rabbit1445

A benefit of doing your first trackday at Buttonwillow is that it is wide open with plenty of run-off everywhere. No walls except at the start/finish straight.

cbracerx

How many track days have you done?

Muxje

I love the accelerometer in that video (the pine tree air freshener hanging off the mirror)

But yeah, watching a few videos like these made us decide to not take our 996 to our first track day on the Nurburgring. I'd definitely advise to either take it real easy, get track insurance (and check what it actually covers), or get a feel of the track in a car you don't care much about. Perhaps we'll use our "work car", a beaten up '99 Volvo V70 we got for €1500.

By the way, I found out that the Nurburgring do "tourist days" which apparently makes the track a public toll road for legal purposes, and a few years ago that meant that your insurance was valid there. Unfortunately the insurers got wise to that after a couple of disputes settled in court, and all policies here now specifically exclude the Ring

z06801

Dude go have fun, you can treat it almost as a spirited canyon drive with no on coming traffic.
(Much safer) Good choice for getting a instructor that will know the track, that will make it easier to learn the line. Start slow you will learn fast.

Dock

I never kept count.

Why?

techweenie

My experience with self-tech; low supervision events is that the officials have to be merciless about sending people home. I was at Buttonwillow with a group many years ago and a kid with a Mercedes sedan was unable to keep the car going straight for two consecutive turns. He was booted from the event after threatening to sue, etc.

Most people at these events use their cars to get to work, so are overly cautious and can hit the brakes at a point where it's unwise or downright dangerous. Breaking the pack into 'run groups' is key.

I've been at events where several cars went home on flat beds: a car went end over end at the bus stop or hit the pit wall or went into a mucky pond inside Sunset. Buttonwillow's ground has a hard, non-aborbent component under the surface dirt that holds water for a long, long time after a rain -- expecially off the Sweeper and Long Beach.

Having said all that, it's Big Fun if everyone stays within their limits.

ANJ-911

Have fun this weekend! And remember smooth is fast. Focus on learning the line and being smooth with the gas pedal, brakes, steering input, and the speed will come naturally. The old adage on the audi forums was "you're first modification should be driving school", lol, and I think this is true. You learn so much about driving when you're on the track with an instructor and in my opinion it isn't any harder on your car (except brakes and tires) than driving on the street.

You'll be happy to have an instructor with you and learning the turn-in, apex, track-out routine will be much easier with guidance. I'd be a little hesitant going to an event where you have the option of no instructor as a novice driver since there will likely be other people without instructors that have no idea what they're doing on the track, but since you're committed, exercise caution and you'll more than likely be fine.

In the future, you may consider PCA DE's since they are great with respect to safety and require you have an instructor until you're "solo'ed" and passing is only allowed in certain areas depending on your skill level only when you get flagged to pass.

cbracerx

This ^

Th Dude

This is what I'm hoping.

You've touched on my fear about this event. I'm extremely comfortable staying within my limits. I'm truly concerned about the inexperienced a-holes trying to push their limits...with the inevitable brake stomping that follows.

Agreed on the "smooth". Learned that lesson on my Ducati 999R and the principle applies equally well with the Porsche. Vic Elford wrote a fun and informative book that stresses the importance of smoothness....gas, brakes, steering...just as you mention.

Turbodan

although in the US your regular insurance doesn't cover you, driving on a track is actually safer than driving on the road.
one important thing to remember when tracking a 911 is to not lift while the car is weighted in a corner. you will have fun. be warned: it is addictive

PelicanParts.com

Josh and the Speed District guys are awesome. Really good group and I enjoy running with them. You'll have a lot of fun! Button is a very technical track so having an instructor will definitely be helpful.

Dock

Source(s)?

Turbodan

PCA regularly states this. they figure how many cars, average number of laps in a day and number of accidents. the rate is very low, compared with driving on the street. Just by removing the idiot texters and poorly maintained vehicles from the mix automatically should lower rate of accidents.

Dock

Can you post up their data?

Is their data based on the total number of miles driven? Does it factor out night driving mileage on public roads (since any data contained in that subset would likely not have a correlation to track driving as most track days are just that; days)? How about adverse weather/road conditions? Are public road accident data thrown out since most track days are not completed on tracks with snow/ice on them? How did they make sure the data was as apples to apples as possible?

cbracerx

Lighten up. I think it is very fair to say that performance driving on a track is incredibly safer than on the street. And my data is 26 years of driving and instructing at track events.