Race school day.

[Mt Tam I am]

Yesterday I attended the "Jim Russell School of Racing" and took a high performance driving class. We all drove our own cars so their was a wide range of good cars. 2 BMW 335i an ix. 5 Porsches' two boxter S's, two 997's: Carerra, Carerra S , and a 2003 996 turbo. An S2000, a WRX a GTR and a Dyno'ed 364 HP Evo. My Z made 12 cars.

Over the day we did a slalom, turn entry, and an auto cross course, all with cones. This led to a final timed event which determined your track placement and how fast the lead instructor would lead. One instructor, Thomas drove a 370Z at last months Continental GT race at Leguna Seca for AM performance.
How cool is that.

I started with VDC on and was smooth enough to not engage it. The instructors said I was too smooth, get on it more. That required VDC off where it stayed. Holy toledo, our car is so capable, so controllable I had no idea how far below its limits I drive. I caught up to that fully modified EVO and stuck to him like glue until I was signaled to fall back. This was most satisfying as I felt he was the best competition that day. An ex top 5 racer praised me as well.

When we did our timed event, start in a box do two laps stopping back inside the box. Hitting a cone cost 5 seconds. I had a good run but gave up some tenths of seconds on the last turn and thought I could have done a tad better.

When they read off the times backwards with 1:08 and finished with me at 54 seconds. I beat out the next best, the EVO, by two seconds. The GTR was third but got placed with the 911 turbo. The pictures show which group ran with which. I'm with the EVO and the silver 911. We are the fast group!

Driving the track was a real treat. I turned off the VDC even though I was advised (instructed) against it. I tried to film it but it I mostly got the interior of the car and some over exposed car ahead of me. The 911 was slowing us down. He kept falling back and we had to slow to let him catch us, repeatedly. We were the only group allowed to pass the other groups too. They used radios to communicate with one and all. The instructor had maximized the stock EVO he was driving which was fine by me as I had had enough anyway. I'll go faster next time. I could use some more practice on turn 7, a 100 foot descending 150+ degree turn. The fastest speed I saw was 110 but was told we crossed 120.

QUESTION:
I had no interest in looking down too much but did have a throttle cut off similar to VDC or over revving. I had my read out set to temp so mid track I turned it to MPG bar light. This is when the throttle cut off momentarily. When I switched off and back to outside temp it stopped occurring. Any connection? I still had half a tank of gas.



At the end of the day I had burned $50 of 96 octane fuel. Drove 76 miles at approximately 8.4 MPG. My tires new have 300 miles on them according to odometer but they look a little leathery. Pics included, one of each tire.


I hope to include some more pictures that were promised to be e mailed from spectators.

I highly recommend a $700 day like the one I had. I actually learned very little new info, but learned the limits of the car on a wide variety of applications.




EDIT

You must have an oil cooler. I was looking at temps of 240 with one.

[onzedge]

Mt Tam --

This is an excellent write-up and the accomanying photos are great. It looks like the Michelins did well for you, no? I would not worry much about the feathering.

I need to do this.

[Red__Zed]

very cool

Post up the videos!

[EazyD]

That sounds like a lot of fun! Great job. Don't know about the MPG thing..

[PluckyPurcell]

A day at a race school is a lot of fun, you can gain lots of knowledge, and improve your technique. I've been to two motorcycle roadracing schools and a day driving a Cobra with Racing Adventures. Sounds like you got a lot out of it. Well worth the cost of admission.

[ZCarMan]

Great write up! Looks as if you had a blast!

[Lug]

From what I've seen, $700 is a really good price for something like this.

[Mt Tam I am]

Originally Posted by onzedge

Mt Tam --

This is an excellent write-up and the accomanying photos are great. It looks like the Michelins did well for you, no? I would not worry much about the feathering.

I need to do this.

We all need to do this

I am already planning road course number two. PERFORMANCE DRIVING 2 $795.

The Michelins did very well. I still credit you with my decision. Thank you again.


You must have an oil cooler. I was looking at temps of 240 with one.

[ChrisSlicks]

Glad you had fun!

The cut you were getting was most likely a fuel cut, on a race track it will happen pretty easily at 1/2 tank even if not pushing that hard. It will always be on the right hand turns. Once you start pushing harder it will start happening at 3/4 tank, and on race tires at 7/8ths of a tank.

Once you've completed another instructional school you'll probably want to step up to an instructed HPDE event. Those are usually about $200 a day, and out your way are often even cheaper. Just look for clubs that have good instructors. You'll probably need to step up to a track compound brake pad as well, the stock pads aren't really cut out for track duty.

[gurneyeagle]

Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed the day.

Thanks for taking the time for the write-up and posting pictures.

[SPOHN]

Nice write up. Sounds as if your hooked now. I'll finally be pushing my Z next month and should beyond a doubt in Nov. at Road Atlanta.

[christian370z]

Great review, that must have been so much fun. I need to do one of these, I signed up for an instructed SOLO auto-x event earlier in the summer but it got cancelled due to high wind and was very bummed.

How did the Super Sports compare to the RE050s?

[Mt Tam I am]

Originally Posted by christian370z

Great review, that must have been so much fun. I need to do one of these, I signed up for an instructed SOLO auto-x event earlier in the summer but it got cancelled due to high wind and was very bummed.

How did the Super Sports compare to the RE050s?

Thank you.
RE: How did the Super Sports compare to the RE050s? Favorably. I already plan on my next set being Super Sports. Much quieter and slightly less steering input. I finally made my tires squeal. I never could do it with the RE050s, although I was never at the track either. On a couple of the turns I could hear mine over the Screaming EVO tires.

I will post my retched video on you tube and link it so you can hear just how quiet it is.

[Mt Tam I am]

This is a terrible video and presented only for tire sound. That is the lens cap rattling.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SledgeHa...e?feature=mhee

[onzedge]

Originally Posted by Mt Tam I am

This is a terrible video and presented only for tire sound. That is the lens cap rattling.

SledgeHammerMarine??? - YouTube