does anyone know about Drivers Education School in the Bay area?
Iım looking for a driving school in the Bay area that has classes
in defensive driving (for lower insurance premiums and longer life
expectancy) as well as performance classes (for learning how to put
the frosting on parking lot doughnuts). Me and my soon-to-be-
purchased street machine need an education. Any driving school
graduates out there who would like to endorse their alma mater?
For defensive driving, contact your insurance agent or your local
DMV.
For street/performance driving, there are two tiers of school available:
The top level professional schools like Skip Barber, Jim Russell, and
Bob Boudurant; Barber's west coast headquarters are at Sears Point;
Russell is hq'd somewhere on the west coast, and Boundurant moved from
Sears Point to Arizona some years back. these schools all offer 2 and
3 day street driving courses with skid pad, slalom, and track practice
and good classroom. i took a one day version of the Skip Barber school
at Lime Rock in CT some years ago and found it well worth while.
The second tier is often refered to as "marque" club schools, as many
of them are offered by marque oriented clubs like the BMW CCA and
the Porsche Club of America. in these you drive your own car, but
you get an in-car instructor for most of them, and lots of track time
to work on your driving. prices are quite a bit lower than for the top
pro schools.
My own experience consists of around 40 days worth of track time via
marque club schools and their equivalents (such as the pro Car Guys
and Track Time outfits that run schools similar to the marque clubs),
and the day spent at Skippy school. i recommend taking the Skippy or
equivalent once, and then backing it up with lots of good clean track
time (there is no substitute for seat time. none at all.)
I still strongly recommend the generic defensive driving course; best
if you try and track down one of the really good ones, as quality varies.
the one i just took was pretty decent, and NYS mandates that my insurance
company give me 10% off my insurance. note that statistics show that
drivers with this training show a reduction in the agregate of about 15%
in claims with insurance companies.