FREE TRACK DAY!
#1
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FREE TRACK DAY!
Todd & I just got back from a free track day at TMS. If you ever run with Panoz (now Texas Driving Experience) they notify you of all kinds of neat deals.
They opened the track up from 3-6 and it stayed hot the whole time. You drove as much or as little as you wanted. I liked this much better than sessions as you were free to go off and tweak, reenter, tweak, etc. without worrying about losing your track session. Since I had a codriver I'll bet we had more track time than anyone. Once the tires heated up or we lost our edge we exited, took a break, let it cool down, thought about it and then did it all again!
For those of you who have not run TMS you are really missing out. It is not the longest or the most challenging course, but it is easy enough to let you pick up the basic track and yet tough enough to make it difficult to get to 100%.
As easy as they seem, the 2 carousels are really where the time is made up or lost.
TMS is good to hone your skills and learn the limits of your car. You would be amazed at how good the stock brakes are on the car (with some good pads). You also get to see your car at it's very best. Yes, the S is good around town, but when you put it on the track against other cars you really see it's strong points. It is more at home on the track than it is on the street. It takes quite a car or quite a driver to outperform it. It makes you love your car all over again.
Track time beats autocross time any day of the week. You get to do it over and over until you get it right and yet doesn't get boring as you have to adjust to changing handling as the tires heat up, you run out of gas (that's twice for me!) and the back end gets light, etc., etc.
But the best thing about TMS IS THAT IT IS CLOSE!! This means you can do it at the drop of a hat. This makes it cheap and easy to get some track time in.
Just so you know they are running the full Roval October 29. I will be in Disney World then so I can't go. I have run the Roval and it is something you need to do once. I personally wasn't all excited about it. It was not that it was bad or anything, it is just that the Oval portion is so much the same after you have put in a number of laps you can almost get bored until you hit the infield.
You can email Don don@texasdrivingexperience.com to get more particulars.
They opened the track up from 3-6 and it stayed hot the whole time. You drove as much or as little as you wanted. I liked this much better than sessions as you were free to go off and tweak, reenter, tweak, etc. without worrying about losing your track session. Since I had a codriver I'll bet we had more track time than anyone. Once the tires heated up or we lost our edge we exited, took a break, let it cool down, thought about it and then did it all again!
For those of you who have not run TMS you are really missing out. It is not the longest or the most challenging course, but it is easy enough to let you pick up the basic track and yet tough enough to make it difficult to get to 100%.
As easy as they seem, the 2 carousels are really where the time is made up or lost.
TMS is good to hone your skills and learn the limits of your car. You would be amazed at how good the stock brakes are on the car (with some good pads). You also get to see your car at it's very best. Yes, the S is good around town, but when you put it on the track against other cars you really see it's strong points. It is more at home on the track than it is on the street. It takes quite a car or quite a driver to outperform it. It makes you love your car all over again.
Track time beats autocross time any day of the week. You get to do it over and over until you get it right and yet doesn't get boring as you have to adjust to changing handling as the tires heat up, you run out of gas (that's twice for me!) and the back end gets light, etc., etc.
But the best thing about TMS IS THAT IT IS CLOSE!! This means you can do it at the drop of a hat. This makes it cheap and easy to get some track time in.
Just so you know they are running the full Roval October 29. I will be in Disney World then so I can't go. I have run the Roval and it is something you need to do once. I personally wasn't all excited about it. It was not that it was bad or anything, it is just that the Oval portion is so much the same after you have put in a number of laps you can almost get bored until you hit the infield.
You can email Don don@texasdrivingexperience.com to get more particulars.
#2
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Hmmm... Free track time is always good. I wouldn't mind smacking around Todd's econobox on the roval. I'll drop Don an e-mail. Looks like I'm currently free on the 29th.
Ryan
Ryan
#4
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Ryan yes it was OUR Todd. He had his Civic there and I shared my car with LJ.
Greg if you got tired of the infield of TMS I don't know how you stand to Autocross.
They will be having some track days at MSR, Hallet and TWS as well. I am almost certain MSR is November.
I just noticed that in my original post the email addy for Don didn't show up as a link. What did I do wrong? Or do they not work that way in the "new" s2ki?
Greg if you got tired of the infield of TMS I don't know how you stand to Autocross.
They will be having some track days at MSR, Hallet and TWS as well. I am almost certain MSR is November.
I just noticed that in my original post the email addy for Don didn't show up as a link. What did I do wrong? Or do they not work that way in the "new" s2ki?
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Originally Posted by David b,Sep 16 2004, 12:05 PM
Greg if you got tired of the infield of TMS I don't know how you stand to Autocross.
I just noticed that in my original post the email addy for Don didn't show up as a link. What did I do wrong? Or do they not work that way in the "new" s2ki?
I just noticed that in my original post the email addy for Don didn't show up as a link. What did I do wrong? Or do they not work that way in the "new" s2ki?
Mebbee because you put parentheses around it?
#6
I e-mailed Don to get more information. I wish it wasn't on a Friday though. I haven't run the full roval yet, so that should be interesting. Wonder how long my brakes will hold up heading into the chicane over and over again at 140+mph.
#7
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Nope it's not the parenthesis, I edited the post to remove them and it still isn't a link. Hmmmm
The thing that I noticed about the Roval is that the G forces are so different from normal that you feel you are going faster than you are. The last time I did it almost everyone self limited themselves to 90-100 mph thru the oval portion.
I had to conciously check my speedometer to make myself go faster. There were a number of vettes and porsches there that time and they all did the same thing. The slower cars actually made up time on the oval on the faster cars because they were pushing themselves harder.
The thing that I noticed about the Roval is that the G forces are so different from normal that you feel you are going faster than you are. The last time I did it almost everyone self limited themselves to 90-100 mph thru the oval portion.
I had to conciously check my speedometer to make myself go faster. There were a number of vettes and porsches there that time and they all did the same thing. The slower cars actually made up time on the oval on the faster cars because they were pushing themselves harder.
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#8
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Actually, thinking more about it, isn't the roval the high-speed road course config? I can't find track configs on the TMS site. If so, it's not very safe, which is one reason why The Driver's Edge stopped having events at TMS. Driving deep into the triple digits with the potential to slam into concrete and/or armco at those speeds has substantial consequences.
Also, Don e-mailed me back about the Oct. 29 event. $225 for a SINGLE day is too rich for my blood. That's a 2-day event price.
Ryan
Also, Don e-mailed me back about the Oct. 29 event. $225 for a SINGLE day is too rich for my blood. That's a 2-day event price.
Ryan
#9
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I've driven the infield-only config once, and the full roval once.
Infield only - too many right turns. Too much traffic, also. Although between sessions, I suppose you could swap left and right tires.
Roval - pretty fun, actually. FWIW, I was hitting about 125 before braking for the chicane on the front straight. And that was in a 140hp, 3000lb Porsche 944. I did manage to kiss the wall while braking for the left-hand 180 leading into the infield. Left-rear tire locked up from a bit or cord that showed up, spun the car to the right, I corrected with left steering, after about 180 of rotation the car hooked up again and because of the steering input it backed right into the wall. Pushed the bumper in but not major damage.
Infield only - too many right turns. Too much traffic, also. Although between sessions, I suppose you could swap left and right tires.
Roval - pretty fun, actually. FWIW, I was hitting about 125 before braking for the chicane on the front straight. And that was in a 140hp, 3000lb Porsche 944. I did manage to kiss the wall while braking for the left-hand 180 leading into the infield. Left-rear tire locked up from a bit or cord that showed up, spun the car to the right, I corrected with left steering, after about 180 of rotation the car hooked up again and because of the steering input it backed right into the wall. Pushed the bumper in but not major damage.