Road Trip to the Bondurant SRT Experience
By Kelly G.
So What Does The SRT Experience Offer?
While some owners are very experienced drivers, there are others that are new to high-performance vehicles. The course is designed to teach driver’s how to safely operate their new SRT vehicle, while at the same time show that these vehicles are fully capable of taking a beating!
Once the day kicks off, the SRT Experience starts in the classroom, with a quick, but detailed class on driver fundamentals. Our instructors went over some basic driving techniques for once we hit the track, as well as a couple of advanced car control techniques for drivers to take with them once they leave the course.
The 1-day course focused primarily on the following skills:
Skid Pad Training
The skid pad training was our first chance of the day to jump into a vehicle and get to work. Our goal? Students are put in a Dodge Charger Scat Pack that is fitted with a unique hydraulic “training wheel” system.
The system can be raised and lowered by a push of a button to change how the car responds in a corner. While driving around the skid pad, student’s need to react to an oversteer and understeer situation, and try to keep the car pointed in the right direction on the track.
It’s a lot tougher than it looks, and maintaining good throttle control while looking through the turn to where you want the front of your vehicle to go, were the keys to success.
Accident Avoidance
The next part of the day was spent doing accident avoidance training. The training consisted of taking our vehicles through a series of exercises involving quick reaction lane changes and emergency braking.
The exercises really show you how responsive these SRT vehicles can be and to trust the technology that is put into every SRT vehicle. The accident avoidance class is also a very useful tool that Bondurant uses for their teen driver course. You also get to experience what it feels like to slam on the brakes as hard as you can to feel that ABS system at work.
Autocross
The autocross course at Bondurant was one of the class favorites and gave us a chance to take our SRT Challenger around the circuit for time. The goal was to get through the course as quickly as possible without hitting any of the cones. Here is a quick video I took on one of the runs. Too much fun!