Sebring Track Tour

[stanglife]

^^I feel for you Stanglife... I ran in the AM session clear & dry but I waited onsite all afternoon too since my friends were there. One was able to run right before the 30min sprinkles started and one wasn't able to drive at all, just hotlapped. Jim did say "if" they return again to Sebring then the afternoon yellow and blue groups who encountered rain will get an invite.

Yes, he did. I wish I would have known who you were so I could say hi. We might have spoken

Were you with George? I think I did talk to you, actually! ;)

I posted that partially out of disappointment but mostly because I love the car and the brand and I just want them to be the best they can be. I know they didn't wake up this morning thinking how they wanted to disappoint people, shit happens - I think they were just tired (understandably) but the end result could have been adjusted just a little, IMO.

O well - cross fingers for next time.

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[Bossing]

Yup that was likely me if the same person we're thinking of... he was one of my buddies.

 

[thePill]

If some of you are getting up to 140mph, then maybe 150 isn't too far fetched.

140mph I can believe all day long... the math works...

150mph is like forced induction speeds. Maybe a Viper and C6 Z06 could hit 150mph at Sebring... I'm not sure though...

I'd need to see the revs and such but 140mph is pretty decent for new drivers. I doubt my brain would let me go over 140mph again.

 

[thePill]

Were you guys limited to a short track configuration? That makes a whole lot of difference...

The top speeds at Sebring are achieved between Le Man's and Sunset (#16-17). If your reaching 140mph before turn 7, your doing 150mph at Sunset (gearing may dictate).

 

[Bossing]

And even 140mph is really stretching it... I'm 99.9% sure no Sebring Track Tour participant came close to or hit 140 in the short course. The instructors.... maybe 1 or a few would come close. If it was the front or back straight (long course) then for sure but the entire event was in the short course.

 

[thePill]

And even 140mph is really stretching it... I'm 99.9% sure no Sebring Track Tour participant came close to or hit 140 in the short course. The instructors.... maybe 1 or a few would come close. If it was the front or back straight (long course) then for sure but the entire event was in the short course.

Yeah, 140mph on the short course is harder to believe than 150mph into #17.

I though you guys were doing 120-140mph between #16 and #17...

Thanks for the help guys... 130mph on the short course is actually pretty quick... There is no room to go any faster really...

If someone is going into turn #7 at 140mph, yet are probably at 155mph into #17. That is waaaaaay too fast in my opinion...

The 150mph rumor came from Full Course Sebring testing... thePill reported that here maybe a year ago... reiterating it once they raced Sebring in CTSC.

 

[Bossing]

Btw one more thing I really really am happy about are the GT350 Recaro seats. Love them to the max. Waaaay better than my C7's seats since lateral thigh bolstering is my biggest complaint... and this GT350 Recaros solves that for me and these are height adjustable too... aka manual 6-way seats.

I also like the stock short throw shifter... another better (more accurate) shifter than in my Z06. To my surprise the clutch pedal was light & easy.... definitely lighter than in the Boss 302.

We were in "Sport" suspension mode while on the track too... and it already handled well in that setting. So I can imagine how even firmer it'll tackle the curves when in "Track" mode.

As they say... good things come to those who wait. This car will be very very good.

 

[Trackaholic]

Thanks, everyone, for your reviews. Makes the waiting easier in a way, since I get to hear about the car, but also more difficult since I get more and more excited about getting mine some day.

Sorry to hear about your experience Stanglife. Hopefully you'll get another chance someday soon.

-T

 

[Bossing]

Some photos I took on Tuesday...

 

[DrumReaper]

Were you guys limited to a short track configuration? That makes a whole lot of difference...

The top speeds at Sebring are achieved between Le Man's and Sunset (#16-17). If your reaching 140mph before turn 7, your doing 150mph at Sunset (gearing may dictate).

Yes... The full course was averted due to time constraints.

FWIW, Pill, I was casually driving along and hit 125 on the short straight. When I watched my instructor last I saw before the brakes tore a filling out was 135+ and he admitted he left more in the table.

As I said before, some instructors were shifting to 5th and I doubt is was due to short shifting. If you look at that 4/5 shift it should be right at 137-140, I think.

 

[DrumReaper]

Btw one more thing I really really am happy about are the GT350 Recaro seats. Love them to the max. Waaaay better than my C7's seats since lateral thigh bolstering is my biggest complaint... and this GT350 Recaros solves that for me and these are height adjustable too... aka manual 6-way seats.

I also like the stock short throw shifter... another better (more accurate) shifter than in my Z06. To my surprise the clutch pedal was light & easy.... definitely lighter than in the Boss 302.

We were in "Sport" suspension mode while on the track too... and it already handled well in that setting. So I can imagine how even firmer it'll tackle the curves when in "Track" mode.

As they say... good things come to those who wait. This car will be very very good.

I was really looking forward to meeting you and getting your impression of these cars given you car history. Thanks for providing your detailed feedback. Glad that you immensely enjoyed this outing as I surely did.

 

[PP0001]

And even 140mph is really stretching it... I'm 99.9% sure no Sebring Track Tour participant came close to or hit 140 in the short course. The instructors.... maybe 1 or a few would come close. If it was the front or back straight (long course) then for sure but the entire event was in the short course.

On the second hot lap with instructor Nick driving I made a point of leaning over to look at the speedo and we were doing just short of 140 MPH (~138 MPH) and although I did not look at the tach we were still in 4th gear and suggest it was pretty close to the 8250 red line.

I have taken my Boss cars up to the 7500 RPM redline in 4th gear and get about ~124 MPH out of them.

Also as Al mentioned I would agree that non of the track tour participants including myself came close to 140 MPH on the short course that we all ran.

 

[Mark Dreyer]

Speed on short course going into 7 depends on hp obviously but also how fast you exit the carousel. I seriously doubt any street Gt350 would hit 150 mph and still be able to make turn 7. The best driven GT3's I've seen don't hit that kind of pace. I can believe 135 or so. Now if you are talking a Porsche 919 hybrid or Audi R8, I could believe 160! :-)

I echo the comments above. The little rain shower killed my chance to drive and I waited around another hour as I was told if it dried out I'd get my chance. Well, at 4 pm it was sunny. There was several more hours of daylight, yet they closed it down. That was disappointing. My ride along was in an R. The tires on that car are not good in the rain, so the pro couldn't show me much other than he understood to stay off the race line in the wet. He did some threshold braking and I was impressed. I loved the engine sound, and would almost order the car based strictly on that. As someone who drives a Boxster track car, I must say I experienced some hp envy.

All in all it was an enjoyable day. I wouldn't do it over again though if I knew I couldn't drive after leaving a few thousand $'s on the table from closing my dental practice and driving 4 hours round trip. I felt like they didn't go the extra yard to allow some drying time and make up sessions, and that left a bit of a bitter taste. I'd still buy the car though. :-)

 

[Rogue]

Good feedback all, appreciate it. Sounds like everyone loves them as expected. Sucks about the rain, Florida weather.

 

[goodkid]

I'm loving all this candid feedback and new pictures. But now questioning my choice of OW with black roof. Who has good pics of white and then magnetic? Damn it......

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