Spring Mountain Impressions

[BimmerFan]

I have zero ambition in life to go to either New Orleans or Mexico. I am making plans to go to Italy and maybe London this year. But, my reading about London appears to make it like NY City with a British accent. Not too appealing. It also said the weather sucks as does the food and hotel accommodations.

We got married in NYC and honeymooned a year later in London. As @Roadhawk wrote, London is pretty cool, a different vibe than NYC and isn't as bad/dangerous as many make it out to be. I will confess though that I found the food to be generally lousy, as expected, and got a bit of food poisoning I suspect, which meant that I had a few bad days there. Fortunately our hotel (which was very nice albeit rather expensive) was a block from a Whole Foods where for once I didn't complain about the prices. So I ate a lot of soup from their food bar and yogurts and stuff like that, that I could keep down.

We were there for a week in the summer and it only rained one day, when it also stayed rather cool (60s) but it was a light rain. Not unlike Seattle in that sense (we also visited in the summer and had one day of drizzle). I'm pretty sure that both are rather less pleasant in the winter months.

 

[Roadhawk]

In 2010 we did a 3 week trip (with our 2 boys) starting in Scotland (Ilse of Skye) eventually passing through York (great city), Wales, Bath and London (for 6 days at the end). It included a lot of Monty Python and Harry Potter themed stops. Put about 1200 miles on our Jetta Wagon rental...MT with shifting on left side

Except for the apartment in London and one stay near Hadrians Wall at a farmhouse B & B we stayed exclusively in old Inns associated with traditional Pubs....planned the whole trip based on British Real Ale Society (CAMRA) recommendations so I was able to drink Cask Conditioned Real Ale every day but one (family talked me out of beer for breakfast). Most of the time the food in pubs (where we mostly ate) was pretty decent - otherwise we looked for Indian of Middle Eastern fare which could be found and was usually quite good.

Did try hagis a few times when in Scotland...I'll withhold comment to not offend any of my Scottish friends...(I joined a Scottish fantasy football league after our trip...but really in the spirit of that league i should toss around a few insults)

It rained every day we were on Ilse of Sky (stormed) but we loved it anyway and got out and about every day....only drawback is the weather caused us to reschedule a whale watching outing that caused us to miss the Talisker (Scotch) tour we had planned...

 

[jwolf99]

I have zero ambition in life to go to either New Orleans or Mexico. I am making plans to go to Italy and maybe London this year. But, my reading about London appears to make it like NY City with a British accent. Not too appealing. It also said the weather sucks as does the food and hotel accommodations.

Definitely Italy. My wife and I went there for two weeks back in October. Venice, Rome, Tuscany and Sorrento. Absolutely loved it.

 

[Roadhawk]

Definitely Italy. My wife and I went there for two weeks back in October. Venice, Rome, Tuscany and Sorrento. Absolutely loved it.

We've been to Italy several times - our most memorable trip was a 3 week trip in 2015 with 3 other couples - all foodies and wine enthusiasts. We started in Rome, worked our way through Tuscany hitting many wineries (picking up and sending home many cases of wine) and agricultural (food) places and visiting Florence and Sienna (both highly recommended).

In Tuscany we stayed at Alberto's as yet not opened B&B - he's an associate of Rick Steves and Steves had been his only guest - just before us. While in Tuscany we arranged for a very special tour of an Organic Olive oil Co-op where a group of us have been importing (the very best) Olive oil from for many years.

From there we spent a week at an awesome rental house on the cliffs on a secluded cove in Liguria region (Bay of Poets) (which incidentally sold for 12.5 million Euro to some Russians while we were staying there) did some sailing and visited Cinqa Terra towns (look them up). Our group - with 5 fine cooks (including myself) - including a friend of ours from France who is a trained chef who has owned several restaurants and at times ran all the food at the Efile Tower, the Louvre and the Paris Air show. So we cooked up many very fine meals from fresh local ingredients, made our own pizza and did many wine tastings...and had a dance contest. One of our group is a world class International ballroom dancer and the other (our French friend) has been a dance instructor....(I don't dance but played DJ)

After we spent nearly a week in Piedmont (stayed in Alba) - Barolo and Barberesco country where I got us some special invite winery visits and tastings due to the fact that I am too a winemaker. And lastly we visited Lake Como area (briefly) and went to the Worlds Fair in Milan (food themed). There's more to tell but I've probably gone on long enough. Needless to say great trip and I highly recommend Italy (and its food and wine).

 

[techdude99]

Just noticed this thread. Great posts.

I purchased my V series used and was wondering if Spring Mountain was worth the out of pocket expenses.

This answers my question.

 

[Finally-a-V]

I'd do it again if it was around $1500-2000 for two days and hotel/food, but not $3500.

 

[Roadhawk]

I'd do it again if it was around $1500-2000 for two days and hotel/food, but not $3500.

That seems about right - however I haven't had my session yet to know for sure...but $3,500 with travel and other expenses etc....hard one to justify. But it certainly seems like its going to be a special and worthwhile experience.

 

[techdude99]

That seems about right - however I haven't had my session yet to know for sure...but $3,500 with travel and other expenses etc....hard one to justify. But it certainly seems like its going to be a special and worthwhile experience.

Let us know afterwards. I'd rather put $3500 toward HPDE's but if the instructors and sessions are exceptional, I may reconsider.

 

[Roadhawk]

Will do....may depend on how many times i crash! lol

 

[Deneed4spd]

One wonders what is the cost of 2 days of tire and brake at spring mt. U don’t go full on all day since there is class time. So I wonder if u are doing approx 1 day of brake and tire wear. Plus not having to do track insurance which is like $500-$1000 depending on track. Probably the $2000 figure sounds about right. $3500 is a bit more expensive to pay out of pocket.

 

[Throat Yogurt]

Let us know afterwards. I'd rather put $3500 toward HPDE's but if the instructors and sessions are exceptional, I may reconsider.

An HPDE will teach you how to drive a car on track. Spring Mountain will teach you how to drive THIS car on track.

Having done it, I think it is worth the $3500 out of pocket if you have never done Spring Mountain before, such as if you bought your car used. Spring Mountain was one of the most fun things I have ever done. I would not go full out of pocket to do it a second time, however... I would spend that $3500 on something like a rally school.

 

[FLYARMY]

Remember, that there are usually 3 groups in a class. They only have a limited number of CT5's and 4's. These cars are being used pretty much the entire day, even when you are in the classroom portion. I believe that I was told there are over 250 Corvettes at the school and it costs $1000 per day.

 

[Deneed4spd]

Remember, that there are usually 3 groups in a class. They only have a limited number of CT5's and 4's. These cars are being used pretty much the entire day, even when you are in the classroom portion. I believe that I was told there are over 250 Corvettes at the school and it costs $1000 per day.

Every person in class gets assigned a specific car. You don’t share cars amongst group. So your car sits idle while ur in class.

 

[FLYARMY]

That didn't occur with my group back in Dec.2022. They didn't have enough 5BWs in automatic and they had lots of 4's. One car blew an oil line and was taken out of service. I had to share my car and they had to always remind us to take our SD cards out whenever we got out, so they wouldn't get mixed up.

 

[BimmerFan]

We shared corvettes back when I did it, pre-pandemic.

 

[VR_IRL]

I had to wait awhile for a 6-speed 4BW to become available, but I'll be out there 9/24-9/26. If anyone else here will be out there at that time, let me know!

 

[Roadhawk]

I had to wait awhile for a 6-speed 4BW to become available, but I'll be out there 9/24-9/26. If anyone else here will be out there at that time, let me know!

I initially couldn't get a MT 4 V BW for March time-frame so i waited and managed to get an end of April session with the last set of announcements. I'm pretty stoked. While I've driven other cars I've owned very hard in demanding situations (but not on track) I really haven't had the opportunity to push the BW to its limits. Not sure if I will get the chance between now and then...and certainly not in track conditions. Hopefully with a bit of follow the leader and other instruction and working my way up I'll be able to manage at the limit. At least i feel confident the car can handle it....I'll be sure to report on my experience (assuming survival)...lol

 

[LF4472]

With abject humility, I present a portion of my session in the wet. I can't emphasize enough how much water there was. The video doesn't do a good job showing the rain. Note the river running across the track right after long straight. You could spin the tires at any speed in any gear.

Part of the challenge is they are still using the normal dry line which can become super slick in rain.

On a semi-related note, since my vestibular issues limit me to being a sim-racing fan, iRacing recently introduced rain and its awesome! If you track your car and ever expect to be running in rain, I recommend trying this as a risk-free way to learn the techniques.

 

[jbawden]

I was more time constrained and needed to fit SM into February and was forced into an A10. I'm manual or bust guy, but to be honest I was glad to be in an auto once the sessions started. For a novice, the skills sessions and hot laps on track are sensory overload, so I was able to focus on brake markers, turn-in points, and getting the car to settle without the distraction of gear selection. There wasn't a whole lot of processing power left between my ears!

 

[FLYARMY]

Just brakes, gas pedal and steering inputs. That's why I don't drive manuals anymore. My brain just wants to enjoy the ride without having to think too much.