use your own car. Its mainly about letting new drivers experience what emergency braking, evasive manuvers and sliding the car really feels like in a safe environment. Also good to help them learn about proper seating position and the importance of your eyes and where you are looking.

    I was a proud papa when the skid-pad instructor commented that the only kid that "got" how to recover from skid was the girl in the GTI ( which he did not know was my daughter :) )

    Also - street survival is $75 for the day.
     

Share This Page