360 Spyder

I used to hear that Ferriari Enzos were being wrecked at a disproportionate rate and heard that the Viper Club track days near me frequently involved a crash. On the other hand, I was invited to an Audi R8 track day where, in addition to the road course, they had us on a 10 turn go cart track and had us run for time. I figured people would be spinning out and running off the track but no one did. With the electronics, it was easy to drive even the V-10 car as hard as I could and nothing was going to make that car spin. I'm guessing the Z06 is kind of like that with the nanny engaged although nothing can overcome the laws of physics if you enter a corner way too fast.
So how are the Z06s faring at the track?

C7_Z06

Barring unforeseeable mishaps such as someone/something else or equipment/car failure causing a track accident... if you drive past your abilities then yes you will have a high risk of crashing.

firstgear

I guess it depends how close you drive to the edge of the cliff and what level of nannies are on or off!

Bill Dearborn

Nannies can only work within the laws of physics. If you try to do something impossible with the car then it will not respond the way you would prefer. When you are at the limit of grip in a corner pulling lots of Gs and do something stupid like suddenly lifting your foot off the gas thus creating a trailing throttle over steer situation there is a good chance the nannies won't be able to save your butt.

It is interesting that you mention entering a corner too fast. If you look at a chart of turning grip measured Vs sideways G force in a turn of a certain radius you can see quite clearly that all that happens if you enter the turn at a faster speed is you take a wider radius. That could still run you into an obstruction if your wider curve intercepts the obstruction but most of the time the driver reacts incorrectly, unbalances the car and creates a situation that quickly goes beyond the laws of physics.

As far as crashes at HPDEs the average I have seen mentioned and seems to fit with my experience of 22 years of HPDE fun is for each 100 cars entered in a two day event at least one is taken home on a wrecker. It doesn't matter what brand car or what the performance level of the car is. People put Ford Crown Vics into walls just as easily as they put Vettes into walls.

Bill

boogie00

Any car can crash it's human operated, the r8 is a fine handling car. Of all the cars I've ever owned my favorite for sure but they all crash. The all wheel drive really helps the r8

360 Spyder

Very interesting statistic. Does HPDE include actual races as opposed to just open track driving which I believe is supposed to be much safer. And h
ave enough Z06s been driven at these events to give an indication of whether their accident frequency is average? I would think 650 horsepower would really skew the statistics unless the nannies work exceptionally well.

Snorman

It's a good thing that stock C7 Z06's aren't "race cars". Nor do they compete in "actual races" in stock form.
You know there is a difference?
Are you digging for an as-yet-unknown statistic to support a preconceived notion?
S.

Movie Muscle

Ha ha

DaveN007

Drivers crash. Cars do not.

Just about any car with 150 HP or more can reach a speed going into any turn on any track that is too fast.

Well, I have never driven an Oval. Maybe you would have to get a longer run at the corner...

360 Spyder

No preconceived notion. Just would have thought that very high horsepower cars which are sometimes owned by very low horsepower people might be crashed more often. I'm sensing that people are not seeing this happen or else the number being driven on the track is too small to produce even anecdotal evidence. The reason for my curiosity is that I live 15 minutes from a track where I used to drive an NSX and would love to get back into it. Just trying to make sure that would not be foolhardy or that I might not be better off in a Stingray.