“Going Faster: The Official Visual Guide of the Skip Barber Racing School”
Review by Gregg Leary

If you think you may be the next Mario Andretti or Jeff Gordon and are contemplating spending several hundred… or even thousands of dollars to enroll in one of the many Driving Schools available around the country…I’d suggest you first invest only $29.95 in the “Going Faster” DVD from Skip Barber. Skip says, “This isn’t your old high school Driver’s Ed class…you’re going to learn to drive at break-neck speed, in wild skids, with your tires smoking.”
Hyperbole? Perhaps, but Skip IS the originator of the world’s largest driving school. His students include Jeff, John and Michael Andretti, Chip Ganassi, Brett Hearn, Johnny Rutherford, Lyn St. James, Ken Schrader, Rich Vogler, Danny Sullivan and as Skip says…”Watch ‘Going Faster’ and your name could be next.” What have you got to lose? Thirty bucks and ninety minutes of your time.
In an hour and a half, Skip presents such insight as “Intelligence and determination are the main ingredients to success. Using skills and knowledge in a logical progression…defining the problems a race driver faces… then solving the problems one at a time…are keys.” Skip employs several of his instructors as our faculty and Lime Rock’s famous asphalt as the classroom.  It’s an excellent and FUN way to learn. The course syllabus includes:

1.  Straights and Curves
2.  The Line
3.  Car Control
4.  Braking
5.  Downshifting
6.  The Track
7.  Braking and Cornering Graphs
8.  Front Wheel Drive
9.  Rain Racing
10.  Signal Flags
11.  Time to Race

Nuggets of information are found throughout the DVD. “A car can only do three
things: accelerate, decelerate and corner.”

“Divide the track into straights and corners. The most important corner is the one
that leads to the longest straight. Running long radius arcs through the corners is the crux of finding the racing line. The line is the fastest path around the race track. It’s the starting point of going faster. At the limit of cornering capability the radius of the arc determines how fast the car can go.”

The three elements of going faster are:
1.  Line
2.  Car control and exit speed
3.  Braking
My favorite part of the DVD is the footage explaining the intricate foot ballet of “heel and toe.” The cowling of the Formula Ford is removed and excellent camera work shows the viewer the often misunderstood “black magic” of heel and toe technique. The DVD culminates with in car footage of an actual race with the instructor explaining techniques he is using to work his way to the front.

In “Going Faster” we learn such things as “connecting the dots” between TURN IN, APEX and TRACK OUT with a constant radius arc. Skip mentions that “The ability to turn with the brakes on is the only real advance in racing in the last 15 years.” This technique is demonstrated and reinforced throughout the DVD. Race footage from many series supplements the lessons with real world examples.

Perhaps the “jacket” of the DVD says it best. “You’ll get behind the wheel of a Skip Barber Racing School Formula Ford and learn the techniques for successful race car driving. You’ll begin with the fundamentals (finding the line, controlling the car at its cornering limits, threshold braking, heel & toe downshifting), and move through advanced techniques (trail braking, drafting, setting up a pass). Finally, you’ll experience a race yourself with in-car commentary covering race strategy, passing maneuvers and safety measures.”

“Going Faster” for only $30 may be the best bargain in motorsports. I give it four out of five lug nuts.