new reason to go to track day... A humbling experience
For a girl who thrives on speed, the thought of slingshoting my car around corners & flying down the straights w/o worrying about cops & traffic holds quite a bit of appeal! :biggrin After all, that's what track day is all about, right???
This past Saturday I drove up to GA to finally meet some of the Atlanta GT owners at their monthly get together. I had a blast! GREAT group of guys!!! :thumbsup Afterwards, I decided to follow one of the GT guys back to his place and a few of us were going to be watching the football games over there. We're cruising down the expressway & then get off & go through some stop lights until we're just a minute or two from his house. With no other cars around, he takes off on this curvy road. I do not have a GT, but my mind told me that I could do the same thing in my Z that he was doing... I drop it down a gear & step on it. Until I glanced at my speedometer, I had no idea I was going over 100 mph on the turn. Then I noticed the turn tightened up & my car started to feel unstable. :frown I hit the brakes trying to slow down & that caused more problems. Thoughts of spinning out & crashing were going through my mind. :eek Luckily, I was able to slow down to a safe speed & regain control before anything happened, but it was enough to scare the #%*$ out of me! I have close to 30K miles on my sports car & have pushed it hard, but this was the first time I ever lost control & the first time I was ever scared in a car.
It made me realize a few things. First of all, just because you enjoy driving fast doesn't mean you should do it, especially when it's beyond your comfort level (common sense, right?). I couldn't believe how quickly I went from feeling fine to feeling out of control. Secondly, it made me realize that our natural reactions in responding to unexpected situations may not be the best & it would be wise to learn how the car responds in extreme situations in a more controlled environment before finding out on crowded roads w/other cars & obstacles. We've see too many GT crashes & most of them could probably have been prevented. Easier said than done. When you're driving along & someone cuts you off & you have to swerve out of the way & slam on the brakes, what is your car going to do & how do you correct yourself without crashing? With a super sports car this is even more crucial than a normal car!
Now I can't wait to go to track day to learn the limits of my car & the proper way to handle situations with an experienced instructor sitting next to me...even if that means going slow for awhile. If my car starts to over or understeer as the weight shifts, I want to know what I'm doing wrong & what to do next time to prevent that from happening. I'd rather learn it on a track w/only a few cars & an instructor rather than learn it out on the streets... Rather than just going fast, my new track goals are to learn to better handle my car & to slowly increase my speed on the track as I get comfortable w/the feel of my car rather than trying to pass people or to see how fast I can go.
The Sebring track is almost 4 miles long & since the cars will be split into 2 groups based on experience levels, new drivers shouldn't have to worry about a lot of cars around them or about being passed up by the experienced guys as they are working w/their instructors & getting comfortable driving their cars. I know that some of you are hesitant to take your car to the track because you are worried about getting in an accident. I do want to remind people that first of all, this isn't going to be a crowded track day w/100+ cars (like many open track days are). Chin Motorsports main focus is on safety & I think that if we utilize the track day in a safe manner & take full advantage of the expert instructors, it will be a way for us to learn how to handle our cars better, & hopefully will help PREVENT accidents from occuring when we return to the highways.
Piccola
arty :club