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I’ve never owned a sports car, I’ve always wanted a Vette. C8 Z06 will be my first. I’m already planning on taking it to Road Atlanta and even closer and highly recommended by a friend who races bikes, Barber Motorsports..hopefully get some lessons and go a few times per year.
I asked in an earlier post but got no responses if anyone knew the club price for RA, if anyone does I’d appreciate some insight.
ill probably just do single day passes unless I become a track junkie and don’t mind burning through rubber and brake pads etc. I imagine they’ll be pretty pricy to replace.
Barber and Road Atlanta are great tracks, aesthetics wise, Barber is beautiful and the paddock area is the best I've seen. RA's paddock has extremely limited 50Amp power hookup for RVs, at Barber they are everywhere.
Peachtree Porsche club hosts a fathers day event every year at Barber (great outfit), as well as Chin Motorsports and others.
Yes, when I get a C8, I'll be at Barber as soon as the break-in is done and weather permits.
Check Motorsport.reg open track days novice category you will get an instructor. Chin Motorsports goes there, price is reasonable. I will track my C8 when I get one, I tracked my c7 ZO6 Amd stingray before that
Originally Posted by CGZO6
Barber and Road Atlanta are great tracks, aesthetics wise, Barber is beautiful and the paddock area is the best I've seen. RA's paddock has extremely limited 50Amp power hookup for RVs, at Barber they are everywhere.
Peachtree Porsche club hosts a fathers day event every year at Barber (great outfit), as well as Chin Motorsports and others.
Yes, when I get a C8, I'll be at Barber as soon as the break-in is done and weather permits.
I'm sure I'll offend a few here, but I never really thought of drag racing
(1/4 mile straight line) as a test of skill of the driver or really racing. Is Lewis Hamilton more of a racer than Don Garlits......I think so.
You're a one dimensional thinker there, pal. Say what you will about Garlits, but when was the last time anyone ever witnessed Hamilton building a racing engine or fabricating a chassis? Or even with grease under his fingernails?
I've never been on a drag strip with my car (road courses are my preference), but I think being a racer is more than just showing up with your helmet.
Ever since I bought my first C5Z06, I have noticed that my cars have had a much larger performance envelope than can be used safely or legally on the street. As a result, I have enjoyed tracking several of my Corvettes. They hold up quite well, and are big fun. Plus, you get to explore more of the performance envelope. If you’ve never driven one on a road course, you really don’t know what you’re missing.
That said, I have never dragged any of my cars. The fancy rear suspension bits are not set up for drag racing and drag racing seems like mechanical torture to me. However, to each his own.
Last edited by quick04Z06; 07-29-2019 at 10:33 AM.
It will be interesting to see if the C8 shows up much in drag racing. The C7 is a very popular body style. Just not seeing it with the C8 but we'll see soon enough.
I see alot of people talking about downforce and top speed but wondering who will actually take their cars on top speed runs at the track since whe speed limit on highways as 75 or 80 at best its all really just bs.
Plenty of people track their cars. While it still may be a small percentage of overall owners, there are people that buy these to track. At the NCM event at VIR there were 150 cars. Probably 120 or so of them were Corvettes, all out to play on a Monday and Tuesday in the middle of nowhere.
Downforce isn't just applicable at top speed. While not generally relevant at highway speeds, The downforce on a track at 140 MPH is very important.
Originally Posted by s420merc
The top speed on the c7 with z51 pack is 185 mph so i would say 190 for the c8 no one except a pro driver will ever get close to that so its bs what does matter is the 0-60 and 1/4 mile times
There are people on this very forum who do standing mile runs and generally hit top speed. Again, not a huge percentage, but to say "no one" is simply not true at all.
Look, most of all of this is marketing that demonstrates the cars capabilities, not that you will use those exact capabilities. It might be a small percentage of owners who golf (and drive someone else who is also golfing), but knowing it fits 2 golf bags is good marketing and gives people confidence it can carry some luggage. A small percentage of people will go to a drag strip, but the 1/4 mile time is a good example of the acceleration of the car. and good marketing to compare to other cars. All the same, top speed gives people a comfort on the overall performance of the vehicle, even if only a small percentage will actually hit it (being that high).
You're a one dimensional thinker there, pal. Say what you will about Garlits, but when was the last time anyone ever witnessed Hamilton building a racing engine or fabricating a chassis? Or even with grease under his fingernails?
I've never been on a drag strip with my car (road courses are my preference), but I think being a racer is more than just showing up with your helmet.
Great argument but I’m not sure OP was dissing Garlits. I agree with him that in terms of driver skill set Hamilton >> Garlits. But, Garlits was in many ways the Michael Jordan of his sport because of all you pointed out.
Apropos of the Vette — I think that for most of us a track day is way more challenging than a few 1/4 mile passes...
Top speed runs? Dunno about that. Some combo of AutoX/HPDE/TT/Bracket racing (ie not door to door, needimg a plie of safety mods and gear racing)? I dunno the purpose of owning a performance car if you're not doing that.
One thing to keep in mind, many organizations run TT with many cars on track, and it is almost list door to door in that while some cars are on cool down/prep laps, others are on fliers and they are passing those slower cars, often in corners. So car to car contact can and does happen.
Real world story with NASA. Buddy was running TT at a track we both know very well (it's basically our "home track"), there was a guy from out of the area who was there for the first time. This track has multiple configurations, this day they were running the long track. The out of towner was running the short track (he wasn't supposed to, he just turned left when he should have gone straight). Well, my friend comes through on a flier, goes to pass this clown, clown then turns left and right into my friend. Something like $7k in damage to the car. Fortunately it hit him on the passenger side, because he doesn't have a cage and had it been reversed, he would have been severely hurt from the door coming in as far as it did.
Moral, I wouldn't TT (or similar) without a cage.
Having instructed for BMW, Porsche, and a couple of private track companies for many years, and going to HPDEs even longer, I can say I can count on my fingers the number of unique Corvettes I've seen at the track. Some of the Corvettes are regulars, but I can say I've seen FAR more exotics at the track than Corvettes. And that is based on tracks all across the South and Southwest, not just one or two.
I am an instructor with NASA Mid-Atlantic. I've been tracking my Corvettes since 2002 and hold a comp license still. I had a C5 ST2 car and my C7 was setup as a TT2 timetrial car. I don't intend to compete with the C8, but I do intend to instruct and run HPDE4 with the car. I've got my fingers crossed I can get a Z51 convertible and it will be track legal now with the hard top and buttresses.
Having instructed for BMW, Porsche, and a couple of private track companies for many years, and going to HPDEs even longer, I can say I can count on my fingers the number of unique Corvettes I've seen at the track. Some of the Corvettes are regulars, but I can say I've seen FAR more exotics at the track than Corvettes. And that is based on tracks all across the South and Southwest, not just one or two.
I don’t know what this poster means by “unique” Corvettes (As opposed to repeat drivers?).
I’ve run about 30 HPDEs, most of which have been Porsche club events. I have seen lots of Corvettes participate.
In the BMW sponsored events I’ve attended, there were fewer Corvettes, but without trying to be unfriendly, the BMW events have not been as Corvette friendly as they could’ve been.
Both Porsche and BMW drivers love to tease Covette drivers. It just comes with the territory. I have been a PCA member for years as I also own a Porsche, so I take the ribbing good-naturedly. Then I blow away most of the Porsche drivers in my run group. 😁
At HPDEs not sponsored by one of the other makers’ car clubs, I have found Corvettes often outnumber every other car. In fact, the C5Z06 was the car of choice for a number of years: relatively inexpensive, incredibly reliable, and faster than almost every other street car on track, stock for stock.
Last edited by quick04Z06; 07-29-2019 at 11:51 AM.
Understood, and mostly agreed. Depends on the event being run and the folks around, I'd have to be comfortable knowing it is a safely run event before risking such a car on it (unless I had the finances to be able to write it off, which I don't). Just tossing it out there as something that can be done without turning the car from streetable to track only!
One thing to keep in mind, many organizations run TT with many cars on track, and it is almost list door to door in that while some cars are on cool down/prep laps, others are on fliers and they are passing those slower cars, often in corners. So car to car contact can and does happen.
Real world story with NASA. Buddy was running TT at a track we both know very well (it's basically our "home track"), there was a guy from out of the area who was there for the first time. This track has multiple configurations, this day they were running the long track. The out of towner was running the short track (he wasn't supposed to, he just turned left when he should have gone straight). Well, my friend comes through on a flier, goes to pass this clown, clown then turns left and right into my friend. Something like $7k in damage to the car. Fortunately it hit him on the passenger side, because he doesn't have a cage and had it been reversed, he would have been severely hurt from the door coming in as far as it did.
Moral, I wouldn't TT (or similar) without a cage.
Having instructed for BMW, Porsche, and a couple of private track companies for many years, and going to HPDEs even longer, I can say I can count on my fingers the number of unique Corvettes I've seen at the track. Some of the Corvettes are regulars, but I can say I've seen FAR more exotics at the track than Corvettes. And that is based on tracks all across the South and Southwest, not just one or two.
Meh... been doing this stuff since 2002.... you could extrapolate your statement on TTing w/o cage and take it as far as saying "I wouldn't do HPDE w/o a cage" and some folks think that way. Modern cars are very safe, but **** happens. I don't worry about other people so much as the freak mechanical i.e. brake failure at speed. Everyone has different risk thresholds. Personally, I'm comfortable TTing and HPDEing a car with basic gear so long as I can wear my HNR.
As for Corvettes at track... maybe it's your region. Here at VIR there are tons of Vettes at all the NASA events.
Understood, and mostly agreed. Depends on the event being run and the folks around, I'd have to be comfortable knowing it is a safely run event before risking such a car on it (unless I had the finances to be able to write it off, which I don't). Just tossing it out there as something that can be done without turning the car from streetable to track only!
Trackday insurance is very reasonable FYI and will cover TT and HPDE. Just no W2W.
If I could afford a new corvette I would take it to a HPDE. However I would recommend going to a driving school. I did Ron Fellows and it was awesome.
I used to autocross and while it’s cheap, it is very limited on the driving (benefit of not eating all your consumables at once) and heavy on the waiting and working.
We live too close to Circuit of the Americas NOT to track the C8. Last Sunday, my GF Sallye drove my C7 Z51 with the Edge Addicts and she did great. Only 1 Ferrari passed her.
07-29-2019, 06:14 AM
