There is an Evolution Phase 1 school I am thinking of attending next month. Can anybody who has attended one of these schools share their experiences and reactions to the school.

Thanks.

 

If you want to become a better autocrosser, then those schools are teriffic. You get lots of seat time and learn a lot.

r2x ~ who's done Phase 1 2x, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Dial-In 1x.

 

Have a link, Jonathan?

Jason-
who would like to read about the school(s)

 

IMHO, the evolution school was worth every penny. I took the phase I course about 3 months in to my resurrected autocrossing career and it made an immediate impact on my performances when I got back to my region. The instructors were fantastic, and the basic lessons are understandable and made a huge difference for me. It would have taken me years to learn on my own what I did in one day at the evolution school. I say "go for it"-- you'll definitely be faster.

 

I took Phase 1 two years ago. I learned a lot. At the time, I was never competitive in my class. I usually was bringing up the tail. Phase 1 helped reinforce all the things you read about doing, but forget to apply on track. After the school, I finally started getting competitive. If you've got a chance to go, I'd recommend it. I think we had over 30 runs in by the end of the day. Each run they take split times for different sections of the course, allowing you to work on specific areas you may be having trouble with.

 

The school is great. It is like a year of autocrossing in one day, 30+ runs when I went. But you tires are going be chowed up

 

Its a very good school, and you get lots of runs, so make sure to bring plenty of tire.

My only beef was I wish I had feedback on times after every run, it was hard to figure out at the end which runs matched with which times.

 

http://autocross.com/evolution/

I really think I'm going to go. I have a feeling (actually I KNOW) I am doing some things terribly wrong and I'd like to get them corrected so they are not habits...

I'm worried about my tires surviving a 95 degree day in Texas with 30 runs. They are brand-new Azenis (1 autox event) and I can't buy another set right now.

 

Get some take off tires from a tire shop. Have them mounted up for the day. Any old street tire will do. It's worth it.

 

I did phase one two years ago and it really opened my eyes to what my car could do. Having a good driver drive my car while I sat in the passenger seat was very informative. (The teachers drive your car a bit at school). I never knew my car could go through a slalom so fast. After seeing the teacher do it, I knew I could do it too. Without that experience, I might have spent a lot longer creeping up to 10/10ths driving.

Once you are more experienced, Test&Tune events can provide huge amounts of seat time for less money. My SCCA region holds test&tunes for $30 with a 30 driver limit (it's usually like 15 drivers). You have the whole day for relaxed driving, tuning and experimenting. I put 35 miles (yes, miles, not runs... lost count of the runs) on my car at one of these.

Of course, you go through rubber like crazy. Expect to lose 1/4" of tread on street tires.

 

I've been to 2 of them and rate 'em very highly. Strano, McGiver, and Larry Fine all showed me how fast my Type R could be

You will be a much better driver after the school. I think anybody who truly wants to improve, should attend one of the schools, otherwise you just keep reinforcing bad driving habits.

 

What she said. The Phase I really isn't about how fast you can make your car but how fast you can drive it. It's for driver education -- gets you more into looking ahead and whatnot rather than getting absolute speed out of your car and setup.

 

I just took Evolution Phase 1 and Phase 2 this past weekend and it was worth every penny. The school opened my eyes to other parts of negotiating a course than I ever thought.

Phase 1 involved lines through a course, braking zones, throttle inputs, and more. When I got there Saturday morning they made us do base runs. I thought I did the course pretty great (36.xxx) - then I got the smack down The instructor will ride with you, drive the car for you, and then watch you and give you feedback on every run. Our Phase 1 had timing lights between sections of the course to see where you need work and where you can go faster. At the end of the day I ran the course in 34.xxx taking almost 2 seconds off my time. Two seconds at the last event would have bumped me to first place

If you can also take Phase 2 - well worth it.

I had Nick Leverone, Larry Fine, Mike Johnson, Pat Salerno, and Tommy Pulliam as instructors.

I used my Kumho 712 street tires for the school. I took off about 1/3 the tread of my front tires Figure you are there for the school and not to compete. I really don't recommend using your expensive racing tires either.

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I have taken Phase I and Phase III. I found both very helpful. In phase III I had some kind of break-through and I feel like I went from an average autocrosser to a pretty decent autocrosser. They are great schools and are probably the only "serious" autocross school around.

As far as tires go, I would suggest going with R2X's advice. Try and get some take-offs from a tire store. You can try and get better quality high performance tires that are down to the wear bars. But honestly the quality of your tires is not important for the school, since you are working on making the driver faster not the car. The fundamentals you learn in Phase I will transfer over when you start autocrossing on your good tires.

Shawn

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