badhabit_wb

Well I took the z06 course at Spring Mountain last weekend and here are a few observations. The course and the instructors are great! Everything was organized and designed to teach anyone how to get the most out of the car in the time available. If the 3 day course had been available that would have been much better.
The cars on the other hand had issues. The power steering quit on at two of the z06's in our group, mine and one other, and the engines also started acting up. After the run with the heating I kept mine in a higher gear and the power steering quit but the engine kept running fine. The driver in the other z06 didn't keep it in a higher gear and had more problems. The ambient temp was 108 on Friday and even warmer on Saturday so I'm really surprised the cars did that well. It was disappointing that our last 3 runs were way below the limits of the car because of the heating.
I was impressed at the handling of the cars and if the powertrain could keep up with the suspension the car would be great on the track. Hopefully GM will get this sorted out and find a solution for those of us that have problems with our personal cars.

lawdogg149

Thanks for the write up.

Did anyone there say anymore about the power steering over heats? Seems GM is saying they are not aware of the issue. Its scary to not know when it might fail since the light only comes on after multiple failures.

Just curious of what the spring mountain folks had to say about it. You can PM me if need be

SBC_and_a_stick

As a fellow owner and future SM customer I would also like to know if there is any other info given. PM if needed.

I gave up tracking my car due to the PS and engine overheating, and well some other things overheating.

badhabit_wb

GM knows about it. They had the same problem the week before and it was a GM event. Dealers that were there saw the problems. There is no way that GM is unaware of the problems. I had the power steering in the car I was driving overheat 3 different times. My last run at Spring Mountain was slow because we had to stop to keep the cars from overheating and then we ended up behind a slow group. If the cars had been running good it would have been a blast.

dar02081961

108 degrees..............wow. That's getting up there.

FAsnakes

Awesome! I love spring mountain.. . I attended the 3 day ZR1 course last year and had a blast.,

Is there a specific Z06 class where that's what they put you in? Or, is it luck of the draw to get into a ZO6?

I know they offer to allow you to drive your own car on the track - but I'd prefer to drive / push the spring mountain cars.


Thanks,

tbrenny33

Just curious are these autos or M7 cars?

Raoul

I was at SM in early June--temps in the low 90's. There were 3 Z06s--2 manual and 1 auto. My M7 was fine, and I believe the other two didn't have any issues. Could be that we weren't pressing the cars hard enough.

badhabit_wb

I was driving an m7 but the auto's were much worse than the manuals. They told us before we started that the auto's would only get about 6 laps but nobody in our group was using an auto. I think this was the first time they had that much trouble with the z06's but the temps on the track were in the 130's according to the instructors. It was hot and we were running with the ac on and the windows up. We were all in track mode sport 1.

DaveN007

They told you before you got out out on the track that the A8s would only last 6 laps...but you think this was the first time they had trouble with the cars?

Obviously extreme conditions. At some point we have to be realistic about what is possible in a street car. My last Porsche (a Cayman R) would start running above "normal" temps in 105-plus temps at Thunderhill, but all I had to do was turn on the heat to bring temps back to normal. There was also a $500 center radiator from the factory that eliminated the need for this if it was too inconvenient. Only 330 HP, of course. Then again, track battles came down to the driver and I could still hang with more than half of the higher horsepower cars...and I am no race car driver.

So what is reasonable to expect from these cars?

badhabit_wb

It was the first time they'd had that much trouble with the m7's. The ambient was 108 on Friday and we had no problems but Saturday was warmer and we ran harder. I was amazed that we could run that hard with the ac on and the only problem I had was the power steering. I was shifting at 5500 instead of redline so that the engine wouldn't overheat and I kept it in the higher gears most of the time. I seriously doubt anyone would ever have problems on the street and other than the power steering I think a lot of the issues could be avoided by running in a higher gear. That may or may not make a big difference in lap times, depending on the driver.

Thomasmoto

This is the very reason I scheduled in November and now that we bought another Z my wife will be in class with me and her driving as well.

badhabit_wb

Business duties kept me from scheduling later. Hopefully I will get another chance to give it a shot. I'm hoping that GM fixes the problems but even on the track the majority of the guys out there didn't have any issues. That said we weren't pushing the cars really hard either.

C7_Z06

I'm at Spring Mtn on July 10-11... will be on a Z06 and my brother will be in a Stingray. I have track experience and will definitely push it. I prefer an M7 since my Z06 is the same. So I guess I'll get to experience how their Z06's will behave under extreme heat conditions...

badhabit_wb

You're really limited as to how much you can "push it" because it's a lead follow scenario. My last run should have been the fastest but we took a slow lap to cool down and then got passed by slower drivers. My last lap was pretty slow and disappointing because of that.

peterjank

Are the Z06's available only within the Level 1 school? I am planning on doing the Level 2 school, but have been told by Spring Mountain that the Z06 is not available for Level 2.

Flyboy22

What was your fastest lap?

I never got a clean lap because of the lead-follow, and they always slowed down on the straights, but we did manage a couple 1:53's despite that. I think sub 1:50 is certainly within reach.

Les

Day 3 of the 3 day school allows you to run at your max speed, whatever that may be, for several sessions- aside from waiting for passing zones to get by the slower cars. That will be a much better measure of any heat related limitations the cars may have. I just don't know if or when they are running the 3 day schedule this summer.

badhabit_wb

they told me that the 3 day school was not available at this time. That was one of the reasons I went ahead and scheduled it when I did. I'm sure that the 3 day school would have shown a lot more heat related issues. We were a long way from flat out. I don't think I got over 80 on my last run because of the problems. I was much faster on the next to last lap but I forgot to turn the pdr on so I didn't record that. I haven't looked at my fastest lap time but hopefully it will be on some of the videos. I'm sure it was slooooow, at least if felt that way to me. In all honesty the last lap was frustrating.

OnPoint

Maybe I'm just an optimist or glass-half-full kind of guy, but I think it's a good thing SM is experiencing some of the issues the track guys on this forum have seen, given their direct line of communication with GM.

May help get the right eyeballs looking at the matter.