I got to take the Mustang out to my first Drivers Education (track day) this last weekend. It was a Porsche club event, with only a handful American cars. I had an awesome time, logging about 90 laps on the 1.7 mile course (CCW) at Motorsports Ranch in Cresson.
My learning curve now has now taken a huge upwards spike in just two days with 8 straight sessions of improvement. We had mostly perfect weather, but even the Sunday morning semi-wet conditions were a great learning experience too. We got something like 2.5 hours of on-track coaching and a couple of hours of classroom time. I was pleased as punch with the instructors, they were great.
As a track newbie, I started out in the green (lowest) group. After seeing the course and getting oriented, it was game on. Wow, what an adjustment from playing on slow speed Autocross courses. The track has tons of grip and so much more speed. It took a lot smother hand and more nerve, as suddenly I’m doing 100+ mph down the front straight just before diving on the brakes and wheeling it into the twisties at less than 30 mph. It was huge fun, and our 20 minute sessions would just flash by.
After a few sessions, the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. The speeds and fun kept increasing. Its pretty cool to see “just a Ford” eating up a string of Porsches. I’m not going to lie, passing this GT3 RS on Sat felt REALLLLY good. Here’s the action:
http://youtu.be/iimYVsHkjxs
Please don’t correct me by pointing out that car was lacking for driver and its capable of walking away from me without breaking a sweat. I’m going to remember it as me and the Mustang being awesome.
Its boatloads of fun to let the V-8 power and torque pull you up, especially on the older Porsches and Boxs
ter/Cayman bunch. That power is really good for recovering from those corners where you didn’t get it right too.
‘MERICA!!!
It was wet and fog on Sunday morning, and I was really nervous. My buddy Joe said the Porsche crowd was betting on the black Mustang to spin.
It takes a completely different driving line in the wet, and early in that session I got passed by multiple cars. I was much better than during the previous afternoon. I got myself sorted, confidence built back up, and started reeling a few of them back until the session ended. I then got promoted up to the higher blue run group. Promotion required a different instructor to ride along for a checkout session and it was an adjustment. Suddenly I was dealing with a much quicker set of cars, and I got thrown off for a little bit. I probably had to let 5-6 cars go before I settled in, got my pace back and finishing up by passing 2-3 of the Blue group by the end of the session.
For Sunday afternoon, I got a different instructor and we clicked a little. The track lines were getting natural, I started to get my rhythm, confidence, and began seeing ahead versus reacting to what just happened. I got back to passing a whole lot more Blue group cars than being passed. Woo-hoo!
The Mustang ran strong and handled well all weekend. The brakes definitely got a workout, and I had to manage their temps a little bit. That worked well, as slowing my entry speeds helped me focus on powering through the corner and the higher exit speeds carried down the straights much better. I’m amazed by this pony car, and how much grip is available on the high speed turns. Its really everything I had hoped it would be. Other than a blue group GT3, it more than held its own against some awesome machinery, even in the corners!!! Its an easy drive too, composed, consistent, and a lot of good driver feedback. While track mileage was less than 6 mpg, that same V-8 delivered over 24 mpg on the drive back home. Of course, I don’t usually drive it that softly. My daily mileage is about half that, but the smiles per mile is very high.
Here are my best Laps of the weekend:
http://youtu.be/wSzu7gPPIKU
I got a little open track and my laps got much more consistent. Average for those 4 laps is 1:35.7. I ran the track app position/timer replay and the best looks about like a 1:34 flat, with a lap of 134 and change in there. A ton of improvement is still needed, and I know some places where I can do a lot better.
Wonderful stuff, it was as much thrill as I had dreamed about for a long time, literally 3 decades.
I could easily get hooked on adrenaline, and plan on doing the 3-4 of these events in per year.
First Track Day pics and Video
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