As some of you know I only ended up driving on Wednesdsay, what with all of my fishing and then the brake problem on Thursday. This is my Wednesday morning run, stuck behind a FRS.



I thought he would let me by since I caught him so quickly, but he tried to run, which meant I had to spend the whole time trying to stay off his *** so he wouldn't wreck himself. It was very frustrating! Oh well.

Next year while working registration I think I will give every registrant a little talk on swallowing your pride and utilizing the pull offs when faster drivers approach you on the Dragon. :p

(Though this guy was a local.)

I titled the video "Vs" but make no mistake, there was no competition. I couldn't hold a candle to Z1's or that GTR's speed. It was awesome to have a front row seat for a majority of the run, though. Thank you for letting me tag along!

Before you mention it, I made a couple mistakes and I definitely need improvement on smoothing out corner entry/exit, maintaining steering/throttle mid corner, and being heavier on the pedal in braking zones. I was making the mistake of riding the brake lighter for longer, then realizing I had to accelerate at turn in, changing the feel of the car in the turns. If it weren't for the traffic, you guys would have been gooonnneee. You'll notice I didn't even lift while the one guy had pulled to the side lol.

I had a blast. Although this was my first experience at Z days, It was not short of my expectations. I meet many so many Z enthusiasts that it was a bit overwhelming. I stayed with a bunch from Ohio and it was quite an experience, especially since I never had the chance to meet them in person. Fellow forum member Wolfenstein gave me the opportunity to take advantage of his proposition to fill a room for the mansion he was renting.
I was able to see one of my good friends (oingo) from the Z club in Savannah where I used to live, ran into a friend (Pete) from NJ and finally I was "rewarded" with many many miles up and down the dragon and the surrounding roads. "yeeeeaaa I survived the dragon"
Overall it was a great experience (minus the 13+ driving hours to get there and back) the weather held up good (thanks God) and events like this is what brings the Z community one step closer.

I've been going for 6 years and feel like every year I get a bit better, faster, and strangely, safer. The biggest part of that is recognizing where you **** up and how you need to improve. I didn't really start taking that part seriously until 2012 when I had my incident on Hellbender. It's easy to say the car broke, but I know what I did on corner entry exacerbated the problem -- thankfully at the time I had enough grass and just enough know-how to sneak out of a really, really ****** up situation.

I still have problems sometimes with braking. Some of it is easily being able to overpower the tire (powerful brakes and a regular summer compound,) but the rest is just me using them in situations where I shouldn't. I was going to make the jump to a "real" tire this year, but I didn't want to do it until I was sure it wouldn't just cover up for me when I started to get sloppy. I can't say I won't ever stop making mistakes, but I do feel like I can give the car a little more grip and actually be productive with it.

Looking forward to next year, certainly.

Other way around Mike, I was riding with you when we were going up the Dragon and chasing that bike.

Agreed. You really should come down Sunday to Sunday with MAZOC next year, that will let you maximize your driving time. I saw a big difference in my driving from the beginning of the week to the end. The ride alongs helped a lot too and I was able to use some of what I learned in later runs. I found that I was braking too late in the turns and braking more than I needed too. This reduced the amount of momentum I would carry through the turn and the exit speed leaving the turn. Wasn't quite courageous enough to carry as much speed through the turns as most of the more experienced guys, but I think I did fairly well for my first time at ZDayZ.

Here are my videos from the Thursday morning run, which were among my best runs of the week. Each of these videos includes Hellbender and the Dragon. First is going up and second is coming back down.

Here are some of the more scenic drives I got videos of:

Fontana Lake, past the end of the Dragon:



Bridal Falls Trip:

Has it already been 3 years since you tried to kill me?

I was so disappointed that I had forgotten my GoPro at home. :mad:

We also need to educate folk about backing off of slower traffic. While it is all fun following a fellow ZDayZ-er on the Tail, I saw a couple of Miatas following at about two feet off a motorcyclist rear tire. Being a rider myself, that raised my ire.. not only do you have to navigate the Tail, but now you have to worry about the jackass behind you. :shakes head:

I thought most cars were more than eager to get out of the way, even giving point bys in sections they probably shouldn't have. Those motorcycles though. Its as if they were going slow out of spite. Multiple areas to pull off safely, instead they rode 5mph below the posted speed limits.

Most cars are eager to pull off and let faster traffic by, but if I had a stupid kid in an even stupider Miata 2-feet from my back tire, I would be remiss to let him by too. But I have been known to be an asshole from time to time. :ugh2:

It's awfully suspicious that no one has seen you and I in the same place in a while

Not all of my pics, but it's a start. I didn't take that many this year.

ZDayZ 2015 - stfoto

Most, but not all. Then you have those bikers who think they're fast and refuse to pull off for you, even though you're clearly driving faster than they are. I caught some idiots on bikes pulling a U turn in the middle of the Dragon on one of my videos. Then they refused to pull off for me the whole way down, but I wasn't riding their asses or anything. :shakes head:

Here's some in cabin footage (mic setup inside too) of my way back to fontana. at one point I come around a turn and a biker is leaning into my lane. HD ins't available yet, but you can clearly see it. I gave him a little tisk tisk, because I was able to get out of the way. If I weren't looking completely around the turn, it would have been a bad day for both of us.

I love the way the AAM 3" single exit sounds inside the cabin. It's so raw haha. Even my mic does it no justice. Sounds stock at idle through 3200 RPM, then at 3300 RPM it becomes a whole new exhaust.

That could have been ugly!

Great video, Crux. Thanks for sharing.

I noticed in your sig that you are running a 34 row oil cooler. What kind of temps did you see running the Dragon and/or Hellbender? I was pushing 250 and wasn't cool with that, so I ordered a 25 row when I got home. Hoping that will be sufficient.

I was pushing 270 without an oil cooler and that's when I had to back off and let it cool down. Couldn't really do a full hot run unless it was chilly in the morning.

If you look at 17:50 on this video, you can see a squirrel nearly get decapitated by my front lip. Luckily it jumps out of the way at the last instant and was safe.

Posted this in the other thread. But I mentioned that I was going to post it in this one, so...

Open run.

10:13

Last of the scenic drives. Here is the Cherohala Skyway run:

What you need it some mounts like I had a few years back.

Do you require a front license plate by chance?

Mandatory in the Republic of Virginia. :(

I'm probably going to build something that mounts onto my tow hook plate bracket.

I should put something like that on my tow hook plate bracket too.

Never miss an opportunity to DIY.

nice videos fellas.

Updated post 2 with links to all of the videos and pictures posted so far.

DIY or die, quite literally in Steve's case.

Thanks! :tup:

So I guess I'm going to bite the bullet and attempt to overcome my fear of navigating through seas of orange cones. :ugh2:

:icon08:

Autocross?

Give yourself about 3 events to learn how to "speak cone".

The microseconds you take to decipher what you are seeing, and respond, add up to big chunks of time by the finish line. After a few events it starts to become more automatic. (although there will always be courses that are tougher to "see" than others.)

Yep.

I did an autocross event many years ago (~2004) and was overwhelmed. I am pretty sure I hit every cone on course, including both sides of the gates.

I have feared orange cones ever since. But if I want to go faster this is probably the best way to practice for The Dragon.

I want to do this! :yum:

I prefer HPDE's to AutoX, but either is better than sitting at home :tup:

I looked it up.. I have no hope of ever doing an HPDE event.. :gtfo2:

Why do you say that? No road courses near you?

Yea, HPDE doesn't come anywhere near me. I'd have to drive a long way just to do an event. I can do Auto-X in this area though. :ugh2: