consolidated

We were in the silver Bimmerspeed E36 M3 racing in GP1 against that monster Mustang and squadron of Boxsters.

jslee225

Oh I was just at the DE

Racing in that weather must have been no bueno!

electron mike

If you get a spot, please bring the Voodoo RS listed in your signature so the rest of us can drool.

consolidated

We called it a growth opportunity, others called it terrifying because it was hard to see anything. On the back straight in a cloud of spray you just prayed that the car-in-front-of the car-in-front-of-you was keeping it lined up.

Definitely, RS is made for COTA imo.

texasviany

I know what you are saying. I had the pleasure of driving a car set up better for the dry...I could not even follow your lines when following your car under yellow! Reminded me of my old ice racing days.

Here is a video...is the "drive by sound technique"...if you don't hear a crash - keep going! What road...and we had no defrosters! (Still as a blast)

electron mike

It's a cold DE for us Texas folks!

Alan C.

That's not cold. That's Hell frozen over at a DE with the windows down.

texasviany

I thought that the grip was great...much better than expected.

Some great carnage at the end...3 incidents, which led to 2 wrecks.

electron mike

It was actually warmer inside the car on track with the windows down and the heater on full blast versus standing out in the paddock in the wind!

What happend anyway? We were sitting on grid for 25 minutes waiting for cleanup in T15-T16, and then were waiting for cleanup again before the next session. The only thing I saw was someone tag the inside wall in T19, but that was after my last session.

jphughan

Not sure "great" is the word I'd choose.

An MR2 tapped the inside of 19 with his right front fender after a spin on corner exit. I was riding in the car right behind him. He'd gotten it mostly slowed down and was just rolling backwards when all of a sudden it twitched slightly to tap the wall. The oil cleanup in T15-16 was from some car in the instructor session, which did take a while to clean up, but for me it had the silver lining of literally drawing the exact line I was trying to get my student to take through that segment since there aren't great reference points there. He got very consistent there as a result, even after the Oil-Dri had been swept away.

And then it was my student in the 650S that ended up in the wall at the end of the back straight. He braked right where he was supposed to, and according to him, the pedal felt the way it always did, but the brakes just barely bit at all. I told him to start pumping them, but that didn't help either, so he went into the runoff pavement, through the gravel trap, and then turned left to have a side impact with the airwall (of course he turned LEFT to put ME on the impact side! ). No airbag deployment, and the car actually looked good when we got out. His right rear quarter panel was cracked and the rear bumper cover was sort of crushed and shifted to the left, damaging some of the cosmetic plastic (CF?) bits in the back between the exhaust outlets, but otherwise the whole side of the car was fine except for some dust and debris, and I doubt there's meaningful suspension or frame damage, if any at all. Best of all, he'd decided to buy track insurance the day before. Unfortunately he lived in San Antonio and the dealer was in Houston, so he had some inconvenience and I assume a big towing bill, but for brake failure at the end of the back straight in a brand new expensive car, I'd say he's getting out extremely well. It was my first incident while instructing, and to rub salt into the wound for him, it was his last session of the day and he had been doing REALLY well leading up to the accident. I'd just shown him the magic of throttle steer and he was all excited to keep experimenting with that.

I can't account for what caused the failure, though. He actually had a much less significant case of that in the previous session where he had a lot less bite than expected coming into T12, but it only sent him maybe 20 feet into the runoff pavement and I chalked that up to his tires and brakes having cooled a lot after sitting in traffic for almost a whole lap in 30-degree weather, but perhaps something else was amiss. Brake fluid doesn't sound like the culprit based on his pedal description, but maybe he was wrong about how the pedal felt. Otherwise, possibly something funky with carbon ceramics in very cold weather or something? I have no real experience driving or riding in CCB cars, so that's just a guess. Anyone else have any theories? The brakes were working fantastically in that session right up until they didn't, including in the hard braking zone for T11 right before the accident.

consolidated

ABS ice mode? but a lift or pumping usually corrects that and even then running all the way out to the wall in T12 is a loooong trip, it must have felt like a 5 minute "crash".

texasviany

The one that was left out was the Z28 in T10. He had to lift of shift as he crested over the hill. He rotated into the inside guardrail. All the airbag curtains were deployed.

These crashes are mostly on the last session and I explained this to my student as he was flailing around like crazy...no where near the proper line. Once he saw the 3rd car he got it and backed off a bit.

jphughan

I'd never heard of ice mode before, but having just read up on it, I suppose that could be it. I realized this morning that the little braking we did experience could have been from the trick "air brake" in the rear and not necessarily from any bite of the pads at all. T12 is obviously the hardest and longest braking zone on track, so maybe this was some sort of electronics error? I also don't know how "well" he pumped the brakes, i.e. if it was full off and back on, since I wasn't watching his feet at that point, but I suppose in a panic he might not have lifted completely off the pedal. It was a pretty long trip, but it still went by pretty quickly. Thinking back, I'm actually surprised I didn't even get nervous given the location on track and this being my first incident. Maybe it was the amount of time I had to prepare thanks to the long gravel trap, but I kind of remember just thinking to myself, "Well, I don't think it's going to be serious, but I'm fairly certain we're going to hit the wall here."

jslee225

That sucks! Glad you're OK!

ShakeNBake

WOW what a ride! Glad you are ok. That makes two friends who we're in 650s while instructing and crashed....in nearly very bad outcomes.