Anybody have input on Skip Barber racing schools

Hey all, If anyone can throw around some advice/thoughts on this topic I'd really appreciate it. I have a limited budget (let's face it; I'm a grad school student and I really have no budget, but since I was appointed to an assistantship - i.e. my tuition is covered this semester - I figure I might as well use the money I expected to be spending on school to learn to drive better), I'm trying to keep my budget capped at around $2000. The Mazdaspeed school really interests me (as cool as the formula cars are I've come to admit that I'm 22 and over six-foot, thus the chance of me benefiting professionally from learning to drive a formula car is low - my shot at becoming a professional race car driver is pretty much closed), but since I'm looking at the specific date of spring break (March 3 - 10) I'm learning I can only attend Skip Barber's 3 day Formula school at Sebring. This is twice my budget, but I'm getting antsy to get behind the wheel on a track again and it's making me reconsider (I know this is financially dumb, but I've somehow convinced myself over the past two days that $4000 is still a lot less than the nearly $10,000 I was going to spend on school - please convince me that this is as stupid of a decision as I thought it was two days ago).

I guess what I'm asking for is what you guys know about this formula school. Is it worth the $4000? Is it significantly more worthwhile than the Mazdaspeed school? Should I just wait for the Mazdaspeed school to come to Sebring at a later date? Is there any other solid racing schools in the Florida-area I should also be considering?

And of course feel free to chime in on my stupidity; namely, is this the dumbest financial decision a full-time graduate student can make? and does giving up a trip to Key West or the Bahamas where I would be with a bunch of drunk college girls to go to a racing school make me a total car nut, or just an incredible idiot?

Thanks for the help (and I of course plan to call Skip Barber too, but I was hoping someone here has some experience with the program and isn't on Skip's payroll).

I've done a skippy school at Road America (it was a gift) - it's good (only one instructor out of the bunch sucked - horrible personality - basically instructing for the track time for himself). It's geared toward people who want to fast-track it to racing - like that season... If you're not in a hurry, my thoughts turn to what else could I do with the money - How about buying a (miata/e30) and doing a few HPDEs or autocrosses?

Where are you located? There are a number of other driving schools out there - one of them may be closer and/or more within your budget.

In regards to partying in Key West...when I attended driving school, there were a couple cute girls in the class; I think they were more fun to hang out with than some drunks I may have met on a beach somewhere.

Did Skippy and Roos in Pennsylvania. I thought Roos was much better. We were in the cars for 15 minute sessions in the afternoon of the 1st day. Skippy didn't let you run consecutive laps until the last session of the last day. Don't know if that's changed, it was over a decade ago, but you never got to learn the effect either getting it correct, or the penalty for failing. You worked on one corner, one lap at a time, one session at at time. Fun, but more like autocross than road racing

I did an earlier version of Skip's formula car school about ten years ago. As I recall, it was a bit less than four grand at the time. It was great and I learned a lot, though I never went on to (nor did I expect to) race formula cars.

It's important to consider that you don't get your money back if it rains. I spent an entire day driving a formula car in the rain. You learn the wet line and it can be fun, but it's not exactly they way it works in the dream.

As far as the financial stupidity of it, there are few things that are a financially wise as saving or investing wisely, but that's boring and there's a lot to be said for intangible experiences.

On the other hand, access to drunken college girls is not something that lasts forever. Again, there is a lot to be said for intangible experiences.

You should be able to do a week in Key West for a lot less than four grand.

thefinker wrote: does giving up a trip to Key West or the Bahamas where I would be with a bunch of drunk college girls to go to a racing school make me a total car nut ANDan incredible idiot?

Ummmm...to answer your question...yes and yes

Party on the beach now. My wife got me a gift certificate to a racing school. Somehow I dont think she would be okay with me going to party with drunk college girls!

I have attended both the Bondurant and Barber schools. Of the two, Barber had the best program. Even if you are not planning to go on in formula cars, I think they make the best learning platform. No production car compromises. You can feel the friction circle with your butt. I was racing Formula Ford at the time so it was important to me. BTW I am 6'3" -200lbs so all is not lost if you want to race formula cars - just buy extra small shoes. I ran a few races in the Skip Barber race series as well. It was good for working on race craft under an instructor's eye. The basic schools are all about car control. The schools are expensive but well worth the money for what you learn. You cannot learn it on your own even if you study and try to apply what you read. The school will make you faster and safer. Bite the $ bullit and go.

I think it was Car Craft magazine that did Bondurant's protective driving course. Doesn't fill up as fast, is cheaper, and you learn awesome stuff like the PIT maneuver, J turns, and other car control stuff.

BoostedBrandon wrote: I think it was Car Craft magazine that did Bondurant's protective driving course. Doesn't fill up as fast, is cheaper, and you learn awesome stuff like the PIT maneuver, J turns, and other car control stuff.

If you want tricks, Bondurant is your course. If you want to learn to race, Barber.

Thanks for the input everyone, and for reminding me about the finite time I have to participate in college spring break activities. I think I started to get the Dazed & Confused mindset and was forgetting I won't have many more spring break opportunities ("That's what I love about these [college] girls. I get older, they stay the same age").

I appreciate your input on the Formula cars Argo1; I wasn't thinking about them as the exceptional learning tool they seem to be (my thoughts were that I'm more likely to be driving a Miata on a track in the future).

Thanks again, and the E30/Miata conundrum brought up by Oldtin is also a possibility. I just have to figure out my summer plans before I can consider pulling the trigger.

What about a Kart school?

I did Skip Barber a decade ago and thought it was well run, fun, and a great learning experience. Every instructor was good or better. Im now looking for a school that has more advanced cars: paddle shifting and Formula 3 or higher power and speed. Anyone know of such a school? The closest I can find is Simraceway.

I've not seen anything else like you're describing outside of private training. Simraceway looks awesome.

I did the MX-5 school at Laguna Seca and really enjoyed it and learned a lot. It was a gift though, so the money wasn't as big of a deal. I can't speak as to whether other driving schools might be better values, or if you would be better served by spending $1000 to prep your current car, and then $3000 on 10-15 HPDEs.

When I went, I was one of those who had several years of experience already from HPDE, and was using this as my sign-off to get my competition license. They did a very good job of tailoring the instruction to much newer drivers, and giving detailed feedback to the more advanced drivers in our group on how we could go faster.

So, great experience. I can't say if it would be the best value for you.

Have you considered maybe going to the one at Laguna Seca? The cost of a plane ticket is small compared to the cost of the course. You can drive the MX-5's you sound more interested in. It would also be like a mini-vacation by getting the chance to see Monterey.

A skippy school is worth at least a year of regional racing. I learned nothing at the SCCA school compared to the Barber school I had already attended. Just to show you , I finished second in the end of the SCCA school beaten only by a S2000 and I was in a rental SR. I learned about flags at the SCCA school but not much else. I had some issues learning the differences between SR and a formula car but most of that was having been giving the Skippy drill about heel to toe downshifting(mainly to save the skippy trans) it was hard to understand the lack of need for that method with a synchro trans. However the race craft that you should learn is more than worth the money.

I had a great experience at Road Atlanta Skippy school last year. Yes it is expensive but racing iran expensive hobby. You know the old saying fast ain't cheap, that goes for driver training as well as the car.

fastmiata wrote: A skippy school is worth at least a year of regional racing. I learned nothing at the SCCA school compared to the Barber school I had already attended.

Good point. I was pretty competent from HPDE, but that was nothing compared to w2w racecraft. Doing Skip Barber before starting gave me skills to be keeping up with and challenging guys with 3+ years experience.

Also, if you have some bad driving habits, the Skippy school might really help cure you of them and potentially save you money by avoiding wrecks you wouldn't have otherwise.

I started W2W racing in 2002. I slowly moved up to SCCA National and was a mid-pack runner by the end of 2008. In 2009 I decided to get some coaching from Skip Barber and signed up for their race at VIR in the MX-5's (I finished 3rd and 2nd in the two races that weekend). Just that experience got me to sign up for the next race weekend at Watkins Glen. I finished 3rd and 1st.

After that I decided to race with them for the whole season. To do that I had to sell EVERYTHING I had that I used for racing. Sold the car, truck, trailer, scales, some tools, etc. And it still took me another full year to pay off that one season. However, it was worth it and I wouldn't change my decision. I wish I had done it sooner. I ended up 2nd in the regional Summer Series and 2nd in their national shootout (won on track, but a controversial penalty cost me). I am racing with them again in 2 weeks, this time at the Pro level. However, that one season I learned more with their coaching than I had running 7 years on my own. Now I'm instructing with some local clubs while trying to build racing budget to run at higher levels.

Good luck with whatever route you choose!