Hey everybody,

I did this before and never got a good answer if it was taboo or not. This is the first place I want to look for interest in what I have to offer, though, because I know how extensive the road racing community is here, on this forum. Please forgive me if this isn't appropriate!

I have completely revamped my driver coaching program. I now can coach in both in clients' personal cars or in a track prepped BMW M3. This is the same style car that I leaned on and serves as a chalkboard for the explanation of car physics and how setup changes work and feel. I can also offer full hospitality for track events so we can discuss driving in the comfort of an air conditioned Renegade.

Anything from driving theory to track car setup is something I can include and cater to in a day or weekend. Modestly, I have learned the above from some incredible road racers and am passionate about relaying that information to new drivers. I respected my coaches very highly and have always enjoyed the idea of being in that position.

I'm sure prices are the point that really turn this post into something that shouldn't be posted so I won't put them up here. Just know that with my resources I can offer similar prices to my colleagues but with the use of a track prepped car. You don't have to worry about wadding up your daily or wearing out pads on your personal track car.

If anyone is interested please let me know. I would love to get something started as soon as possible. The best time is the off-season which is NOW!

-Matt Bell

P.S.
Moderators, I know that this is probably bordering on a vendor promotion, please inform me on how to become one.

 

Well, I could certainly use it. Definitely interested. Moving to the area within the next few weeks, it looks like. Not sure when the race car is coming, though. Part of my problem though has been simply driving the same car for years without getting a good feel or knowledge for other cars on-track.

 

Now if we could only get Pastrana to give rally lessons...

 

cool... I'm always interested in learning to better my skills/talents.

but, I work with Richie Hearn who did IRL/CART with a handful of indy 500 starts... so I get to pick his brain while we toss these around:





/brag post

If you did video and was able to provide feedback with visuals, that'd be helpful too.

 

Well that's where my M3 comes in to play-- thrash it around! One of the things I've had to learn over the last few years is figuring out how to be fast in any car, right away. I've learned this from some pretty amazing guys I've been lucky enough to race with. I can instruct you (or anyone else for that matter) on how to theorize what a car will do, turn on the senses to predict things about the car while driving, and learn how to tweak the car setup to tune it to your desired balance.

Lol... brag posts are fun. How about this, [modestly] these are all the more influential cars in my career, all of which I can say I have experience with-- experience I can pass on. I'm no Indy driver, but I've had a couple as my co-drivers. These are all real-life cars that I've had to learn to setup myself!...





















...This isn't a very good counter-brag post, but it isn't intended to be. I do have the capability to use video as a coaching tool in the M3 and can also install quick cameras in other cars as well. I'm trying to work out a deal right now to get true data logging installed as well in the M3 so that I can not only coach on how to read it, but also how be faster from it. That's the biggest thing I've learned from the Indy guys: data is EVERYTHING. When it comes down to a few hundredths of a second per lap, you better use everything you have to find it.

These have been posted before but I thought of them with the video comment. Both videos are of times when I had to come out of the box with some speed in new situations. The first was a qualifying session, in the rain, with sticker slicks, with a dry setup, on a freshly wet track. It was actually good for pole by just 0.04 seconds!!! It is in a very similar car to what I've acquired for my private coaching business, actually, except that my car is street legal (ish). The second video is of me in the LGM C6R GT2 Corvette at Road Atlanta before Petit Le Mans last year. It was about my 10th lap in the car, 10th lap on Road Atlanta, in the rain. It was a terrifying experience but I look back on and smile. Please ignore the shaky hands, this was, to that moment, the fastest car I had ever driven and was a bit twitchy. It turned out though, that I was actually one of the fastest guys on track during this video!

 

i wish i was able to jump onto something like this. i like the approach of "drive my car and we will go from there". i doubt this is even within reason of my budget but i bet it would be a great experience!

 

Those two will work. The rest are neat, but these two are extraordinary.
A noble will be in my garage according to my 3 year plan.

This will be your best tool bar none. Yeah, in car coaching is great and does help in the moment. But, new drivers are just happy to be driving that the coaching doesn't always register. Experienced drivers sometimes have too big of an ego to listen to feedback that they don't take the coaching as beneficial unless you show them quantifiable data.

Coaching is opinion. Data is fact.

Combine the two and you'll have a solid program.

 

PM'd you Matt.

 

Hey do you know a guy named Jason Davidson? He works as crew for stevenson?

 

Wish such coaching would be available in my country

 

Definatly something I dream of, and look forward to do within a few years.

 

...And so it begins...





One BIG step complete. This is a pretty serious training tool. Stay tuned for pricing. I know it's taking me a while, but there's a lot to take into consideration. I'm trying my very best to make it as low priced as possible... I mean it too, I'm not being used-car-salesman-y.

 

Matt, with the using-YOUR-car thing, are you setting up some kind of damage fee/waiver? The kind of deal where if the student puts your car into a wall, you don't walk away empty-handed.

 

Id hope so.... thats too pretty to race in its stock form.
Very very nice vehicle!

 

Yeah, absolutely. I have dealt with this sort of thing through racing programs. Its fairly simple. I'm actually working to find out of I can have one car on two insurance plans so that I can have track insurance to cover only when the car is off road. This way my overall cost (and price) will go up, but if crashed, the customer will only pay for the deductible.


It is pretty! It was originally built to be both a track car and a shop/show car for a good friend of mine. He liked it so much that he ended up seldom running it on track and used it as a daily driver. It does have adjustable EVERYTHING so it is the kind of coaching tool I would like. With this I can show people how setup changes affect the dynamic of the car, especially on such a neutral chassis.

 

What track will you be doing this on?

 

VIR, VIR, VIR, VIR, VIR

 

no EC love. id be up for something like this if it was on the EC.

 

The car is on the west coast, so mostly Thunderhill, Laguna, Sear's, Buttonwillow, Willow Springs, Fontana, etc.

Haha, sorry Blu, despite how much I LOVE that track, the car is about 3000 miles away. I can coach in customer cars out there, but not with the M3.

 

I figured that, but just wanted to make sure. The generic "HPDE Insurance" might cover that, since it's an instructional event. The only thing would be that you'd probably have to be signed up for one of their approved events. The nice thing about it is you (somehow) come to a mutual agreement on what the value of the car is, and pay a percentage of that per weekend/day, AND it covers two drivers (or really a driver and instructor...which is the situation you'll be in). I didn't look too far into it, but it might be worth investigating. It definitely was a supplemental insurance, and would work with other normal street insurance policies.

 

I just think those Lambos are odd looking. Was following one around in a Miata till we got bored of it. LOL Still wouldn't mind giving on a try though!

Matt, neat stuff. I was going to have Eric Curran provide me some in-car instruction but race in the same class as his father and decided it would be too weird. Too bad you're on the west coast. What's the website where your information about coaching is posted? (You can IM me if preferred.) I went to your site. Is the content section supposed to be in another language?

 

Okay, so this thread took an interesting "my Di$k" is bigger than yours turn. Kinda disappointing. I personally don't care if you drive a crappy car or a "super car". It's about how you can drive not the check book. Anyone can drive pretty much any car with enough cash. Lambo, "pro" race car, or so forth. It's all about results not this hype BS.

(I honestly have no idea about the true level of driver talent that people who have posted here has. I was surprised that some took the bait.)

Back to the measurement contest???

 

Well not Pastrana, but close, he has been there and driven on the site, and cars prepped by Vermont Sports Cars.
www.Dirtfish.com

 

The ride got its new shoes and is on it's way to get wrapped in the Damati / MBellRacing / BRRacing Professional Driver Coaching livery. Once done, it'll be time to go get some baseline setups at a couple tracks so I can ensure my first clients have a well sorted race car!

 

Well there's always Team ONeil where Pastrana and Block learned how to do it. But Dirt Fish is looking pretty damn good, with Group N spec cars instead of old Golfs and Audi's.