As for launching and shifting, I'm not sure if any schools will really help you with that (except maybe heel/toe downshifting, but that's easy in concept, it just takes practice).
As for cornering, there's lots of highly effective price/performance routes you can take, depending on where your skill is now. If you're *really* novice (for example, have no idea what a late Apex is), then you should start a good book, Gran Turismo 3, go-karts, autocross, and club events (I don't care how bad an instructor is, they can pretty much all teach a raw recruit the basics pretty decently).
If you've already got a handle on the basics, then it's not clear where to go from there. I took an Evolution (formerly McKamey) Phase 1 autocross school (http://www.autocross.com/evolution/) when I had a pretty good handle on basics, and I found it worthwhile because 1) it let me attack the same course many times in my car (significant compared to autocross events, irrelevant compared to on-track schools), and 2) the instructors were very good at helping me to understand what I was doing well, what I was not doing so well, what the car was capable of doing, and helping me to improve. Now, some of the concepts are more limited to autocross (like slaloms, finding the course, etc), but other things are more generally useful (braking, maintaining momentum, cornering sequences), and for I think it was $175, not too bad on the price/performance meter, especially when you take into account the significance of being in the passenger seat while a good driver drives YOUR car a hell of a lot faster than you, showing you what it can do with the right inputs. They also have split times so you know where you're fast and where you're slow. Also, launching comes into play at autocrosses, but I don't recall any special emphasis being put on that.
I'm also lucky because I live in an area where at any given autocross event, I can ask any of a dozen national champion drivers any questions I feel like, and sometimes go for rides in their cars, or have them drive my car. It helps the learning process a lot. Especially because I can also go to a go-kart track with some of those people, and discuss things with them in a context where track time is affordable, the equipment fairly consistent, there's timing equipment for definite feedback of progress, and the track is always the same. And it helps quite a bit.
As for race-track driving, I've never had an instructor on-track that did anything more than help me find the line, and maybe provide a couple new ways to think about something for me to roll over in my head and let me experiment with. I've only done 2 track events, though, with 3 different instructors. And for all 3, I already had a very good handle on basic driving techniques, and was comfortable driving my car near/at the limit. So maybe I'm missing something. But I refuse to believe there's nothing I could have learned if, say, Peter Cunningham got in the car with me. Another important thing to consider with club schools is that no matter how fast a driver someone is, it doesn't necessarily mean they can teach someone else how to be that fast. To that end, I actually tend to learn more by riding with someone else then having someone else ride with me. Being able to see and experience what the car is capable of doing, and how the person did it, watching their exit speeds and line and such, and then trying to do it myself usually ends up more useful.
So in the end, if you're really serious about going seriously fast, then everyone else is probably right, go do a real racing school.
However, if you're like me, and you're at a good intermediate level (or can get there with books/go-karts/autocross/club events), then the $3000 for Bondurant is much better spent on a Basch Boost supercharger which you can enjoy on your drive to work every day. Or to spend that money doing 10-20 track days (depending on cost, of course) where you can just go out and have fun and get some practice, or doing 200-300 go-kart sessions. But who knows, maybe I'd change my mind if I actually went to one of the high-dollar schools.
But on the bottom line, YOU are the one who has to make yourself a good driver. It's all about mental discipline. I don't care who your instructor is, if you don't listen to them, try very hard to understand what they're saying, ask intelligent questions, and then practice (even on your way to work, you can analyze the best lines through all the corners, even though you're obeying the speed limit), then you won't become a good driver.
-Mike
[This message has been edited by grippgoat (edited 07 January 2002).]
