Well I was a bit bored this morning and remembered that I had a Club MSV voucher to use, so went about looking for a suitable date to book.
My local track being Snetterton, I looked there first and saw that they had one on today which annoyed me a bit as it would have been a perfect day for it.
Although I'd missed the start I decided to give them a bell and see if there was any chance they would let me attend the afternoon sessions. The guy on the phone said as they weren't that busy he couldn't see it being a problem.

So I gave my car a good look over and checked tyres, wheel nuts, fluids etc...and was on my way.

I'm so glad I went on the spur of the moment, it was a perfect day- dry, with the sun shining and air still nice and cool.
Although a good 45 min drive down, there was no 'decent' petrol stations on the way so arrived at the track with half a tank of petrol - Just enough for a few sessions.
I went and signed on and noise tested (94dB @5krpm) and only got charged £35 for the remaining sessions...Bargain!

Anyway....the Zed performed brilliantly. I had been there before (last year) but was suffering with VERY high oil temps (138DegC) and had only had the car re-tuned days before so was watching my gauges more than the track and was a bit worried about the car.

This time I enjoyed it so much more. After a couple of laps I was satisfied that all was OK - the oil temps didn't go above above 110*C (after fitting a cooler) so I just enjoyed the drive.
Other cars there included mx5, caterhams, lotus, clios, BMWs, Scoobys, Cayman S etc... I'm happy to say nothing passed me.


Here's a few pics of me on track, and and in-car video.








Here is a vid of a few laps, not many exotic cars I'm afraid but they were the more interesting laps to watch as there were cars to overtake for the first couple.
My most aggressive driving was probably the last lap ( about 5 mins into clip) as there were no cars in the way and I was most confident.

Please excuse the couple of missed gear changes The car didn't seem to like going from 2nd to 3rd once it had hit the limiter



(cant seem to embed the video? )

 

 

sounds like heaps of fun for an incredible price. jealous+++

I wish the USA had more open passing track days that didnt cost 400 dollars after all the dust settled.
HPDEs get boring unless youre in HPDE4, and thats mostly because of fast drivers in fast Vipers, Corvettes and 911s hitting the straights and flying passed a mostly stock, sub 300hp car. i feel like im in the way everytime we get to a straight.

 

My average day at Willow Springs costs about $250 including gas for the 230 drive one way.

 

Lucky west coasters:
http://www.trackweekend.com/events/95909342/
http://www.trackweekend.com/events/100979772/
http://www.trackweekend.com/events/95909452/

$279-299 registration per event, PER DAY, 2 day events depending on HPDE level. $80 for an instructor for lower HPDE levels, so either way its 600+ just to get on track safely for the weekend, more for lower levels considering instructor costs.
Then consider wear and tear, gas in either the truck, or if its Homestead or Sebring, gas driving the car there, tolls, the faulty tickets youre probably going to get for not having DOT registration on your NON COMMERCIAL, NOT FOR HIRE tow rig and the hassles you have to go through to get that all cleared up. (happened all three times i towed a car to Homestead, Miami-Dade PD cant even tie its own shoes properly)

Be thankful you live in Cali. 10 dollar drift nights at kart tracks? not in FL. we pay 50 bucks and its just an old blacktop parking lot with some cones and walls put up. 60 dollar auto-x out west with actual competition? nope, its 150 here and youll probably be the only car in your class. whoopty doo...!
lolz