Have you wondered what it’s like to attend the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School?
You fly to Las Vegas, take a bus ride out to the rental car station, get a car and make about an hour’s drive west towards Pahrump, Nevada.
Depending on the Corvette you bought new, you get different opportunities and packages for training at the driving school.
I bought a new ZR-1 in 2019 and got a two-day school with the purchase, and a couple nights’ stay. You’re supposed to be able to stay at the very nice lodge on the track grounds but some press events relegated me to the Holiday Inn in Pahrump, a non-descript desert strip-mall town. No matter, I was there to drive, not sleep and drink. Check-in at the track was courteous and efficient and the track and facilities look great. The pretty registrar soft-sold me on buying driving shoes, which I declined. I signed a waiver and an agreement for a max liability of $15K if I wrecked their ZR1.
That late afternoon, with the sun low in the sky, they get us out for a short, easy-paced acclimatization for the course. I’m assigned a red, manual coupe, number 001 – the very car I rode in at Indy during Bloomington Gold the year before! The Spring Mountain Motor Resort has over six miles of track that they can configure in multiple courses. So there are lots of coned-off raceways to confuse me. Instructors lead the way in a Z06 and talk to us in each of our cars via two-way radio. It feels great to be in a ZR1 and working the car at about six-seven tenths on Pilot Sport tires (not the stickier Sport Cups). Feels really easy. They keep reminding us, ‘Eyes-up!’ and we look way farther down the track than I’m used to for street driving. That part isn’t easy. They kid us , “Early in, early off!” which means many drivers turn into a corner too soon and end up sliding off the racecourse. I tend to turn in too early. When I correct this habit, it’s amazing how much easier it is to corner hard, much easier, smoother, and without that sinking feeling of running out of pavement as I leave any turn. And I use the new, later turn-in all the time now, even in my Suburban!
Next morning, I arrive and take a seat in the classroom. The instructors are polite, courteous, and highly skilled. They tell us that only about 25% of ZR1 buyers come to the school, even though most of the costs are covered in the purchase price. Really surprising.
Most of the guys bought automatics, I bought a manual. Apparently there weren’t enough automatics to go around at the school and a few guys griped about having to drive a manual. Not me, that’s what I wanted!
They tell us if we ever get out of shape, just stomp on the brakes and chances are we’ll be stopped before leaving the pavement. If you do go off the pavement, the track is surrounded by deep stones and gravel, so then just stop and stay stopped until someone comes to check out the car – stones can wedge between brake calipers and wheels and cause damage.
We drove around the course a little faster and then did an infield braking exercise. Zip up to 80-90 and stomp the anti-lock brakes at a marker. Frankly, the car stopped so hard, I was disoriented!! I had never stopped so hard in my life! Did that several times and still felt disoriented. And remember the driver shoes? My 11 EEEE right shoe was spanning both the brake and throttle pedals, leaving the engine zinging while I stomped the brakes.
Had a wonderful lunch at the track clubhouse. Dashed to the track store and bought those much narrower driving shoes (which I really appreciate to this day!)
Then rode with an instructor, me driving, and he helped me around a slalom course, showing me how I should start the sweepers out wide and cut in much later than I would have thought, but it really worked. Then on our own for a little autocross competition. I think I scored second or third best time, but I failed to ‘stop in the box’ which penalized me into loser-dom.
The instructors led us around the racecourse faster and faster. I found it really difficult and ended the day frustrated and disappointed in myself, even if the instructors were patient and encouraging over the radio.
Next day, they had installed stickier Sport Cup tires and cautioned us not to panic if we felt vibrations and banging sounds – they were just ‘tire snakes’: rubber worn off the tires that balls up or kneads into gobby rubber ropes that stick to your tires and thump and vibrate before wearing off in a corner. Instructors lead us around faster still, and I’m doing a little better. There’s one long sweeping left turn and I’m taking it at about 90 while looking out the side window to the next corner. I’m getting it, but it sure is different than anything I’ve done before.
Before lunch, instructors take the wheel of our student cars and drive each of us around. I love it, but he’s way, way faster than me. It feels like a big-ol’ wrestling match inside the car. He shows me how the electronic limited slip differential and Performance Traction Management allow him to tighten or widen a cornering line with the throttle — backing off tightens the line noticeably, applying throttle widens the line. You can floor the throttle out of a turn and traction control and Performance Traction Management will not let you spin out! He demonstrates a full effort braking stomp in the middle of a 90 degree corner at about 80 mph. As they told us, the car stopped on the track, pointed in the right direction, with plenty of room to spare. Compared to everything else, the engine power, the cornering forces, or the speed — the max braking was the most amazing thing to me. We stopped for lunch and I was all smiles and respect. I visited the washroom and one of the students, the most gung-ho, enthusiastic guy in the class, was retching his guts out. Apparently, the instructor drive made him carsick.
After another great lunch buffet, we alternated driving and tech sessions, The tech sessions go through the many control settings and displays. Did you know the ZR1 has a horsepower meter? I find it is pretty hard to concentrate on it while driving, though I have seen mine flash to 800 a couple of times. There is some misinformation, with an instructor talking about ZR1 coil-overs – rather the C7s all have transverse composite springs, not coil-overs. And some 15 minutes was spent discussing if the crossed-flag wheel center caps throw the wheel out balance if re-indexed. Dumbest question I ever heard, and either the instructor was being nice or did not know. Some of the guys commented that the track ZR1s felt slower, and I agreed – were the power settings limited? The instructors said “No”. No mention was made that elevation at Spring Mountain is about 2700 ft, which knocks off about 8% or about 60 hp off of a ZR1’s 755 sea-level power rating. It was not hot when I was there in mid-September, but it was warmer than 77 degrees used for SAE power ratings, and we were driving with air conditioning on. Those factors might have knocked off another 10 hp. So I don’t think the track ZR1s were dumbed-down.
But I was all-in by mid-afternoon. Other guys hungrily lapped and lapped. I needed a break.
Class over, students gone, at the end of the day, I walked over to the clubhouse which sits right at the edge of one of the racecourses. I enjoyed just seeing the track, the surroundings, the desert, the hills the distant lodgings. Alone, it felt so peaceful, quiet, and relaxing. And humbling.
I learned a lot—that I’m not one of the fast guys! And I realized I don’t want that anymore! Nevertheless, I became a better, safer driver, and maybe a little faster, but most of all, I learned how very difficult it is to drive full-out and how much I preferred ‘cruising around’ at about 7 or 8 tenths – or less!