Looking to purchase a track day car. Recommendation?
02-19-2012 | 10:23 AM
#31
Nordschleife Master
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,297
Likes: 6
From: Deep Downtown Carrier, OK
PM iffn you want advice without the onslaught of replies from a post here.
02-19-2012 | 03:37 PM
#35
Rennlist Member
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 3,992
Likes: 476
From: Winston-Salem, NC
If you've run VIR, you'll recogize coming out of "Hog Pen" and I'm unwinding the wheel. While not as fast as the the cars behind me, I hit my apex and they're a bit wide. As a matter of fact, I prefer "shuffle steering" but it's not for everyone. I give students the choice to do what's most effective for them.
02-19-2012 | 03:53 PM
#36
Nordschleife Master
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,297
Likes: 6
From: Deep Downtown Carrier, OK
This board is full of "what to do for the first DE" threads, some pages long and full of good, bad and ugly advice. My post was merely a quiet offer, perhaps badly worded, for simple quiet assistance.
Kai
02-19-2012 | 08:10 PM
#37
Rennlist Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 23,303
Likes: 500
From: Baltimore, MD
Sorry, Kai, if I came off as harsh. Although I agree with your first post, your other post seemed to invalidate the other responses to a question that has shades of gray in the answer.
02-21-2012 | 10:48 PM
#39
Race Car
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 4,883
Likes: 3
From: Wilmington NC
If you've run VIR, you'll recogize coming out of "Hog Pen" and I'm unwinding the wheel. While not as fast as the the cars behind me, I hit my apex and they're a bit wide. As a matter of fact, I prefer "shuffle steering" but it's not for everyone. I give students the choice to do what's most effective for them.
Run plenty of VIR (both as a racer [SCCA] and instructor). I too like the shuffle, way faster than any other form of steering IMO. That pic just looks like the hands are lightly placed at 11 and 1 like some scared gray haired senior citizen driver (no offense if any are here
)
02-21-2012 | 11:07 PM
#40
Rennlist Member
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 12,312
Likes: 9
From: Roseville, CA
Okay, but not every new student is simply going to mash the throttle of a powerful car and spin out. At Miller the first two DE days are on half the track and the torque of the Turbo was nice because I just stayed in third (and under 100 mph) and concentrated on learning the proper line. My instructor saw that I did what he suggested, wanted to preserve my car and had no ego or expectation about keeping up with the fast guys. The last DE day of the year is on the full track, but you have to have ran the earlier two days to be allowed on. Then, yes, you can go fast down the long straight. But I was well aware that it was new territory for me and was conservative, braking early.
I do agree that track time in a lighter, slower car would be great and if a beginner is going to track a lot they should get one. But for just a few track days a year I think it's okay to use what you've got if you are conservative enough to match lack of experience. None of my instructors were nervous about my Turbo, but one of them did say he refused to instruct in Corvettes or Vipers...
I do agree that track time in a lighter, slower car would be great and if a beginner is going to track a lot they should get one. But for just a few track days a year I think it's okay to use what you've got if you are conservative enough to match lack of experience. None of my instructors were nervous about my Turbo, but one of them did say he refused to instruct in Corvettes or Vipers...
Intention here isn't to single you out, just give some often-not-discussed topics we hit as instructors. One of them is the top speeds attainable by almost ANY newish car that shows up. Simple fact is that it's extremely unlikely that anyone will spin out at any speed down any of these straights. Absent half a dozen things that can happen. Then, it's all experience. And no matter how much you have, sometimes you're along for the ride.
Couple of examples:
1. Last summer at Thunderhill. Running tight up against a 997 GT3 that should have let me by. (Open track, open passing, but no outbraking to pass.) We usually brake around the "4" marker going into T1. I'm maybe, maybe 127-8, and a GT3 should have stretched me and be about 10mph faster. GT3 driver brakes 100+ yards early, right after S/F. Truly a WTF moment. Luckily I wasn't tucked in behind. I was able to pull around, and sail by. (Got black flagged for the pass. Event organizer threatened to send me home until I pulled the video. Video which isn't going to be shared, don't ask. Later, GT3 driver insisted he always brakes at the same spot. I suggested, probably somewhat impolitely, that he up his level of concentration as he further insisted I was nowhere near behind him anyway. Grrrrr.)
Now we're not going to have students run tucked up tight in a draft, but in the lower groups there is a great deal of inconsistency.
2. Not on a straight, but that couple of laps of video from Laguna last week. How did the session end? Pitted as I knew we were going "all black" as there was a car stuck on the inside of T10. Spun in a fluid leak from a car a few seconds in front. No debris flag or standing yellow in T9, no waving yellow in T10. What ARE these cornerworkers looking at sometimes????
Bottom line is that there is so much that can happen as you undertake this hobby. Extracting yourself at 70-90 mph is tough enough. Few of us can do it at 120+.
