JonRS4

Overall, I was favourably impressed with the program. The upfront booking and paperwork was well handled. The Audi permanent facility at Infineon was rather impressive. Modern and glitzy looking. It's right along turns 10/11 and would be a great place to watch a race from! Nice large garage area (complete with fleet of R8s), classrooms and lounge area.

There were only 8 of us in the class, and with only one local, most of us traveled to the event. All of us had limited or no track experience. Years back I'd done motorcycle track days and took the California Superbike School but for me, this was the first track time on 4 wheels.

We started off in the classroom with the basics: intros, safety, rules, track layout and format but moved on quickly to seating position and then to a short autocross-style layout and finally a slalom exercise. Instructors were all racers (ALMS, SCCA) and delivered well in both the classroom and track environments. We were on the track for a session before lunch.

Infineon is a pretty tight track with minimal straights. All sessions were pretty much 3 - 4th gear affairs with 105 - 110 mph top speeds. The track was prepped for rookies. Cones at all braking points, turn-ins and apexes. That was very effective in teaching us how to look through the corners and to anticipate the next one.

At first, the on-track format baffled me. You rode two students to a car and followed an instructor's car who communicated with you by radio. You never had an instructor next to you nor did you ever lead a group. The instructions were simple: keep 1 1/2 to 2 car lengths behind the instructor. If you showed you were under control and could keep up, they kept going faster. To my surprise, it proved a pretty effective technique. I was amazed at how clearly they could pick up mistakes not only in track positioning but also braking points, gear selection and even hand position on the wheel!! I later found out that Audi runs this same program all over the world and have found this technique to work best (and probably keep their a$$ out of court).

We had two more sessions the afternoon of Day 1 with de-briefs after each. So around 2 hours seat time and another 2 hrs as a passenger which was useful. That was enough for day 1.

Day two was all track and de-briefs. So about 2 hrs track time. One more session in the morning would have been nice but not critical. We all progressed quite quickly. In instructor talk, they started driving at "6 tenths" and ended up at "8 or 9 tenths". I came away amazed at the precision you need to be fast out there. Towards the end, I was getting comments like "you missed the apex by a foot". I thought +/- a foot was pretty good but I guess two inches is better! No track incidents by anyone. Apparently, they've banged up a couple of RS4s over the year.

The RS4s were completely stock and really seemed to endure the punishment quite well. My car had 8K miles on it and really felt no different than the one I left at home. I was surprised at how hard you really have to drive these to get the performance. Lots of sliding and chirping and howling going on. We had to leave the stability control on and was impressed how effectively that technology worked for rookies in the track environment. Gave me comfort in what that could do for me on a rainy PNW day.

I was very happy with the experience. Not cheap at $2495 but based on the fact they change tires every second course, maybe that's not so bad. The RS4 is an incredible car. While this environment may not be where it shines most, the track is an excellent way to understand the nature of the beast and learn limitations of both man and machine.

One more thing, my driving partner was a writer putting an article together on new "team building" ideas. Bastage didn't have to pay to play! He was an interesting guy and plenty fast too. I'll post the link when he publishes.

McGyver

Nice write-up. Thx

nugent

so total driving time for you yourself was around 2 hours for both days?

JonRS4

people it seems get motion sickness as a passenger on the track so a couple guys had to sit that part out. Personnally, I got a lot out of watching my partner drive. We both gave each other feedback and it worked out nicely.

I don't think you could go for too much more track time for the first time out. You are literally driving these things as fast as your skills allow. That's pretty draining for first timers.

cit1991

Thanks. Looking forward to mine in a couple weeks.

RS Maniac

Great write-up, psyched even more. Share some pics pls!!!

s4wood

Dont worry big boy..youll get your turn.

MAP777

I attended also and found it to be well worth the time and money. Having just purchased an RS4 a few weeks prior, I came away humbled by what a professional driver in the car could do.

The RS4 held incredibly well on a difficult track and was very impressive to drive. I came away very pleased with my purchase.