ntmatter
Enthusiast
Note: The rest of this topic is show in Part 1 :
On Sunday morning, of course, it was raining intermittently but very heavily. Although several other cars were packing it in, I went ahead and did my first run session in the rain and found it to be a valuable learning experience - a wet track really forces you to be smooth in your upshifts, downshifts, and throttle. One of the cooler things about the wet track was coming over small rises on the straightaways and hearing your engine rev to 5500 because the rear wheels had broken completely free of the pavement at 100 mph. Right at the end of a slow first session, however, the sun and wind came out and the track was nearly perfect for the rest of the day. On Sunday I shaved another 3.5 seconds off of my best lap time from Saturday, ending up at 2:10.
The course was very flat, so you could see the back-side of the course quite easily. Here, we can see everyone stacking up in the Bus-Stop corner, which takes away the (very faint) straight stretch in the background.
In addition to the 55 or so Vipers that were present, there were 2 race-tuned Panoz cars, a Ferrari, and a Mustang Cobra R.
Although I knew I could find at least another second if I kept at it, I decided to not take a chance on a great weekend and quit while I was ahead. I took off directly from the track at 4:00 (missing my last run session, but I was pretty tired), and drove 450 miles back to Redding that evening - arriving around 11:00PM. On Monday morning I drove another 10 hours and got back to Seattle around 6 PM. My goal this year is to go to all 4 West Coast Viper Days events, and so far I'm half way there. I really recommend the event to everyone who wants to learn how to drive (as opposed to just operating) their cars. There were a bunch of first time drivers there in the Green group, and there progress from the first day to the second was truly amazing. '95 Vipers with the stock tires and brakes were getting more of a workout in 30 minutes than they'd received in the previous 6 years, and you could see almost all of them think, "holy smokes, I never knew the car could do THAT."
After Sunday morning's rain, the sun and wind came out to give us a beautiful day's driving.
figure 4: Someone takes the last corner before the front straight too fast and ends up out in the dirt. I myself ended up out here - preferring to let me car run out into the infield rather than try to keep it on the pavement and take a chance with a wall.
Thunderhill is in about 3 weeks, and I'm already getting ready to attend - and I hope to see even more new and experienced drivers there. Skip Thomas really does a service to the Viper community by providing an opportunity for drivers to learn to control the tremendous power that comes with a Viper; in my opinion a Viper Days weekend should be required before they even allow you to buy the car.
figure 8: Finally, A Viper gets a fair bit of attention on those long drives through the middle of nowhere - a Viper with race numbers gets even more. This shot is a bit blurry, but I'm certain that it has nothing to do with the vibration from my flatspotted tires. Nope, nothing to do with that at all.
Part 1 :
On Sunday morning, of course, it was raining intermittently but very heavily. Although several other cars were packing it in, I went ahead and did my first run session in the rain and found it to be a valuable learning experience - a wet track really forces you to be smooth in your upshifts, downshifts, and throttle. One of the cooler things about the wet track was coming over small rises on the straightaways and hearing your engine rev to 5500 because the rear wheels had broken completely free of the pavement at 100 mph. Right at the end of a slow first session, however, the sun and wind came out and the track was nearly perfect for the rest of the day. On Sunday I shaved another 3.5 seconds off of my best lap time from Saturday, ending up at 2:10.
You must be registered for see images
The course was very flat, so you could see the back-side of the course quite easily. Here, we can see everyone stacking up in the Bus-Stop corner, which takes away the (very faint) straight stretch in the background.
You must be registered for see images
In addition to the 55 or so Vipers that were present, there were 2 race-tuned Panoz cars, a Ferrari, and a Mustang Cobra R.
Although I knew I could find at least another second if I kept at it, I decided to not take a chance on a great weekend and quit while I was ahead. I took off directly from the track at 4:00 (missing my last run session, but I was pretty tired), and drove 450 miles back to Redding that evening - arriving around 11:00PM. On Monday morning I drove another 10 hours and got back to Seattle around 6 PM. My goal this year is to go to all 4 West Coast Viper Days events, and so far I'm half way there. I really recommend the event to everyone who wants to learn how to drive (as opposed to just operating) their cars. There were a bunch of first time drivers there in the Green group, and there progress from the first day to the second was truly amazing. '95 Vipers with the stock tires and brakes were getting more of a workout in 30 minutes than they'd received in the previous 6 years, and you could see almost all of them think, "holy smokes, I never knew the car could do THAT."
You must be registered for see images
After Sunday morning's rain, the sun and wind came out to give us a beautiful day's driving.
You must be registered for see images
figure 4: Someone takes the last corner before the front straight too fast and ends up out in the dirt. I myself ended up out here - preferring to let me car run out into the infield rather than try to keep it on the pavement and take a chance with a wall.
Thunderhill is in about 3 weeks, and I'm already getting ready to attend - and I hope to see even more new and experienced drivers there. Skip Thomas really does a service to the Viper community by providing an opportunity for drivers to learn to control the tremendous power that comes with a Viper; in my opinion a Viper Days weekend should be required before they even allow you to buy the car.
You must be registered for see images
figure 8: Finally, A Viper gets a fair bit of attention on those long drives through the middle of nowhere - a Viper with race numbers gets even more. This shot is a bit blurry, but I'm certain that it has nothing to do with the vibration from my flatspotted tires. Nope, nothing to do with that at all.
Part 1 :
