fun at the track

["Sedon, Doug (OD)" <sedond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi all,

here's a li'l rundown of my alfa gtv6 at the racetrack - an experience that is
beyond words, really.  something about hitting the rev limiter every shift,
coming down a straight full throttle, & waiting as long as you dare before
mashing the brakes for a 90 degree corner, trying to hit the proper apexes to
set yourself up for the next straight or corner, pushing the car to its limits
of adhesion - well, i'm still buzzing!  obligatory alfa boosterism: my gtv6 is
absolutely amazing - completely neutral - no oversteer or understeer, when it
starts to let go, it just drifts sideways a little, and it's all wery
controllable.  my car has the shankle street-sport springs & torsion bars,
w/shankle front & rear sway bars, halcorp adjustable shocks, 225-50-15
bridgestone re-71/s on 15x8 wheels, lowered about 2" in front 1/2" at the back.
one interesting problem i learned about my car that i'd never have known by
driving it only on the street - i need a new oil dipstick o-ring!  there's one
hi-g 50-60mph 180 degree rite-hander that had oil leaking out the dipstick tube
and onto the exhaust manifold - a lot of smoke!  fortunately only a minor item -
i lost only a lap pulling off to inwestigate.  pushing the dipstick in as hard
as i could minimized, but dint entirely cure the problem.  o well, enuff of
that.

at the event there were a few of those spec-racer 'legends' cars - little
hot-rod knock-offs w/yamaha 1100cc/120hp motors, weighing about 1000lbs, there
were 2 tvr's, a griffith (tvr w/small-block ford), 2 gt6 triumphs, an mgb, an
alfa spider (dave goldman?), an e-type jag (definitely not in its element -
completely stock, skinny wire wheels/tires-n-all), a triumph tr3, a viper, a
lotus 51, and another unidentified open-wheeled front-engine lotus.

it was nice - there was classroom time where they told ya the basics of the
track, showed ya 'the line', etc.  during the track sessions, the groups (we
were divided into 3 groups) that weren't on the track would be stationed w/the
instructors at warious corners of the track, so they could show us what everyone
was doing rite & wrong, and to show us where we wanted to be on the track for
hitting the apexes rite, etc.  they also had walkie-talkies, so when you were
driving, you could do stop-n-goes and get feedback from the instructors at the
corners about what you were doing rite/wrong.  the only thing that wasn't rite,
i thought, was the 1st time out, the instructors shudda gotten in the cars w/us
and driven a couple of laps so we could see what THEY thought 'the line' was.
if you've never been on a track before, it makes it A LOT faster for you to
learn the track this way.  after my 1st 2 laps, i pulled off & requested that an
instructor drive my car so i could observe what HE thought was the fastst way
around the course.  helped me out a LOT at one corner.

all in all, a great time, i can't wait to do similar stuff in the future.  i
gotta get on the track more, and get my racing license - the cost of this may
delay gettin' that pantera...

ciao for now,

doug s

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