Caveat: YMMV. This is just one person's LATE night anecdotal commentary.
I'm up late because I cannot sleep and had to overnight in Salt Lake City due to a lack of late flights back to SEATAC yesterday. So I figured I would jot down some notes on the STOA. First off, if you've never been the SLC and Miller Motorsports Park, I'd suggest making the trip if you have the spare cash and time. Miller is a world-class racing facility. I visited Laguna Seca back in the day when a friend was racing a Formula Ford, but I remember nothing of the venue, except a fleeting glimpse of the parking lot near the paddock and then the same for a trackside hot staging area. Otherwise, the tracks I've been to have been tilted WAY to the working-class environment -- functional, but spartan. Miller is truly a work of auto love funded by the late Larry Miller (a legendary Ford dealer and noted owner of the Utah Jazz). Apparently, he dropped $110 million of his own $$$ into development and was very involved with the entire project. He did it right. The Ford Racing museum is mind boggling. The Miller facility alone is nearly worth the trip -- not quite, but nearly. Having never been to SLC, it was also a neat experience to see the setting surrounding Miller (and SLC). It's a high, flat desert here, but the mountains that ring the area are truly beautiful. Stark, but again worth seeing. I can only imagine what it must be like in the dead of winter covered in snow. Park City is 40 minutes away from downtown SLC. Amazing.
In any event, that was the setting. As for the day itself, I had a nice time. I'll preface the rest of what I say by adding that I've become a little jaded in my old age -- and finicky.
I decided to attend the STOA because I figured that I would never get a chance to drive my own car at Miller and this was about my only real shot. Ford was kind enough to cover the cost of the event, I was running out of time (we have a year to exercise the option), and I'm just not getting younger. I went for it and am glad I did. The instructors were excellent and my highlight was getting out on the track to learn the line (we did the East Track). I'd call this a pretty "technical" track with several multi-turn sequences, decreasing radius, downhill turns, and some very late-apexing, counter-clockwise sweepers (my personal nemesis -- I consistently pinch them). Doing lead-follow and driving with an instructor was informative and entertaining. I could have used more time alone on-track, but it was a "school" and not a lapping day, so it was what it was.
That leads to my next comment. This event confirmed for me that I vastly prefer regular track days to driving school days, although this was probably one of the better school type days I've experienced. I just don't enjoy certain exercises (mostly because I'm lousy at them), like the hand-brake 180 turn or the parking box. I also am not a fan of auto-cross. I just don't like short courses around cones. They do nothing for me. So all that stuff, while admittedly useful car-control training tools, didn't really do it for me. Putting them together in the "urban" autocross setup made me more tense than ecstatic.
We also each did a "hot lap" as a passenger with an instructor in a Focus ST. That was very informative. What I noticed was how forgiving the Focust ST is at the limit. My instructor "Drew" was VERY good and fast. He had some fun sliding through a few turns. At times he made mid-turn steering and throttle adjustments (car was flying) and the Focus remained composed. There are some cars that would NOT have taken to that. I think the Fiesta could handle it as well, but probably not at the same speed (especially with the stock suspension hardware and rubber). It is just a narrower, shorter (front to back), and taller platform.
That leads me to my principal takeaway for the day. While I do love my Fiesta ST and am happy to have it, I found the Focus ST to be MUCH more composed in the track setting (at least in the more or less stock suspension setup used at the STOA). That was just my personal experience. It was easier to drive and more complaint. I think the addition of the BC racing coilovers, a little negative camber, and the LSD help my personal car a bit, but I found driving the Focus ST to be more relaxing in the setting of a road course. It also did not feel as big as it did before. Comparing them side by side was VERY interesting.
Lastly: I could have done without the karting at the end -- replacing it with an extra session in the car on the big track instead. I'm not fast, but I like working on my lines. I could have used another 15 minutes alone in the car on the empty track working on that stuff.
Having said all that, I think everyone else had a ball with all of it. There were only 8 of us, so it was a fantastic experience from an interaction-with-instructors perspective. If you've not been to a driving school of this form before, this is a good one.
YMMV.
I'm up late because I cannot sleep and had to overnight in Salt Lake City due to a lack of late flights back to SEATAC yesterday. So I figured I would jot down some notes on the STOA. First off, if you've never been the SLC and Miller Motorsports Park, I'd suggest making the trip if you have the spare cash and time. Miller is a world-class racing facility. I visited Laguna Seca back in the day when a friend was racing a Formula Ford, but I remember nothing of the venue, except a fleeting glimpse of the parking lot near the paddock and then the same for a trackside hot staging area. Otherwise, the tracks I've been to have been tilted WAY to the working-class environment -- functional, but spartan. Miller is truly a work of auto love funded by the late Larry Miller (a legendary Ford dealer and noted owner of the Utah Jazz). Apparently, he dropped $110 million of his own $$$ into development and was very involved with the entire project. He did it right. The Ford Racing museum is mind boggling. The Miller facility alone is nearly worth the trip -- not quite, but nearly. Having never been to SLC, it was also a neat experience to see the setting surrounding Miller (and SLC). It's a high, flat desert here, but the mountains that ring the area are truly beautiful. Stark, but again worth seeing. I can only imagine what it must be like in the dead of winter covered in snow. Park City is 40 minutes away from downtown SLC. Amazing.
In any event, that was the setting. As for the day itself, I had a nice time. I'll preface the rest of what I say by adding that I've become a little jaded in my old age -- and finicky.
I decided to attend the STOA because I figured that I would never get a chance to drive my own car at Miller and this was about my only real shot. Ford was kind enough to cover the cost of the event, I was running out of time (we have a year to exercise the option), and I'm just not getting younger. I went for it and am glad I did. The instructors were excellent and my highlight was getting out on the track to learn the line (we did the East Track). I'd call this a pretty "technical" track with several multi-turn sequences, decreasing radius, downhill turns, and some very late-apexing, counter-clockwise sweepers (my personal nemesis -- I consistently pinch them). Doing lead-follow and driving with an instructor was informative and entertaining. I could have used more time alone on-track, but it was a "school" and not a lapping day, so it was what it was.
That leads to my next comment. This event confirmed for me that I vastly prefer regular track days to driving school days, although this was probably one of the better school type days I've experienced. I just don't enjoy certain exercises (mostly because I'm lousy at them), like the hand-brake 180 turn or the parking box. I also am not a fan of auto-cross. I just don't like short courses around cones. They do nothing for me. So all that stuff, while admittedly useful car-control training tools, didn't really do it for me. Putting them together in the "urban" autocross setup made me more tense than ecstatic.
We also each did a "hot lap" as a passenger with an instructor in a Focus ST. That was very informative. What I noticed was how forgiving the Focust ST is at the limit. My instructor "Drew" was VERY good and fast. He had some fun sliding through a few turns. At times he made mid-turn steering and throttle adjustments (car was flying) and the Focus remained composed. There are some cars that would NOT have taken to that. I think the Fiesta could handle it as well, but probably not at the same speed (especially with the stock suspension hardware and rubber). It is just a narrower, shorter (front to back), and taller platform.
That leads me to my principal takeaway for the day. While I do love my Fiesta ST and am happy to have it, I found the Focus ST to be MUCH more composed in the track setting (at least in the more or less stock suspension setup used at the STOA). That was just my personal experience. It was easier to drive and more complaint. I think the addition of the BC racing coilovers, a little negative camber, and the LSD help my personal car a bit, but I found driving the Focus ST to be more relaxing in the setting of a road course. It also did not feel as big as it did before. Comparing them side by side was VERY interesting.
Lastly: I could have done without the karting at the end -- replacing it with an extra session in the car on the big track instead. I'm not fast, but I like working on my lines. I could have used another 15 minutes alone in the car on the empty track working on that stuff.
Having said all that, I think everyone else had a ball with all of it. There were only 8 of us, so it was a fantastic experience from an interaction-with-instructors perspective. If you've not been to a driving school of this form before, this is a good one.
YMMV.
