Eightyninef

first road race event up at watkins glen.

first I run over a scunk. injured the poor thing. He went limping away. I wish I didn't swerve, I would have killed him on impact. guess it's better than a deer.

instructor was a moroon. In the classroom sessions they stress you must listen to the instructor. so for 1st time students like myself, they make the first track session accident avoidance, and brake test. not driving at speed around the track.

The instructor tells me to get up to a decent speed, and lock the brakes as hard as I could. so me being a first time smuck listens to him. At 60-70mph, I lock the brakes with my new hawk pads & new kumho race rubber.

do I need to tell you what happened?? big cloud of smoke. ruined my brand spanking new kumho's. flat spoted them instantly.
thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump
mr. moron says. "well I wanted you to see that you lose control with the brakes locked. " "I didn't know you don't have ABS." and this guy chose to instruct me because he had a 3rd gen years ago!!!!

now at the end of the event, I go to peel the numbers off my car The numbers take off my paint !!!! Ruined my all original 1989 paint job that was stick looking very decent !!! Mark and Andris saw my car. It's an all original 89 that is (was) all orignal. very clean. not a scratch or dent anywhere. I had it since new. now I have a block of paint missing on the roof pillar !!! my auto-x magnetics wern't good enough for them. they wanted me to use BMW club stickers so everyone is consistant. so now i have to find a body shop that can match slightly faded paint.

so this weekend cost me a lot of money for no reason. the mishaps could have been avoided easily. it ruined my weekend and I had to think about it for the 5 hour trip home!

not to mention some porshe 944 turbo totaled his car. some advanced guy was driving with mis-matched tires. he should have know better. his car went like a pin ball between the guard rails. ding, ding ding. then a beginner student wiped out his BMW. they both had cages, so they walked away, and walked home That was kinda un-nerving. especially when I go back on the track at 110mph looking at paint marks on the guard rails

Larry
who will most probably stick to auto-x for awhile.

Mikey G

Larry,

I was pissed that I was not able to get into that event at the Glen. I am hoping to pull it off next spring. I have to finish making some trany mods before I am more confident running there. Apart from your problems, did you have any brake fade issues? Are you running stock brakes? The Ninety makes me a little nervous with the stock setup and I just wanted to get your opinion. What other mods you have you done to run there?

I ran my first event with my Shelby Lancer a few years ago at Lime Rock. I had a very different experience than you did. The instructor was great. I got to beat the **** out of my car and was taking the Diving Turn without braking by the end of the 3rd session.

Eightyninef

why couldn't you get in? they still had openings for beginers.

I had HAWK Black brake pads up front, stock pads in the rear. Car stops on a dime. ZERO fade.

now with stock front pads, I would probably be in the guard rail, no question. but with hawk blacks. I can lock them at will with race rubber!! and that is with the smallish front rotors that are 12 years old.

Hawks dust like crazy, so you have to clean your rims, or they will be ruined.

Acceld Z

Was this the Track Time school? It may sound stupid, but trying smoking your tires back into true. I'm not sure if it will work though.

------------------
92Z28
89GTA

Mikey G

I did't go to the Glen because I had to go to Connecticut for the weekend for family stuff.

I was wondering about the brake pads. My rotors and lines are all in perfect shape. You think the pads will make that much difference? I was also thinking of running a brake duct hose from the fog light opening at the bottom of my front bumper. One fog light is busted out anyway.

Have you done mods to the suspension too?

I have a 700R4. I'm about to put a cooler and temp gauge on it and I also need to install the kit I got from GM that allows it to shift into 4th gear at wide open throttle. It sucks that I have an 85mph speedo so I will have no idea of my top speed on the straights.

Eightyninef

just get hawk black brake pads, nothing else. my suspension is bone stock with bilsteins.

my car topped at 110-115 mph. not bad for a 305tpi. that was in 4th gear. I might have got 2 more mph in 5th.