Driving experience / school in Vegas

I may be taking a trip to Vegas this year and I'm wondering if there's a driving experience worth doing and "affordable." I haven't been on a road course yet but, the only thing stopping me from getting instruction at MSR is that I really want to get a seat and harness first.

All of the highly-advertised driving experiences sound lame and are usually only a handful of laps at best. Then there are the outrageously expensive schools, even for just a day. Anybody know of something worthwhile?

Granted, I could probably get a seat and harness for the cost of this but let's disregard that for now...

Thanks!

So far the best I've found is: http://www.exoticsracing.com/Porsche...perience_3.htm

An instructor rides with, but past 10 laps in the Cayman R it's too expensive for me to justify I think. And 10 laps just doesn't seem like enough. Anybody done this or anything similar or even anything at all with this company?

Spring Mountain Raceway has several programs from Ron Fellows Vette school to SCCA to Radical race school. Will cost you a pretty penny though. I would save the money and just do some local DE's in your own car, you will get a lot more seat time. You don't really need a seat and harness to do DE's at green/blue run group levels.

http://www.springmountainmotorsports...riving-schools

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Originally Posted by CosmosMpower

Spring Mountain Raceway has several programs from Ron Fellows Vette school to SCCA to Radical race school. Will cost you a pretty penny though. I would save the money and just do some local DE's in your own car, you will get a lot more seat time. You don't really need a seat and harness to do DE's at green/blue run group levels.

http://www.springmountainmotorsports...riving-schools

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Yeah, that's the one I was specifically looking at when I said "outrageously expensive" haha...

I kinda figured that doing DEs here would be my best bet all around. More affordable, lots more seat time, good instruction, and go at my own pace. That option might just win out. But then what'll I do in vegas!? ::Banana::

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Originally Posted by GroceryHauler

Yeah, that's the one I was specifically looking at when I said "outrageously expensive" haha...

I kinda figured that doing DEs here would be my best bet all around. More affordable, lots more seat time, good instruction, and go at my own pace. That option might just win out. But then what'll I do in vegas!? ::Banana::

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There are a lot of easier ways to blow through 2-3K in short time in Vegas than taking a racing school.

Go to this local event to pop your road course cherry for free - http://www.dfwmiata.com/threads/2391...ack-day-at-ECR!!!

Then spend the money on Hookers and Booze while your in Vegas! ::EvilBana

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

Go to this local event to pop your road course cherry for free - http://www.dfwmiata.com/threads/2391...ack-day-at-ECR!!!

Then spend the money on Hookers and Booze while your in Vegas! ::EvilBana

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Still waiting on parts so I can finish putting my rear suspension back together. Then I can move on to raising ride height. Unfortunately, I'm busy for the 2 middle weekends in march and probably won't have the parts by this weekend. Hopefully the car will be ready by the end of the month though.

While we were in Vegas in November, we rented Lotus Elises and went driving up in the canyons. Cost $300 per car, which we split between two drivers and took turns. So for $150 for the whole day, we got to enjoy some fun driving for most of the day. Pretty good value.

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Originally Posted by strathound

While we were in Vegas in November, we rented Lotus Elises and went driving up in the canyons. Cost $300 per car, which we split between two drivers and took turns. So for $150 for the whole day, we got to enjoy some fun driving for most of the day. Pretty good value.

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Sounds fun and reasonably priced. Where did you rent them?

I've done Skip Barber one day at Laguna Seca and the three day race school at Road Atlanta. Laguna was my first ever on track experience and it was awesome. I bought my first miata for $2k a month later. Road Atlanta was also a blast. For as much as those programs cost, you should only do them, in my opinion, if you really want to drive one of the premier tracks.

My first track day at MSR was in my '91 miata that had 185k miles, hawk hp+ pads, 15x7 wheels, and a roll bar. It was tons of fun and WAY cheaper than Skip Barber. As long as your brakes are in good condition and you've got a roll bar, just take your car to MSR with Driver's Edge or Apex. Fantastic fun. If you're hooked, you can buy a harness and a seat. You don't need those for your very first event to have fun.

Thanks for the input MoonieGT. I have a roll bar and my brakes will be in good shape shortly. Don't know if the pads are up to track use though. Maybe I'll hold off on the seat/harness after all and get a track event under my belt this year. Maybe renting something in Vegas is a better alternative. Strathound, where did you end up driving? Find some good/fun roads that weren't too crowded?

Most DE's will want you to have the same equipment for the instructor as the driver has. So you will need 2 seats and 2 harnesses untill you are signed off to solo. The one school I did they let me by with a seat and harness for the driver only, but they were not happy about it.

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Originally Posted by Robert

Most DE's will want you to have the same equipment for the instructor as the driver has. So you will need 2 seats and 2 harnesses untill you are signed off to solo. The one school I did they let me by with a seat and harness for the driver only, but they were not happy about it.

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I think the seats/restraints just have to match. You can run two stock seats and seat belts but you cannot run a race seat and 4/5 point harness for the driver and a stock seat/seatbelt for the instructor.

Yes that's what I meant to say.

Oh, that's good to know! I didn't realize that.... Blerg