gmorris
05-26-2009, 02:20 PM
After just 800 shakedown miles on my '69 Chevelle I signed up for a high performance road car driving school and track day with Allen Berg Racing Schools here in Calgary Alberta. The morning consisted of some classroom time followed by one on one instruction from certified instructors with slalom, threshold braking, and lead/follow sessions. All the drills were carried out on the track so the students had a chance to learn the track before running real laps. We were then turned loose in an open lapping session.
The track is about 2 miles,with 13 turns and a 3/4 mile front straight. There was a nice mix of cars with the fast group including me, a porsche gt3, ferarri 355, nissan GTR, BMW Dinan supercharged M coupe, and an e92 M3. There were some snickers when I pulled in but after one run through the track they stopped and everyone was asking what I had done to it to make it corner the way it does. Basically none of tehm could keep up on the straight (I guess that's what 750HP will do) and they weren't exactly loosing me through the coners either. I was glad that I went ahead with my "phase 2" suspension overhaul before I hit teh track as I likely would have died with my previous setup. I went with SPC springs, Varishocks, spohn PT adjustable rear swaybar and huge 1 5/16' front bar. The ride is improved, turn in is better and body roll is gone...very impressed! Thanks to Mark at SC&C for the help on the setup.
We did not run timed laps but I was hitting 145mph in the front straight and had a lot more room to accelerate. My rev limiter was cutting in early for some reason which slowed me down a lot.
A few small issues popped up that stopped me from running the full day. My breather system was not adequate for extended high RPM and I managed to puke oil everywhere under the hood...so much for the nice ceramic coated headers. My oil temps were also through the roof after 3 laps so I now have a cooler on the way to take care of that. Now that I have completed the instruction portion I can go back for afternoon lapping sessions throughout the summer once I get things sorted out.
All in all it was an amazing experience that has made me far more comfortable with the car and improved my skills significantly. Few pics below that the staff took throughout the day.
More info on my car:
http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=19847
The track is about 2 miles,with 13 turns and a 3/4 mile front straight. There was a nice mix of cars with the fast group including me, a porsche gt3, ferarri 355, nissan GTR, BMW Dinan supercharged M coupe, and an e92 M3. There were some snickers when I pulled in but after one run through the track they stopped and everyone was asking what I had done to it to make it corner the way it does. Basically none of tehm could keep up on the straight (I guess that's what 750HP will do) and they weren't exactly loosing me through the coners either. I was glad that I went ahead with my "phase 2" suspension overhaul before I hit teh track as I likely would have died with my previous setup. I went with SPC springs, Varishocks, spohn PT adjustable rear swaybar and huge 1 5/16' front bar. The ride is improved, turn in is better and body roll is gone...very impressed! Thanks to Mark at SC&C for the help on the setup.
We did not run timed laps but I was hitting 145mph in the front straight and had a lot more room to accelerate. My rev limiter was cutting in early for some reason which slowed me down a lot.
A few small issues popped up that stopped me from running the full day. My breather system was not adequate for extended high RPM and I managed to puke oil everywhere under the hood...so much for the nice ceramic coated headers. My oil temps were also through the roof after 3 laps so I now have a cooler on the way to take care of that. Now that I have completed the instruction portion I can go back for afternoon lapping sessions throughout the summer once I get things sorted out.
All in all it was an amazing experience that has made me far more comfortable with the car and improved my skills significantly. Few pics below that the staff took throughout the day.
More info on my car:
http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=19847