s4wood

I have gone out with other instructors in very fast cars and felt uncomfortable too...sitting in the passenger seat in a car that is going pretty fast can be very uncomfortable at times.

s4wood

for high level intermediates and advanced drivers...YES.

Alpha7

to sign off students. I also felt that some instructors that I had were hardly qualified as I was continually allowed to make dumb mistakes/choices w/o reprimand or correction like jerky steering input, over braking, etc... By the 3rd of 4th school I attended I was in the advanced group and wasn't even assigned an instructor. It was up to the student to search out an instructor if they wanted. This was with only 4-6 days of experience. At that point I decided for myself that I wasn't going to learn much more from this group and started attending BMWCCA event.

I found that BMWCCA chapters in general ran a tighter ship. The in-car instruction was better as most instructors were club racers as well. They had less fear(?) than ACNA instructors and encouraged trying different lines so the student could feel the effect of that approach. I remember reading someones beliefe that ACNA teaches the "school line" and if you deviate from it your car will explode. One method I have discovered that some BMW chapters use to solo off students is have them take most if not all corners offline. The NJ chapter takes this a step further and requires a sign off from two instructors before being soloed. Even in the classroom I learned more in the beginner group w/ BMW than I had combined in all of the ACNA classroom, mostly because the material never changed. Lastly, I was getting more seat time.

Now, it has been 4 years since I drove w/ ACNA so things may and probably have changes. Different chapters do things differently as well so I can only speak to my own experiences.

mirth

things can change quickly as someone gets more experience and picks up speed, and the instructor really should be there in the car to recognize it.

Potomac-Greg

My most frustrating instructor experience was when I had a substitute sit in for one session and lay out an entire approach to the track that was at odds with my instruction to that point. He wanted me to use the "DE" line (brake straight and long, turn and apex way late-- basically convert the track into a series of straights); and he instituted an arbitrary speed limit (110). I can't fault him for the latter point since it was tough for him to be tossed into a new student car without knowing anything about me.

Frankly, I have the deepest respect for anyone willing to jump into a stranger's car driven by a stranger at 2X legal speeds.

Potomac-Greg

... you got to advanced with 4-6 days. It's a voluntary disclosure so if you wanted to write down 15 days you could move up to Blue (intermediate) at best. Sounds like the rules were/are not followed where you ran.

Green / Beginner 0 - 4 days (no R-compound tires)

Yellow / Novice 5 - 14 days

Blue / Intermediate 15 - 29 days

Black / Advanced or Instructor 30+ days
My experience with ACNA (Mid-Atlantic) has been the opposite. Very controlled.

Alpha7

I was novice for my first event in 2002 and intermediate for the next 3 events being soloed off at each. Then advanced at my 5th event and advanced w/ open track at the 6th event w/ ACNA in 2005.

Potomac-Greg

... 2011.

gh0st

(10 days) so it might just have been the string of instructors that I've had but three out of those five events I was signed off to solo whereas a friend of mine has only been soloed once.

I did find it to be very helpful because it forces you to think about things instead having an instructor just tell you, but I'm still new to the HPDE thing and I'm surprised that they let me go out there alone so soon. When I drive, I notice a ton of errors that I make but they still let me go play alone

Potomac-Greg

... does not follow their own rules, there should be a correction. I've seen the Mid-Atlantic Chapter struggle on day two at Summit POint when instructors have checked out early, but I can't say that I've seen safety compromised.