Eight Skipites go to Bobby Ore stunt driving school

[cdh]

Hey DD and Big Dick, how about some stories from Stunt Driving School? Pat you promised us a CWC on the subject.....

"I'll have a crushing word count report with some of Ashlei's pictures on the Bobby Ore stunt driving event she organized for us soon. Ashlei did a super job and we're still smiling and telling people about it." Duo

I look forward to it

.

[dalyduo]

Originally Posted by cdh

Hey DD and Big Dick, how about some stories from Stunt Driving School? Pat you promised us a CWC on the subject..... I look forward to it

Be afraid Doug... be very afraid...


Warning! Crushing Word Count Ahead!

For those looking for the bottom line... We came, we handbrake U-turned, we slid, we drifted, spun each other out, paint-balled each other, and rode on two wheels with our master stunt driver/trainer. (There are pictures at the bottom)

For those inclined to mind-numbing detail... Go ahead... I dare you to read on.

With no idea what to expect going into a modified version of Bobby Ore’s stunt driving school with Bobby himself in Sebring Florida recently, I came away grinning from ear to ear.

Ahlei Newkirk, former Skippy logistics &hospitality veteran, put together this event for Dick Lippert and seven other Skippy suspects. Ashlei previously produced a stellar spec Miata event at Watkins Glen last year for a gaggle of Skipites and once again showed her strengths. Ashlei was Dick’s liaison in negotiating the content of the program and also arranged the canopy, chairs, snacks and beverages that made up our open -air classroom. We were also treated to some very creative trophies for our mildly competitive efforts. Ashlei took very good care of us every step of the way.

In attendance were:

- “Big Dick” Lippert, ex-fighter pilot who was up for all the wisecracking his nickname invoked along with his usual rock steady hands behind the wheel.

- Bill “The Litigator” Hammer who was also highly focused fresh from having won several pieces of simulated silver at the Skippy banquet the week before. Bill had his game face on most of the time except for one brief giggly period while partnered with Laura Rowe who made him her “cone bitch” continually popping out of the car resetting all the cones she dislodged while learning the course. He really seemed to enjoy it!

- Murray & Michele Marden who were good in the cars and even better with flying stories that even raised Bobby’s eyebrows. Sadly Murray’s recently repaired back tightened up on him and they both withdrew after day one to head home and preserve Murray’s back for a future long run at Daytona.

- Dr. Ron “The Bone Crusher” Yarab who was hands down (or crossed) the most resistant to shuffle steering but certainly not dissuaded from tossing the cars around with joyful reckless abandon. (Ron may have found his new calling in stunt work.) Despite a severely strained calf muscle during field ambush maneuvers Ron forged ahead to complete the course handily.

- Laura “Cage Fighter” Rowe being the youngest and most athletic among us received lots of kidding for being a “girl” and a kick boxer but Laura’s direct approach also resulted in the most individual coaching instruction from Bobby so she had the last laugh.

- Lee “Rambo” Englebardt started the first day looking more like a candidate for drivers-ed than stunt driving but rallied to win the “Most Improved” trophy and some lovely paint ball welts before drifting a V8 Crown Victoria madly around the course with maniacal glee. Lee’s inner child and warrior both emerged dramatically over the two days.

- Pat “What the hell was that?” Daly who finally got to learn hand brake U-turns and couldn’t seem to wipe the silly grin off his face the entire two days. Pat received the “Best Drifting” award with full awareness that not even Bobby (due to positioning that blocked his view) witnessed the results. After one particularly fervent pathetic attempt at pitching the car into a proper drift angle “Big Dick” in the front passenger seat waited for the car to stop rocking, and with just the right pause and sarcasm asked, “What the hell was that?” The right question at exactly the right moment to which there was no good answer except laughter.

On the other hand...

- Bobby Ore is a funny, quick, irascible, self -taught personality on the very short list of professional stunt drivers who can do just about anything with a car. He raced for years before doing stunt work and if you’re old enough to recall the original “thrill of victory… agony of defeat” opening from ABC’s Wide World of Sports… After the ski jumper wipes out, a racecar is shown in a sickening series of endos and rollovers… That was Bobby Ore… before his stunt career!

You’ve seen his stunt work in films and commercials for decades. (The Fast and The Furious, and Dukes of Hazard are among recent efforts) He’s one of the “go to” stunt guys filmmakers call for auto stunt work when no one else can get the job done. He’s trained a slew of stunt and law enforcement professionals and prides himself on high standards. By his own admission he pisses people off by not graduating students easily and it apparently means something in the stunt world to have graduated from his program. Or as Murray commented, “This guy is the real deal!” Bobby’s course content and teaching style is a reality show waiting to happen and in fact a video crew was recording some of our session for just such a pilot.

Bobby shares a deserted piece of the same huge vintage air-force runway complex that was decommissioned back in the 50’s and then sectioned for its current use as the Sebring airport runway and the front and back straight of Sebring International Raceway. Finding Bobby’s isolated weed strewn oasis involved an act of faith on a little used bumpy two-lane parallel road to the long back straight of the Raceway. This mostly deserted road winds around cattle inhabited pastures for several long meandering miles ending up just past some bulldozer piles of animal grain and a gated chain link fence with severe warnings to Keep Out! There is no school signage and the long circuitous route on a clear day would question your sense of direction and sanity.

On our second day, a very foggy Sunday morning, it was absolutely haunting and cinematic beyond description. Tiptoeing along in my rental car with top down and wipers pushing away foggy moisture only to reveal more foggy moisture I arrived at the chain link gate with visibility of less than 3 feet and little hope of finding Bobby’s compound. While pondering a strategy for safe passage I heard the haunting cacophony of 100 bagpipes in unison wafting through the mist. First I thought maybe I was back in my hotel bed dreaming all this up, and then I thought no, perhaps I’d died and the “Pearly Gates” were turning out to be a rather cruel disappointing joke. Finally I crept forward using the bagpipes as audio homing beacons until the fog lifted just enough to reveal Bobby in his big SUV, lights ablaze, slowly circling the compound with truck stereo at full bagpipe song. I presumed he was doing this for our benefit but later overheard him say he listens to the bagpipes to calm himself and work through problems so maybe we were simply witnessing the equivalent of Bobby going to church. Whatever it was… I will never forget it.

On day one our initial classroom session was spent on tire construction and pressure. Bobby’s a big proponent of the maximum pressure a tire is rated for, as that is also the pressure at which its maximum load test is done. He resolutely claims longer tread life and better car control on your street vehicle. He’s not a fan of the lower pressures recommended by most US automaker’s for ride comfort. For our stunt practice the tires were set at 40 psi.

We then moved to the handling dynamics of front wheel drive cars and noticed the nose-heavy engine-forward bias (engine ahead of the shock towers) that his front drive Escort school cars have vs. the rearward bias (engine behind the shock towers) of the V8’s in the Crown Victoria rear drive cars. Engine forward makes rotating the car around the front wheels with rear lock-up much easier, so the Escorts are perfect training cars.

After checking brake, engine and transmission fluid levels along with tire pressure’s of the new sticker tires on our Escorts we began running a slalom cone course practicing Bobby’s shuffle steering method. He feels better control is maintained by changing grip from one hand to the other while shuffling your hands up and down either side of the steering wheel. Your hands never cross an imaginary line down the center of the wheel. With one exception (during reverse 180’s,) any cross over arm maneuver or palming of the steering wheel is strictly verboten in Bobby’s training.

While running at speed through the cones Bobby will use the self-correcting steering pull of the front drive escorts by letting go of the wheel during weight transfer. The steering wheel will unwind quickly and with practice you can release the wheel and grip it back at just the right moment continuing your steering without any crossed arm flailing. It seems awkward at first but once practiced you realize it is a very efficient predictable method that works extremely well during quick maneuvers. It also keeps your body relaxed and centered as well.

Then we ran some fast loops through a double slalom parallel cone course with all 4 cars nose to tail and again realized the importance of keeping eyes up and the car balanced. (Just like our race training) When focused on the cones (low eyes) it was easy to get behind with heavy handed steering corrections. If you looked past the cones to the horizon your steering inputs relaxed and you could more easily execute the flow of a quick smooth run.

In the short arc of transition from one row of cones to the other (change of direction) some used all possible speed and punished the front tires unmercifully through impressive tire squealing under-steer. If you backed off a bit and kept the car balanced through those transitional arcs you could reduce both the tire grinding and the arc of the turn while gaining ground on the person in front of you with a shorter distance to cover. At the conclusion of the exercise we examined our tires and found the serious under-steer users had already exposed multiple steel belt layers on the shoulders of their formerly new front tires.

Bobby and his assistants Gail and Andrew showed us each the basics of the stunts we would be learning. First, we learned handbrake U-turns. The trick is getting full rear lock up with the hand brake and then letting the locked rears drag momentarily before adding just enough steering to rotate the car around its front wheels until pointed in the opposite direction with front wheels straight. Again, turning our head and keeping eyes looking to the direction on the horizon we wanted to be facing at the end of the maneuver was key. Once we got the basic timing and rhythm of executing the U-turn Bobby tightened the reigns and had us rotating the front of the car tightly around two cones set at a car width apart, with our stopping point neatly between the two cones and the front wheels straight. When we stopped practicing we were much more proficient at the maneuver but still only getting it right by Bobby’s standard one or two times out of four.

After handbrake U-turns we worked on sliding into a box/parking space. This involves driving straight toward a simulated parking space at a 90degree angle at between 25 and 30 mph. At the proper distance you lock the rears with the handbrake while maintaining steady eye contact with the middle of your finishing point. Dial in some steering and as the rear end comes around release the steering wheel allowing it to counter steer, stopping the rotation of the car at 90 degrees. If you’ve calculated your brake point and speed correctly the car will slide sideways into the parking space in perfect alignment. If you go in hot with too much horizontal slide rate you can apply the regular brakes and use four-wheel lock-up to slow the slide.

On limitless concrete with large flexible cones its no big deal if you hit one, but the point is quickly made how serious nailing that cone would be if it represented a world-class cinematographer, looking through a camera / lens system worth six figures on a hundred million dollar movie production. We’re having a lot of fun sliding these cars around as we’ve seen in movies but the pucker factor for a serious professional who has one shot at running a complicated course and sliding to a pinpoint stop is impressive.

We then ran a course consisting of a slalom ending in a180 degree handbrake right U-turn; a short run to a180 degree handbrake left U-turn. A short sprint to a 90degree slide into a box to the right and finally a long run ending in a 90degree slide into a box to the left. As the practice session continued Bobby tightened the course by adding rear cones to the U-turn 180’s making the target zone smaller. Finally we had a two-lap competition with points lost for hitting cones, using the regular brake when only hand brake should be used during 180 U-turns. (Brake lights were the easy give-away) missing the target zones or being way off line, and any palming of the steering wheel or crossed arms that violated the shuffle steer method. After struggling with the maneuvers on day one, Lee Englebardt was our unanimous choice as most improved with two very clean runs that made us wonder if he’d brought his own stunt double on day two.

Bobby pulled up in a weathered mid-size pick-up and asked if anyone wanted to go up on two wheels. We were then treated to individual rides on two wheels with Bobby showing his mastery by driving us around his facility and even slaloming through the cones course. At first blush you were absolutely convinced the two-wheel tilt angle would be too steep to maintain but in fact Bobby holds that angle perfectly as if the truck had a training wheel holding it steady. His truck only had about 2,000 miles on it but about half of that mileage has been on two wheels, and while Bobby has trained hundreds how to do it and put all kinds of vehicles large and small on two wheels he’s the only human on the planet so far to have successfully driven an English double-decker bus on two wheels!

Later, Bobby asked Dick Lippert to stand at a specific spot on the concrete for a drifting demonstration. He told him to remain absolutely still not widening his stance an inch while it was happening. Lee hopped in the front passenger seat and I jumped in the back of Bobby’s V8 mustang and we shot over to a starting point about a quarter of a mile away out of site around a corner. Bobby punched the throttle and we hurtled around the corner directly at Dick. He threw the car into a forward 180 paused briefly and then spun the tires as we launched into a drifting arc toward Dick from behind. Bobby tightened the circle around Dick to within inches of his legs with the left front corner of the car. From the back seat Dick looked like a statue framed against the blue sky being digitally rotated as we slid around him with rear wheels peeling off clouds of blue tire smoke rising in a perfect circle around him. We made about 4 complete rotations before Bobby peeled off to a round of applause from all in attendance. It was an impressive display of car control that left a perfect compass like circle of black tire rubber around Dick.

I asked Dick about it later and he said because he trusted Bobby he wasn’t worried about being hit during the stunt but not turning around and looking when the mustang came snarling, snorting and spinning toward him from behind did test his resolve. From inside the car Bobby’s most violent motion was getting the Mustang to spin for the 180. When we were rotating around Dick his steering inputs were relatively minor calm adjustments to both steering and gas pedal.

Next a pair of Taurus sedans appeared with front and rear quarter panels and bumpers covered with metal shields. We were then taught the classic police PIT maneuver where you put your front bumper and quarter panel along side the rear quarter panel of the vehicle you are chasing and with very little effort spin the target vehicle completely around without changing the speed or lane of your own vehicle very much. Bobby claims other teachers suggest a lot of steering and acceleration to get the desired effect but their methods require approx. 3 lanes of pavement to keep from putting your own vehicle off the road so I’ll stick with Bobby’s method… especially during city driving.

Protective vests and helmets came out next as we were outfitted with special high velocity paint ball guns designed to shoot between vehicles at speed. The joke was on us as we were only using one vehicle that was being ambushed by a second group on foot hiding in the weeds. The high velocity guns did make an impression on uncovered arms and legs so most of us left with nifty souvenir bloody welts to impress our family and friends with.

In our first run Ron Yarab drove, I manned the back seat armed with a gun in each hand and our secret weapon Lee “Rambo” Englebardt rode shotgun in the trunk. At the first shot Lee’s weapon jammed. He let go of the trunk lid that was providing cover for him to un-jam his gun and quickly became target practice for our enemy. Shooters took positions on both sides of our vehicle and I found myself in the Rambo roll spraying paint balls out both sides of the car at the same time. We managed to hit our enemy a few times plus every one of Bobby’s vehicles and his equipment trailer parked a hundred yards away. Like Denis the Menace being told not to play in Mr. Wilson’s yard we were quickly repositioned so our ongoing battles invoked less collateral damage. The battles were fun and the car looked like it had been parked under a very colorful pigeon coop for a week after each attack. We all fought like 9 year olds playing war games in our backyards while revealing a complete lack of strategic battle skills, none of which kept us from emptying our guns each time and having big fun. The paintball sessions didn’t really teach us much about driving or shooting but it did make us acutely aware of how vulnerable you are in any vehicle if someone is shooting at you.

While we were busy reducing the planet’s precious paint ball reserves Bobby was giving Bill Hammer a private drifting lesson in the Mustang because Bill had to depart early. Shortly after Bill’s departure the Mustang had an electrical problem and the rest of us practiced basic drifting maneuvers on a pair of V8 powered Crown Vics.

With the foot E-brake locking mechanism disabled we’d accelerate to 2nd gear, stab and release the E-brake to break the rear end loose, steer left to swing the rear of the car to the right and get back on the gas to catch the rear wheels in a controlled spinning arc to the right. Through dumb luck I got it right a couple of times at the beginning of our practice session and then deteriorated into over-rotating snap spins or under-rotating massive under-steer. We all seemed to be struggling at the end and with 20/20 hindsight, may have been carrying too much speed into or past the turn in point to make rotating the car properly very difficult. Guess we’ll just have to go back to find out! We squeezed every last drop of sunlight out of our second day running with high beams on the Crown Vics to the very end when even the Florida sun called it quits.

Happily exhausted and awarded with cups, trophies and pictures with Bobby for just showing up, courtesy of our grand hostess Ashlei, we left with a much better sense of car control and deeper respect for those who make their living as stunt drivers. Most, if not all of us would go back in a second to do more of this and all of us had a ball learning from Bobby. It was humbling to be at the bottom of a new learning curve but the experience was more than I expected it to be. The quality of the teacher and the participants made the difference.

To use a variation on Al Unser Jr's line. Bobby Ore has taught us everything we know about stunt driving... but he hasn’t taught us everything he knows about stunt driving... That would be a very long lesson indeed.

Thanks to Ashlei and Dick for setting it up, and special thanks to Bobby and the Skippy participants for having the right combination of focus, hubris and self-deprecating humor to make it all an absolute joy. Very good stuff!

[cdh]

.............................................

[Moxie]

Pat, you are the James Boswell of TJR.com! Thanks for the comprehensive and colorful description. The Bobby Ore experience truly lived up to your prediction -- "more fun than human beings should be allowed to have."

[For this one, we need a smilie up on 2 wheels.]

And another hats-off to Ashlei for organizing and chaperoning (is that a word?) the whole thing.

[Yarab]

Stunt school school was a blast. went out and bought a dodge neon to throw around my parking lot at work. have to go buy rims and tires in the am. DD you left out the best part. when we were trying to do our best bobby was running us down from behind like we were standing still. amazing car control. I do have the shuffle steering down now,and my wounded calf has healed to the point where I can start running again. I'll try to post the picture of Dick L getting smoked(bad pun)

Road Warrior Ron

[Yarab]

you can never have to many pics

Don't piss off girls with guns and nice buns

[Yarab]

our mascot was tired by the end of the weekend
(Nice rack Basil---Austin Powers)

Nice pic of Bobby and Laura. They bonded well as the weekend progressed. I thought for sure he was a deadman after the first 1/2 hour of our school.

[dalyduo]

Ha! Right you are Road Warrior! We are envious of you having both the car and space to continue your stunt practice...

In the midst of us practicing both the slalom and stunt course Bobby would jump into his manual transmissioned Escort (ours were automatics) and literally run smoky rings around us.

While waiting in line to practice a 180, Bobby would charge straight at us, yank the hand brake at the last possible second, rotate the car 180 degrees to the right or left and match our sitting angle perfectly, coming to a smoky four wheel sliding stop, door handle to door handle while coating us with tire bits.

Riding with him during one of those early banzai runs was great fun as the eyes of students would widen like saucers as he slid up next to them.

During full stunt course practice, with Bobby inches off our rear bumper we'd begin a 180 or box slide and based on our handbrake application he would then decide whether to slide in front of, behind or beside us, matching our rotation and slide rate perfectly every time. If your 180 was overshooting the cone by a car length he'd casually 180 his car in front of you demonstrating with ease and precision how much you were leaving on the table. Having him buzzing around us challenged our focus on the tasks at hand while also providing a delicious taste of what real precision stunt choreography is about. Definitely a highlight!

Here are of few shots we didn't get to on the CWC post.

Originally Posted by Yarab

DD you left out the best part. when we were trying to do our best bobby was running us down from behind like we were standing still. amazing car control.
Road Warrior Ron

[dlippert]

DD, what a great write-up covering an awesome weekend. This was absolutely serious fun!

[cdh]

Originally Posted by Moxie

[For this one, we need a smilie up on 2 wheels.]

here ya go or should it be this way...

.

[cdh]

Big Dick sent me the orig of this one, tweaked it a bit, good pic, yours Ron?

[dalyduo]

Can you say... Caption contest?

1. I paid all this money for this school and all I got was this lousy picture of Daly's male pattern baldness!

2. Hhmmm... Should I have the eggplant or the chicken for dinner?

3. Great, I'm going to smell like BF Goodrich Tiger Paws for a week.

4. California Driver!

5. Dick finally achieves oneness with his inner cone.

6. Bobby leaves a ring around "B-- D---"

7. Thank god my fighter pilot buddies will never see this...

8. At exactly what point do I become too old for this s---?

9. I used to fly fighter jets... I should be drivin' the damn car.

10. Too bad that smoke is so high it covers my B-- D---.

[Moxie]

This is the last time I let them seat me in the smoking section!

[cdh]

Duo - the winner...

8. At exactly what point do I become too old for this s---?



The use of 'ring' here has too many dangerous possibilities ,
but the Mustang seems to need new ones

[dalyduo]

Here are some lovely paint ball war wound shots passed along by Ashlei