Post by tom400cfi on Apr 23, 2012 21:34:03 GMT -7
Well, you ready? My friend Brian and I had a hell of a MANCATION! On so many levels…it was wicked awesome. I’ll tell you right now though, what the best part was; spending time with my pal Brian, playing with cars, and no interference. It was “just like the old days”. Really, it was. It was awesome. Here we go….
My distributor died (thread Here: forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-tech-performance/3020087-92-lt1-gets-warm-then-dies.html), I diagnosed it, ordered a new one well over a month ago. Thing never made it to the middle of no-trucking-where, so Thursday, I called around auto parts stores to find one. Of course, no auto parts stores that are located in the middle of no-trucking-where have one, so I was lucky -I feel- to fine one (just one) in Grand Junction. Nikki was an angel and drove from work Thursday night to GJ, got the distributor and drove all the back to Ridgway (3 hr drive, min) and got there around 9:30. In the mean time, I left work early and got Landon, got him dinner, and to bed. When she got home, I got to work on my car right away. Got the new distributor on, wires hooked up (not easy on an LT1) fired it to make sure it worked, then installed the belt, the water pump, hoses, filled it, bled the system, and fired it up for real. Took it on a test drive, and then let it idle through two fan cycles and it ran perfect; no codes, no misfires. Went to be after midnight.
Got up the next morning at 5, packed the car and hit the road. I stopped in Montrose to top off the gas and then set the cruise at 84 and drove w/o stopping to St George where I got lunch, and decided to top off the gas. 431 miles and 13.8 gallons = 31.23 mpg. Drove the rest of the way to Vegas and straight to the track where I met Brian. He had already made his first pass (stock '88 5.0) at the drag track; a smokin’ 15.0 @ 93. I got tech’ed quick, unloaded my car and then went straight to the staging lanes –no cool-down at all. Brian asked how I would do on my first Pass. I said, “I don’t know but I know it will be in the 13’s!”. He replied with a visibly suspicious “Oh yeah?” I pulled up to the water box, quick tire clean, staged, and BAM 13.6 @103. Hell yeah. I f'n LOVE that car. I ran a slew of 13.6’s at 101-103 and really couldn’t drive the car any lower than that in those conditions (hot). I spent a lot of effort on lowering my 60’ times which have never been great in that car –it has tons of traction, but not enough low end tq. I can dump the clutch from 4k and all it does is squat, hook and bog. So I worked on slipping the clutch a little more, and that worked good; I got a 1.9, 60’ time and a 13.5 /103. I felt that was about the best the car would do in those conditions. I probably could have actually given the thing a proper cool-down, and ran a 13.5/104,,,but didn’t care that much. The air was high DA and no “mine shaft” numbers were going to be generated in such conditions. I was happy with those numbers, and the car ran flawlessly, pass after pass after pass. Brian and I switched cars and I beat his best time in his own car (but he got mad at me for power-shifting it); I managed a 14.4/95 with the thing, and I know it could go 14.3/96 with max-effort shifting and revving it higher in 1st gear (big ratio jump, 1>2). His car ran good though and the posi that I put in it really worked and helped it hook good. The day was really fun. I didn’t get into any fights with the drag track staff, and in fact, they were all very nice and cars flowed awesome. There were essentially no lines in the staging lanes at all, and we left an hour early after making more than enough passes. Oh, there was an E46 M3 there that was running 10.9’s. Initially, I was pretty impressed, however the car turned out to be incredibly annoying. It had a “team” of 5 or so guys pouring over it between every pass, pushing it up through the staging lanes, etc. and at the start of every pass, it would never be “ready” when the tree came down, so the light would turn green, it would make a bunch of noise then fire off 3 or 4 incredibly loud (like cannon firing) reports….then leave the line in a fury of wheel spin (no clutch modulation it appeared –launch control maybe??), that was followed by a jerky looking short-shift, and then it was on it’s way. Thing was fast…but IMO basically undrivable. So that was the drag experience. It was great.
Saturday was Exotic Driving.
The facility is great, the staff is really nice, and helpful. They are “with it” for the most part. The cars are awesome. I thought it might be a “Shady” kind of operation where you only see the cars that you reserved but everything they have was there except that which is broken and getting fixed (ahem! GTR ahem). Cars looked great.
FERRARI F430.
I started with the F430 and it was a big let-down. Two things kind of ruined it for me;
1. The instructor was a total tool. First, he kept making me shift at 6k. We got into a little argument about it DURING the drive (you can see in the vid) and at one point, the guy actually reached over and shifted FOR me (at like 6600 RPM). I was f'n pissed. Then, I commented about the E-junk, and he and I had to get into a little argument about that too!! In the middle of my drive for fuk’s sake. I should have pitted and kicked him out and asked for another instructor, but since I was new to it, I thought maybe the whole program was incredibly lame. It’s not. Look for these killer quotes in the Ferrari vid, from my instructor:
*”We shift all our cars at 6k”
*”I think this thing redlines at like 7000”
*”It’s not a driving school my man. It’s an experience” Not when you’re shifting at 6k and the e-junk is all up over your face, it’s not.
2. The car sucked. Brakes were f’ed (pulled to the right wicked hard –you can see it in the vid when I hit the brakes at 8:00), Active e-junk was ALL OVER me the whole time. Completely ruined any chance I had of great corner exit, and also obliterated any chance I could have of actually “experiencing” a Ferrari F430’s handling. Not only would the car not reach its limits, it wouldn’t even get close. Long before I got to the point of tire slippage, the car would just lay down. Just BLAH. Right in the middle of a turn. Also, being in lame-o mode, it shifted really slowly and I felt the engine was way down on power for 490 horse in a 3100 lb car. It WAS hot out, the engines were totally heat soaked and they did have the AC on. That hurts them all, for sure, but compared to the Gallardo, it was slow. Maybe it was b/c I never got to even hit the tq peak… :/ Incidentally, shortly after my session in the 430, it was pushed from the paddock area, as it was dead.
Lamborghini Gallardo
Cool instructor, INCREDIBLE car! First impression wasn’t that great; the Ergo’s seemed all f’ed up; very narrow vertical field of vision. Felt like I was looking through “slits” rather than a windshield and side windows. The seat is very reclined and can’t be raised. The dash is very long and far away. First impression is that it’s not a “driver’s car” and that it’s for poseurs. 10 seconds on the track changed that. The thing was f'ing awesome. It was the “Italian sex on wheels” that I was looking for. Delicious engine sounds (and yes, I took it to 8500 RPM numerous times), absolutely unbelievable steering. The steering is like what read about; you THINK about wanting to turn in…and you’re already diving right for the apex. It’s like magic…it really is. It was virtually telepathic b/c it did what you were thinking, without thinking about doing it. It was like magic. From the apex, everything from there to WOT on the straight; the gradual unwind, squeezing that delicious throttle, the way everything behaved….it was automotive orgasm. It really was. I could do that corner exit over and over and over, and never stop loving it. Brakes were amazing…way better than you need (it seems coming from my lay-perspective). The Lambo made the whole experience worth while for me. It was totally , and completely awesome. I can’t imagine the f’n Murci or an Aventador for crying out loud. I felt like the 550hp in the Gallardo were all there (for the heat/ AC/ elevation, etc.) The thing didn’t waste timing getting going. Hard to “perceive” in the vid, but yeah…it pulled hard.
Brain Drove the Porsche and the F430 Scuderia. I should have driven the Scud. He should have driven something other than the 911. The 911 was a waste of time and money, by my estimation and his report. His rolled up summary of the 911 is that (and this is a quote from his email today); “The 911 is still a souped up bug, yeah it’s a nice car, drove well, and its fast but so are a lot of other cars and the Ferrari is still the car I’ll lust after.”
The Ferrari he couldn’t stop raving about. The way he felt, after driving that car (and I could SEE this) the way he felt, IS why you go do this event. He got the Italian sex that we all want. He said that after 1 lap…it was worth the $300.00 to be in that thing. I believe him. You can see that in his vid how much faster his 430 was than mine. How much sharper the exhaust note is, the shifts, it even looks on the vid, like it turns better and goes faster. In fact, at one point, you can see the rear end slide a little –an impossibility in my dumbed-down car. He got “the goods”, I’d say. He scored. I am happy for him ‘cause that is what it’s ALL about!
Side bonus; The Ride-along experience in the Z06. We didn’t do it, but watching that thing leave the paddock, WOT, rear tires ablaze, full opposite lock and that 427 engine just freakin' WAILING…FBA, man. FBA.
After the Exotic Driving, we had dinner, drinks then went indoor cart racing. The interesting thing about that was the carts were electric. Ever seen those before? They were actually pretty cool; lots of low end tq, quite, no emissions, and I bet that they are way easier to maintain than gas ones. The guy said they charge in 15 min. Pretty slick, I thought.
That’s about it. I left Sunday AM and it took me another 8.5 hours to drive back to the middle of no-f’n-where. Cruise set at 84 again and this time, AC on all the way, I got 27.11 for a trip average of 29.67.
It was a d**n cool weekend.
BTW, Nikki is interviewing for a job in PC today and a big THANK YOU to her, for providing me with such a cool, awesome weekend/vacation/event. It was the best!
That’s IT! I’m DONE TYPING. What are your thoughts? Vids below…
Tom F430 F1
Tom Gallardo LP550-2
Brian 430 Scuderia
Brian Souped up VW
My distributor died (thread Here: forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-tech-performance/3020087-92-lt1-gets-warm-then-dies.html), I diagnosed it, ordered a new one well over a month ago. Thing never made it to the middle of no-trucking-where, so Thursday, I called around auto parts stores to find one. Of course, no auto parts stores that are located in the middle of no-trucking-where have one, so I was lucky -I feel- to fine one (just one) in Grand Junction. Nikki was an angel and drove from work Thursday night to GJ, got the distributor and drove all the back to Ridgway (3 hr drive, min) and got there around 9:30. In the mean time, I left work early and got Landon, got him dinner, and to bed. When she got home, I got to work on my car right away. Got the new distributor on, wires hooked up (not easy on an LT1) fired it to make sure it worked, then installed the belt, the water pump, hoses, filled it, bled the system, and fired it up for real. Took it on a test drive, and then let it idle through two fan cycles and it ran perfect; no codes, no misfires. Went to be after midnight.
Got up the next morning at 5, packed the car and hit the road. I stopped in Montrose to top off the gas and then set the cruise at 84 and drove w/o stopping to St George where I got lunch, and decided to top off the gas. 431 miles and 13.8 gallons = 31.23 mpg. Drove the rest of the way to Vegas and straight to the track where I met Brian. He had already made his first pass (stock '88 5.0) at the drag track; a smokin’ 15.0 @ 93. I got tech’ed quick, unloaded my car and then went straight to the staging lanes –no cool-down at all. Brian asked how I would do on my first Pass. I said, “I don’t know but I know it will be in the 13’s!”. He replied with a visibly suspicious “Oh yeah?” I pulled up to the water box, quick tire clean, staged, and BAM 13.6 @103. Hell yeah. I f'n LOVE that car. I ran a slew of 13.6’s at 101-103 and really couldn’t drive the car any lower than that in those conditions (hot). I spent a lot of effort on lowering my 60’ times which have never been great in that car –it has tons of traction, but not enough low end tq. I can dump the clutch from 4k and all it does is squat, hook and bog. So I worked on slipping the clutch a little more, and that worked good; I got a 1.9, 60’ time and a 13.5 /103. I felt that was about the best the car would do in those conditions. I probably could have actually given the thing a proper cool-down, and ran a 13.5/104,,,but didn’t care that much. The air was high DA and no “mine shaft” numbers were going to be generated in such conditions. I was happy with those numbers, and the car ran flawlessly, pass after pass after pass. Brian and I switched cars and I beat his best time in his own car (but he got mad at me for power-shifting it); I managed a 14.4/95 with the thing, and I know it could go 14.3/96 with max-effort shifting and revving it higher in 1st gear (big ratio jump, 1>2). His car ran good though and the posi that I put in it really worked and helped it hook good. The day was really fun. I didn’t get into any fights with the drag track staff, and in fact, they were all very nice and cars flowed awesome. There were essentially no lines in the staging lanes at all, and we left an hour early after making more than enough passes. Oh, there was an E46 M3 there that was running 10.9’s. Initially, I was pretty impressed, however the car turned out to be incredibly annoying. It had a “team” of 5 or so guys pouring over it between every pass, pushing it up through the staging lanes, etc. and at the start of every pass, it would never be “ready” when the tree came down, so the light would turn green, it would make a bunch of noise then fire off 3 or 4 incredibly loud (like cannon firing) reports….then leave the line in a fury of wheel spin (no clutch modulation it appeared –launch control maybe??), that was followed by a jerky looking short-shift, and then it was on it’s way. Thing was fast…but IMO basically undrivable. So that was the drag experience. It was great.
Saturday was Exotic Driving.
The facility is great, the staff is really nice, and helpful. They are “with it” for the most part. The cars are awesome. I thought it might be a “Shady” kind of operation where you only see the cars that you reserved but everything they have was there except that which is broken and getting fixed (ahem! GTR ahem). Cars looked great.
FERRARI F430.
I started with the F430 and it was a big let-down. Two things kind of ruined it for me;
1. The instructor was a total tool. First, he kept making me shift at 6k. We got into a little argument about it DURING the drive (you can see in the vid) and at one point, the guy actually reached over and shifted FOR me (at like 6600 RPM). I was f'n pissed. Then, I commented about the E-junk, and he and I had to get into a little argument about that too!! In the middle of my drive for fuk’s sake. I should have pitted and kicked him out and asked for another instructor, but since I was new to it, I thought maybe the whole program was incredibly lame. It’s not. Look for these killer quotes in the Ferrari vid, from my instructor:
*”We shift all our cars at 6k”
*”I think this thing redlines at like 7000”
*”It’s not a driving school my man. It’s an experience” Not when you’re shifting at 6k and the e-junk is all up over your face, it’s not.
2. The car sucked. Brakes were f’ed (pulled to the right wicked hard –you can see it in the vid when I hit the brakes at 8:00), Active e-junk was ALL OVER me the whole time. Completely ruined any chance I had of great corner exit, and also obliterated any chance I could have of actually “experiencing” a Ferrari F430’s handling. Not only would the car not reach its limits, it wouldn’t even get close. Long before I got to the point of tire slippage, the car would just lay down. Just BLAH. Right in the middle of a turn. Also, being in lame-o mode, it shifted really slowly and I felt the engine was way down on power for 490 horse in a 3100 lb car. It WAS hot out, the engines were totally heat soaked and they did have the AC on. That hurts them all, for sure, but compared to the Gallardo, it was slow. Maybe it was b/c I never got to even hit the tq peak… :/ Incidentally, shortly after my session in the 430, it was pushed from the paddock area, as it was dead.
Lamborghini Gallardo
Cool instructor, INCREDIBLE car! First impression wasn’t that great; the Ergo’s seemed all f’ed up; very narrow vertical field of vision. Felt like I was looking through “slits” rather than a windshield and side windows. The seat is very reclined and can’t be raised. The dash is very long and far away. First impression is that it’s not a “driver’s car” and that it’s for poseurs. 10 seconds on the track changed that. The thing was f'ing awesome. It was the “Italian sex on wheels” that I was looking for. Delicious engine sounds (and yes, I took it to 8500 RPM numerous times), absolutely unbelievable steering. The steering is like what read about; you THINK about wanting to turn in…and you’re already diving right for the apex. It’s like magic…it really is. It was virtually telepathic b/c it did what you were thinking, without thinking about doing it. It was like magic. From the apex, everything from there to WOT on the straight; the gradual unwind, squeezing that delicious throttle, the way everything behaved….it was automotive orgasm. It really was. I could do that corner exit over and over and over, and never stop loving it. Brakes were amazing…way better than you need (it seems coming from my lay-perspective). The Lambo made the whole experience worth while for me. It was totally , and completely awesome. I can’t imagine the f’n Murci or an Aventador for crying out loud. I felt like the 550hp in the Gallardo were all there (for the heat/ AC/ elevation, etc.) The thing didn’t waste timing getting going. Hard to “perceive” in the vid, but yeah…it pulled hard.
Brain Drove the Porsche and the F430 Scuderia. I should have driven the Scud. He should have driven something other than the 911. The 911 was a waste of time and money, by my estimation and his report. His rolled up summary of the 911 is that (and this is a quote from his email today); “The 911 is still a souped up bug, yeah it’s a nice car, drove well, and its fast but so are a lot of other cars and the Ferrari is still the car I’ll lust after.”
The Ferrari he couldn’t stop raving about. The way he felt, after driving that car (and I could SEE this) the way he felt, IS why you go do this event. He got the Italian sex that we all want. He said that after 1 lap…it was worth the $300.00 to be in that thing. I believe him. You can see that in his vid how much faster his 430 was than mine. How much sharper the exhaust note is, the shifts, it even looks on the vid, like it turns better and goes faster. In fact, at one point, you can see the rear end slide a little –an impossibility in my dumbed-down car. He got “the goods”, I’d say. He scored. I am happy for him ‘cause that is what it’s ALL about!
Side bonus; The Ride-along experience in the Z06. We didn’t do it, but watching that thing leave the paddock, WOT, rear tires ablaze, full opposite lock and that 427 engine just freakin' WAILING…FBA, man. FBA.
After the Exotic Driving, we had dinner, drinks then went indoor cart racing. The interesting thing about that was the carts were electric. Ever seen those before? They were actually pretty cool; lots of low end tq, quite, no emissions, and I bet that they are way easier to maintain than gas ones. The guy said they charge in 15 min. Pretty slick, I thought.
That’s about it. I left Sunday AM and it took me another 8.5 hours to drive back to the middle of no-f’n-where. Cruise set at 84 again and this time, AC on all the way, I got 27.11 for a trip average of 29.67.
It was a d**n cool weekend.
BTW, Nikki is interviewing for a job in PC today and a big THANK YOU to her, for providing me with such a cool, awesome weekend/vacation/event. It was the best!
That’s IT! I’m DONE TYPING. What are your thoughts? Vids below…
Tom F430 F1
Tom Gallardo LP550-2
Brian 430 Scuderia
Brian Souped up VW