Radford 2 Day HPDS

[Speedy!]

Glad some of you guys talked me in to going. It was freaking awesome. Not a "driving experience" but an actual performance driving school and I learned a ton from setting up the seating position, to how well these big girls can actually carve some corners. We beat on these cars for two days straight in near 100 deg heat and they never skipped a beat. Instructors said these Hellcats have been the best cars the school's ever had. Mine had over 20K miles on it all at the track. Never over heated nor complained.

Instructors told us they had Vettes for a while and they'd need a break after 15 minutes of hard driving to cool down, and they had Mustangs for a while which were completely worn out after 10K miles.

It sounds like the class sizes were shrinking so I'm not sure what the future holds for Radford but I wish them the best. Instructors were awesome and the curriculum top notch.

 

[DGatzby]

It is good fun to run them around at their limits both in power and handling. Amazing machines and yes, it can be big fun.

 

[TrackDay]

Speedy

Glad some of you guys talked me in to going. It was freaking awesome. Not a "driving experience" but an actual performance driving school and I learned a ton from setting up the seating position, to how well these big girls can actually carve some corners. We beat on these cars for two days straight in near 100 deg heat and they never skipped a beat. Instructors said these Hellcats have been the best cars the school's ever had. Mine had over 20K miles on it all at the track. Never over heated nor complained.

Instructors told us they had Vettes for a while and they'd need a break after 15 minutes of hard driving to cool down, and they had Mustangs for a while which were completely worn out after 10K miles.

It sounds like the class sizes were shrinking so I'm not sure what the future holds for Radford but I wish them the best. Instructors were awesome and the curriculum top notch.

So any plans to turn the steering wheel a little at next year's Moparty?

 

[Speedy!]

Y'all don't want me to win everything do you?

 

[drag racer]

Looks like your 2-day mimicked the first two days of my 3-day. I won't torture you with what we got to do on Day 3 (pssst, turned us loose for an hour or more on the big track with no restrictions except oil temp. limit)

I agree, it was not cheap but I learned a ton about precision driving and car control that I used the day after the class and everyday forward since...Anybody pondering going better go ASAP as the drag strip is history sometime next spring or summer, and I have not heard the fate of Radford yet.

 

[EricG]

Looks like your 2-day mimicked the first two days of my 3-day. I won't torture you with what we got to do on Day 3 (pssst, turned us loose for an hour or more on the big track with no restrictions except oil temp. limit)

I agree, it was not cheap but I learned a ton about precision driving and car control that I used the day after the class and everyday forward since...Anybody pondering going better go ASAP as the drag strip is history sometime next spring or summer, and I have not heard the fate of Radford yet.

Did they say exactly what oil temp was considered too high?

 

[drag racer]

270. rest for 5 min and back to the beating! I only hit 272 once, so not too bad. Was there in November.

 

[recurveman]

I knew you would love it. What you said about the reliability of the Challengers reinforces what Dan Bullock told me when I was there in June. I'm going back for three days in December or January.

 

[Ronin]

Sounds like a hoot and a half! I just got my VIN verification done and I'm down for the one day, likely going in January...

 

[TrackDay]

270. rest for 5 min and back to the beating! I only hit 272 once, so not too bad. Was there in November.

Oh man, I hit 270 F very frequently on the track. I'm not concerned until at least 290F. These engines are validated hotter than that even.

 

[BULL]

Oh man, I hit 270 F very frequently on the track. I'm not concerned until at least 290F. These engines are validated hotter than that even.

Like you would know...

 

[covidcommander]

How much for the 2 day course? I saw that rally school had a 5 day course but it was pricey

 

[Speedy!]

It was free for me. Not sure what it actually costs.

 

[DGatzby]

Like you would know...

Agree with TD, I saw 270-ish most of the afternoon Monday. It was running fine. Like he says at 290 then it may be time to shut it down.

 

[Idoru99]

@Speedy! Thanks for doing a video of the course! I was hoping you would as I had already signed up for the 3 day in November and was hoping it wouldn't be wasted money.

@covidcommander for reference, the 3 day for me was ~4400, after a 20% discount, so I want to say about 5500 without a discount. About that. The 2 day I think starts around 3800. If you didn't use your SRT day yet, they'll take 1000 off. Hagerty insurance has a 20% discount, which works out better for the 3 day vice 2 day course. There are a ton of discounts on the Radford site, but you can't stack them (I asked ).

 

[Hellcatcfp]

Glad some of you guys talked me in to going. It was freaking awesome. Not a "driving experience" but an actual performance driving school and I learned a ton from setting up the seating position, to how well these big girls can actually carve some corners. We beat on these cars for two days straight in near 100 deg heat and they never skipped a beat. Instructors said these Hellcats have been the best cars the school's ever had. Mine had over 20K miles on it all at the track. Never over heated nor complained.

Instructors told us they had Vettes for a while and they'd need a break after 15 minutes of hard driving to cool down, and they had Mustangs for a while which were completely worn out after 10K miles.

It sounds like the class sizes were shrinking so I'm not sure what the future holds for Radford but I wish them the best. Instructors were awesome and the curriculum top notch.

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@Speedy, great recap. Brought back memories. Want to do again. Good to see the same instructors. They took both my kids around the track at the end of second day when we were all on road course. They made it special for my kids...they still talk about it today.

 

[Speedy!]

Scuba Steve lol

 

[TrackDay]

This was my experience the last year of Bondurant. It was a portion of the longer course that Speedy ran, but it was the Advanced course where they let us go at it and try to match our instructors time.
I was driving a manual car.
Lots of fun.

 

[BULL]

"No no, all four."

; )