knfeparty

I just spent the afternoon at NCCAR. It's the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research, for those who haven't heard of it.

It's a research facility that is open to a wide base of customers from racing teams and auto manufacturers to college students. It can be rented per hour, which is what we did today.

The course doesn't have very much elevation change and isn't designed for racing but is a lot of fun and more challenging than it looks in the pictures. It also isn't too hard on brakes and the straight is good for about 130mph one way, and running the track the other way I think you could get 140 if you really wanted to. I was getting 135 in the 40thAE with some room left over. I think you'd have to be nuts to go any faster though, there isn't too much in the way of runoff in that direction.

Highly recommended if you are nearby! About an hour and a half from Raleigh. Only 5 minutes from I-95 in Roanoke Rapids.

Here are some pics...I don't have any of me driving my car, but I've got some of me driving the 997S and of my g/f driving the 966. Enjoy.

Ahmet

Very nice, I haven't driven on it yet, but I hear they have installed some dividers, so maybe I'll join next time, the map looked scary before. Glad you had fun, you ought to try VIR when you're around NC, also about 90mins from Raleigh.

MetBlk 911

Looks like fun. I've never seriously considered taking my car to a track because I don't trust myself, but then I am older and more sensible with my driving, and there are always skills classes.... hmmm.

LVDell

Still no curbing and a few other things things they REALLY need equals waste of my time when I have CMP and VIR so close.

SH || NC

+ ∞

With properly designed tracks / facilities like VIR and CMP so close, with barriers, corner stations, years of experience managing track safety, for me it’s not worth the risk driving on a track pretty much at the other end of the scale.

I encourage everyone with even a remote interest in driving their car safely at speed to get to a track, so don’t misinterpret my feedback

What group what this?

rpm's S2

NCCAR is an unbelievable facility designed at this point for less than full-out race speeds. Fun for an intro session like Hurricane Region did last summer, but as Dell mentioned it is not yet a replacement for CMP or VIR. Another problem is the evolving nature of the place. They have only completed the initial portion of an eventual 4.6 mile track and as of now there is a hardstand pit area adjacent to the track, but no pit overhead cover or even restrooms. All that is back at the main site.

Still, nice folks and a fascinating public/private activity for automotive start-up companies. Their IT infrasctucture is stunning. This is part of a write up I started for a Panorama article that eventually just landed in a "From the Regions" report:

Set on 600 acres near Roanoke Rapids, the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research (NCCAR) is a publicly-funded “technology incubator” for motorsports and transportation technologies. Sponsored by the state of North Carolina and affiliated with the state university and college system, NCCAR “offers exceptional opportunities for matching the innovative talents of the world’s automotive industry.”

More simply put, the facility provides garage space and test track access for start-up automotive companies that lack their own dedicated facilities. NCCAR is state of the art, both in its brick and mortar facilities and in its advanced and secure Wi-Fi and IT infrastructure.

The center of this impressive facility is its test track, currently a 1.8 mile road course that will eventually expand to 4.6 miles. Opened just this last June, NCCAR has already hosted clients such as Edison2, a startup that recently shared victory in the $10 million Automotive X Prize competition.

NCCAR

function12

Looks like fun. The problem with driving on a track is it is like crack!! When is my next fix???

Byprodriver

There was talk of building something like this in Long Beach CA about 12 years ago. The guy that runs the Long Beach Gran Prix started it, I think his name is Chris Pook.

rpm's S2

If you are unfamiliar with the area, Rocky Mount is on Interstate 95 just south of the VA border. NCCAR is literally two minutes from that major route. Rocky Mount provides another advantage, that of a well-developed large town with plenty of restaurants and hotel rooms. Most test tracks are either controlled by the major manufacturers in the MI area or are located in remote portions of the desert Southwest, miles from infrastructure. NCCAR's location solves that.

Northeast NC has been economically depressed for many years and this public/private startup is directly related to creating jobs and drawing businesses to the region. It looks like they are on the right track... pardon the pun.

knfeparty

There was no group. It was just the 4 of us in 3 cars. That's what makes this place nice, is that you can basically give them a call and show up for a couple of hours, unlike running a traditional DE that involves so much planning. Was it as fun as VIR? No, not really. There wasn't all the support of having dedicated instructors with experience with that track, corner workers, etc, but if you take a small group of people you trust to behave themselves it's not bad.

They do have barriers up now but no curbing. I'm not really trying to start any sort of argument about anything, just reporting what it was like and that I had fun at 135mph.

LVDell

Did you have emergency services?
No corner workers?
What kind of waivers did they make you sign (re: liability)?

knfeparty

There were no corner workers, but you could see the whole track from the pit so we stationed radios in the cars and brought more people than cars. The liability waiver was just like any you would see at a DE. There is no curbing but we respected the track and did not cut. We did not have an ambulance on site but we did have fire bottles and the place is right on I-95. I feared more for my life on the drive home.

I will say this; you have to trust the people you go with to behave and know what they are doing. "That guy" who red mists in his fast car or shows up leaking something and tries to run down everybody would be a disaster on this track.

But with just us we never even saw the other cars, didn't have any scary moments, etc.

I love VIR; I've been on every course but Full and it is a fantastic time. A weekend there is superior fun to this. But planning out a weekend DE several months in advance is pretty much an impossibility in the Navy because you never know when the ship will have to get underway. For example I got an unexpected month-long visit to Cuba and Haiti around this time last year.

That's why this was cool for me. I was able to come up to NC on Christmas leave and spend a bit of time on track driving 7/10ths with my dad, my girlfriend, and her dad. Not racing, just having a good time and getting a better feel for the car. I was able to go out on track for a couple of laps, come into the pit and adjust my konis and tire pressures and head back out.

Take it or leave it, but I had a good time on a day when no DEs were running.

LVDell

Lack of corner workers and especially no emergency services on site would have kept me from driving. But each person assesses what level of risk they want to take and go from there.

rpm's S2

Our DE chair just visited and his conclusion was the same as Dell's - too many concerns at this point to risk the safety and liability of an official PCA event.

yardpro

lol...

i am looking at doing the same thing that the op did...
getting together some friends and heading up to play around for a few hours....

what a great way to have a "private" track at your disposal.