European Track Day Championship round 2: SPA

Let's visit with out friends at Track4Fun.com and a video from their recent outing at SPA. In the clip, some fun* between a Porsche 996 TT and a Z06 Corvette. According to their accounts, the Porsche is on Pirelli Corsas while the Z06 is on the stock run-flat tires.

The new Vette continues to impress even die hard euro car fans, obviously he gives up at the end of the clip likely because his tires have overheated, but the car is a beast.

Notice how despite no passing rules and lots of playing around*, there are no ball of flame exposions or collisions.... common sense and open eyes do the trick, well done boys and way to show those curbs at Eau Rouge who's boss!!

By the way, this is first look at the new Spa layout. No more "bus stop", now replaced with a very tight right-left onto the pit straight. The whole pit lane has been redone as well.

* having fun like this will 100% result in you getting kicked out of certain PCA track events because of the "we don't do sideways here" rule...

Rookie going to the track?

...you could do a lot worse than to read this guide by Jeff Gabel, a Genesee Valley BMW CCA member who, obviously suffering severe mental anguish during the long winter months away from the track, put together this excellent .pdf guide to the whole Driving School-Track Day thing.
And while it gets a bit sidetracked with the helmet painting, I think it's way better than any other beginners guide I have ever seen. The layout is fantastic and guess what, one of the Axis members is responsible for some of the photography, starting from the "cover" shot! Way to go badbadm...

Download The Rookie Chronicles Part I
Download The Rookie Chronicles Part II

Speaking of driver's schools...

Our track-tard UK friends over at JustGoFaster.com have just released their latest masterpiece to wide critical acclaim and bimmerforum.com shock.
"A Distinct Lack of Talent" opens with a spectacular JustGoHome moment and just spirals from there. It's great fun, Axis Approved!


download

To get serious for a moment, two issues come up with regards to the recent BMW school we attended.
Rather than the traditional hand signals for passing, using turn signals was tried, most hated it. I didn't mind at all mostly because, if done right, one could indicate willingness to be passed (for example) before turns are over without taking a hand off the wheel and almost crashing (don't laugh, I have seen this a number of times!).
I wonder if a lot of the confusion and discomfort was because people were asked to signal the side they wanted to be passed on rather than the side of the track they would stay on during the pass. The natural instinct, I suppose it to signal left, stay left. I noticed that is what they must do over in the UK.

The second issue is spins... spins are good, ideally everyone would experience spins, in fact there SHOULD be spin out exercises at all driver's schools. Most people have never spun and are both terrified to do so and clueless as to what to do if it happens. Once you know what a spin feels like you are much more likely to recognize the impending problem early enough to do something about it.
Sadly most of the tracks we have, especially here in the North East, are super fast and with very little run off. Look at the aerodrome track on the video...huge space and moderate speed: a big autocross. A very good place to get it all wrong and to learn how to keep it shiny!

First round of the American HPDE championship

The usual group of track-tards ran the hotly contested first round of the NA-HPDE Championship at Pocono East on Cinco de Mayo 2007.
An international group was vying for the top prize: India, Venezuela Italy Colombia and the USA all after that most elusive of prizes, a good time....ok and bragging rights.

We'll post Traqmate data files and individual videos later, but suffice it to say that the GT3 Rad eS was unbeatable.
OK, we got to kick Rad's ass when analyzing the data we found he left at least 1 second on the table by being too lazy to downshift, but there was no denying the 3000lbs 400hp car with giant tires. Rad had a 1:11.3, AC a 1:12.0 and CG 1:12.2.
Stee in the Spexster for the first time ever almost got to 1:14 and Adil... he is still in transcendental meditation mode and has not yet shared his data!

The Data analysis is going to be interesting, each one of us was faster in a different section, even Stee with a slower lap time had the fastest apex speed of all in one fast turn showing the handling potential of the Spoxster.













Below is a VERY LARGE Cinerama extravaganza: from left to right, in CG's 997s, from the rear bumper of AC's MCoupe and finally inside with AC, the sound is only from the MCoupe. CG and I had fun for a few laps until I left the braking too late and decided to do the smart thing rather than risk eating hay bales and armco for lunch.

As I said large but I think well worth the wait. On a Mac it will stream, on PC I'm not sure. Click on the window to see it online or the link below to save on you computer.


download

First round of the European HPDE championship

Looks like our friends over at Track4fun were contesting the first round of the European HPDE championship* at the glorious Salzburgring in Austria.
Though Zampa, the driver of the GT3 in the video below left, will have to consult JustGoFaster.com's list of tire excuses soon, the sound from his GT3 is just fantastic, I love it.
(photos by Andi111s)


Now speaking of HPDE championships, the Axis will be fighting hard for pointless bragging rights this Saturday at Pocono East, Time trial and lots of cameras, EVO IX vs 997s vs GT3 vs MCoupe vs M3... weeeeeee! Below right is a video of what happened last year around this time.

*"HPDE Championship" also known as the "Track Day Championship" is a self-mocking term among track-a-holics.

Axis Upcoming Event: VIR Triple Lindy!

Next weekend, The Stee and Badbadm will make the now-annual pilgrimage to Virginia International Raceway, for NASA Mid-Atlantic's Triple Lindy event.

The Stee will enjoy NASA's superb Competition School on Friday in
Labomba, and will instruct HPDE on Saturday/Sunday in 10/10thz. This should provide some valuable test mileage for the new suspension tune installed on 10/10thz over the holidays.

Badbadm will instruct HPDE on Saturday/Sunday, then co-drive the 3-Hour Enduro with Ken Neuhoff, in Ken's Inka Orange SpecE30 #74 on Sunday afternoon. If you're there, be sure to find us and say hi, but be forewarned: you might end up holding a gas jug or fire extinguisher!