Quote:
Originally Posted by Drift-caddy  Bump for ya. SO how you do??? |
Been busy since I got back.
VIR is SOOOOO MUCH FUN!
I can't believe I waited 2 years between trips. I've already signed up for next months NASA event there.
Saturday it was dry, and weather was nice (about 45-50 degrees). I ran with the novice group, since I only have 1 HPDE under my belt. I picked it back up a lot quicker than I thought I would. I probably passed about 12 cars each session (which is a lot in HPDE1, where passing opportunities are very limited.) I ran into some fairly bad brake fade (I didn't have time to change my fluid prior to Saturday.
DUMB DUMB DUMB. I swapped it after my last session on Saturday.)
It rained like mad on Sunday, so I didn't really get a chance to push my brakes very hard. I'll be able to validate for sure next time i'm at VIR, that the issue truely was the fluid, and not the pads or rotors (fluid was icky, so I sure expect that was the issue. Pads are Hawk HPS, rotors are GM drilled). Driving in the rain was actually a LOT of fun. really teaches you to be smooth. We had 5 guys with STI's in our group. They were sliding off the track left and right. That cracked me up, because I told my buddy before first session on Sun, that I bet at least 1 of the STI guys goes muddin', and I sure was right. AWD is nice, but it's not super-glue.
I had a BUNCH of people come up to me throughout, and comment on how my car sounded. Everyone said they were really surprised that awesome sound was comming from a Caddy. One guy I passed said "Holy Sh!t, I couldn;t believe it when you passed me. You flew buy, and it sounded increadible"
There was a guy that had just purchased a used 04 Z06, fully stock. I was talking with him before the first session on Sat, and asked him if was going to mod or anything. He said, no, car is great as it is. After two session (and two passes by me), he came and said, "Damn it, now I've got to get headers and an exhaust." HeHe.
Aside from the brake issue (my fault), the car performed great. I had no temp issues. The tires were wonderful, they stuck really well, but gave enough feedback when you were near the edge of adheasion (Falken RT615's, TW-200). No off track forays, or mechanical issues.
NASA put's on HPDE's between practive/qualifying/racing for a slew of race series. They divide these up between the lower dispalacement (fighter usually < 2.5L), and higher dispalcement (bomber, usually > 2.5L) groups. There was guy there, who had two old Grand Am or ALMS CTS-V cars there, who raced in the Bomber Group. Below is a link to race video shot by a Black/Yellow C5 Z06. He get's passed by the CTS-V after a few laps, and then is working hard to get by him again, untill the V has to retire due to a mechanical, near the end of the race. Well worth watching the whole video.
http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic....4b7f1b50c23d04
(Note the 911 #5, you see at the very begining of the video in front of the Z. THAT THING WAS HAULIN SO MUCH @SS. IT WAS A MAN AMOUNG BOYS OUT THERE.)
If anyone is on the fence about headers: GET THEM.
If anyone is on the fence about doing an HPDE: DO IT NOW!
All in all a wonderful weekend.
Finally, After going back to the road course, I don't think I'll be back to the strip. I'm glad I tried it once, but that was enough. Diff strokes for Diff folks I guess, but I'm definately stroking road course from now on.
Thanks again for posting the dyno graph,
Chris