BEZ06

I had a great time at Daytona running an HPDE put on by PBOC over the weekend.

Here are a couple of pics from the event. I'm in the DSOM Z06 in the middle of the first picture. You can see a VY C6 behind me and a black C6 lined up on the grid in front of me:






Here's another picture that shows me on the grid just before another session. It shows some of the other cars in my run group - Mustangs, Porsches, and a couple of other Vettes:






Here's a picture of one area of the garage with a bunch of nice cars resting between track sessions. There's a nice VY C6 in the foreground and another one way in the back of the picture:





Do you notice anything interesting in the pictures???

Those two VY Vettes are actually Hertz ZHZ rent-a-Vettes!!!!


I guess that's a great way to go to the track and keep from beating up your own car - fly in, rent a Vette from Hertz, thrash the hell out of it all weekend, turn it in, fly home, enjoy your own Vette until the next track event!!


In addition to the "education" HPDE that I ran, there was also wheel2wheel racing going on Fri, Sat, and Sun. There were several Vette (C6 and C5) race cars. Here's a picture of a race-prepped C6 (the best sounding car on the track!!! ) and you can see some of the other types that ran, like the open cockpit car and the Ferrari in the background (I don't know what run group the golf cart was in!):





Here's a video from my car doing a couple laps around the track:

http://vimeo.com/2129031


It was a great weekend of racing, even though it was running in the rain most of Sunday.

There's another HPDE going on at Daytona Dec 12-14. If you need info on links to register let me know - it's a great place to turn your C6 (or a rent-a-Vette!! ) loose and get the performance out of it that it's capable of!!!

Bob

Shortimer

Looks like a real fun time. Thanks for sharing. I loved the video, you drove a great line.

su8pack1

dvilin

Wow, great pictures, and the video was awesome you really looked like you had some previous road racing experience, had to be a thrill.

calmtgguy

Daytona Bob

Holy smokes!

Looks like everyone was in your way!

I wouldve smoked the Porsche in turn 2 (5min mark) instead you waited until Turn 3.. your so nice

Seriously why was everyone else so slow? I figured a Porsche could keep up right??

Great video!!

Are you on stock tires? what was your setup?

Daytona Bob

Oh how did you get the cool in-car footage and telemetry?

peter pan

Nice shots and looked like lots of fun

AORoads

Great going, Bob, thanks for the pics of the cars and the video. (and thanks for the TPMSs that I bought from you about a year ago!).

BEZ06

Thanks for the props - I'm glad you liked the video!

I'm just a track novice - I've only been to several events. These HPDE's have different "run groups" based on your experience, and sometimes on the car you're driving. The novice groups will attend classroom sessions between your track sessions that talk about everything from seat and mirror positioning, track rules, flags, the "friction circle", braking, the "line" you should drive, your turn-in points, where you should apex, etc., etc., etc. You'll also drive with an instructor and communicate with a helmet intercom system and your in-car instructor will help you with actually driving the track. My instructor signed me off for solo, so in the video I'm out there on my own.

At these events you'll only drive as hard and fast as you and your instructor feel comfortable with. This is not "racing" - the student groups have specific passing zones on certain straights, and you can only pass upon receiving a "point-by" from the car you're overtaking. At Daytona we passed on the right on the high-banked oval section and the car being overtaken put on their right turn signal to indicate they knew you were back there and it was okay for you to pass - if you're doing 130 and I'm doing 150, you don't really need to be taking a hand off the wheel and sticking an arm out into a 130 mph windblast to give me a point-by!!!

You can see that Porsche took an awful long time to give me a pass signal - I don't know whether he thought he was going so fast that I couldn't overtake him, or maybe he just didn't see me back there. It is very difficult to see somebody in your rearview mirrors when you're on the banked section.

At any rate, he was another student and I respect his getting out on the track to learn how to handle his car during much faster driving and harder cornering than he can do on the streets. That's the whole point of these events - learn your car and your own capabilities and maybe it will help you in a crappy situation on the street someday when you know what you and your car can really do. Or, you can take it to the next level and really get involved in racing.

I was running on Hoosier track tires at this event, but I ran just as fast up on the banks on stock Goodyears last year. The Hoosiers stick a lot better in the corners and let you drive the infield turns a lot faster. My Z has a Killer Bee intake and a tune, and I put on DBA 4000 rotors and Hawk DTC-70 pads for the track. I also put in a good DOT 4 brake fluid (Motul RBF 600). Overall, it's pretty much stock.

My data-logger is a Traqmate. I use a ChaseCam video recorder. Traqmate has a software that integrates video and data and puts that "dashboard" onto the video. It really helps to analyze how you're doing on the track.

You can see what happens if you start to get involved going to HPDE "education" events - pretty soon you want new brakes, race tires, a data-logger, race seats, harnesses, and you're going to need a trailer and a tow vehicle, and on, and on, and on.....

I like the idea of driving to an event and driving home. That's what is really great about the Vette - you can thrash it on the track, and then drive it around town or on road trips.

There is another HPDE at Daytona Dec 12-14. I hope to see some of you there. Let me know if you need a link to registration info.

Bob

johncalomiris

great video, thanks...

talon90

Great stuff Bob. Thanks for sharing the photos. It's funny, in the first picture I saw the yellow coupe with the stripes and thought to myself that it was a ZHZ. Only to read on a little further and have you confirm it. Perfect reason not to ever purchase a ZHZ if they come on the market.

Can you imagine a mishap and trying to explain that to Hertz?

Daytona Bob

I keep watching that video... your very good at it!!

I'd hate to have to "shake you" in my LS2

BEZ06

Thanks, but I'm just a track rookie! I've got to give the credit to the car. It's really amazing how comfortable it feels when you just open 'er up and let 'er run!! The General did a fantastic job designing and engineering the C6.

There was a pretty tricked out C5 Z06 in my run group. I talked with the owner and he had owned a C6 Z06, but the C5Z was cheaper to turn into a dedicated track car, which he had done. We had a good time running together for a while, but the C6Z could easily out run him when we had a clear track.

Any Corvette would be really fun on the track, but the C6Z is just awesome and really easy to drive. I'm sure I'm only able to get no more than 85% of what it's capable of, but you can see in the video how much performance even that gives you.

Then there's the ZR1!!!! According to a couple of really experienced track guys that got to drive the ZR1 at the NCM events at VIR and Road America this summer, it's even exponentially beyond the C6 Z06.

There was a BMW convertible driving the event. I asked him how they allowed that and he said that it has a "pop-up" roll bar that activated if the car rolls over. He said some track event sponsors have no problem with that arrangement, and others won't let him run at all. He said PBOC would let him run in the student group, but not in the solo run group.

I think what you need to do is get one of the Hertz rent-a-Vettes to run in December!!

The other Daytona Bob

MurphMan2

That was an incredible video. You're a very good driver and it was great fun to watch the 'Vette do it's thing. I was holding on and laughing when you were going 160+. I'm still giggling.

Thanks!

LS2-Zomb!e

johnodrake

Great pics and vid, Bob. Love your "driving" gloves.

EPMM 03 C5

Very cool

cclive

The video was fun to watch....and much better than the other one that didn't have the sound (VIR).....nothing like the sound of that LS7!

BEZ06

I bet you've got a pair like that too!

Bob