Rally Ready Driving School, Dale

In rally car racing, drivers learn to brake with their left foot, push cars to their limit (and often beyond) and slide sideways over loose terrain with the tail of the car hanging out sideways the entire time. The expert team at this Texas rally driving school can take students from complete novice to bona fide rally driver in as little as half a day. Rally Ready Driving School brings the ultimate adrenaline-packed experience to their students as they take the wheel of their own rally car and practice the fundamentals of what makes a successful rally driver. Each class culminates in a real rally stage where participants get to drive flat out down dirt roads, sliding over corners and crests in a once-in-a-lifetime rally racing experience.

• Their cars: plenty, with a diverse array of options ranging from all-wheel, rear-wheel, and front-wheel drive to everything from stock, caged, and turbo rally cars. Students are encouraged to push them to their limits, too; house mechanics rebuild them between classes and sometimes during—offering a glimpse behind the scenes of how cars are built.
• Their terrain: The Rally Ranch, home to Rally Ready Driving School, is 140 acres of purpose-built rally stages just a stone's throw from Austin. During their class, drivers will experience everything from the steep, high-camber corners of New Zealand to the slick gravel of Rally Great Britain and everything in between. With much of the beginner tracks built in to the open ranch pastures, students can push the cars and themselves without fear of damaging the cars while the advanced tracks mirror those that you might see in the World Rally Championship.
• The instructors: A cadre, led by three-time Pikes Peak Hill Climb champion "Texas Dave" Carapetyan. Each instructor brings a different, diverse motorsport experience with decades of collective experience including championships in rally racing, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, drifting, off-road racing and circle track. Each instructor is focused on their student's individual learning style and tailors the experience so that drivers of every skill level can benefit from their training.
• The hands-on experience: After a brief classroom session and a demonstration from the instructor, voila—students find themselves behind the wheel with the throttle to the floor. Seat time is the name of the game and there's plenty of it. With an instructor riding shotgun, students race through different exercises developing the skills and muscle memory necessary to call themselves truly Rally Ready.