So this weekend I took a Street Survival driving school class designed especially for 17-20 year olds. It basically taught you the limits of your car so you can handle it better on the street and was a small introduction to autrocrossing. The class featured about 1 hour of class time and tons of behind the wheel experience (in wet and dry) including slalom, skid pad, figure 8, etc and it ended with a couple autocross runs . The event was held by BMWCCA and it was an amazing experience. I highly recommend anyone 17-20 years to get into a class like this, or autocrossing in general. I'll definately be hitting up some autocross events in the future. All the intructors were highly skilled autocrossers with track experience as well. And the cars they drove were . The Maxima handled extremely well and I have a whole new respect for the car. I felt kinda bad for beating on it afterwards...but oh well. The experience was definately well worth it. Here are some pics of the Max in action as well as some of the instructors and their cars. There were tons of M3's and Porches, but also a ZO6 and even an Elise!!! I'll let the pics speak for themselves:

 

And some more:

 

car looks good man!

autocrossing is the best way to find out the limits of your car

 

and last few:




Who needs a Porsche when you can have a Max?

 

That AE looks pretty sweet.

 

Sublimer, you got there phone number or website?
How many hours was it total and how much did they charge you?

 

http://www.bmwccafoundation.org/ss2005/index.asp

It ran from 8am-4pm and was $60. It also included breakfast and a bbq lunch. You really couldn't get a better deal.

 

that's a good deal, if only our insurance would be cheaper for this course!!!

what's your suspension setup btw?

 

sounds pretty cool but what im wondering is how 17-20 year olds could afford those rides?

 

a lotus, m3, porshe, corvetta, z3...how the heck did u come in 5th . Way to represent

 

too bad they don't have this in CA. sounds like alot of fun..

 

Anyone else have a problem with this?

17-20 yr olds should be learning how to control a car, what a car will do under certain driving situations, and the laws of physics. 17-20 years olds have the least amount of driving experience...and boys at that age are probably the biggest risks for accidents b/c of the way alot of them drive.

That being said...Looks like a fun class.

 

and there's about a hundred other events like this across the state...

 

 

Sounds like the course was teaching that. You don't have to have a lot of miles under your belt in order to learn what your car can and cannot do.

 

the event in my area is over, I’m so disappointed

 

I'm on Tein H-techs with stock struts. Progress RSB and FSTB as well.

The nicer cars were all the instructors cars. They were all professional autocrossers and track racers. Though one kid showed up with a brand new M3...most of the kids had "normal" cars. A lot of mid 90's BMWs, a dodge stratus, mini, honda accord, etc. The point was to teach the students how to handle their OWN cars. That being said, one girl showed up in a Cayenne S and another in an X5...there was even a Cherokee. Random.

everything you just mentioned above was exactly what was taught at the class. so im not exactly sure what you're getting at

 

It's too bad more teens don't take classes like these. There is nothing that can teach the car's limits better than pushing it to them on a closed course. That, and autocross


btw, last autocross I beat a Porsche 993 and a couple of M3s....so it can be done. you just have to be willing to push the max to the limit and hope the guys in the faster (more expensive) cars aren't willing to push theirs to the limit

 

dude, your car is smoking in your sig.... was that from just sliding? or did you slam on the brakes??

 

It's a photoshop....I basically combined these two pics from a recent autocross I ran in. No way I could smoke out like that on my track tires with a FWD car in real life

(the real smoke is from me punching the gas through the corner - no LSD!)



and

 

Talking about autocross, I always wanted to participate, can someone hook me up? Anyone knows who I can contact in NYC area?

 

DrKlop...check out SCCA.com - it will have links to your local SCCA chapter and events.

 

It’s funny, I’ve been looking at SCCA web site so many times and could not find the right info. Now I went there one more time (skeptically) and… found all the phone numbers and emails lol

BTW: irish, just got AutoVation pedals installed this weekend. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, thanks for recommendation.

 

BTW this is just an edit for the title: I meant to write 5th GEN at Street Survival. This wasnt a competition so there were no places. sorry about that.

 

sublimer, we knew what you meant

Klop....lovin' the pedals

(oh, and congratulations to me for a post-whoring 8000 posts!!)

 

not everyone...

 

Nice drop,hows the ride on the Tein H??? especially on bumps since I live in NYC (potholeville)

 

that looks like a lot of fun!

 

looks like fun. i always want to take my max and test the limits of it.

 

the ride is pretty stiff, a lot stiffer than I thought it would but still bearable. I live in Jersey and when I drive into the city is a pain in the a$$. Car bounces all over the place but my stock struts probably aren't helping out. living in the city and driving around must be pretty tough so I'd recommend a softer spring. Around where I live the ride is smooth and you eventually learn to avoid potholes. If you ever drive 287, you'll see me swerving all over the place lol. overall i think the h-techs are a pretty good compromise between ride height and quality though. plus you can see from some of the pics that body roll was decreased. I dont have stock pictures to compare but the car looked fairly flat on the road.

 

thanx, so many thread about spring but no real good solution on the spring, guess I have to just go with the H&R spring eventho it sags but supposely the ride is nicer, even with the stock spring and shock still the bumps out here are crazy but I like the drop....
Thanx for the reply............

 

z3? that's an m coupe.