Hi Steve, Michael, Jon and all,
Regarding the Justin Bell GT School, things are going well. They have a brand new building at the track with class room / lunchroom, closed circuit TV, a large shop facility, etc.. All the cars stay at the track now (5 Corvette Z06's, 5 standard C5's and 10 Camaro SS's). A long way from the early days where the cars were shuttled back and forth for each school from the shop in Orlando and our classroom was a canopy.
The students get A LOT more track time now, more than any school I've ever seen (I've worked for 3 schools as since 1988). The format has been tweaked a bit and I don't think any student could want for more track time or instruction.
Regarding the cars and the differences between instructing with Vipers VS Corvettes, they are subtle. As instructors, we are required to leave the Vette's active handling / traction control on for the students. I must say that this was the first school I have seen at JB where we didn't have anybody spin.
The Corvette does a good job of masking mistakes and students get up to speed quickly. We have to work a little harder as instructors to point out mistakes (like braking and turning) because the car is compensating for them. The controls are very light in the Corvette (steering ratio and boost are high, brake pedal force required is low, fly by wire throttle where the computer controls the throttle cable and you don't know how much throttle it's actually giving the engine) and we find people are braking too hard (getting into the ABS), turning in too fast (activating the yaw control), etc..
In a Viper, these simple mistakes were easier for the student to feel and we could explain to them what was happening, why it was happening, how to correct it and keep it from happening again. Little tools that a driver uses to correct his line in understeer / oversteer conditions don't work as well in the Vette either with the Active handling. The Viper takes more skill to drive well and in my opinion is a more rewarding challenge. Plant you in the back of the seat torque is a nice reward isn't it?
From what I saw and heard from the students at the school, everyone enjoyed the Corvettes and Camaros (the Camaro SS was about as fast as a standard C5). They couldn't believe all the seat time they were getting.
We still teach the same driving techniques in the Vettes. Teaching them in a Viper is more like teaching them in a racecar. On the track, you can definitely tell the Corvette was built for the masses and they tried to make it as appealing as possible to a broad range of people. I hope the new Viper platform does not go quite that far. The current Viper is still the King of American Sportscars in my book.
