Just completed the Fri/Sat class. Great experience. Weather was clear, peak temps were 79F. Instructors were great- patient, personable and knowledgeable. During one of the classroom sessions, Ron Fellows himself even popped in. He sat quietly in the back until someone asked a technical question about the Precision Pack on the 5s- then he chimed in with some extra details on chassis/tire differences after the instructor had answered. Turns out the Cad-spec PS4Ss have a foam layer to reduce NVH, while, as one would expect, the Cup 2Rs don't.... Very cool to have him just pop in, on a Saturday too.
Facilities were great. I was expecting a continental breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, but we got a lot more (even Salisbury steaks and orange-glazed salmon for lunch on day 2). The facilities looked clean and well-kept all around. I stayed in one of the new "Casitas", the fixed travel trailers that had just been built in the past year. Think I was the only person to use the weights in the gym the whole time I was there...
Track times were pretty plentiful for a course like this. I think we had 6-7 dedicated lapping sessions over the course of the 2 days, each being 30 minutes. Plus all the other activities like launch control, skidpad, slalom, autoX etc. And the classroom sessions were useful- not just a summary of how to drive on track (hitting apexes, modulating braking, and so on) but also how to navigate all the mode settings, tips about hardware on the car ( I did not know the key fob battery could be so easily accessed with the "emergency" key in the fob for ex.) and other platform specific things.
All in all it was a great time. Even better of course was that it was no-charge. Apparently, all Corvette owners have to pay, even Z06 owners. They don't pay full price as someone off the street would, but still, that's at least $1k they have to fork over which we don't.
I do wish that Cup2R/PP cars were available, even if only for a short time/few sessions for those of us who had bought said setups, but I get their point about getting what GM sends them, not to mention the accelerated wear of C2Rs vs running 4Ss. It would be awesome to be able to feel the difference on back to back hot laps between a base 5VBW and a PP, but oh well.
Strongly recommend all 4/5 owners take the class if they have any interest in performance driving. Seems like 1/2 of my class had never been on track and had no plans to aside from this course. I'll bet a few perspectives changed by end of day 2.
