TXE36

I thought I would start a thread with my videos and some of my impressions. Feel free to post yours as well.

For background, I was in the Green DE group. At TWS I run in PCA White, which is the run group just below the instructors in Red. My self assessment of my skills puts me in the bottom 25% of the White run group. If I have a good run I can get by some people, but I spend a lot of time with my arm out the window. I drive a street legal BMW E36 M3 which is pretty much stock except for Bilstein PSS9s, sway bars, a roll bar, and PFC08 brake pads.

The only instruction I had was the Chalk Talk put on by David Murry, the classroom sessions put on by VR and a few other PCA instructors, youtube videos, and some time in the simulator using rFactor. Instructors at the event were few (common for a CR/DE event) and, frankly, the DE people missed *a lot* of track time due to mostly racing incidents. It seemed like the Blue Race Group couldn't keep cars out of the wall

Anyway, I suspect the errors I made would be common for people new to the track and driving students in general. Feel free to constructively critique and use to perhaps learn methods of teaching students how to drive at COTA. I always felt a bit over my head here - a feeling I suspect that was shared by many, organizers and driver's alike.

Kudos to the volunteers who made this happen. It was not perfect, but when one considers the enormity of it all, it's a miracle the event happened at all.

Ascetically, the videos are gorgeous. COTA is a very photogenic track.

Very first session out was in a thunderstorm in the pouring rain. It was slow, but hey, I got by 3 cars. Green group got *one* green flag lap . I was impressed with the grip with Nitto NT-05 tires and there was absolutely no ponding. The drainage design obviously works. This was my first lap at COTA. Note the T3 line .

This video is likely more useful to show what COTA is like when the clouds open up.


The next video is the last Green session on Saturday. The Silver E36 in front of me is an instructor friend and we were trying to do a little lead follow. Turns out my 2nd gear heel-toe really needed some work. He gained significantly on me in T1, T11, T12, T20. While I wasn't behind him long, I now had a clear skill to work on. I spent the rest of the event getting better at the slow corners and was hoping to work on braking, but never got enough track time for that.


The Sunday morning Green session was fun, although I had to fix a loose shift **** coming out of T11 at 2:18 and I had a very near miss with another car at 2:56 due to a pass without a point-by. The gray Porsche driver later found me on the grid and apologized. I think lots of people were finding COTA challenging and mental overload appeared common.


The last run felt good, and had my only 4-wheel off to avoid a spinning car at 13:57. Found out the Pit-In is a bit more difficult than TWS as it follows T19 and T19 is a very high speed corner. I hugged the T19 apex to give the following car a lot of room - an E46 that was really hauling the mail. In retrospect, I should have just taken T19 as normal and continued the arc into the pit lane. Luckily, you can drive over the orange berm on this apex.


We were all setup to have a 45 minute combined Green and Yellow DE session when someone from the previous Yellow had an off and nailed an Armco post head on. The track said it would require two hours to fix and the event was over .

I'm happy I only had a couple of two wheel offs and for the runoff space to go around the blue 911. I'm really happy I didn't damage the car or the track. The bill for damages is going to be something else. I lost count of the number of cars that damaged Armco and air fencing.

Anyway, FWIW. Feel free to post your own videos and opinions. I'm curious what others thought about the place.

-Mike

e9stibi

Mike - thanks for sharing. Rest of posting deleted because off topic.

87_944s

Well... I already posted this in the other COTA thread but it looks like that is turning in to a "what we didn't like about COTA" thread anyway this IS the 2013 COTA video thread so here ya go...

2nd Sprint race from Red group

analogmike

Here's my best video, from the rear-view camera.



The only prize my team won was best grid girls.

Veloce Raptor

Mike, it was great to finally meet you! So sorry you had multiple car problems. But your priorities were right: GRID GIRLS

ervtx

A few of my impressions follow - through the lens of a camera:

Mornings filled with anticipation
Cool Technology
Racing!
A HUGE track
and a few characters you might know... :-)

ervtx

Eon, nice head fake on the yellow car in T12!

TXE36

Worth saving from the COTA Roll Call/complaint thread for reference:

Also, this video of Rossi driving Jim Clark's 1967 Lotus 49 is awesome for anybody who ever got addicted to Grand Prix Legends:

-Mike

SoClose

https://vimeo.com/66031696

]I believe that this was also buried quickly in the other thread

333pg333

Every time I see in car video of COTA I can't help thinking they got T1 all wrong. It should have been much better than it is imho.

TXE36

Ok, what's the right way to do it?

-Mike

87_944s

I think he meant that T1 was hyped up with the elevation and all but he doesn't think it's anything special. I will say that videos don't really do justice to just how steep it really is.

TXE36

Yeah, I see what you mean. I read the comment wrong.

I walked up it Thursday night while the track was cold and it is quite steep. What is surprising is the backside of T1 is steeper than the front side. Oh, and you don't want to hit that orange cap of the apex curb. That concrete point sticks up a good 8-10" and could easily ventilate an oil pan. In the car, T1 didn't feel it much different than the other tight corners.

T1 is a very distinctive landmark, however I found T13-T19 quite satisfying and challenging. Enter T13 slow enough, and T14-T15 are faster than they look, turn up the heat for T17-T18 and the car is up to a full boil for T19. I also liked the T3-T6 complex. The T3 apex is blind and fast. The T1 apex is blind, but slow.

-Mike

Veloce Raptor

Nice driving, Paul!!!

Jerrygreene

a bit self indulgent, but its for the family around the country.....