Today was my 1st time there and 1st time for the car as well. Had a long, tiring day but it was an absolute blast! (Despite a few things, see below)
I previously went to Buttonwillow with a Z28, but this was way more fun! The organization is Driving Concepts, which consists of 95% BMWs. I was rightfully classified into the novice group (the only other group was for pro BMW racers), had 3 different instructors, none of whom had any experience with C5s, but all complimented the car greatly when they drove it. There weren't that many of us, so I had 7 sessions of about 20 minutes each. Did I say I was tired at the end?
Here are some observations from a beginner, so they may or may not be accurate, you experts please chime in with your comments. Initially I had a hard time with Turn 4 (whose apex is "marked" at the section of broken pavement). I did a 360 once, big OOPS! The instructors (not knowing what Active Handling is) all told me to turn off AH as well as TC. So that was how I learned to drive the car. It was rock solid through the turns if I drove the lines correctly. The tires were great for me with my limted experience. Pressure was left at around 29-30 cold, climbed up to 35 when hot, it was a 93 degree day. I never heard the tires squealing, but did see some chunking on the LF tire. That corner tire got the worst on this track. Oil temp got to 255, brakes were still grabbing at the end. I drove it mostly in 4th gear, occasionally I tried to do it differently by downshifting to 3rd at the beginning of Turn 3 (the uphill climb looking at the "Budweiser" sign), but found that I was smoother just keeping it in 4th the whole track. Probably cuz I don't shift too smooth yet. At the end of the straight before Turn 1 I was seeing 118-120 mph, and at the end of Turn 9 I was going 93-95 mph. I was completely lost the first couple times out, was going all over the place :bb . I noticed that as I was learning the corners, a few cars would be close to me, but when I got the straight sections, it wasn't too difficult to pull away. Should I have driven in Competitive Mode? Would that have helped me learn the track faster? I'm looking forward to going with a club that has more Vettes for some insider tips.
Linear Mode
