does anyone have a headcount of how many are running on Sunday? I just dont want to show up if a couple cars are running.
Andy - Saw you there today. Sorry I never got a chance to come say hi. What did you think? How 'bout that delay due to the Viper spewing oil all over the back straight. This was the most crowed C group I've seen in the three track days I've been to. Looked like y'all were in traffic alot. Devon - It was nice to meet you - that's one fast Evo you've got. I need to double my horsepower and skill before I feven think about moving to the A group. Oh yeah, and get a cage! Tal - Was that you with the FMIC? I think you pulled in right behind me in the tech line this morning. Your car sounded awesome. Ped, Clay and Keith - it was great to see you guys today. Ped, thanks for the CG lock. I'll get it back to you soon Well, today was another FANTASTIC day at Road Atlanta. Ofcourse any day at Road Atlanta is a FANTASTIC day - unless the motor lets go in your $80K Viper and spews oil all over the pristine new pavement (that Panoz instructors warned us over and over in the drivers meeting NOT to drop fluids on). Yes, Frick and Frak or Hans and Frans (or whatever you want to call them) had issues today. One of the Viper boys provided a nice coating of oil on the new pavement and the other one spun in turn 1 as soon as they got the track cleaned up (45 minutes later). I thought we were going to get shortchanged today and only get three sessions due to the delay, but Panoz came through and got all 4 sessions in. The new surface was VERY slick. My tires were screaming throughout the entire course and I got loose several times. Three cars went off in turn 1 today - a 944, a Viper and a Camaro SS. Today would have been a great day for AWD. I never got a chance to check my lap times to see if I improved from last time. I wore my Ironman watch as Brian suggested, but was so busy in the car that I never took the time to even glance at my watch. I kept up with most cars from turn 1 to turn 7 (and passed some), but was again overtaken many many times on the back straight and front straight from the higher hp cars. Oh well, I did pretty well considering my hp (or lack of). One of these days I'm gonna put a hurtin' on those Vette's I hope.
OMG I am so relieved right now! Let me tell you my story from today: Well group C started off pretty slow. I got stuck with a bunch of slow people and had to take it easy for 2 of the runs. But that's when the heat got turned up... Run three was with a z06 and an R32 and all I could say is hoooly crap! That z06 driver was waaaaay too aggressive! There were many times when I thought he was gonna hit my back bumper! However, this was nothing compared to the fourth run. Run four: SUPER FAST PACE. I was with a Z4 and 2 R32s and I have to admit, I was a little scared. I'm still a little scared for group B tomorrow. Anyway, I broke loose about 3 or 4 times and really scared myself. I know that after I do Scott Siegel's track day next weekend, I will need to replace my tires. I'm just praying right now that I don't go wrong in group B tomorrow. I am having nightmares of me spinning out and getting T-boned by someone behind me. Which brings me to tonight's scare. Throughout my runs, I got an occasional backfire when shifting between 3rd and 4th. I didn't know what causing it, but my car was still running fine, so I continued. After I finished my last run, when I was idling in the paddock, my turbo started to develop a clicking noise. I disregarded it at first, but on my way home it got louder and louder. I managed to limp the car home thanks to being about 5 miles from the track. I checked all the oil, coolant and air lines and they were all fine, so I waited a few hours and decided to go for another test drive. Nope, problem still there. Well I then thought "Oh crap, I'm gonna have to forfeit tomorrow, my new VF34 is crunched." So I began to take the downpipe off to see if the insides did indeed break and what do you know... The plug in my uppipe is gone!! What happened is that when I originally plugged the EGT bung in my new uppipe, I used the provided crush washer that came with the oil drain bolt. Only I didn't realize that plastic crush washers can't withstand 1500 degree heat! So now my friend that works the late shift at autozone is rushing me a new one as I am writing this. Sigh...
I didn't end up going, Ill be out there with Nasa on the 17th and 18th, I talked to my buddy Ron, he was there in his Supra, he said the track is really slow, and that there is no rubber on the track yet. He said he even had a hard time getting the tires up to temp. Matt
Hi Guys, I ran the B30 Blue STI (in the pic above). First day was great, I got to learn the (awesom) track, the turning and breaking points. I found that 12 years of go-kart racing gives you an edge while driving on a real race track - it is the same, but bigger (both the car, the track and the speeds - but the concept is the same). I found that my car had better handling than most cars there + the extra power that I have from the GT35R came very handy. Main problems in Day 1 - loss of boost power - I managed to fix it by tightening the straps around the turbo air pipes. I turned the boost down to 1.2 Bar from 1.5/1.6. Today was something else: round 1 - I managed to go faster and faster, learning that I can push the car into 5th gear before turn 2 and throw it violently into trun 3 - and it will still turn and align it self for turn 4. I took the esses with 4th going to 5th and learned that you can take turn 5 almost as a straight due to the width of the road going out of the turn. The down hill S is amazing + the combination of braking and turning to turn 5 is chalenging but fun. I also learned that you can fully accelerate between turns 10a & 10b accelerating hard uphill out of 1-b and take turn 12 with full throttle (really scary when you are not tidy). At the end of the round - I had a flat tire. Drove all the way to Gainsville to find that they dont have a Potenza tire and had to go back to Georgia Mall Firestone to get a new tire. Drove back to the track and made round 3. I dove harder and harder passing: - Porche Carrera - Vettes (all kinds) - BMW Z4 M - Lotus Exige (is that the name of the white one?) - Audi TT - and more... I couldnt keep up with a Corvette GT on slicks. The power of the car enabled me to accelerate really hard going out of the corners and I had to take my foot of the gas on the back straight as going over 145 Miles p/h semmed to be too scary. End of round 3 - I had no brakes... I over heated the fluid (did not manage to put the new racing fluid I bought in time - Damn...). I let the brakes cool and they came back. I did the remaining rounds with minimal braking (braking early and lightly), which was another learning experience on how fast you can go when driving calm and relaxed. End of round 5 I had oil spilling out of the oil catcher - I drained it and other than the burning oil smell - everything was fine. End of day - I am the happiest day alive!!! Great track, great car, great cooperation from all participants. I am totally addicted now. It is a good idea to come prepared with extra fluids, tires and tools. Here are some the pics - wish i had a video camera mount... http://picasaweb.google.com/RGirish.07/RoadAtlantaTrackDay cant wait for the next time...
Tal - glad you had a good time and were able to make it back for round 3 with the new tire. I just finished watching my video. This was my third time at the track, but first time with video. It was great to re-live it and it's also a great learning tool. I definitely saw some things I need to work on. I wish I could swing both days like y'all did. Your "cars passed" list looks like my "cars that passed me" list (with the excepting of the Carerra and TT. Funny, the cars that passed me in the front and back straights, didn't seem to be any faster from turn 1 through turn 7 (except for a little bit between 5 and 6), and some were actually slower - especially in 10 and 11. Some of those cars that blasted by me on the back straight, were taking 10 and 11 like first time drivers. Oh yeah, nice pics of the Ford GT. He was in my group the past two times, but he sure didn't run that car anywhere near it's potential. You probably would have passed him too if he was out there.
There are plenty of drivers with big horsepower cars. A good many of them don't take chances with their RWD cars thru the corners and hence are slower than STi's everywhere except the straights. It gets frustrating, so I usually pull in to find a large gap to run clean laps. Tal, you can get used to the floaty feeling when going > 140mph, but the brakes won't last many laps, even with race pads (XP11's) and race fluid (tried motul rbf600 and the super blue). I think the RCE brake ducts are the ticket, but haven't tried them myself yet.
Looks like you guys had fun. I'll be there this weekend with the BMWCCA guys. Hey Nemesis, come out and snap some pics!!
Keith - I'm still old school. I'll have to make a VHS tape until one of you smart guys teach me how to upload video.
Brian I think I saw you at the Chevron station after the track day. I was too cold to go over and talk to you. I was in the silver evo
It's just a driving school and it's only Sat and Sun, no race will be on Sun either. You may be thinking about the PBoC events. Friday is open for a course walk at 5:45p though.