[Z06] Today I came full circle..A short story about owning a super car
12-04-2008, 04:43 AM
#1
Racer
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Today I came full circle..A short story about owning a super car
During the first 2-3 weeks of my car's ownership, I kept hoping each morning that I wake up that I was not only dreaming. The thought that I just became an owner of my first ever super car just would not sink in; it seem that it was too good to be true. Ever since I can remember I've always used to dream of owning one, reading about them in car magazines, collecting model cars so I can continue to day dream about them, and needless to say I didn't expect it at all to become a reality.
In my mind my dream super car is a car that has very high horsepower compared to other cars, can go very fast, can go very fast quickly, and looks very fast even just sitting there. Not only that the C6 ZO6 met that criteria, it also met my price range criteria. Making my dream come true right at the first moment that I had a chance, makes me still think even now, that its worth every penny I paid for even though slightly over MSRP two years ago.
Being the kind of person that I am who likes to enjoy as well as play with my toys, I soon started trying to experience the full potential of my car per GM's specifications. Being in Germany during the first 10 or so months that I owned the car, I had the opportunity to be able to compete on amateur races using F1 race tracks such as the Hockenheimring. Finishing second place (less than 1 second apart) behind another red C6 ZO6 on my first race ever, not only made me feel good about myself since in my opinion half of the outcome is determined by the driver's skill especially on this type of race, but also about the car since its performance is so far living up to my expectations. It continued to amaze me and made the smile on face even bigger.
One of the other benefits of living in Germany is the ability to drive on the mother of all highways on earth also known as the autobahn; the only place where super cars can really flex their muscles and can clearly separate the men from the boys. This is the main reason why I think Germans in general appreciate super cars more than Americans do, because nothing is more humbling in my opinion for a motor head or car enthusiasts to be bumped out, almost literally at times, from the fast lane (left lane) by a car going so much faster than yours; and there is nothing in this world you can do about it. To me, I could be the richest man in the world, or have the most beautiful wife or girlfriend and kids, but at the moment that I'm being passed while cruising at 120 MPH by a car going 150-170 MPH or so, I'll become just a regular Joe. You'll have to experience it to fully appreciate the negative effect of such an experience.
Ironically, the Autobahn experience is where the first major disappointment that my car has ever brought me. Before I had the guts to go over 150 MPH, I could bet my one year's salary that it is more than able to meet or even exceed the factory claimed top speed of 198 MPH. I was even dreaming when the day that I'll see 200 MPH on my car in its stock form. After searching for sometime, I scoped out a stretch of the Autobahn where a relatively safe high speed run can be done, that is it has very little traffic, straight and flat, and more importantly no speed limit since the German government has continued on putting speed limits in many parts of their Autobahn highways.
But after about 7-10 tries, in 4 different days, to my dismay the fastest that I was able to get her to go is 193 MPH. Witnessing how laborious and long it took to increase its speed by 1 MPH pass 190 MPH, it felt impossible that it will get to 198 MPH. It was a cool spring morning (60 F according to the car's outside temp reading), almost no wind, and there was only a hand full of cars on this 3 lane 3 mile stretch of straight smooth highway. I wanted to run the car as close to its stock form as I can make it, thus no seam taping or folding of the side mirrors was done as suggested by many in order to increase its high speed aerodynamic characteristics.
So I left Germany feeling that my car might have been an unfortunate opposite version of one of those cars that are sometimes called factory freaks; a runt or fluke for lack of better term. Although reading the many threads on this topic here in CF might dispute the existence of factory freak cars, I can't help to feel about this towards my car since in my opinion, there seems to be no explanation why it is not up to par on the the top speed category. I've always wanted to put it on a dyno along side another stock ZO6 on the same day to try to confirm it, but it never happened. This feeling got even worse when I began running my car on the 1/4 mile track here in the states, because after my 11th pass attempt, the best I could manage is 12.3 seconds at 121 MPH! Not to mention, all these runs are done on the same exact tracks that CF speed demon legends such as Ranger and Jamie Furman has made 10.8 seconds in their stock C6 Z06's. Not that I feel that I should be able to duplicate their times since my 1/4 mile driving skill sets is decades behind theirs, but being at the right place should at least help me to be able to come close or better yet match the GM spec of 11.7 seconds! In my mind, although I might not be perfect in all aspects of driving a good 1/4 mile pass, I'm not bad at all since I feel that I've implemented relatively most if not all of the learned techniques in making a fast pass from experts such as Ranger and others. Again, I can't find any other explanations other than my car is runt! But what I didn't know is that this sentiments towards my car will change very drastically today.
CF member Walterm32 (aka Mike) graciously invited me to join them on private track rental of Maryland International Raceway (MIR), assuring me gaging from his experience that this is the best time to learn how to lower one's track ET and to learn how to drive the car properly. Despite the hefty fee, I decided to go to give my car one last time to prove my feelings wrong. I was convinced that if my time is not within the GM specs at the end of the day, there has to be something wrong with it. I was joined by a small group of about 8 C5 and C6 Corvettes, and pleasantly surprised by the presence of none other than the CF and MIR living legend himself, Ranger.
My primary goal was to break the 12 second barrier, and the secondary was to equal the GM spec of 11.7 seconds. It was a perfect track day; clear skies, slight breeze, 40 F (according to my car's exterior temp reading), and DA of around -1100, I was told. I knew it was going to be a good day when I met my first goal on my first pass. Then on my 4th pass of the day with more than 3 hours to go before closing, I met my second goal. I would have been happy at this point, but since I know that I still have some room to improve, and the day still young, I continued to make passes. After each sets of back to back hot passes I let the car cool down, which gives me a time to reflect on the runs I just made, by analyzing the time slip and listening to advices readily given by Ranger on what to improve on. Then on my 9th pass of the day, when all of the stars were aligned, I made a personal best pass of 11.443 @ 125.93 MPH. If I'm not mistaken this is the 6th on the CF Z06 Fast list. See time slip below.
I could not have been more happy and amazed at the same time. I knew that it was going to be a good pass when I glanced at the clock and momentarily saw a 60 foot time that is sub 2 seconds, the first and only one for me of the day. I knew then that I better complete a near flawless 2-3 and 3-4 shifts or that could all mean nothing. I was greeted by bunch of happy group of guys upon my return at the staging area shaking my hand while telling me about the good news. This run definitely changed my mind about my car. My baby is normal after all!
I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and I honestly could not have done this without the help of other corvette owners whom I've met on the track and here on the CF such as Tom, Mike, Pat, and others who's name I can't remember (you know who you are), but most importantly to Ranger. Thanks for all your support and encouragement, but more importantly your willingness to help a fellow corvette owner who badly needed help. I do give myself some credit, as Ranger said, like in good basketball teams no matter how much coaching a good coach does, the players still have to execute the plays. However, without the help that I got, it probably would have taken me 50 or more passes to figure out what I was doing wrong, which probably would have worn out my car to the bone. For that I owe them very much; something that I will never forget. I believe guys like these sets Corvette owners from other super car owners.
To fellow Z06 owners who are still trying to break 11.7, don't lose hope. In ideal weather and track conditions, along with a proven driving technique, it is very possible. One big performance factor I finally learned and confirmed today is how sensitive the C6 Z06 is to ambient temperature. I now believe that with the ideal temperature and weather conditions, my car can also get up to at least 198 MPH. Today I came full circle.
In my mind my dream super car is a car that has very high horsepower compared to other cars, can go very fast, can go very fast quickly, and looks very fast even just sitting there. Not only that the C6 ZO6 met that criteria, it also met my price range criteria. Making my dream come true right at the first moment that I had a chance, makes me still think even now, that its worth every penny I paid for even though slightly over MSRP two years ago.
Being the kind of person that I am who likes to enjoy as well as play with my toys, I soon started trying to experience the full potential of my car per GM's specifications. Being in Germany during the first 10 or so months that I owned the car, I had the opportunity to be able to compete on amateur races using F1 race tracks such as the Hockenheimring. Finishing second place (less than 1 second apart) behind another red C6 ZO6 on my first race ever, not only made me feel good about myself since in my opinion half of the outcome is determined by the driver's skill especially on this type of race, but also about the car since its performance is so far living up to my expectations. It continued to amaze me and made the smile on face even bigger.
One of the other benefits of living in Germany is the ability to drive on the mother of all highways on earth also known as the autobahn; the only place where super cars can really flex their muscles and can clearly separate the men from the boys. This is the main reason why I think Germans in general appreciate super cars more than Americans do, because nothing is more humbling in my opinion for a motor head or car enthusiasts to be bumped out, almost literally at times, from the fast lane (left lane) by a car going so much faster than yours; and there is nothing in this world you can do about it. To me, I could be the richest man in the world, or have the most beautiful wife or girlfriend and kids, but at the moment that I'm being passed while cruising at 120 MPH by a car going 150-170 MPH or so, I'll become just a regular Joe. You'll have to experience it to fully appreciate the negative effect of such an experience.
Ironically, the Autobahn experience is where the first major disappointment that my car has ever brought me. Before I had the guts to go over 150 MPH, I could bet my one year's salary that it is more than able to meet or even exceed the factory claimed top speed of 198 MPH. I was even dreaming when the day that I'll see 200 MPH on my car in its stock form. After searching for sometime, I scoped out a stretch of the Autobahn where a relatively safe high speed run can be done, that is it has very little traffic, straight and flat, and more importantly no speed limit since the German government has continued on putting speed limits in many parts of their Autobahn highways.
But after about 7-10 tries, in 4 different days, to my dismay the fastest that I was able to get her to go is 193 MPH. Witnessing how laborious and long it took to increase its speed by 1 MPH pass 190 MPH, it felt impossible that it will get to 198 MPH. It was a cool spring morning (60 F according to the car's outside temp reading), almost no wind, and there was only a hand full of cars on this 3 lane 3 mile stretch of straight smooth highway. I wanted to run the car as close to its stock form as I can make it, thus no seam taping or folding of the side mirrors was done as suggested by many in order to increase its high speed aerodynamic characteristics.
So I left Germany feeling that my car might have been an unfortunate opposite version of one of those cars that are sometimes called factory freaks; a runt or fluke for lack of better term. Although reading the many threads on this topic here in CF might dispute the existence of factory freak cars, I can't help to feel about this towards my car since in my opinion, there seems to be no explanation why it is not up to par on the the top speed category. I've always wanted to put it on a dyno along side another stock ZO6 on the same day to try to confirm it, but it never happened. This feeling got even worse when I began running my car on the 1/4 mile track here in the states, because after my 11th pass attempt, the best I could manage is 12.3 seconds at 121 MPH! Not to mention, all these runs are done on the same exact tracks that CF speed demon legends such as Ranger and Jamie Furman has made 10.8 seconds in their stock C6 Z06's. Not that I feel that I should be able to duplicate their times since my 1/4 mile driving skill sets is decades behind theirs, but being at the right place should at least help me to be able to come close or better yet match the GM spec of 11.7 seconds! In my mind, although I might not be perfect in all aspects of driving a good 1/4 mile pass, I'm not bad at all since I feel that I've implemented relatively most if not all of the learned techniques in making a fast pass from experts such as Ranger and others. Again, I can't find any other explanations other than my car is runt! But what I didn't know is that this sentiments towards my car will change very drastically today.
CF member Walterm32 (aka Mike) graciously invited me to join them on private track rental of Maryland International Raceway (MIR), assuring me gaging from his experience that this is the best time to learn how to lower one's track ET and to learn how to drive the car properly. Despite the hefty fee, I decided to go to give my car one last time to prove my feelings wrong. I was convinced that if my time is not within the GM specs at the end of the day, there has to be something wrong with it. I was joined by a small group of about 8 C5 and C6 Corvettes, and pleasantly surprised by the presence of none other than the CF and MIR living legend himself, Ranger.
My primary goal was to break the 12 second barrier, and the secondary was to equal the GM spec of 11.7 seconds. It was a perfect track day; clear skies, slight breeze, 40 F (according to my car's exterior temp reading), and DA of around -1100, I was told. I knew it was going to be a good day when I met my first goal on my first pass. Then on my 4th pass of the day with more than 3 hours to go before closing, I met my second goal. I would have been happy at this point, but since I know that I still have some room to improve, and the day still young, I continued to make passes. After each sets of back to back hot passes I let the car cool down, which gives me a time to reflect on the runs I just made, by analyzing the time slip and listening to advices readily given by Ranger on what to improve on. Then on my 9th pass of the day, when all of the stars were aligned, I made a personal best pass of 11.443 @ 125.93 MPH. If I'm not mistaken this is the 6th on the CF Z06 Fast list. See time slip below.
I could not have been more happy and amazed at the same time. I knew that it was going to be a good pass when I glanced at the clock and momentarily saw a 60 foot time that is sub 2 seconds, the first and only one for me of the day. I knew then that I better complete a near flawless 2-3 and 3-4 shifts or that could all mean nothing. I was greeted by bunch of happy group of guys upon my return at the staging area shaking my hand while telling me about the good news. This run definitely changed my mind about my car. My baby is normal after all!
I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and I honestly could not have done this without the help of other corvette owners whom I've met on the track and here on the CF such as Tom, Mike, Pat, and others who's name I can't remember (you know who you are), but most importantly to Ranger. Thanks for all your support and encouragement, but more importantly your willingness to help a fellow corvette owner who badly needed help. I do give myself some credit, as Ranger said, like in good basketball teams no matter how much coaching a good coach does, the players still have to execute the plays. However, without the help that I got, it probably would have taken me 50 or more passes to figure out what I was doing wrong, which probably would have worn out my car to the bone. For that I owe them very much; something that I will never forget. I believe guys like these sets Corvette owners from other super car owners.
To fellow Z06 owners who are still trying to break 11.7, don't lose hope. In ideal weather and track conditions, along with a proven driving technique, it is very possible. One big performance factor I finally learned and confirmed today is how sensitive the C6 Z06 is to ambient temperature. I now believe that with the ideal temperature and weather conditions, my car can also get up to at least 198 MPH. Today I came full circle.
12-04-2008, 06:02 AM
#5
Burning Brakes
12-04-2008, 07:31 AM
#6
Safety Car
Congrats on a nice pass! 
Driving a street car to those times takes a non-trivial amount of skill, as you have seen.
On my one attempt so far my car also ran out of steam at just over 190. Yes, there likely is more in it under ideal conditions and with a lot more road, but my point is just that your experience there is not atypical. That last little bit can take a long time to pull. GM has a 5-mile circular track for that sort of thing.
Driving a street car to those times takes a non-trivial amount of skill, as you have seen.On my one attempt so far my car also ran out of steam at just over 190. Yes, there likely is more in it under ideal conditions and with a lot more road, but my point is just that your experience there is not atypical. That last little bit can take a long time to pull. GM has a 5-mile circular track for that sort of thing.
12-04-2008, 08:39 AM
#7
Great write up John. It was good to meet you and see you attain your goals for the day and then some. To be 6th on the stock z06 list after 25 or so passes is a great achievement. I was in the same spot you were just 7 or 8 months ago and felt inferior and pissed off after my first day at the dragstrip. I was invited to a rental by dgdoc a few weeks later and got great help,coaching and advice from him, Ranger and Pat. Unfortunately dgdoc wasn't there yesterday but having Pat and Ranger there to fill you in on what works and what doesn't obviously helped just like it did me. Your right about the Corvette community and all of the great people involved. The willingness to help others get better and learn by many of the guys there is some of what makes owning a Vette a awesome experience.
I have some video of a couple of your passes I'll post links to if I can get them on my computer tonight or tomorrow.
I'll see you next season.
I have some video of a couple of your passes I'll post links to if I can get them on my computer tonight or tomorrow.
I'll see you next season.
12-04-2008, 09:23 AM
#9
Melting Slicks
Congratulations - that is some fantastic improvement in your times! And it is great to hear that Ranger is still around and doing his thing.
Nice job!
Nice job!
12-04-2008, 10:47 AM
#11
Safety Car
Nice write-up. Congrats on the low 11 pass, all it takes is some seat time and practice. This past Sunday I was at a track rental in the Z06, and my first pass was a wheel-hopping 12.1 since I had to let out. After I got a hang of the launch and throttle, I clicked off a full tenth on each consecutive pass. 11.9, 11.7, 11.6 and finally 11.55. That was the limit of my tires on this particular track, best 60' was 2.0X on that good pass.
Glad to see more guys get out there and drive these cars to potential, instead of relying on internet or magazine times to quote the performance of their cars.
Tony
Glad to see more guys get out there and drive these cars to potential, instead of relying on internet or magazine times to quote the performance of their cars.
Tony
12-04-2008, 01:09 PM
#14
Le Mans Master
12-04-2008, 01:28 PM
#16
Burning Brakes
I was about to return my Trek Madone Bicycle because I was not as fast as Lance Armstrong on the same bike, but then I read your post and suddenly realized that perhaps it isn't all about the bike/car...? j/k.
j/k.
12-04-2008, 05:58 PM
#19
Pro
Would you be willing to give tips on what you learned?
In other words, what is THE SECRET to 11.50's in a C6Z06?
Launch technique, shift points, tire pressures, and more if you know???
Thanks
In other words, what is THE SECRET to 11.50's in a C6Z06?
Launch technique, shift points, tire pressures, and more if you know???
Thanks
