Saturday – I was nervous because it drizzled in our morning session. I hate rain! I only like rain when I’m at home doing nothing but to sleep. We had an incident on our first run. From what I’ve heard, the guy who drives a BMW E36 M3 was hot entering turn 1 and his car went off and hit the wall. I’m not sure what exactly happened but when I saw his car at the paddock, the front suspension and the driver’s side of his car was damaged. What a way to start our session!

The track was slick and my car over steered at turn 3 and coming out of turn 10. Boy! I’m glad I caught it! The track dried up on the remaining sessions, which gave us a good run. I’m still struggling at the skid pad but I just need to keep working on it!

Sunday – I love our “no brakes” session! I’ve done this exercise several times before but not with my Z. The rule is we’re not allowed to use our brakes on the track unless it’s an emergency situation. The purpose of the exercise is to be able to gauge how fast a car can go through a turn. Most students depend on their brakes a lot where they have the tendency to overcompensate the turn. For example, in my case I usually go 115-120 mph on the straights and do heavy braking before entering turn 1 which can result to losing speed as I go through the turn.

Unfortunately, another car in our group had an incident on turn 1. I don’t know what happened but the rear wheel on his BMW E46 M3 was bent. My husband and I were not able to take pictures but here are some from previous track events.

 

I usually dont do this but.....

Divorce your Husband and marry me, our children will be the next
racing dynasty. Genetically the will have driving skills at birth.

 

Yeah after the thousandth time you should probably stop saying "I usually don't do this" j/k ...... not really

















ha ha ... j/k

 

LOL

That's rad you go to the track! Are you a better driver than your husband?

 

Sounds like you had a pretty good time. I am still looking forward to hitting the skid pad there someday.

I am not sure I would be confident enough to not use my brakes. I guess at first you would not be nearly as fast as you normally would be, but I bet once you get the hang of it, it probably makes you a lot smoother through the turns.

I look forward to next season and some great track days.
--B

 

Ha! Thanks!

I was the one who drag my husband's butt to do HPDEs. I've always been fascinated with cars and loves to drive! We did our fist driving event through Car Guys and now we're hooked! We've been doing HPDEs for 3 and a half years now. We usually run with BMW CCA Chapter even if we don't own any BMW. He drives an STI and I have my Z. My husband's in the BMW's Instructor's Academy and I'm still in the intermediate-advanced group. I guess that answers your question as to who's the better driver.

At times, I tease him that he owes me one for dragging his butt to drive at the track and now he's waaay ahead of me. It's all good though! I just need to work on my driving skills 'coz my goal is to be an instructor someday.

 

I've been having a difficult time on the skid pad. Initiating the oversteer was easy for me. However, catching and being able to hold it was tough! I just got my Z last November and I'm still learning the dynamics of the car. I used to drive an Acura RSX-S at the track. The transition between FWD to RWD is a big jump but there's no waaay I will trade my Z for another car. It's a blast to drive at the track!!!

As for the "no brakes" session, it's intimidating at first but once you get the hang of it...it feels like you're dancing at the track where you don't have to worry about braking. There are ways to scrub off speed at the track:

1.) zig-zag drive - If you watch F1 or other professional races this is where the drivers weave through the track to warm up their tires. It's also one way to scrub off speed.
2.) down shifting
3.) taking a different line going through the turns
4.) modulating your accelerator

Hopefully, I'd get to see you at the track next year. There was another silver Z at the track last weekend. However, he doesn't frequent this forum. It would be nice to drive with other Z cars at the track!

 

I might be down there Oct 14-15 for the Audi HPDE to do photography for them. It'd be nice to throw in a few Zs into the mix =)

 

woah woah woah I just figured out that sportydudette is a lady.

 

cool was that a BMW event? I am guessing that it was since you state that you hang with the BMW club...

Too bad we can't get something like that going.

 

Rain driving is actually a good thing to learn, eventually you learn to like it if you can see the benefits and the advantages of learning from it. Eventually driving on the dry is a piece of cake if you were learning on the rain..

I probably have seen you and your husband, Im pretty sure I know of your husband.. do you guys do autocross events along with HDPEs?

 

Yes, it was a BMW event.

I don't know what are the logistics involved to set up a 350Z club. Like you said, it would be nice to have something going.

 

Most of the people at the track definitely gets excited when it rain. As for me, I'm not fond of it. However, I agree with you that it's a good learning experience to drive on the rain. It teaches you good car control skills. The whole track is like a skid pad when it's wet! I just don't like rain in general.

We only do HPDEs. I would love to try autocross though! I'm not sure if you know or heard of Brian Hair. He's competing in Kansas for autocross competition. I'm not sure if its the SCCA one. He instructed me before through BMW.

Hola at us if you happen to see us at the track!

 

HAHA, Brian Hair is a very good friend of mine, racing teammate if you want to consider that too. His father Woody is also a good friend of mine as well. Yes, he is at SCCA Nationals right now ( I should have went myself and competed, but I didnt think I was going to do well this year, so I'll hold it off until next year).

I normally run with NASA or do FATT days at Summit Point.. I normally do autox on a regular basis with Brian and instruct for BMW autox schools and teen-safety driving as well. Hopefully I'll see you out on the track.

 

So if you have an accident at the track, does insurance cover it? I heard insurance won't cover for incidents where you were purposefully racing your car at excessive speeds at tracks and stuff.

Also, was your car stock btw? Any closeup pics of your Z with the spoiler? I was thinking about the Nismo spoiler today.

 

Wet Roads = Fun drifting/learning+adapting weather, however most Z guys are affraid because their cars are garaged 24/7 + too pretty and clean to drive in the rain. Not too many autox'ers here, you'd mostly spot that in the S2000 forums, maybe I'll see you up at the track this coming spring! We should arrange a Summit Point 350z takeover day, not enough suspension talk and too much bodykit/turbo talk =P

 

Wow! Small world huh? I talked to Woody last weekend and that's how I found out that Brian's competing for the SCCA Nationals.

 

Technically, it is not "racing"...it is a driving school. That is something that you can argue with the insurance company, if you're brave enough. However, dealing with insurance company in this scenario is a lose-lose situation. Luckily, I haven't had any serious damage (knock on wood!) on my car.

Yes, my car's stock except for the wing. I did not find any close-up pics but here's a few:











I bought my wing from Performance Nissan and have a local auto body shop installed it.

If you ended up getting one and need somebody to install it, I highly recommend D&V Auto Body in Chantilly. They did a good job on mine. The number is: (703) 478-9431 and ask for Kevin or Ron. Let them know I sent you.

 

there's a difference between high performance driving school and racing. You will have to look at your own insurance policy to see what is covered.. 90% of the time, they wont cover for either.

there are specialty track insurance that you can buy that can cover such things. It would be a seperate policy and even seperate company than what you normally have.

 

You should come out to the autox days as well, Brian and Woody are freqent crossers as well.. it's a safer environment on those wet days at autox.. and it's a lot of fun too. I believe Brittney drives a B-Street Prepared 350Z that she autocrosses often as well. Im sure the rest of the autox community would like to see a larger diversity of women competing. It's a lot of fun!