brt and Zfat at Thunderhill

[Zfatuated]

New Z/28's and a new track (Thunderhill West, first time ever used). Mr. brt in his lovely silver Z/28 was great to hang with at/on track, very good driver. Met some other forum posters as well, good stuff!

This event they ran a combined C/D group.

Just a teaser for now, I'll edit post this later today after I wake up and get caught up. There was good, bad and a "war story" (I won the battle but lost the war)

Photo credit goes to the always awesome Dito Milan with Blue Milk Photography.

Here is some meat:

Impressions formed 1. while sick with a severe cold, 2. car under break-in restrictions - 1500 miles @ <4000rpm (redline is 7000). So I was not in good health and was hamstrung by the rpm's (the majority of the time).

If this car is of interest to you, there are two PDF's you really need to read, one is attached to this post, the other linked here.

Please, Please read them before you ask any questions so you have a fundamental understanding of the car being discussed and the SOS doesn't have to be explained over and over and over Thank you. There is far more to this car than nearly everybody I talk to understands. I'm posting simply as a car guy, no GM stock owned or business association.

*It's sublime and sophisticated in ways you would not think.
*Outward vision on track was no problem for me. Rearward vis while backing up for example is challenging and if you do a lot of backing up, this may not be your favorite car. The Recaro seats in this car are lower than other Camaro seats and furthermore are manually height adjustable.
*It is freaking gorgeous in person. Pictures do not do it justice.
*The suspension is amazing, easily surpasses any GT car I've owned including the GT3 4.0 which was very good.
*The brakes are amazing, easily surpass Porsche ceramic brakes, bar none, by an order or 10 of magnitude.
*Shifter feel is great!
*Steering wheel and feel is...great!
*Cabin ergonomics and switchgear feel is...great!
*Seat are great!
*Torque, wow. Shift once, twice, three times, over the course of the track who cares? Haha! The engine does spin effortlessly into higher numbers. The engine is a jewel. The entire drivetrain is tight and feel great.
*I drove it across to TH from Reno. It was a fine ride on curvy roads. Arrived early and feeling fine. Wife slept most of the way, arrived feeling fine. 6th gear is an OD so the fuel mileage is easily in the mid-20's when cruising. 2000'ish rpm's at 75-80 mph

The bad news:
It's simply impossible for a human to heel/toe and this caused me no end of frustration. I don't yet know how I will fix this but I will, and soon. Help? Vendors/Other Enthusiasts? I've got to fix this.

You can ridicule me or laud me for this tidbit, but I've not spun a car on track. Ever. Had some lurid moments, but never crossed more than about 45 degrees of angle. Well, I popped that cherry with the Z/28. Tracking out from T2, as soon as the rears touched the run-out strip there, it was gone. Longggg gone. One moment was glorious corner exit thrust and the next was instant rotation and going backwards. Two feet in and a bounding ride through the rain ditch which wound up rolling the RR tire over on itself by half and jamming it up into the wheel well and suspension. Had to get towed off track. We got the RR tire unrolled and dirt out of the RF bead and I drove it home with no issues. This morning found the two wheels somewhat bent so replacement forged OE wheels are $600 ea+$200 in plastic underbody bits and I'm good to go (and two tires for safety sake). The two take-a ways: 1. When it lets go, it happens very fast. It's a thin line between good time and tears :p. It's dirt cheap (comparatively speaking) to fix. I was in PTM 5 "Race Mode" so I'm going to stick with PTM 4 and see if I can live with it if it offers a smidgen of safety net.

Too much already and I could add 10 pages. Ask and you shall receive!

Bottom line- it's an amazing driving experience, worth every penny and more of $75k. I would and will daily drive it when I want a big thrill. Oh yeah, it's quite fast. Remember only ~a half a second off the lap time of a 991 GT3 on Barber, a technical, challenging track, so it would stand to reason it's as quick or quicker as a stock GT3/RS/4.0

[shaffe]

Glad to see you guys out on the track enjoying the car!

[90503]

[Zfatuated]

Originally Posted by 90503

Battle won, war lost visual evidence Story to follow later. Hint- It's all great, until it isn't.

[1leNPP]

Did the tires delaminate ?

[brt3]

Originally Posted by 1leNPP

Did the tires delaminate ?

Nah, just a J.A.M -- Jackalope Avoidance Maneuver...

[Doubleblank]

The dirt on the car says it all to those of us who have gone off-track before. That's why my first mod will be a tow hook.

[brt3]

Originally Posted by Doubleblank

The dirt on the car says it all to those of us who have gone off-track before. That's why my first mod will be a tow hook.

I want a mod that senses an imminent off and rolls the windows up in a flash. That interior was a different color after it was attacked by the Thunderhill Dust Monster...

[1leNPP]

Well hopefully the car & Zfatuated are all in one piece . Humm it look like in that one pic Zfatuated that is (NFSBOSS) Boss 302 behind you there . He runs a Boss 302 forum and almost everyone on that forum are track rats .

[brt3]

[1leNPP]

That should be him in this pic the blue Boss 302

[McRat]

Originally Posted by brt3

I want a mod that senses an imminent off and rolls the windows up in a flash. That interior was a different color after it was attacked by the Thunderhill Dust Monster...

I went off-roading in a C5 Vette at Firebird in Arizona.

This is why smart guys RENT a car for track purposes. You don't have to clean it!

IIRC, I went sightseeing off the course at Buttonwillow, CA, in my 4th gen Camaro. When I finally sold it, there was STILL dirt in crevices.

[Zfatuated]

Originally Posted by Zfatuated

Battle won, war lost visual evidence Story to follow later. Hint- It's all great, until it isn't.

2nd day, 2nd session, and I had some miles on it and was letting it eat while still not going over 5-6000 rpm. Came up on the Mustang pack, and well, what's a guy going to do? After I passed the last guy, the blue Mustang in the pic I think, I set out to make some distance between us and I tell the rest of the story in the original post above

I hope the Mustang guys come over and read this and post up the video I know they are bound to have of me going agricultural. They were good drivers and I enjoyed sharing the track with them

Originally Posted by 1leNPP

Did the tires delaminate ?

Nope. But I think I delamined the seat bottom with the clenching action...lol!

Originally Posted by brt3

Nah, just a J.A.M -- Jackalope Avoidance Maneuver...

That is funny!

Originally Posted by Doubleblank

The dirt on the car says it all to those of us who have gone off-track before. That's why my first mod will be a tow hook.

You got it! I sitting there in the car thinking, "I'm screwed! No tow hook! F*ck!". He managed to shove the wrecker hoist under the rear, hook me and get me out with zero damage. Nathan and Justin, please guys, we need those new F/R bumpers with tow hooks.

With that said, for reasons described in original post, I had to have the back of my car lifted and towed.

Originally Posted by brt3

I want a mod that senses an imminent off and rolls the windows up in a flash. That interior was a different color after it was attacked by the Thunderhill Dust Monster...

Did I tell you as soon as I went "both feet in" I was scrabbling for the window switches! Couldn't quite get them because of the car rotating. UGH. The guys who I was paddocking with had a vac and pitched in to clean the thing up inside so good you couldn't tell it happened!

Originally Posted by 1leNPP

Well hopefully the car & Zfatuated are all in one piece . Humm it look like in that one pic Zfatuated that is (NFSBOSS) Boss 302 behind you there . He runs a Boss 302 forum and almost everyone on that forum are track rats .

I'm fine and car is fine! Well I could tell they had been on track before, they were fast and courteous. Like me...haha. I want to see their video!

Originally Posted by McRat

IIRC, I went sightseeing off the course at Buttonwillow, CA, in my 4th gen Camaro. When I finally sold it, there was STILL dirt in crevices.

I went off the last turn before the straight some years ago at BW too, it's a nuclear dust cloud at that track and like you said, gets everywhere.

[90503]

Glad damage was minimal.....at least an air-bag didn't deploy!....