OP
OP
Trackaholic
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #151
She was a great passenger! Very cool that you are able to attend together!SWEET!!! I know who was on that ride along! Carol said she learned a lot and was very appreciative! Thanks, Scott!
Can't wait until next time!
Always tough to recommend specific things since we all learn in different ways, and because there is an element of danger involved and we all have different levels of risk acceptance. With that in mind, here are things that I have found to work for me, in the form of a bulleted list:
- Always approach any experience with the mind of a beginner. Be open to new ideas, listen as much as possible, ask questions rather than making proclamations, assume you are the least informed person in the room (but also be a critical thinker, weigh what you hear against all your experiences so you can know what to trust and what not to trust). Of course this applies to life in general.
- I always found AutoX to be an excellent way to learn. It is typically very safe due to lower speeds and relatively open venues. The people tend to be very passionate, and because there tends to be a lot of waiting around or time spent working the course you have plenty of opportunity to chat with fellow drivers. You can ride along with almost anyone without significant risk. You can overdrive your car without significant risk, learn to feel when it is understeering, oversteering, and how throttle application can affect balance, again without signfiicant risk. You are hard on your tires but the mileage is low and you don't really work your brakes. It also teaches you to quickly learn a course, and forces you to look ahead or risk getting lost amid a sea of cones. I very highly recommend it. The only downside is that you'll spend a day or a half-day at an event for 10 minutes of track time (if you are lucky). AutoX is also pretty cheap on a per-event basis.
- Track days are great. If you are a beginner, many groups will offer free instruction or at least charge only a modest amount extra. The instructors may not always be the fastest guys there, but they are most likely pretty seasoned and can give good advice on the proper line, etiquette, and best-practices. Track days are way more risky than AutoX, but it mostly comes down to how hard you are pushing yourself. You can keep things pretty safe by understanding the track and knowing where it might be riskier to lose control and where there is more runoff area or speeds are slower. The GT350 has a pretty good stability control system, so I keep mine in track mode and rarely have it activate or get in the way of my driving. But I also don't push too hard.
- Driving schools are fantastic, but expensive. You get great instruction from people who really know what they are doing behind the wheel and who know how to explain it. You get the opportunity to do skidpad drills where you intentionally upset the car, where you learn braking, heel/toe, etc. I've been to the Ron Fellows School (corvettes) and the Ford Performance School (Mustangs/GT350's). Both were very good. I did a 3-day class at the Ron Fellows School (went with my dad and a friend from work) and we all had a great time. It was similar to the 2-day GT350 experience deal, but with a third day of pure track time. Once nice thing about that school (Ron Fellows) was the use of radios that allowed instructors to communicate with individual students in real-time as you were doing lead/follows around the track. One thing that I really liked about the Ford school was the use of the Fusion on casters, where the grip could be modified to induce understeer or oversteer. I think the extra day at the Ron Fellows School makes it great for those making trek to get there, but both schools were excellent and I highly recommend either one (or both, if you can). Dan (I believe that's his name) from the Ford Performance School has actually taught classes at both GT350 trackdays and he is amazing at explaining a lot of important points in a short time, and doing so in a logical way that makes things easy to absorb and remember. I always listen to his lectures because it helps me remember the important things and also helps me learn a good method for teaching as well.
- Lots of books, articles, videos out there as well.
Well, I've only done 6 track days on the GT350. Most of my miles are commuter miles. Also, I tend not to push as hard as some, and I'm on street tires which does somewhat limit overall grip and therefore the loads on the car. So, with that in mind, my car is basically stock. I have the BMR jacking rails and UPR catch cans. I've replaced the front brake rotors and pads with a second set of OEM ones, but haven't yet touched the rear. I've replaced the tires once @ 20,000 miles, and my second set seems to be wearing pretty evenly still. Everything else seems fine so far (knock on wood). Clutch does seem to get some wear on each track day though. Not sure how much life is left on it, but I've been thinking it's on its last legs for 20,000 miles now, so maybe it's still got tons of life left.
On my 350Z I probably did 40+ track days, many on R-comps, but that car was bullet proof. Lots of oil changes and rear brake pad changes, went through a couple wheel bearing sets, and did wear out the stock viscous limited slip (replaced with a Quaife similar in style to what we have in the GT350). I had stiffer sway bars on the Z, and the rear brackets would fail every once in a while, so would replace those maybe every 75,000 miles. I just sold that car to a fried with 200,002 miles on the clock. We will see how the Mustang does in comparison. I definitely keep an eye on what others are experiencing in order to get an idea of what might be in store for me down the road.
Thanks all for the kind words, and hope everyone is having a happy holiday season, Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.
-T
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