HARD DRIVE
If you covet the heart-pumping high of race-car driving in a lower-risk environment, fulfill your fantasies at the Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving, situated on 60 acres of sun-baked desert just south of Phoenix. Founder Bob Bondurant, who still races occasionally at age 68, has coached Nascar heroes such as Jeff Gordon, as well as Hollywood alpha males like Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood. Bondurant's 20 full-time instructors offer similar star treatment with a fleet of 120 Mustang GTs and 30 Formula 1-style Fords.
I took the three-day Mustang class. With four instructors on hand, the 11 students got plenty of personal attention. After a heavy dose of classroom theory, each of us was assigned to a bright-orange 1999 model, extensively modified with a tuned suspension, roll-bar cage, and gas-tank protection. We pushed our vehicles to the max on the slalom course, the miniature circuit, and the 1.6-mile racetrack to get a feel for the squealing limits of tire adhesion.
The hardest maneuver was simply going around corners. Forget everything you ever learned about braking in advance and leaving a margin of error. On a racetrack, you accelerate straight toward the corner, as if it doesn't exist. At the last possible moment, as panic rises and disaster seems certain, you brake with maximum force, then ease off as soon as you slow down enough for the front wheels to grip. (A proper turn would throw you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a full safety harness.) Then you immediately resume accelerating while you unwind the steering column - this widens your arc just enough for the inside wheels to brush the inside of the track at the turn's late apex.
By the third day, this manic-obsessive driving style seemed almost normal as I careened around the track in pursuit of my fellow students. Imagine riding a roller coaster for 90 minutes without a break, and you get some idea of the g-forces, speed, adrenal rush - and subsequent exhaustion.
Other activities at Bondurant were less intense and more applicable to responsible highway driving. For instance, we drove Mustangs fitted with a Swedish system of outrigger wheels that lighten the load on the car's own wheels, simulating the experience of driving on snow. It's a great way to learn how to handle wintertime skids and spinouts.
Bondurant also offers a "teenage defensive-driving" course, two-hour go-cart classes, and even an antikidnapping course - all with group rates for parties. And the only prerequisites for most courses are a valid driver's license and experience driving a stick.
Three-day Mustang class: $2,400; four-day Grand Prix class (Formula 1-style Fords): $3,275. Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving: (800) 842 7223, www.bondurant.com.
STREET CRED
Prêt-à-Portégé
Afterburn Rate
Clean Sweep
The Institute of Higher G-Forces
Fac-droid
Sticky Sight
Your Personal Web Scrawler
ReadMe
Music
Cardiac Arrest
Galaxy Quest
The City That Never Sleeps
Just Outta Beta
Atlas Shrugged
Noise "R" Us
Contributors
