Since Jan. 1, 2016, Dodge customers who purchase or lease a 2015 or 2016 Dodge/SRT can experience a high-performance driving class at the legendary Bob Bondurant Racing School in Chandler, Ariz. We headed out to the Bondurant facility last month to see what’s in store for new SRT owners who seize this opportunity.
After a brief overview of the cars and the program, we wasted no time getting out to the track for the first exercise in the all-day program: skid control. The objective was to learn how to properly control a car that loses traction. To help induce controllable low-speed drifts, hydraulic rigging reduced the weight on the front or back of the car—by lifting either end of the car up on a set of external wheels. The effect was something like drifting in a rain-soaked parking lot, but the instructor could use a control box inside the car to calibrate the car’s behavior.
Along with understanding the car’s dynamics, this lesson also helps drivers get out of bad habits, especially a phenomenon called “target fixation.” In a high-speed situation, your vision is your most valuable asset. Target fixation is what happens when instead of looking at where you want the car to go, you reflexively lock in on objects you’re trying to avoid. This often causes drivers to steer right into those objects.
Picking Up Speed
These first lessons helped us prepare for the autocross course, where we headed next. For many enthusiasts, autocross is their first foray into organized high-performance driving. Autocross is set up like a miniature road course with cones outlining the configuration of the track. The goal here is to finish the course as quickly as possible, but without hitting any cones.
Speeds on an autocross course rarely exceed 70 miles per hour or so, but the technical nature of these tight courses helps drivers gain an understanding of the car’s dynamics and grip. Also, you learn how to fine-tune your inputs to go fast without losing traction. For example, diving into a corner too fast will cause understeer, and getting on the power too early sends the back end of the car out, and slows down your lap times.
Next, drivers strapped into a Challenger Hellcat, Charger SRT Hellcat, or a Viper TA 2.0 and headed out on the road course. A Bondurant instructor set the pace in front, increasing the speed with each lap. All the skills learned in the previous exercises were put to use on the road course—eyes up and pointed where you want to go, measured and smooth inputs, listening to the car, managing grip, and seriously hauling butt. (Yes, it’s as much fun as you imagine.)
After a brief accident-avoidance course where we practiced evasive maneuvering at speed by making sudden lane changes, the program concluded with hot lap ride-alongs with the instructors in a Viper ACR to see what these cars are really capable of. It was a humbling moment—professional racers are truly cut from a different cloth. The pace of the ACR was awe-inspiring.
Yet, as the experience at the Bondurant Racing School illustrated, everyone has to start somewhere. Regardless of your current level of experience, with proper training and practice you can push the limits of your vehicle—and your expertise in piloting your car—to levels beyond what you ever thought possible.
