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SShink


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30th Wedding Anniversary Surprise
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My lovely bride and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary Monday by going to Vegas for a few days, and she completely surprised me with the gift of driving an exotic car on the track at the Las Vegas Raceway!  She gave me a hot wheels car sized Aston Martin the night we arrived, along with the details of the event for Monday.  Her thought was that I would get to drive the Aston Martin since I'm a big James Bond fan, but unfortunately it was in the car hospital, so being a muscle car/U.S. guy, I picked the C7 Corvette.  I know... for those of you that know the exotic cars better, one of the Lambo's or Ferarri's would probably have been a better pick, but the Vette was still fun to drive (even with traction control).

We went to the track late morning in a stretch limo with a couple from New Zealand, went through an instructional classroom course, did a 2 lap track introduction in a Porsche Cayenne (man did he drive fast with that!), then went to our cars for a briefing by the in car instructor, and off to the track we went.

I have to say, I have a MUCH better appreciation and can understand the addiction that Derek, Keith, and Scott have with road course racing, and how hard it is with so many inputs at the same time!  notworthy  I did 7 laps, and just felt like I was barely figuring it out.  Of course, now that I had that taste I want more!  The overall experience was really cool, and probably wasted on my skills, but it was still fun.  I'd recommend it to anyone, wives included as there were a couple of women that had a blast driving the course when I talked to them.

Anyhow, here's a video of their ride along drifting that they sell for $99.  If you are ever in Vegas, this alone would be worth the money seeing the grins on the faces of everyone that got out of the car:

Here's the video of my laps that came as part of the package my wife picked out (Don't laugh at the expressions on my face...).  I'd love to hear any feedback from Derek/Keith/Scott or any other road course guys on my 'learning's':

Here's some pics from the fun:

 

 



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Stan S.-Twin Cities 'South Metro'

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OscarZ


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Cool gift Tina gave you!  I hope you did just as good a job with hers!  razz



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Michael S. - Cambridge
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SShink


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OscarZ wrote:

Cool gift Tina gave you!  I hope you did just as good a job with hers!  razz

Let's just say that shiny jewelry was involved...



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Stan S.-Twin Cities 'South Metro'

1972 Malibu Convertible 2nd time around 

2001 Mustang GT Convertible 

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Derek69SS


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My suggestion: Drive faster. razz



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Derek Kiefer - Mantorville, MN

69 Malibu Pro-Touring stroker LS1-383/T56 - 69 SS396-325/3spd project
John D


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That looks like a LOT of fun!

(There must be a conspiracy with the NCC women... Sheryl tried to kill me off in a Winston Cup car in AZ for my 40th B-day doing the Petty Experience... and I didn't have an instructor giving me tips!)

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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

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66 RAT


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Nice job, Stan! It looks like it would be a fun experience. I would guess it felt to you like you were going faster when on the track than when you watch this video. The perception of watching race cars on TV never seems to convey the feeling of speed as when watching in person. I remember when Lorraine and I went to our first NASCAR race on a big track, we were taken aback at who fast they went by us. It was a much different feeling than watching on TV.

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Ron - Twin Cities

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dashboard


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Looks like a great time. Not sure seven laps in some else’s machine on a strange track would be enough for me to get comfortable and really get into it. Hard to tell in the video, did the track have any slope in the turns?

What’s she going to do for you’re thirty-fifth?


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Kevin

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Big thumbs up for your wife.


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BLyke


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Congrats on the 30 years and to Tina for knowing her man. Looks lie a great adventure

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Bruce L. - Lakeville MN

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dashboard wrote:

Looks like a great time. Not sure seven laps in some else’s machine on a strange track would be enough for me to get comfortable and really get into it. Hard to tell in the video, did the track have any slope in the turns?

What’s she going to do for you’re thirty-fifth?

 Buy him a motorized wheel chair....laughing

 

 



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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Now I'm not a road racer, but I'm curious....he kept telling you not to throttle in the corner. When Nascar races on road course, or ovals for this matter, they always talk about driving through the corner. Once the car has rotated through the middle part of the corner, easing back into the throttle to keep your rpms up and launching you into the next corner. Were they more concerned with you gunning it and kicking out the back end? It just seems like once the car has rotated you could have eased into it sooner than you were.

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Derek69SS


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It's very car & balance dependent on where you can get back on the throttle.

For beginners though, it's safer and usually faster to try to brake and accelerate in a straight line... especially in something with a lot of HP.



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Derek Kiefer - Mantorville, MN

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dashboard


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Derek, when you are at a new track or circuit course do you get the opportunity to do several laps to familiarize yourself with the track?


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Kevin

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I've only done autocross, no big tracks yet... Every course layout is different, and we walk the course a couple times before driving it. We usually get about 6-8 runs in for a whole day. Fast guys are fast on their first runs. Guys like me start slow and improve throughout the day. :)

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Derek Kiefer - Mantorville, MN

69 Malibu Pro-Touring stroker LS1-383/T56 - 69 SS396-325/3spd project
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Nice driving Stan, but be cautious, road course racing can be extremely addictive. It is however the most fun I have ever had in my life. Everyone on our "race team" agrees. And I know they're telling the truth as when they finish their stint and take their helmet off, they all have the biggest grin on their faces I've ever seen.

Maybe you should look into Chump Car racing or WRL to "feed your need for speed" Just click on the links in my sig.



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SShink


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Steven-My natural tendency was to start squeezing the throttle part way into the turn, but you heard the instructor correctly to not do that.  I think Derek is right that even with traction control, it would be easy to spin out if too much HP/torque is used too early at speed.  I'm sure as I became more comfortable with the car and track, some throttle exiting the apex would be possible though.

Kevin-Honestly that was the biggest challenge for me since the 2 lap ride along in the SUV was done at such a high speed, I was too busy trying to follow the driver's lines and lost track of where the cones were (I'm going to include that in my comments/feedback on their survey).  There's another part of their instruction that I forgot to pay attention to... they told us to not fixate on any one thing when looking ahead, and use our peripheral vision and to scan ahead, but I found myself locking in on the green cones to know when to turn since I didn't know the course well enough, and wasn't looking far enough ahead soon enough for the next course change.  It really challenges all the physical inputs at the same time.  The video may not look like things are happening that fast, but in the car they sure did.

Steve B., I'm afraid I could get hooked on it...  I am going to go over to DCTC one of these Sunday's and watch that again and thinking about driving the Camaro on the track there.  Especially since it's only a few miles from my house if I break something!

And yes as you have all said... I have an awesome wife that paid attention when I dropped bucket list hints that I'd sure like to do a track event someday. 



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Stan S.-Twin Cities 'South Metro'

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Back in Black


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Sweet! The seed has been planted. :)

Hint: You're either on the gas or on the brakes. No in between. :)

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Keith - Rochester, MN

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dashboard wrote:

Derek, when you are at a new track or circuit course do you get the opportunity to do several laps to familiarize yourself with the track?

 Most of the track day events I've been to at road courses give you so much track time, you get tired of driving fast after a while. I don't mean mentally, I mean physically. You drive as fast as you can for 30 minutes or so and you're more tired that you think.

But, yes- typically you get tons of laps during a track day. Something like the OPTIMA events is a good example. You get enough time to really push yourself and your car, make some changes, try some different things (like tire pressures, shock settings, racing lines into and out of corners, etc.) and by the end of the day (or weekend), you should feel like you made great progress on all fronts.

The most rewarding thing for me has always been how hard I pushed myself and my car, and how capable both ended up being when everything was right.

It's addictive as anything and I can't recommend it more. It's hard on parts (especially tires and brakes) but once you've upgraded and can get through an entire weekend on the road course with no issues, you really feel that the car has reached a good place. No overheating, plenty of oil pressure, brakes are still good, etc. It takes a pretty well-engineered car to do all of that.



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Derek69SS


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SShink wrote:
Steve B., I'm afraid I could get hooked on it...  I am going to go over to DCTC one of these Sunday's and watch that again and thinking about driving the Camaro on the track there.  Especially since it's only a few miles from my house if I break something!

 Corvettes of Minnesota "Super Sunday" at DCTC on Sept. 14th

http://www.myautoevents.com/pls/mae/frmEventDetail.Show?psevent_id=14543

 

Usually 7 runs with faster more open courses than the MAC events.



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Derek Kiefer - Mantorville, MN

69 Malibu Pro-Touring stroker LS1-383/T56 - 69 SS396-325/3spd project
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