An institution that many aspiring drivers have looked to as the last name in a wheel jockey’s education appears to have been shuttered. Motor Authority is reporting that the school has closed down with a confirmation by a spokesman for the school, with more information expected to follow in the coming days. The school had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2018 and had noted that, “The Chapter 11 ensures we will have sufficient time to reorganize and position the Company for sustained success. Our plan is to emerge from this process as a stronger company and continue to drive this Company into the next 50 years.”
Bob Bondurant has the history to back up having his name on a driving school. He ran dirt-track motorcycles, he drove sports cars in SCCA, raced with Carroll Shelby’s team, winning seven of ten races he went in. He drove Ferraris in the US Grand Prix and a Lotus in the Mexican Grand Prix. He nearly died in an accident racing Can-Am, drove a SC/Rambler at Baja for James Garner’s team, and even had some forays into NASCAR. But his crowning jewel just might be the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. It was an honest-to-God learning experience for anyone who attended. Using the best of what he could get his hands on (including some factory-built one-off specials like the “Cobra Vic” Ford Crown Victorias and Fox body Ford LTDs with factory-installed 5.0s and T-5 manual gearboxes), Bondurant and his school would do everything in their power to whip an enthusiastic student into a wheelman as best as they could.
In it’s current form, Bondurant uses a fleet of FCA-sourced vehicles, mainly composed of Dodge Vipers, Challengers and Chargers, including Hellcats and has utilized the racing surfaces at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona as a base, where the school has been since 1990.
BUMMER!!
Hopefully they will indeed come out stronger from the reorganization. Bankrupcies are not all bad things, done properly. The feds should NEVER have bailed out GM and Chrysler. Bankruptcy would have forced them to make the right changes in how they operate. (Of course, the democrats couldn’t have stolen all the shareholder’s shares to give to the UAW if they hadn’t!)
okay smarty…if they didn’t bail out gm and Chrysler. what would the automotive world look like today? how many tier 1, 2 ,3 4 businesses would be gone? how many people would be unemployed and broke? how many towns and states would lose lots of tax dollars? I could on with more how many’s but your low level IQ couldn’t absorb the questions and cost to humanity and the world.
you need to crawl back to your hole. btw, YOU started it.
When the governments bail out the auto makers by buying shares, they are the shareholders. When the Canadian government bought GM shares a few years ago, the return was very good on the investment. Perhaps Gary would rather see the Asian and German car companies totally take over. This place is lousy with BMWs KIAs and Benzes already
How did we get here from racing school anyhow?
Love the arguments of how many smaller businesses would be SOL. Like GM or Chrysler gave two Sh*ts about that by their actions they didn’t. Now the taxpayer is supposed to bail out them. GM and Chrysler will never get one dollar from me.
I went to the Shifter Kart Experience there. One of the funned things I’ve ever done. Also sent my daughter to the Teen Driver course. That was worth many times more than I paid.