This is pretty much what I'm taking it as, an early and hopefully very enjoyable test drive! Will certainly report back once I've done it. Mines on the 29th so still a couple of weeks away, but I am very excited about getting to drive one so soon!
I’m also doing tailor made advanced on the 29th! See you there!
My “program” sounds similar to yours, with the only difference being that it sounds like I have more on-track experience. I’ve received coaching on track from a more experienced buddy, and have had instruction from pro drivers on 3 different occasions in 3 VERY different cars, but those were not full days of instruction. I’ve also done a number of solo track days, track-cross and autocross in my own cars.
During the days above I focused on basics: seating position, hand-position, looking through corners (originally I struggled with not looking far enough through the corners), finding the proper racing line, inputs (braking in a straight line before corner entry, smooth on and off throttle, avoiding snap oversteer). I might recommend those places as areas of initial focus for general track driving if you haven’t spent time with them already, but the instructors will obviously know much better than I
At this point I feel like I understand the basics of car control / input (although if these are RHD cars I’ll be all screwed up) and it’s more about getting comfortable working up to and playing at the limit (feeling the edge of grip, controlled oversteer, getting on power earlier, courage/commitment carrying speed through the corners). My heel-toe skill is average at best, but that feels higher up the hierarchy of needs so to speak, on a modern car anyway. My last instruction was only a handful of laps around Portimão in the A110, that instructor confirming what I already knew about myself: I have the tools I just need more commitment (part of that is also not being familiar with the track layouts, and never having enough experience on any one track or with any one Model of car to be comfortable at the limit).
I’m also looking at this as an advanced test drive, while improving on the above fundamentals.
I’ve driven Elise, ND Miata, A110, Radical RXC, Model 3 Performance, 992.2 911 GTS all on track (Plus Exige S240, 981, 718, Caterham 7 and Alfa 4C extensively on road) so I should be able to speak to how the Emira feels relative to those, and can hopefully dust off my unused journalism degree and give this board some sort of review
