Jeeva, I am glad to see that you cleared up the misunderstanding. For what it's worth, I understood you to be very complimentary of your instructor while we were discussing him at Mid Ohio, and I read your post the way you intended it to be read. It is easy to misunderstand posts on BBs, and I can see how Alan misread yours. As you know, your instructor was my instructor for my first run on Friday. I was intrigued, and I think I could learn a lot from him. Based on my very limited contact with him, he seems to take a Zen approach to driving, and he believes that the sport is all about communicating with your car: Good drivers do it well, and bad drivers just go around the track. I think I could learn a lot from him, and look forward to having him instruct me at a future event. I get the impression that he doesn't really like the fact that I have video and data in my car, but I tried to explain that I only use that to "expand" my driving time by allowing me to see and hear what my instructors have said to me multiple times rather than only once. I think it is very easy to misunderstand why and how individuals use video and data, and it is most certainly true that everyone takes a different approach. I agree with him that the best drivers seem to be those who are very good at understanding what their car is telling them and who have excellent car control skills. In fact, those are the skills that I am trying to develop. Although I am most definitely addicted to speed, I actually am more concerned about becoming a great driver, and I have a long ways to go.

Starla Phelps took over for your instructor after the first run, and she was great! I think I improved a lot under her instruction, and she is also a lot of fun as a passenger. The truth is that all of my instructors to this point have been great, and hopefully I will make them proud by taking their different driving and instruction styles to heart and retaining the best aspects of each. Who knows, someday I might even be an instructor . . . poor students!

In the meantime, if I can only learn to dub DVDs accurately I will get them mailed out to the people I have promised. Stunning that someone who paid so much for education can't even figure this out. I guess it means I am becoming old

TD in DC

 

TD, it was nice meeting you at Mid-Ohio. Too bad we didn't get a chance to run together more.

Jeeva, I too took your comments to be complementary...it is funny how type words come across to certain people. Don't worry about it. It was nice seeing you again last weekend. BTW, how did you like the new seats and harnesses? They really transform the driving experience. You probably found that you spent less time gripping the steering wheel to hold yourself in place.

 

Alan, I went ahead and deleted some but left the crux of the message, as I see how my initial comments could be interpreted the wrong way, ....and my later responses will clear it up for others who can easily do the same.

Alan, you are a classy guy, that's why your responses meant that much to me, Infact, it upset me so much I neglected my work for the last half hour pecking away my responses...you owe me a beer. I enjoyed the wknd., and you guy's did a fantastic job hosting the event.....I hope to join your group in your future events.

I think every student should get the opportunity to learn from my instructor...I sure hope I get the previlage again, just warn his Zen approach of his things (TD termed it well) to his novice students

 

Get a TV top DVD recorder..very easy, I just hook up my recorder to it..it even recognizes my cancorder and dubs into my DVD.

If it's not too much trouble, can you e-mail me the short clip where you have a shot of my car on the back straight....if it's cumbersome, don't worry about it. How ever, if you can I'll p.m. you my e-mail address.

 

Jeeva, it is even worse than you imagine. I HAVE one of those already. For some reason, when I dub from the HDD to the DVD I occasionally just get two hours of the menu shot. The worst part is that the machine is in the nanny's room, so I have to be careful when I go in to access it. Late night visits to the nanny's room are not conducive to marital harmony so I try to avoid it all together. I think I finally have it figured out.

Noel,

It was great meeting you as well. I am certain that we will be running into each other (hopefully not literally) at future DEs.

TD in DC

 

Noel, I loved the seat/harness...I'll elaborate later. FWIW...you told me you could sort of keep up with me in the twisties, the truth is you are clearly faster through them, (I realized it as I was following you through the twisties) we end up at the same time at the carousal as I muscule through 11/12 with the hp., you clearly take ~4 car length through 7/8/9/10 complex, but you've got more experience and my rears had no tread left

 

Jeeva:

You should be able to go faster when you have no thread (slick) in the rear.

 

I also have about 200 less HP.

When I did follow you for a while, I noted that you carried very nice and consistant lines through the turns. You are a very good driver.

Look into those Kumho MX street tires. As you know, I am a firm believer in using street tires to learn more about your car on the track. Plus, once you get to the point of being comfortable sliding the car around the track it gets REALLY fun. And the nice part about the Kumho's is that they are cheaper than race tires so who cares if you burn them up quickly, they will still wear better than a race tire.
Let me know if you have any interest in Watkins Glen for the future. It will be about 5-6 hours from my new East Coast home and is about 8 hours from Dayton. I still plan to run at Mid-Ohio at least once a year while living in MA though. It may just have to be the 3 day Potomac region event every year. I honestly couldn't justify a drive out there for just a two day event.

 

Hey, kam you know what...I don't know if it was faster...but was certainly more fun...I could powerdown early,with no understeer, and sliding through the key hole was awesome....infact I loved the feeling of no understeer in slow turns so much I am feverishly searching thorough the archives to set up my car that way...I may start off with slightly wider fronts &/or narrower rears. I am not ready for suspension mods. yet.

 

Noel, there were times when I was caught behind slow traffic, and you had passed them...and then I catch up to you with the +200hp. on the back straight, I initially thought you were waiting for me as your car appeared to stay there,....you need to get yourself a slightly higher hp. car,....may be not, as you'll be having all the fun after that

I did look up on the kumho MX, but I did a search, and guy's using those on 3000lb+ cars don't like the soft side walls, I would hate to feel the shoft side wall buckling under the weight in turn-in's and track out's....it seems to me it will rotate better in turn-in's, but when it straightens out at track out, it is going to make it worse....do you have any one who had used these on 3000lb. cars with 295's on the rear....

For now Glen is still a long haul, but I'll certainly do it next season.
Jeeva

 

Jim, thanks a lot....I didn't have a clue about the buckeye BMW club, and it's practically in my backyard...thanks a lot, I''ll be planning to attend that.
Jeeva

 

Interesting. I haven't heard that. THen again, if I go by the comments posted on TireRack, everyone says that the ES100s are super sticky and firm. I can vouch for the the fact that they have a very soft sidewall, as that is what I have on my car now and HATE them. I guess it is the difference between driving them on the street and on the track. I can't wait until they are worn. Fortunatly it only takes about 2,000-3,000 miles.

The BFG KDW is also a very nice dry and wet tire that is fairly cheap.

Next year at the Glen sounds good.

 

They just finished 6mil in upgrades at the glen, I ran there monday, awsome!

 

Noel:

Jeeva don't have 200 hp on you. The C4S has about 140 more hp .

I used to track a 79 SC (180 hp) and now a 2000 996 (200 hp).

Kam

 

I stand corrected... ONLY 140 more.