Let me preface this by saying that I'm an idiot. All along, I had been reading "Texas World Speedway" as "Texas Motor Speedway". Fortunately for me, I didn't actually drive to TMS before I realized it; unfortunately for me I didn't realize it until 7:30pm Friday.
I called Rick to see what he thought - he said to come down, he'd be around for a really late registration and not to worry about it. I started from home in SW Fort Worth at about 8:30pm driving to College Station, about 175 miles, in about 2h30m. I35 was *crawling* with law enforcement, so I set the cruise to 68 (after seeing a truck get nailed for 70) and just took it easy. I pull in to the Manor House Inn at about 11, check in, register and hit the hay about midnight. I'm still a little wound up from driving, so I struggle for sleep.
I got up at 6am after barely 4 hours of real sleep, showered, ate and made the track by about 7. I'm classed Blue - the advanced novice class - so I'll have an instructor for the duration of the event and I'm in the last run-group. I visit the Greens in class to get some pointers, then I prep my car and hit the slalom. Here, my autocross skills come out, and quickly the instructor running the slalom sees that I understand car control, consistency, smoothness and rhythm. He has me do the slalom much faster than most people are taking it, gives me some good pointers and some information about tire pressures and I'm off.
My first track run comes a little bit later, I get to work with my instructor (Colin) for a 20-minute track session. I've *never* seen a good coursemap of TWS when I hit the course, so Colin takes the wheel for the first 3 laps to show me how the course looks and give me a view of the lines. I follow with 3 more laps of complete chaos where I'm unable to setup for any corner, overcook most corners, turn-in too early and generally perform poorly.
After lunch I'm resting in my car when the guy next to me, who happens to drive a G35 Coupe, asks if I'd like to ride. He's in Red run group, the most advanced run group for participants, so it's a good chance to see how he handles things. He takes me for several laps - he has Eibach springs, new sways (don't know who's), Injen CAI, Borla Exhaust and Hoosier road-race tires. This car sticks very well, mostly on account of the stickies, and I'm in for a solid 3 laps. During his 4th lap, the car starts to shake rather hard so we pit in. After a few minutes of research, we find the passenger rear tire slipped a belt and was out-of-round. This finally resulted in his weekend being over - he was unable to find a place to mount a new tire.
On my 3rd run session, I made a series of mistakes between corners 11 and 13, resulting in a spin between 12 and 13. This is a pretty easy corner, but I was very tentative approaching it. The rule is to lift very slightly for turn-in, then throttle-in to drift the car through the corner and to the outside. I spun by braking, turning late with the car unstable, then throttling-in when the car was very unstable. I compounded the problem by applying too much throttle (FWD-style save) rather than feathering and steering. I went off on the inside of 12-13, spreading grass throughout the interior of my car. (Sigh)
I ended the day on a strong note with only a couple corners to really work on. Colin was very impressed with my improvement; of course I hadn't done a road event in 4 years and had never seen this track before so that wasn't surprising. He felt I was a solid Blue-caliber driver after the first day, quelling my concerns that I should have started in Green. He also observed that I drove very smoothly - he actually said "I've never had to say this before, but you drove very smooth - too smooth." He said that I needed to toss the car a bit more, particularly in a couple corners. I took that as a compliment, one of the hardest things to learn in A/X and track is smoothness in the application of steering, gas and brakes, and I was on the far side of smooth. I find it easier to dial-back smoothness than to dial-back aggressiveness.
I got a solid 10 hours of sleep Sat-Sun, felt pretty good to start. By mid-morning, tho, I was starting to feel the onset of a cold and my energy level was dropping.
My first run of day two, Colin noted that I hadn't lost any ground from the day before. I was pretty much hot from the word go, following a clean line and putting together some good laps. As the day went on I started to push harder, and that showed I had more to learn on planning ahead and understanding speed/braking distances. It also showed that I had some concerns at high speed on certain corners - and a great approach to other corners.
On my 2nd run, I managed a beautiful save on the exit of corner 11 which garnered solid praise from Colin. I had applied too much throttle in the start and middle of turn 11 and the car was in a pretty unstable/rotating state as we exited. I was able to feather the throttle and countersteer the car back under control. I still dipped 2 wheels off the track due to a sideways drift/slide, but I was in control when that happened and was able to recover.
On the same run, I had my favorite experience. Coming out of lap 3 onto the front straight I was behind some traffic. The tail car (A Corvette) signals for a right-side pass, then the middle car (a Miata) signals for a left-side pass, then the lead car (A BMW) signals for a left side pass. Each successive pass got more of a chuckle, and by the last car my instructor says "Everyone is looking out for the Black Demon. He's fast." Wooo! What a rush! [
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It was vastly entertaining to chase down Corvettes and BMWs, but it was a little disconcerting to be tailgated by Minis and Miatas. The truth of the matter is that the Mini and Miata are quick in the turns; couple that with my relative lack of experience and they are easily taking me down. Courtesy is important, and what goes around comes around.
By the end of the day, Colin told me his thoughts on my driving. He felt that another day of instruction would put me in a position to be ready for solo-ing in Blue. Due to circumstance, I was able to run with the Yellow group for a session and found that I really wasn't up to that level yet - so I tend to agree with Colin's view. I'm not looking to be in the fast run groups, I'm looking to learn and have fun - so next time I'll get an instructor for one day and solo the next. Should be fun!
Notes on the G:
- The (Brembo) brakes are *incredible*. I never had a problem with fade, and my brake pads survived without too much trouble. I probably wore away about 1/4 of the front pads in 2 days, but that's really not all that bad.
- The car, in stock form, is very controllable and confident. It does roll a bit, but it isn't disconcerting and feels very connected all the time. It responds well to throttle tweaks and is pretty catchable when the limit is exceeded.
- There is a little push in the suspension, but smooth driving with gas/steering tweaks will work those out.
- VDC. I forgot to turn it off for most of my runs - and it never kicked in. As long as you aren't rotating the car, the VDC is surprisingly non-aggressive and doesn't get irritable in hard cornering - only when the car rotates in such a way that you'd not plan for anyways. When I nearly spun the car and when I did spin the car, VDC was off.
Notes and Lessons learned:
- The best upgrade to your car is a racing harness. I had one for my Neon and Celica GTS, I never installed it in my G. I'm going to now, my delts, pecs and traps are sore as heck from this weekend. A Schroth 4-point factory-mount is only $120 or so, and will improve your lap times as much as race tires.
- Listen to and work closely with your instructor. You'll need to adapt to understand what they're saying, and they need to adapt to teach you best. I worked to get a good relationship with my instructor, and it paid off towards the end of the first day into the second day.
- Don't set your goals too high. You're there to learn, not to be upgraded to the next run-group. You don't want to be disappointed when you aren't as fast as the Blue/Yellow/Red drivers by the end of the weekend. Be happy with what you learned.
- Use the throttle and steering to work the car when it's dialed into pushing. You can lift the throttle a little to rotate the car in a corner when the suspension is loaded, and can tweak the wheel to accentuate that rotation.
- Watch for flag stations.
- Be courteous. Let people pass when they are faster than you - be willing to sacrifice speed in a straight to let a car pass before the twisties. That's usually where they catch you, don't hold them back just because you're faster in a straight.
- Extra power means very little. I chased a Z06 out of a corner through a passing-length straight without the 'Vette gaining an inch on me - and I later passed it on the front straight. Learn to corner, the entry speed on the straight will come with it.
- Get a lot of rest. You don't drive as well when you're tired.
- Stock tire pressures (stock alignment/stock suspension): Cold: 40/41 Front, 35 rear. You'll get a bit of rollover, but more air and you'll push quite a bit more. Hot, I was running approximately 43F/38R.
All in all, it was fun. I'm more of an autocross junkie than a road-course junkie, but I learned a lot and will definately go back. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in performance driving; it won't teach you much you can use on the street, but it will definitely show you what speed really means and give you a more humble view of your driving skills.
Cheers,
Kal.
'04 G35 Coupe 6MT, Black/Black, Premium Package, Aero Package w/Spoiler, Infinity Basslink, Clear Bra
Edit: Stupid grammar and spelling mistakes, changed topic.
Driver's Edge Last Weekend - New: Link to pics
