http://www.revitup.com/testYourSelf.asp
I went to the rev it up competition yesterday in Orlando, Fl and saw a few other Z's in the parking lot. Anyone here participate? It was a long day, but my brother and I both had a great time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjKAWM-ZRTs

 

I was there with my 06 silverstone touring. I ended up missing my competition runs due to the delays, but i did several of the practice runs on the various courses. I was very dissapointed in the throttle response of the automatic corvettes, although surprised at how fun to drive(and abuse!) the cobalt supercharged ss was. All in all I had a blast out there, even with all the rain.

 

Sorry you got rained out.

Here is the long story behind the short video:

It was a fun, but rough, day for me. For starters, my brother pre registered us and when we got our little badges they both said "pro." He said he just selected "autocross" when he registered. We have both been autocrossing for less than two years. I doubt that makes us "pro", but oh well...

I had hoped to get into the top 25 for the Corvette Shootout when I asked my brother to sign us up but I was only expecting a couple hundred competitors. When I got there and saw all the people I asked one of the organizers how many people were actually competing, he said "...about a thousand." My goal of making the top 25 suddenly seemed a bit too optimistic. I should have done a little more homework.

We tried to get used to the FWD, auto (stuck in "D"), Cobalts (practice track) and watch as much video of the racecourse as we could. And then the rain came and they sent everyone back to their own cars.

They were good about re-indexing when track conditions changed but I have only done one event in the wet and I don't play with my Z on wet roads otherwise. FWD, auto, wet track, I was starting to feel way out of my element.

When things got back underway all the race times were pushed back a couple hours, so my brother and I would be racing under the lights. -Another first for both of us.

My first run, I came up on the first hard left and tried to look ahead, (through the corner). As soon as I took my eyes off the course in front of me, nice and bright, thanks to the headlights, all else was too dark to make any use of what I was looking at. I told my self not to be a wimp or give up too much speed and tried to guess a good entry speed.... WRONG!!! The turn was about 15 degrees sharper than I guessed and I pushed out, and onto, 5 cones! THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP!

I tried to get a good look at the rest of the course, knowing I had blown my first run. But seeing that "DNF" on the board next to my name really took the air out of my balloon. My brother and I get very close times at the track so when his clean run was 50 points out of the cut I got a little worried. I thought about my original goal of making the Shootout and just thought, "What was I thinking?" My wife came over and told me she wasn't the least bit worried. "Ok, now you know what to expect. Now go out there
and JUST DRIVE." (I love that woman)

I stood in line for my second run and tried to memorize what the course looked like at speed, then I went out and "just drove." Without the ability to see through the turns, I just tried to anticipate the few hard parts from memory but otherwise just react and hold speed. I usually try to work with the car, the course, and physics when I drive, but this run was a fight with all three. I knew the time was decent before I saw it because I caught up to the car before me near the finish. (About 3-4 car lengths )

I came back to staging and heard the lady announcer say "BAM! BAM! Two more people just got bumped!" I knew the car ahead of me probably didn't bump so I looked back and there's my brother grinning ear to ear!

We slid into the 16th and 18th spot for the top 25. The top 25 got to race for a Corvette in... Corvettes!

Although the wider Vette made the tight course seem even tighter, driving the Vette was more fun and less fight. The course was fresh in my head, I set up for the turns much better and the car was a willing ally. I came through the line on my first run only to find out that I hit a cone. ???? Many of the cones at this event were screwed to the pavement so they called any contact with a cone. I would normally take a little off to make sure I didn't hit the cone again but I was "on" a lot of cones in my all-out effort to win a Corvette and never heard or felt a cone. Backing off for all the cones I was close to would have been worse than the two second penalty so I just drove the best I could for the second run. My time improved by .1 seconds and, just as consistent as my time, there was the mystery cone by my name again.

Still, with the 2 second penalty on both runs, I improved from 18th to 15th for the night. My brother took it easy and ended up 10th.
Even if my runs had been clean, my best time would have only been good enough for 6th overall.

So that's how one can have a bad night and still finish 15th out of 1000.

What a night...

 

The idea is good, but the cars and the course were terrible. The course was no fun and the cars were just as bad. I left as soon as I drove the Vettes twice and did my two competition runs.

 

The course was tight, and that bar on the center console that only allowed "D" was crap, but I thought the cobalts handled ok for econo-cars. The cobalts we drove (in Orlando) had some sticky street rubber though.

They were letting people drive manual, stage II supercharged versions and they looked quick, but my brother and I didn't drive them at all. We just wanted to get used to what we were going to compete in.

Did they have the stage II cars at your event?

 

We had the Chevy Cobalt SS (I am not sure if they were supercharged, they were dog slow) for the competition runs and Corvettes for the final runs. I didn't see what tires it had, but it drives, feels and handles so bad that I didn't even push it hard. I made it to the top 25, but I was so annoyed that I left after my timed runs.

I did troll around in a 5 spd Cobalt SS, car felt much quicker. The only car I really liked was the C6, it drove awesome. My fiance wants me to get one now instead of a C5 or a Porsche.

 

You made it into the finals,but got so annoyed at the Cobalts you passed up the chance to race / win a Corvette???

I would have put up with racing tricycles for the chance at racing / winning a Vette.

 

When you have a pissed off girl barking at you, I am sure nothing is worth staying for.

I would probably finish in the 10-20 spot in the region if I had stayed for the shoot out, but it wasn't worth waiting 8 hours to out run everyone. Remember you have to beat the people in your region and others to get that car!!! I might as well ***** myself for the 8 hours, sell the Z and buy the C6.

I did drive the C6 in the "test drive", it is a great car. It's not quite GT3, but it is still very good.

 

I'm sure they all knew you would have been the winner had you hung around. That was pretty nice of you giving the others a chance. I'll give you a thumbs up for that show of sportsmanship.

 

I meant to say go out running against everyone.

If I could toast them, I would happily admit it