Take me out to the ballpark. . . : Vroom-vroom 2...

So today is day two of Randy’s performance driving school (Ron Fellows Performance Driving School http://www.springmountainmotorsports.com/driving-schools/corvette-performance-driving-schools He’s been driving a stick-shift 7-speed (Note after the school was over: Randy hit 102 in 4th gear. He still had THREE more gears to go!!!) 2014 Corvette, a different one for each different class so he doesn’t have the luxury of a car of his own. And I would not want to drive our car! They go through a set of tires every third two-day class! And they sell the cars after 10,000 miles. Each instructor drives about 60,000 to 80,000 miles a year.

They are very good at making sure the spouses are taken care of as well. We get ride-alongs and may attend and participate in the classroom stuff. Today was especially helpful because El Jefe of the school talked all about the electronics and both Randy and I learned a tremendous amount about the electronic capabilities of the car we’ve been driving for the past 5 months! I’ve always said we needed a degree in computer engineering to really understand the way the car works and how to change the way the car works. Heck, the radio/nav/phone system alone has a 90 page manual. Which of course we have not read! It’s much more fun to just try things out.

The three-day course would probably be a lot of fun but GM would only subsidize the two-day course (they paid 2/3 the cost of the course and one night in the hotel). Day three is mostly on the track, driving really, really fast (which all the testosterone floating around would love!) and putting to use all the techniques they have been learning.

Not everybody owns a Corvette but most do and the sole woman in the course has just bought her 15^th Corvette (El Jefe says he thinks that’s a record for the school). She sold her 2013 with 2500 miles on it to buy the 2014! Everybody who doesn’t own one wishes and plans to buy one. And all the guys vie with one another to talk about either how much he knows about Corvettes and/or all the bells and whistles HIS Corvette has. The two dealers in the class are actually among the least vocal! Many, many in the class live in the northern part of the country and garage their Corvettes for six months of the year!

There are two professional photographers here to take the beauty shots of each of the participants. Only $195 for a package of five photos! They can get a lot closer to the action than I can but I’ve been able to get a few really good photos. Apparently there is a writer in the class (Evan) who writes (for money) a Corvette blog. The photographers are going to comp his photos in return for a write-up on the photographers on his blog. Money makes money, I guess!