DOES RACING SCHOOL MAKE YOU A BETTER DRIVER?
According to Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours” rule, we aren’t born prodigies. We don’t have an innate sense of car control at speed as we first get behind the wheel. But put in enough time, and you can get pretty darn talented.
MotorTrend’s four junior staffers are decent drivers, but we wanted to push their envelopes a bit and increase their respective skill sets. We don’t necessarily need them to be racer-fast, but they do need to be able to test the limits of a car while their brains and bodies are able to process those inputs and retain them long enough to get their thoughts on paper.
After all, it’s no good to you readers if our car testers are as fast as Lewis Hamilton but come back from a drive with nothing more than, “Wow, that was fun!” We want them to develop their inner-ear (or inner-buttock) sense of when brakes are wooden, when steering feel is spooky, or whether it’s compression or rebound that’s making a suspension uncomfortable going over freeway expansion joints.
When the BMW Performance Driving School reached out with just such an opportunity for our crew, we jumped at the chance. The PDS is located at the Thermal Club racetrack out past Palm Springs and offers a wide range of driving schools for people of all ages and capabilities.
And although the BMW folks offered up a day session in a GT4-level car, we dialed back those expectations to something a bit more real world in nature. The one-day driving school costs $849 per person (which BMW comped, full disclosure), but given what body shop and insurance bills are, that could be the best money you spend. There are teen-driving courses and less expensive half-day sessions, as well.
The daylong car control session is the equivalent of a 101-series course, whereas the “M School” would be a 301-series course. Personally, I have found nailing the basics is a far better way to improve and
