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Just signed up for the SRT Experience

5K views 40 replies 11 participants last post by  howorks 
#1 ·
Haven't seen anyone mention about signing up for the new version of this program, so it looks like I'll be the guinea pig. I was waiting for the 2016 schedule to come out, so I could sign up for Road America, but they changed the program on me, so now I'm stuck in Phoenix. Regardless, I'm stoked! The wife wanted to participate, but when SRT announced that they were no longer allowing gifting of these experiences, and adding her would cost $700, we decided to add an additional few days to the trip and go over to LA for 3 days. May 1st, here I come! :eek: :grinbiginvert:
 
#5 ·
I think I'll have a most excellent Fusion (or similar) rental.
 
#7 ·
It is a good school, but I am pretty pissed off with SRT. I purchased my wife a challenger hellcat last year and they promised me two track days. Now they won't honor it. I am also hearing they won't let you transfer them. I am surprised they won't honor their word with loyal SRT customers. Enjoy the school as I have heard it is a good program!
 
#8 ·
We had 2 of every SRT vehicle (Daytona Sept 2015) including 2 hellcats (stick). Only half the class could (wanted) to drive manual, so I pretty much stayed in the Vipers and cats during the big track part...wouldn't you?

Great group of instructors that contract into the program..everyone has a different type of racing experience.

Basic instruction, super fun day.

Btw, the jeep smoked everything else on drag racing.
 
#13 ·
How are you getting that price? Their website shows the 2-day class to be $2450. 2450 + 2450 - 1000 = $3900?
 
#14 ·
oops, not deep enough into my pot of coffee :silly:

yeah, it's $1,795 PER PERSON ;) after the $1k credit. I could not make sense of their pricing either as he (Brenan Jiran) quoted this 2 day High Performance Driving WITH dedicated Hellcats which the website says is $2,795 @ so using that should be 2795 + 2795 - 1000 = $4,590....his quote to me was for 1795 + 1795 = $3,590 so either I got a deal :pimp: or he messed up and double counted the $1k credit....maybe he will honor the email quote maybe he "can't"...not sure I wanna spend $3,590 but he did say the seat time is unbelievable and we would really get serious hellcat time and would be whipped...he was selling hard....
 
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#17 · (Edited)
I drove by the track yesterday and checked it out. The Wildhorse Drag Strip and Lake is right next door so there will be something to do if they cant get in. They do have buildings on the property so Im sure it will be fine. They probably dont want people standing on the side of the track. Worst case there is a casino and outdoor mall across the street. Local Motors, who builds the Rally Fighter, is just across the freeway too
 

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#19 ·
Yeah. I tried to sign up for April 30, but it was full up.
 
#22 ·
Ended up making this part of a larger mini-trip with my wife, so we're driving into Phoenix on Saturday night and leaving on Sunday right after the event. lol
 
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#25 ·
how was it? all things considered, fun? give us the good, bad, ugly to help us decide what to do not to do...I am considering taking the $1k credit for a 2 day perf driving school with my son for his 21st birthday where you get a chally hellcat to use exclusively with no sharing of car or track time...
 
#26 ·
I had a blast! It all started off with a 30 minute intro to Bondurant and the facility and then we were split into two groups and off into cars.

First up was accident avoidance in SRT Challengers and Skid Control in Scat Pack Chargers. Accident avoidance was simply about reaction time. You do 30-45mph towards 3 lanes and have to choose which one to go into based on lights the instructor chooses. You may have 1 lane, 2 lanes or no options where you have to slam on the brakes and slide to the side.

Skid Control was really cool. They rigged up hydraulic arms to 2 Chargers(see pic from HoustonSRT-8) and the instructor could raise the front end to simulate understeer or the back end to simulate oversteer. 4 people in the car with the instructor riding shotgun with the controls. You slide around the corner and either brake or gas it while turning into the skid to control the car. Coming from an 04 Cobra I had no problem with this drill but there were several people who had no clue how to handle this. Lots of 180s, 360s, and tire roasting.

Next they gave us a 1 hour lunch break and invited a local food truck in which was delicious. You could also leave the facility if you wanted. Had 30 minutes after lunch to wander the facility. Dodge apparently gave them over $7mil in inventory and you could tell.

After lunch we split up again and did AutoCross in Hellcats and Lead and Follow in Viper GTC's. Vipers were manual so a few people needed Auto Challengers. A couple guys couldn't fit in the Vipers so they also got Challengers. If you do lead and follow make sure you are one of the first few cars. They only go as fast as the slowest driver which can get a little annoying. That ran between 10-15 minutes and you are by yourself in the car.

Next was AutoCross in the Hellcat Chargers and Challengers. They give you 1 parade lap to see the track and then 2 timed laps. Again, be one of the first people in this event. I was one of the last and my Challenger was so heat soaked it would barely get in boost. I think I managed a mid 25 second lap with a passenger which wasn't bad. I rode shotgun in a Charger which felt much faster but he only managed a 25.60 or so. Fastest lap was 24.06 I believe. The track instructors run 23s or lower. The only mods to most of these cars are racing pads, racing fluid and better coolant.

Last event was Hot Laps with the track instructors in Hellcat Challengers. This was beyond amazing. I had no idea what these Challengers were capable of. These guys were doing 70-80 drifting through turns and 130+ through a small straight in front of the group. Several times we had all 4 wheels off the ground and I thought we were going to flip the car. My mouth was on the floor almost the entire first lap but these guys had complete control. I have my runs on camera but I was holding it by hand so hopefully it turned out. I heard a couple people in the crowd say they had been to SRT events before riding shotgun with instructors but these Bondurant drivers were so much better. After we were done they did 1 more hot lap by themselves and the #5 driver(whom everyone wanted to ride with) turned a 70mph slide into a 360 and got it corrected as he flew past us at 120 haha.

There were people from Alaska, South Dakota, Texas, California, and all over. 4 Jeeps in the parking lot including mine. Spectators were very welcome. We even had a baby with us all day. Spectators got to ride along in a lot of the events too so bring people with you. As good as this little event was I can only imagine how much cooler the multi-day events are. They have a 4 day event where they can take someone with no racing experience whatsoever and after the 4th day they are ready to get their racing license.

Ill get my photos and videos up today or tomorrow. 3 different phones to get them off of.
 
#39 ·
I did the SRT Track Experience on Saturday (8 Oct 16) and it was absolutely incredible! It was the most fun I've had in a car in quite a while. Loved driving the 392 Challenger, the Hellcat Charger, and the Viper. The "Hot Laps" with the instructors in the Hellcat Challengers were definitely the highlight of the day! Only disappointment was not having a GC SRT to drive. I would have loved to see how our vehicles handle while doing some of the exercises. There was one other GC owner in the group and he echoed the same thoughts. I understand that Dodge is the school sponsor, but I sure would have liked to smoked the tires on a GC SRT without it being mine...:smile2:
 
#27 ·
awesome write-up thx...how many in the overall group before split? did staff say this was large, small, expected? I ask because I am told with "larger" groups there may be a lot of standing/waiting time so just trying to get a feel if you felt your car/track time was good given it's a 1 day event...when did the event end?
 
#28 · (Edited)
We had about 45 drivers which is one of the larger classes they do. Probably 60 people total which surprised me. I think every SRT day is going to be that big because they only do this event 10 times per year. Im sure the multi-day courses are smaller and offer much more seat time

There was a bit of waiting at each station but there was shade to stand in or chairs to sit down in. Very interesting people attend these events so its nice to have some down time to chit chat and watch how bad the other drivers are. Some of these people had 3-4 SRTs and all sorts of other toys.

I was pleased with the seat time only because of the Hot Lap session. Had it not been for that I dont think its worth a cross country flight. I live about 1 hour from the track so it was a no brainer for me.

April 30, 2016 (Saturday) SOLD OUT
May 1, 2016 (Sunday) SOLD OUT
June 11, 2016 (Saturday) SOLD OUT
June 18, 2016 (Saturday)
July 29, 2016 (Friday)
July 30, 2016 (Saturday)
August 6, 2016 (Saturday)
August 20, 2016 (Saturday)
August 27 (Saturday)
October 22, 2016 (Saturday)

I would wait for August/October to avoid 110+ degrees. It was in the 60s yesterday morning and I dont think it got much hotter than 80. Perfect weather
 
#29 ·
Thanks man...yeah my mother lives there so only question for me is how not if to do this...and my son turns 21 in Nov so I think I'll take him to a 2 or 3 day over winter break, gotta call them to see what they offer then....
 
#31 · (Edited)
Here are my cell phone photos. High res if you copy the URL and open in a new window

The drive "up" to Phoenix:



Modded ACR Vipers that they will be using for a new event coming soon:



They also do UTV courses and it appears they dont allow them to roll over. This looks like a lot of fun:



Accident avoidance Challengers:



Skid Control Scat Packs:





The Viper GTCs all lined up for lead and follow:





The instructor about to tell the 2nd Viper to catch up. They wanted a 2-3 car gap:





Some of the older cars Bondurant used to use:



AutoCross Charger:



And a couple of the Challengers. Notice the 4 Jeeps in the parking lot. I passed another Jeep on I10 when I pulled in. Was some sort of grey with stickers all over it.



 
#32 · (Edited)
...They also do UTV courses and it appears they dont allow them to roll over. This looks like a lot of fun:

...
looks like a pretty good program for those who can make it to Phx...

dude, those things are so much fun in sand...did a private 5hr "Real Baja" outing in a Rzr 900 in the open desert north of Cabo San Lucas last Thanksgiving and haven't stopped grinning yet...



 
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#34 ·
Excellent write-up. Much better than I would have written. I tried inconspicuously asking a few people if they were on a forum, trying to find you, but no one was. Turns out I was in the yellow group and you in the orange. Ended up hanging out with the owner of the Steel Blue Jeep in the lot, during our sessions.
P.S. If you noticed or remember, I was the one wearing the grey shirt with a flamed Lightning McQueen on the side....lol.
 
#35 ·
Ya I was in the orange group with the 2 other Jeep guys. Funny enough a guy in my group also had a '74 Bronco so we were twins for the day. Are you in my video? Did you enjoy it?
 
#36 · (Edited)
I highly enjoyed it, except for the lane change exercise. That was pretty easy.

I wanted another crack at the autocross. I was the fastest Challenger in my group; at 24:87. With a few more laps, that could have been close to 24 flat.

Edit - No, I was not in your video. When I get back from vacation, I'll post pics and vids.
 
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