THSCC Forums

Hey Folks,

I'm working with Gilbert Reynolds who is organizing the Teen Driving School. It's on Saturday, June 24th. Instructors will start early in the morning (maybe 7:00 or 7:30) and the school gets out at 4:30 in the afternoon. Instructors get a free lunch too. Hopefully you get some practice on the exercises in the morning, and a chance to take students through the exercises at least once, maybe twice. It helps if you have a desire to help young drivers improve.

Folks- this is something that we can do that will literally help save those young lives. Every month it seems we hear about young kids killing themselves or somebody else in their cars. This is a chance for us to make a real difference.

Gilbert needs some instructors from Tarheel to help him out for the day. The BMW club will be providing some of the instructors too. The school is for kids age 16 to 21. We have talked about wanting to contribute something in this area as a club for a long time, but haven't done it for a variety of good reasons. But here is a chance for us to pitch in and help another organization in this worthy cause.

If you want to help, but don't meet the instructor requirements, we are in need of a few volunteers to help with miscellaneous duties during the day. You may be picking up cones, helping to focus parents that stay behind on needed task, or other duties as assigned.

The site is the hallowed ground of the NC HighwayPatrol Training Center. It should provide an excellent venue for this course.

I'm looking for mature (take that as experienced and responsible) instructors that can be good role models as well as good drivers.

I'm ideally looking for men and women (we need ladies very much for this too) that have at least two to three years of autocross or track experience and have already instructed in at least one THSCC or other autocross school or HPDE event.

I hope our excellent lady drivers will come out and help as I expect there to be some girls in the class that will need good role models.

We are going to be teaching SAFE driving and car control skills, not speed.
The Street Survival organization has developed a good curriculum that you will become familiar with to help you adjust your mindset appropriately.
The exercises are similar to an autox school, with one exception. The HP has a designated area for practicing two wheels and four wheels off exercises. Should be interesting.

Encourage your friends with teen drivers to sign up their kids. Also, we will need volunteers to do cone duty and help with misc items as well. If we end up with a large number on the waiting list, we think that's a good thing as it will show support for having another one in the area.

If you can't make it this time, but like the idea, send me your name anyway and I'll put you on my call list for a future school of this type.

The website that you can refer parents to for more info is at:

www.streetsurvival.org

Email me or call me if you can help.


Miles Beam
mbeam@milestonetechnologies.com
919-773-1772 office

Sent you an eMail.

- dow

Poor kids!

_________________
In need of car.

I am sure an 'S13' would be WAYYYY more popular with the kids than an STi. You should bring it!

- dow

You're as bad as Ryan with your JDM Speak! I don't have an S13.

_________________
In need of car.

I thought that the 240SX (SE?) here was most analagous to the S13.... guess I am wrong. I *thought* you had some 'truck' engine in here, but I am not up on my 'Ness-ans'.

Regardless, you need to m4d tyt3 d0r1ft0 it

- dow

Hey y'all let's keep this on topic.

I will be there instructing -- this is a great thing to do! Thanks Miles for helping organize it!

_________________
Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

PM'd

Unfortunately that's the weekend of the DC Pro Solo...

_________________
SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

I've signed up my son for this so I'll already be there and happy to help out.

_________________
Colin O'Connell

'94 BMW NASA SPEC 3
'02 F350 tow vehicle (not bad for a tow vehicle)
'97 Miata STO (autoX and sunny day spoils vehicle)
'97 BMW 328i (loaner to the kids when their cars don't work vehicle)
'05 Toyota Highlander

yeah, I have both my kids, my neighbors kids, a friend in Clayton and one of the managers at work son is signed up. Can't thank Gilbert and Miles enough for setting this up ...and... we get to play/teach on the HP test track. I'll be there helping as well. Looking forward to seeing if we can change some attitudes and impart some driving skills into some younger drivers.

Can we recruit for THSCC while we'er there

_________________
Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Any suggestions for what kind of car we should be bringing as an instructor? Are we going to be called on to do any "demonstrations"?

I don't want to bring the M3 or the Miata out to "demonstrate" something and have the kids get all impressed by the car ... I'm thinking the Subaru on crappy all-seasons, especially if we're going to have to demonstrate getting a car out of control, and how to recover.

Yes, some days my biggest challenge is deciding what car to drive

_________________
Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

And here I thought I had it rough just trying to pick out my shoes.

That's a good question Mike.

You don't need an autox car for this. The instructors will hopefully have a chance to practice the exercises before the class, and we plan on having the instructors give the students a ride though the exercises at least once. I hope that some instructors have a car that can take two or three people so that if some instructors have no cars, we can do more than one at a time, if needed.

I think your typical street car is actually a better choice for this than your autox car. We don't want this to even look a high performance driving schol or autox school. This a safety focused event for young drivers. We also want them to be able to relate to what you're driving and vice versa. The focus here is on driver's skill, not on the car.

I'm very delighted that some of you have agreed to instruct and I think you'll find it a rewarding experience.

Instructors will be getting some material later to help them prepare.

Miles

The school I teach at up here uses Volvo S40s. For each exercise we expect the students to do, we put 3 students in each car for demo rides. We also take any parent that wants a demo, and encourage them to go so they find out what their teen is going to be learning.

Good luck with the BMW school. I look forward to seeing what you all think about teaching teens. It's a bit of a challenge, but very rewarding.

Up here, how well a relatively new driver executes the U-turns to get headed back down the site area (often a runway) is related to how long they've been driving. Get someone driving 3 months and their U-turns suck way more than someone driving a year. We often end up teaching U-turns alkong with the regular curriculum. Someone let me know if the same holds true for NC.

Make sure to post up how it goes and your impressions of teaching teens. It's WAY different from an auto-x school or HPDE where your student actually *wants* to be there.

_________________
Diane (Hall) Bundas
1992 Spec Miata #48 - 1997 Chevy Tahoe - 2007 Honda Civic Coupe