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Exercises #2 (Estops and Swerving) and #3 (Auto Crossing)

12/4/2016

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Picture
We pile back into the van, and head back to area to our bathroom/gear boutique lolly gag area.  We stagnate here for what seems about the same amount of time we spent with the skid cars.  Finally, we get shepherded out to the next exercise.  Here at least there are enough cars for 2 people per car.  The first exercise we will accelerate from a stop to a stop light which will direct us to either continue straight, or swerve left or right.  The entire exercise is probably a few hundred meters long.

We complete a ½ dozen passes starting at 25MPH then adding 5 MPH each lap culminating at 40MPH.  At the end of the 6th lap, driver and passengers switch.  Each return to the staging area after we are greeted by an instructor, whom does nothing to grade our excellence, failures other than to note the exit speed of the next lap.  We repeat the previous 12 laps with no e-stopping instead of swerving.  Of course, we do spend quite a bit of time idling in staging, and unable to see much of the course.  The point is well illustrated that the car is far more agile in swerving (and in a shorter distance) than attempting to full antilock brake. 

Total Time in the Driver's Seat To Date: 8 minutes

Exercise 3 (Auto Crossing):
With only 2 exercises completed, somehow we find ourselves reconvening in our bathroom/gear boutique lolly gag area.  However, we will be stalemated here for at least 1.5 hrs.  “Lunch” will be a paltry 6 item menu from a roach coach.  And  a very slow roach coach.  In fact, some students begin to wonder if they will be eating during the next exercise.  And for all their patience, they were further degraded when the fries were overcooked to the point you could literally hard enough to knock the table with it.

Nonetheless, the show must go on.  We are off the autocross course.  The instructor demonstrates the different apex as we watch from the far end of the field.  Then he gets his game on and hauls through there.  We load up in the cars, 2 people per car.  Each driver gets four 25 second laps.  The first 2 are warm-up and the last 2 are to determine the best time of day.  Other than signaling go, the instructors, heck, let’s call them guides as this point, have no corrective pointers.  While trial and error problem solving can be a useful learning technique, it is incredible slow to produce any results.  Furthermore, the price point of the SRT Experience and the fact that supposedly experienced instructors stand before me watching my every movement, would lead you to believe that this is odd. Again, time is mostly spent in staging waiting for your turn. It’s even worse, at there aren’t enough cars for all students, so we also need to rotate  to center area so everyone can get a go.  

The lack of maintenance will also pop up again.  Not a single car at this exercise has tires which would pass a reasonable state safety inspection.  It’s not for the tread being below the wear bars, but the outside are without any hint of a tread pattern.  And the condition further draws attention to itself as not a single car is leaving the starting box without exhaling a screech.

Total Time in the Driver's Seat To Date:: 9.7 minutes


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