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Oh yeah!

daveSanborn

daveSanborn

Active Member
SCCA is coming to my area!

On board the local Marine base the "Single Marine Program" has made arrangements to bring professional driving instructors here for some novice type training. The training takes place on Saturday afternoon and the runway (one of the largest runways on the East coast.... an actual alternate landing site for the space shuttle) will be closed off and coned starting at 8AM on Sunday. Again in July and September!

I am 110% stoked about this.

It saves me SO MUCH time and money. Granted the runway is "flat", but it should be very interesting! $35 as an entrance fee covers everything.... including a helmet.

I'm REAL curious about how my 4link rear suspension will perform in the corners. I'm thinking that the rear suspension is WAY TOO stiff. I could give a rat's arse about the current street tires. If they're shredded, so be it.

I took a look at the on-line registration page and it appears that cars are coming from everywhere.... well, except for East = Ocean.... within a 200 mile radius. Looks like a lot of serious cars. I had no idea what class to register in so I registered in the "street modified" class. Over 100 cars and I'm the only vintage guy.

I'll post updates here as anything happens.... like my car blowing up.
 
Sounds cool Dave!

Do a nut & bolt check before you go, bleed your brakes so you have fresh fluid in the calipers, strap in and have a blast.

One thought though, if you use a "loaner" helmet, you COULD be wearing someone else's sweat.


Make sure you get pics or video for us :ecit
 
"silverblueBP" said:
Sounds cool Dave!

Do a nut & bolt check before you go, bleed your brakes so you have fresh fluid in the calipers, strap in and have a blast.

One thought though, if you use a "loaner" helmet, you COULD be wearing someone else's sweat.


Make sure you get pics or video for us :ecit
Click to expand...


I'll need brakes? Uh-oh.....
 
Nahhh, only if you want to make more than one run :ecit
 
You'll be surprised how much brakes you'll need. My first track experience, I took the M5 out. Changed the fluid, new street performance pads - and burned through almost the complete pad in 2 days. Kept having to hold back on the speed & entry to the corners to save brakes. Bummer. Now, this was at Virgina International Raceway ( http://www.virnow.com/images/stories/maps/full_course_topographic.jpg), which has tough conditions 0 3/4 straights, followed by 120 degree turns, etc. But, given the HP you've got in a ~3000# car, you'll need brakes :)
 
so we can all watch and cheer you on...
Click to expand...


BS.

"If" the September track event lined up with the MBB weekend (it doesn't) you'd better be entered/registered right along side of me..... not watching and laughing.
 
I'm not the MBBIII coordinator, but as I understand it MBBIII should be officially underway on Friday, 01 October @ approx. 6PM and conclude sometime around 4AM on Sunday.
 
Well.....

Good news, bad news and then really bad news......


Good news:

It was definitely an adrenaline rush! The car did MUCH better than I ever expected it to. I'd thought for sure that the rearend wouldn't stick at speed, but as long as I layed off the power in the tighter turns it held firm. The learning curve rises quickly. There were some HEAVILY modified track cars with MUCH more experienced drivers attending the event and my last run time (the only time that I didn't DNF) put me in with their times. I WILL do it again in July.

Bad news:

For safety purposes the course was short. A section of the runway/taxiway was coned off to create the course. There wasn't a lot of "straightaway" sections on the course to get up to speed. I (along with everyone else) didn't get out of second gear, but I was at the top of second gear for most of the course. Top speed, not that I had time to actually look at my speedo while navigating the course, was probably 55MPH. Any run time that came in under 1 minute and didn't DNF for failure to navigate the course properly was a respectable run time. I, along with most of the other drivers had DNF runs. It was very easy to get lost on a coned course. There was a morning and afternoon session each consisting of three runs. I ran only the morning session and left without running the afternoon session.

Really bad news:

So that I can swear at myself for being so stupid I'm posting the really bad news in the Grumpy Old Farts lounge.
 
2nd gear runs are very common in autocross! That is why it's a great place to learn car control, lower speeds equal lower chance of doing bad damage to the car.

Everyone is a cone killer the first time out, do not fear the cones.....kill em :ecit



Be careful, you'll get addicted and then........................you'll want SPEED.
 
I took a 8 hour driving course recently. We drove our own cars and then had some time in a "skid" car. they could speak to us thru the radio. They set-up a couple different coned courses. We never went over about 45 or 50 but it was a great experience. I too am addicted.
 
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