Thunderhill Update:
It's Tuesday morning and I'm still sick in bed. I went into the NCRC track weekend feeling the onset of a cold so the lack of sleep, cold weather, and pushing my body eventually took its toll. Just a day to day/session by session/blow by blow:
Wednesday night last week: Helped Rave-Boy work on replacing his suspension, swap out rotors F/R, pads F/R, brake lines F/R, and brake fluid. Rave-boy's girlfriend, brother, and the Mighty Mook helped out. Rave-boy's brother ended up pretty much doing most of the work himself. We worked into the night and the temps started to drop and I felt the pangs of a cough coming on. That evening, I had about 5 hours of sleep....amped for Thunderhill.
Thursday night: Worked on my car, itemized everything I had to bring and laid it out in the garage. Had even less sleep that night...even more amped for the weekend.
Friday: Left work early, packed my car, took a shower, ate garbage for breakfast and lunch and made arrangements to meet with Rave-boy to caravan up. Hit massive traffic and got into Willows at around 9PM. Checked into two rooms at the Willows Motel 6.
Had a decent dinner while thePerfectline arrived at around 10:30 with a Lemon's Racer buddy. We had a couple of beers and chatted excitedly late into the evening. I started a hacking cough at around 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep.
Saturday early morning: Woke at 5 and we rushed over to Thunderhill in complete darkness. We anticipated rain so we wanted to arrive early to get a spot under an awning. Temp read 35 and I didn't bring a coat. We got a fantastic parking spot and I proceeded to replace my wheels in complete darkness save my headlamp. My hands felt frozen and my back was aching from all the heavy lifting.
7:15: Finished the wheels, feeling super amped about hitting the track, checked out some race cars and headed over to the main building for a drivers meeting.
1st session: Torqued my lugs to 85 foot lbs, checked fluids, set tire pressure to 32 psi cold, wanted to add some negative camber up front but thePerfectline gave me way too much shit. Lemons Racer teased me for not having enough negative camber and pointed out time and time again how all the other cars out there had more neg. camber than I did. Even wanted to dial in more aggressive compression/rebound but I decided against it especially with the Perfectline urging me to just "Go out and just DRIVE dammit!".
Buckled into the Schroth Ralleye Four ASM 4-point restraint, set the adjusting center differential to "Tarmac", set the ASC program and active Yaw control to the OFF position, warmed up the motor, slipped on some Sparco racing gloves, pulled on my helmet, and drove onto pre-grid with the other SOLO 2 drivers. I was soo giddy and nervous I had to concentrate on breathing deeply and evenly in the pit lane lest I quiver and pass-out from excitement.
The first session was spent on getting the jitters out. I drove only fast enough to keep up and spent that entire session paying attention to the car. You see, after having owned a Stage III S4, I've become paranoid about something breaking for YEARS. The first session was really eye-opening in-so-far that I realized how amazingly rock solid the EVO was. So I barely accelerated, barely hit the brakes, barely screeched the tires, and pretty much didn't work on any lines at all. Most everyone did the same...a feeling out session.
Half-way through the first session, Rave-boy spun his car on Turn 11. Here is the layout of the track:
I was behind a very fast 928 with 315 Hoosier racing slicks when I noticed Rave-boy's Supra spun out on the left. Here is video of his spin. You can see how he should have set up Track/Right, should have hit the brakes harder, turned in more aggressively and by the time he realized he missed the apex and heading for the barrels, his only recourse was to give the wheel more lock which resulted in a spin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VytExcwLw0
As you can see, nothing damaged but a bit of a bruised ego. It was Rave-boy's first session out in over a year and the cars in our run-group were CRAZY!!! I mean cammed Z06's with race-slicks, Lotus', EVO's, race-prepped M3's, GT-3's, and 911's for cryin out loud!
Session Two: Went out with thePerfectLine. I somehow think that an instructor in my passenger seat would make me less attentive to my driving, but it's never the case. If I could have thePerfectLine out for every session, that would have been awesome. Session two was spent on simply beginning to work on some lines. For the most part, I spent session two marveling at how savagely my car accelerates, how ludicrously my car brakes, and how utterly ridiculous the car handles. I was positively giddy after that session...and again, my car was completely rock solid throughout.
Between session 2 and 3, thePerfectLine took Rave-boy's car out into the much much faster point-by run group. Rave-boy returned after 10 laps with a big smile on his face. Both felt that his Supra, despite being old, handled very well and took aggressive track driving like a champ....except for one fatal flaw in it's engineering: The Brakes. The brakes did very well under extreme conditions; credit modern cryo slotted rotors, modern brake pad compounds, modern brake fluids. But the problem was the HEAT...it simply couldn't dissipate the heat. There was smoke coming from the front of the car and his entire wheel surface, not to mention his lug bolts, were soo hot we couldn't even touch them for half a second before it burnt our fingers. It was an easy fix really; more air circulation into the wheel well. His wheels, though nice to look at, provide no entrance for incoming air...and neither does his wheel well.
ThePerfectLine suggested we pull off the wheel to examine the brakes...bad idea but we didn't know it at the time. As Rave-boy started to unbolt, he realized the lug broke off. This part of the story really sucks and way to long to detail, but the bottom line was after 10 hours of wrenching on the car by a dozen different people in several different shops, we couldn't fix the problem. Poor Rave-boy got only ONE session in before his car broke...and this is the stupid part: the part that broke was a two dollar part which no one can access or replace without special tools!....ARGH! I felt horribly for Rave-boy.
Next, thePerfectLine took me out in my car. This was a bad idea from the beginning; he's never driven my car ever and he'll be learning to drive the car on a race-track in one of the fastest run-groups. After two laps of practice, he came in to pick me up in the pit lane. His grin was from ear to ear and he could not stop praising the EVO's track prowess. I got in two laps before my stomach urged me to pull off, and let me tell you, those two laps were unbelievable! My car is soo stupid crazy fast in every frickin level that thePerfectLine could have conceivable passed even the fastest cars on the race-track! I was in awe not only of the car, but of his driving.
Here are some shots of the first day via Gotbluemilk.com. Apparently, there were two car #777. In one shot, you can see me passing Rave-boy's Supra. His car was #555 BTW.
http://gotbluemilk.com/web090321/777/index.html
He dropped me off at the pit lane and took off for a couple of more laps. I walked back to our parking spots to help Rave-boy work on his wheel lugs when thePerfectLine drove in and exclaimed, "You're not going to believe this buddy...I spun your car...". I immediately rushed to inspect for damage, and let me tell you, my first inclination was to kick thePerfectline in the face for spinning my car. But after noticing no damage save a rubber plastic lip guard and a small dent on the stock Enkei rims, my panic and anger abated and I resolved to simply state that thePerfectLine will never drive my car on a race-track ever again.
You see, his problem is not his skill...he is mondo-skilled and the best driver I've driven with, save an instructor with BMW GGC. ThePerfectline's problem is that he's reckless. He has spun half a dozen times on race-tracks and you'd think he'd learn his lesson after the fifth spin, but clearly he did not.
Anywayz, by lunch, I was pooped. We ate, watched a race, and headed back to our cars.
Session 3,4, and 5 were a blur. I realize that I have soo much fun driving that I forget how to drive the line properly. This is why I need instruction. By the end of the day, I'm hitting T1 to T5 pretty well and the the two scariest turns (T1 and T8) were now my favorite turns on the track. The other turns were pure crap. Every lap meant a different line but I began to actually use my brakes in a way I never had before...my Brembo's are AMAZING!!
Saturday Evening: Said goodbye to Lemon's Racer and headed back to town. We left the POS Miata at the track and had some Chinese food for dinner. Poor Rave-boy was still working on his car late into the evening. I was truly upset for the guy. I hung out with him a bit and he seemed defeated, understandably. We anticipated rain the next day and though he was signed up for the whole weekend, he just wanted to go home at that point...and I don't blame him. I would have felt the same.
BTW, I hadn't gone to the bathroom to "expel" for nearly 48 hours now, was coughing like mad, developing chest congestion, and shivering now and again. I got to bed by 11 and thePerfectLine was out like a light with his glasses on his face and the TV on the Speed Channel.
Sunday: I checked outside for rain....NONE! The forecast called for 2 days of rain. We've had not ONE DROP so far. Despite that, I expected rain today...I mean, how lucky can we get? Apparently, very lucky. It didn't rain a drop on Sunday either. It was surreal to see rain clouds and storms to the North, South, East and West of us but nothing at all at Thunderhill...spooky.
We rushed to get out to our first session. I was going a bit faster now, actually utilizing my brakes and accelerating harder between turns. Rave-boy decided to stay, and I was soo glad to hear that. He had his other car here and we stripped it clean of any debris, tech inspected it, and asked the coordinator's if Rave-boy could drop down to the Novice group. They allowed it and he went out for two sessions that day...and according to thePerfectLine, he did ten times better than the day before.
You see, the worst thing you can do is place yourself in the wrong run group. Having better more experienced and skilled drivers around you makes for high anxiety with cars zooming past you everywhere. You can't learn to drive when you're concentrating on people passing you every 1.2 seconds. I know from first hand experience. While as an absolute beginner at a NASA event, I accidentally went out with the Race-group...my GOD, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!", is the only thing on your mind.
By the time session 2 and 3 rolled around, the Mighty Mook and his better half arrived to get some rides. I took Mook out first and he had a great time. I drove slow and tried to work on some lines but having Mook in the car was too distracting.
Here are some shots of Mook in the car with me on Sunday:
http://gotbluemilk.com/web090322/777/index.html
During session three, Mook's girlfriend went out with me and she had a great time. Again, I drove slowly not knowing how much her stomach can take but apparently I've discovered I have the weakest stomach I know.
As for session 4, it was a complete revelation for me. Went out with thePerfectLine and it finally occurred to me that I need to brake more aggressively and actually HIT the apex burms. It was an epiphany during the last 2 laps...HIT THE APEX BURMS in T9, T10, T11, and T5 and your exit speed and your exit position is increased and improved substantially.
But by the end of session 4, my body and mind were devastated. I said goodbye to Rave-boy and his girlfriend who decided to bail early. I'm just glad he decided to stay. He learned alot, as I'm told, and his next experience will be soo much better, I'm sure. At our next track day, we decided and planned on lining up on pre-grid last and do some lead/follows together with zero traffic. We can both learn alot that way.
I replaced my wheels and said goodbye to thePerfectline. I skipped the last session to get a ride with the most powerful car in my run-group; a cammed Z06 with race-rubber putting down close to 600 to the wheels (which is close to 750 HP to the crank). What a way to end the weekend; a ride in the fastest car I've ever ridden in. The acceleration was soo savage that if you didn't have your helmet pressed against the headrest, you'd be sure to get whiplash during upshifts. And the grip from the 335 Hoosiers bordered on insanity. Despite the car's amazing speed and grip, he took turns no more cleanly nor more quickly than I do....it's just that his exit acceleration is soo much more monstrous and he's not afraid to punch it in the straights and fearless about his brakes in the braking zone.
All of this has left me feeling that I have alot of unfinished business at Thunderhill. I can't wait to go back with what I've learned and string together some really fast laps. I think I have it in me, and I KNOW the EVO is capable of anything I can throw at her.
Next time, I hope more of you guys can make it. I'm happy to give rides, just as long as you don't puke.
Wednesday night last week: Helped Rave-Boy work on replacing his suspension, swap out rotors F/R, pads F/R, brake lines F/R, and brake fluid. Rave-boy's girlfriend, brother, and the Mighty Mook helped out. Rave-boy's brother ended up pretty much doing most of the work himself. We worked into the night and the temps started to drop and I felt the pangs of a cough coming on. That evening, I had about 5 hours of sleep....amped for Thunderhill.
Thursday night: Worked on my car, itemized everything I had to bring and laid it out in the garage. Had even less sleep that night...even more amped for the weekend.
Friday: Left work early, packed my car, took a shower, ate garbage for breakfast and lunch and made arrangements to meet with Rave-boy to caravan up. Hit massive traffic and got into Willows at around 9PM. Checked into two rooms at the Willows Motel 6.
Had a decent dinner while thePerfectline arrived at around 10:30 with a Lemon's Racer buddy. We had a couple of beers and chatted excitedly late into the evening. I started a hacking cough at around 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep.
Saturday early morning: Woke at 5 and we rushed over to Thunderhill in complete darkness. We anticipated rain so we wanted to arrive early to get a spot under an awning. Temp read 35 and I didn't bring a coat. We got a fantastic parking spot and I proceeded to replace my wheels in complete darkness save my headlamp. My hands felt frozen and my back was aching from all the heavy lifting.
7:15: Finished the wheels, feeling super amped about hitting the track, checked out some race cars and headed over to the main building for a drivers meeting.
1st session: Torqued my lugs to 85 foot lbs, checked fluids, set tire pressure to 32 psi cold, wanted to add some negative camber up front but thePerfectline gave me way too much shit. Lemons Racer teased me for not having enough negative camber and pointed out time and time again how all the other cars out there had more neg. camber than I did. Even wanted to dial in more aggressive compression/rebound but I decided against it especially with the Perfectline urging me to just "Go out and just DRIVE dammit!".
Buckled into the Schroth Ralleye Four ASM 4-point restraint, set the adjusting center differential to "Tarmac", set the ASC program and active Yaw control to the OFF position, warmed up the motor, slipped on some Sparco racing gloves, pulled on my helmet, and drove onto pre-grid with the other SOLO 2 drivers. I was soo giddy and nervous I had to concentrate on breathing deeply and evenly in the pit lane lest I quiver and pass-out from excitement.
The first session was spent on getting the jitters out. I drove only fast enough to keep up and spent that entire session paying attention to the car. You see, after having owned a Stage III S4, I've become paranoid about something breaking for YEARS. The first session was really eye-opening in-so-far that I realized how amazingly rock solid the EVO was. So I barely accelerated, barely hit the brakes, barely screeched the tires, and pretty much didn't work on any lines at all. Most everyone did the same...a feeling out session.
Half-way through the first session, Rave-boy spun his car on Turn 11. Here is the layout of the track:
I was behind a very fast 928 with 315 Hoosier racing slicks when I noticed Rave-boy's Supra spun out on the left. Here is video of his spin. You can see how he should have set up Track/Right, should have hit the brakes harder, turned in more aggressively and by the time he realized he missed the apex and heading for the barrels, his only recourse was to give the wheel more lock which resulted in a spin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VytExcwLw0
As you can see, nothing damaged but a bit of a bruised ego. It was Rave-boy's first session out in over a year and the cars in our run-group were CRAZY!!! I mean cammed Z06's with race-slicks, Lotus', EVO's, race-prepped M3's, GT-3's, and 911's for cryin out loud!
Session Two: Went out with thePerfectLine. I somehow think that an instructor in my passenger seat would make me less attentive to my driving, but it's never the case. If I could have thePerfectLine out for every session, that would have been awesome. Session two was spent on simply beginning to work on some lines. For the most part, I spent session two marveling at how savagely my car accelerates, how ludicrously my car brakes, and how utterly ridiculous the car handles. I was positively giddy after that session...and again, my car was completely rock solid throughout.
Between session 2 and 3, thePerfectLine took Rave-boy's car out into the much much faster point-by run group. Rave-boy returned after 10 laps with a big smile on his face. Both felt that his Supra, despite being old, handled very well and took aggressive track driving like a champ....except for one fatal flaw in it's engineering: The Brakes. The brakes did very well under extreme conditions; credit modern cryo slotted rotors, modern brake pad compounds, modern brake fluids. But the problem was the HEAT...it simply couldn't dissipate the heat. There was smoke coming from the front of the car and his entire wheel surface, not to mention his lug bolts, were soo hot we couldn't even touch them for half a second before it burnt our fingers. It was an easy fix really; more air circulation into the wheel well. His wheels, though nice to look at, provide no entrance for incoming air...and neither does his wheel well.
ThePerfectLine suggested we pull off the wheel to examine the brakes...bad idea but we didn't know it at the time. As Rave-boy started to unbolt, he realized the lug broke off. This part of the story really sucks and way to long to detail, but the bottom line was after 10 hours of wrenching on the car by a dozen different people in several different shops, we couldn't fix the problem. Poor Rave-boy got only ONE session in before his car broke...and this is the stupid part: the part that broke was a two dollar part which no one can access or replace without special tools!....ARGH! I felt horribly for Rave-boy.
Next, thePerfectLine took me out in my car. This was a bad idea from the beginning; he's never driven my car ever and he'll be learning to drive the car on a race-track in one of the fastest run-groups. After two laps of practice, he came in to pick me up in the pit lane. His grin was from ear to ear and he could not stop praising the EVO's track prowess. I got in two laps before my stomach urged me to pull off, and let me tell you, those two laps were unbelievable! My car is soo stupid crazy fast in every frickin level that thePerfectLine could have conceivable passed even the fastest cars on the race-track! I was in awe not only of the car, but of his driving.
Here are some shots of the first day via Gotbluemilk.com. Apparently, there were two car #777. In one shot, you can see me passing Rave-boy's Supra. His car was #555 BTW.
http://gotbluemilk.com/web090321/777/index.html
He dropped me off at the pit lane and took off for a couple of more laps. I walked back to our parking spots to help Rave-boy work on his wheel lugs when thePerfectLine drove in and exclaimed, "You're not going to believe this buddy...I spun your car...". I immediately rushed to inspect for damage, and let me tell you, my first inclination was to kick thePerfectline in the face for spinning my car. But after noticing no damage save a rubber plastic lip guard and a small dent on the stock Enkei rims, my panic and anger abated and I resolved to simply state that thePerfectLine will never drive my car on a race-track ever again.
You see, his problem is not his skill...he is mondo-skilled and the best driver I've driven with, save an instructor with BMW GGC. ThePerfectline's problem is that he's reckless. He has spun half a dozen times on race-tracks and you'd think he'd learn his lesson after the fifth spin, but clearly he did not.
Anywayz, by lunch, I was pooped. We ate, watched a race, and headed back to our cars.
Session 3,4, and 5 were a blur. I realize that I have soo much fun driving that I forget how to drive the line properly. This is why I need instruction. By the end of the day, I'm hitting T1 to T5 pretty well and the the two scariest turns (T1 and T8) were now my favorite turns on the track. The other turns were pure crap. Every lap meant a different line but I began to actually use my brakes in a way I never had before...my Brembo's are AMAZING!!
Saturday Evening: Said goodbye to Lemon's Racer and headed back to town. We left the POS Miata at the track and had some Chinese food for dinner. Poor Rave-boy was still working on his car late into the evening. I was truly upset for the guy. I hung out with him a bit and he seemed defeated, understandably. We anticipated rain the next day and though he was signed up for the whole weekend, he just wanted to go home at that point...and I don't blame him. I would have felt the same.
BTW, I hadn't gone to the bathroom to "expel" for nearly 48 hours now, was coughing like mad, developing chest congestion, and shivering now and again. I got to bed by 11 and thePerfectLine was out like a light with his glasses on his face and the TV on the Speed Channel.
Sunday: I checked outside for rain....NONE! The forecast called for 2 days of rain. We've had not ONE DROP so far. Despite that, I expected rain today...I mean, how lucky can we get? Apparently, very lucky. It didn't rain a drop on Sunday either. It was surreal to see rain clouds and storms to the North, South, East and West of us but nothing at all at Thunderhill...spooky.
We rushed to get out to our first session. I was going a bit faster now, actually utilizing my brakes and accelerating harder between turns. Rave-boy decided to stay, and I was soo glad to hear that. He had his other car here and we stripped it clean of any debris, tech inspected it, and asked the coordinator's if Rave-boy could drop down to the Novice group. They allowed it and he went out for two sessions that day...and according to thePerfectLine, he did ten times better than the day before.
You see, the worst thing you can do is place yourself in the wrong run group. Having better more experienced and skilled drivers around you makes for high anxiety with cars zooming past you everywhere. You can't learn to drive when you're concentrating on people passing you every 1.2 seconds. I know from first hand experience. While as an absolute beginner at a NASA event, I accidentally went out with the Race-group...my GOD, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!", is the only thing on your mind.
By the time session 2 and 3 rolled around, the Mighty Mook and his better half arrived to get some rides. I took Mook out first and he had a great time. I drove slow and tried to work on some lines but having Mook in the car was too distracting.
Here are some shots of Mook in the car with me on Sunday:
http://gotbluemilk.com/web090322/777/index.html
During session three, Mook's girlfriend went out with me and she had a great time. Again, I drove slowly not knowing how much her stomach can take but apparently I've discovered I have the weakest stomach I know.
As for session 4, it was a complete revelation for me. Went out with thePerfectLine and it finally occurred to me that I need to brake more aggressively and actually HIT the apex burms. It was an epiphany during the last 2 laps...HIT THE APEX BURMS in T9, T10, T11, and T5 and your exit speed and your exit position is increased and improved substantially.
But by the end of session 4, my body and mind were devastated. I said goodbye to Rave-boy and his girlfriend who decided to bail early. I'm just glad he decided to stay. He learned alot, as I'm told, and his next experience will be soo much better, I'm sure. At our next track day, we decided and planned on lining up on pre-grid last and do some lead/follows together with zero traffic. We can both learn alot that way.
I replaced my wheels and said goodbye to thePerfectline. I skipped the last session to get a ride with the most powerful car in my run-group; a cammed Z06 with race-rubber putting down close to 600 to the wheels (which is close to 750 HP to the crank). What a way to end the weekend; a ride in the fastest car I've ever ridden in. The acceleration was soo savage that if you didn't have your helmet pressed against the headrest, you'd be sure to get whiplash during upshifts. And the grip from the 335 Hoosiers bordered on insanity. Despite the car's amazing speed and grip, he took turns no more cleanly nor more quickly than I do....it's just that his exit acceleration is soo much more monstrous and he's not afraid to punch it in the straights and fearless about his brakes in the braking zone.
All of this has left me feeling that I have alot of unfinished business at Thunderhill. I can't wait to go back with what I've learned and string together some really fast laps. I think I have it in me, and I KNOW the EVO is capable of anything I can throw at her.
Next time, I hope more of you guys can make it. I'm happy to give rides, just as long as you don't puke.
posted by supergoober at
9:16 AM
3 Comments
