GTA Advanced Driving School Reviews

[Frost]

I also encourage others who have attended driving schools in the GTA to post reviews here.

[Frost]

Just a reminder and a disclaimer folks!

The SPDA is going to have their open house on April 1st (Saturday) and my review of their advanced driving course still stands (see page one of this thread). It is one of the best gateways into safe and fun performance driving with low costs. Please go http://spda-online.ca/content.php for more information.

FULL DISCLAIMER:
- I am a normal member of the SPDA (kinda need to be in order to attend their events)
- As of October 2016, I've been an instructor with Pinnacle Advanced Driving Academy. Some of you may see that as a conflict of interest to review other driving schools (fair point) but I am a enthusiast first and foremost regardless of my affiliation with clubs or school(s). I will strive to provide unbiased reviews and my previous reviews and scores shall remain untampered from the day I wrote them. I will also NOT review the school I teach at (seeing as to how that is a HUGE conflict of interest) and hope some of you will chip into this review thread of that.

Hope to see more twins out at events this year. Can't wait!

I will also finally be attending the OTA schools and hope to post a review soon.

Cheers.

Frost

[brzr]

i did the ilr winter driving course over two days in minden.....it was great, i learned a lot more in the two days than in all of the years of driving .....
plus it was tons of fun

[Frost]

A quick reminder folks! The SPDA and OTA open house is THIS SATURDAY at JRP (2344 S Sheridan Way, Mississauga) and the sign up for the Advanced Driving Clinic (reviewed earlier in this thread) is at 1PM SHARP IN PERSON.

The open house itself, starts at 11am though.

[RTP]

Highly recommend the ILR course. Completed it in 2015, and I now attend the track days as well.

For those who don't know, after you complete the course, you can then attend their lapping days. This is simply the same day / location as the track school - but you don't attend as a student, but you attend as a lapper.

When you are a lapper, you are off the track when the students are on, but while their in class it's all yours. It's a negative that it's on and off, but a positive how much room you have when you're on. Also, the instructors are happy to jump in and provide instruction when they're available.

[Frost]

Gonna be attending OTA's driving school at DDT this weekend!

Looking forward to writing up a review!!!

Cheers.

Kev

[Frost]

Just added my review of the OTA school!

Check it out here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...29&postcount=3

[tanner]

Great write up Frost... echo the same things.

I took their course three years ago at the big track and it was a huge help in improving my "consistent two minute lap time regardless of the car I drove" LOL.

When I did the school back then, we didn't have anything set up on the lower paddock area for the slalom, braking, and skidpad. Maybe they do now, don't know but good to see that the students were able to experience that at the DDT school.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by tanner

Great write up Frost... echo the same things.

I took their course three years ago at the big track and it was a huge help in improving my "consistent two minute lap time regardless of the car I drove" LOL.

When I did the school back then, we didn't have anything set up on the lower paddock area for the slalom, braking, and skidpad. Maybe they do now, don't know but good to see that the students were able to experience that at the DDT school.

If you took the course three years ago, it might have still been fresh from the renovations to the track and area so the staff might still have been figuring out what they could allow outsiders to do with the area.

If not, it still shows that CASC-OR / OTA is continuously improving the value for what you pay which is a great thing. A lot of schools I'm aware of tend to stagnate and rehash the same thing over and over again.

Can't wait for my turn at BMW Trillium and OTA GP training!

[wparsons]

The GP school doesn't have a skidpad/autoslalom component, the DDT school has for a long time (possibly since the beginning).

[Frost]

Updated my OTA school review with an adder for the GP School!

Check it out here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...29&postcount=3

Cheers.

Kev

[tanner]

The one comment about helmet-to-helmet comm systems, this is up to the instructor, there's no requirement that the instructor needs to have one (as this would be an out-of-pocket expense for the instructor). They may have some loaners maybe, not sure.

My wife's an instructor for OTA and last year she would educate the student on the hand signals that she would be using while she spoke out loud. She knew for both driver and instructor, it was difficult to hear what the other one was saying. This year she purchased a comm system just in time for the OTA GP school. Tried it myself as I had her give me a few tips at another track day, comms really makes things a lot easier!

[Frost]

Originally Posted by tanner

The one comment about helmet-to-helmet comm systems, this is up to the instructor, there's no requirement that the instructor needs to have one (as this would be an out-of-pocket expense for the instructor).

My wife's an instructor for OTA and last year she would educate the student on the hand signals that she would be using while she spoke out loud. She knew for both driver and instructor, it was difficult to hear what the other one was saying. This year she purchased a comm system just in time for the OTA GP school. Tried it myself as I had her give me a few tips at another track day, comms really makes things a lot easier!

Thanks for the insight!

I was thinking of buying one for myself just for kicks but this explains a lot.

[tanner]

Check out Chatterbox or Peltor. The problem with these things is that there is NO standard in the plugs from one system to another, so you end up having to build some custom adapter.... maybe it'll use the same phono plug but the mic/headset are reversed, or it uses a mini XLR plug like the Peltor if i remember correctly.