Official GT350 Track Attack Attendance Thread

[dive2deep]

Thanks guys. Calling them tomorrow in that case. Can't wait to get to see what this car can actually do. There are no tracks close to me without driving 2 hrs to get there, so this is likely to be the first time I drive a 350 on the track.

Love the car, and I'm going love this event.

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[fpa1974]

I got an unexpected call for the school today (after i sent an email asking them what I need to do to reschedule a few weeks back). It was nice of them to follow up. Got on the schedule for the end of August.

 

[pilotgore]

Thanks for this! I updated, adding 2018, 2019 & 2020 sheets, putting a title bar in all sheets indicating the track, racing park, city and state. And I inserted a comment to the date cell indicating the instructors.

I attended on March 20, 2020 in a very cool class of 8 drivers.

Looks like 2020 or 2021 will mark the end of the GT350 Track Attack.

Is that you in the front middle? I’m in the back left. Great class! I’m finally editing a video of the entire experience to share with everyone whose curious about track attack. I’ll post it on here tomorrow when complete.

 

[pilotgore]

Heres a video I made of my track attack experience on March 20, for all of those who want to know what to expect:

 

[dpAtlanta]

GREAT VIDEO Jon........ just great!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks...!!!

 

[pilotgore]

GREAT VIDEO Jon........ just great!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks...!!!

I’m glad you enjoyed it. I watched every video available online before going to track attack but unfortunately I didn’t really know what to expect. Hopefully this helps the next wave of people going.

Definitely a great experience!

 

[Gearz]

I was there for the 2-day right before you. In fact I'm sure I'm in one of those GT's you saw from the plane. You're right that the 2nd day does cost a lot but unlike a regular track day at home you get instruction at the school and the GTs are not stock. They have the FP intakes and exhausts so they sound incredible, they have good torque, and if you pay for the Cup2's they put the GT350 wheels and tires on them (worth it in my opinion). They also have the FP springs, swaybars and full roll cages. The 2nd day has less lead/follow and more open sessions with point-by passing. It's much more like going to a Barber/Bondurant school than a track day. Great video! You did a great job of capturing the first day experience.

 

[pilotgore]

I was there for the 2-day right before you. In fact I'm sure I'm in one of those GT's you saw from the plane. You're right that the 2nd day does cost a lot but unlike a regular track day at home you get instruction at the school and the GTs are not stock. They have the FP intakes and exhausts so they sound incredible, they have good torque, and if you pay for the Cup2's they put the GT350 wheels and tires on them (worth it in my opinion). They also have the FP springs, swaybars and full roll cages. The 2nd day has less lead/follow and more open sessions with point-by passing. It's much more like going to a Barber/Bondurant school than a track day. Great video! You did a great job of capturing the first day experience.

Oh nice! Glad I was able to get you guys in that shot. I guess you were in class with my buddy Allen then. He told me he didn't pay for the ~$500 tire upgrade, but he wishes he did. He told me he noticed a big performance difference in the GT's and GT350s. . . but it's definitely a subjective thing.

Theres definitely plus's and minuses to paying them $2k for an additional day. The biggest plus being you're putting a track day worth of wear & tear on someone else's car. Second thats an absolute killer track and the instructors are top notch. Around me, you can run with PCCA or 10/10'ths for $350/day or $500/2 days, and that includes 2.5 hrs of on track time each day with an instructor in the car (if you want an instructor that is.) To each their own I suppose. If I had the option of a second day, which I didn't, I would have had to think about long and hard.

 

[drummerboy]

Heres a video I made of my track attack experience on March 20, for all of those who want to know what to expect:

Thanks a ton for the video!

The 2nd day has less lead/follow and more open sessions with point-by passing. It's much more like going to a Barber/Bondurant school than a track day.

Thanks, could you elaborate a bit more on what Day1 vs Day2 sessions are like? I think it was apparent from the various YouTube videos from Utah, but it appears to me that it may be a bit more of a controlled Day1 at Charlotte due to the higher speed potential + walls.

 

[Gearz]

Sure! For us, Day one was just as pilotgore describes in his videos. It is made to be enjoyable to drivers of all experience levels. As someone who has autocrossed for over 30 years and have done several track days, I really enjoyed it, especially trying out the different modes in a track setting. My wife also did both days in the GT and she is pretty new to it all and although she is comfortable driving a manual she struggled with the heel/toe and found the skid car enlightening.

The 2nd day is more focused on learning the line and developing a smooth technique. All of the sessions are on the track, typically two lead/follow and one open with point-by passing only in designated zones. The first session is an acceleration/braking exercise with heel/toe. For the afternoon they try to group up the faster drivers and at one point our group passed another group all together. As I mentioned the GT's are not stock and I felt they were much quicker than my relatively stock '15 GT PP1 was. Getting instruction in the helmet during the lead/follow was great on both days. Their instructors (same group for both days) were outstanding.

Here is video of last couple of laps of the last session from Day 2. I was really pushing the braking zones to the point where it was slowing me down a lot on corner exit speed so they weren't the fastest laps I had done that day.

 

[drummerboy]

Awesome, thank you!

The videos on YouTube of the day 1 activities looks like medium speed follow the leader, whereas your day 2 video above looks like you are able to push it a bit. Would you say that is accurate?

 

[pilotgore]

Awesome, thank you!

The videos on YouTube of the day 1 activities looks like medium speed follow the leader, whereas your day 2 video above looks like you are able to push it a bit. Would you say that is accurate?

It didn’t seem like half speed to me, especially while I was directly behind the leader. Even when you were last in line we were still driving at 95-100% while on the road course, but they did hold us back a on the straights due to impending bus stops.

I checked the time of GEARZ first lap in the video vs a random lap of mine from the second session of the day in the 350. I used entering the road course crossing the blue paint as the start time. Gearz lap time was ~2:15. My time was 2:27 in lead-follow and I was off throttle for 8 second during the change-up on roval turn 1. Although the perception may be that it was significantly faster the numbers say 2:15 on day 2 in a GT vs 2:19 in the 350 (removing the change-up) during lead follow. Not trying to be argumentative in any way/shape/form , but I don’t think it was significantly different.

Gearz may have a different opinion since he actually did both days and I did not. Also, I’d be curious what Gearz lap times were in the 350’s on day one. That would be a much better comparison than what I just offered.

 

[Gearz]

We definitely went faster on Day 2 but some of that was because we were more comfortable on the track. On Day 1 lead/follow we were pushing pretty good on the in-field sections but on the oval the instructor would keep us to around 110 max, partly to let the people doing the sequence change get caught up and also just to keep the top speed down. The GT350 certainly picked up speed faster than the GT but on the infield I'd say they were similar.

There is a left-hand bend right before the cross-over bridge where the exhaust echos off both walls and just sounds amazing - even better when it's a group. That never got old.

 

[Gearz]

It didn’t seem like half speed to me, especially while I was directly behind the leader. Even when you were last in line we were still driving at 95-100% while on the road course, but they did hold us back a on the straights due to impending bus stops.

I checked the time of GEARZ first lap in the video vs a random lap of mine from the second session of the day in the 350. I used entering the road course crossing the blue paint as the start time. Gearz lap time was ~2:15. My time was 2:27 in lead-follow and I was off throttle for 8 second during the change-up on roval turn 1. Although the perception may be that it was significantly faster the numbers say 2:15 on day 2 in a GT vs 2:19 in the 350 (removing the change-up) during lead follow. Not trying to be argumentative in any way/shape/form , but I don’t think it was significantly different.

Gearz may have a different opinion since he actually did both days and I did not. Also, I’d be curious what Gearz lap times were in the 350’s on day one. That would be a much better comparison than what I just offered.

Sadly I didn't spring for the video/data on Day 1. I think my best lap on Day 2 was a 2:12 but the top speed was about the same - just a lot cleaner and smoother, and I don't think I was the fastest guy there by any means. I agree that the leader/instructor didn't really hold back too much if you showed you could keep up except for the high speed parts.

They weren't recording times and it wasn't a competition (doesn't mean I wasn't trying to catch the next guy) but the focus for Day 1 was learning the GT350 and getting comfortable with it on the track, Day 2 was more about performance driving and learning the line. Both were great fun and for me it meant checking the "attend a racing school" box on the bucket list.

 

[drummerboy]

Thanks a ton, guys.

Last question, Is it 3 track sessions on day 1 and also just 3 sessions on day 2?

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