sounds great, is this something I could do with my automatic?

 

Absolutly. We have had many automatics at HPDEs.

 

Man, I have been reading this and am thinking how I can drive from St. Louis to there. The post of putting up pre track inspection is a great idea. I have never been to a track school because of the price, and did not want to pay the price to run in a slow beginners course. Yes, I'm no Mario, but like to think I have a clue about proper entrance /exits. This thing sounds perfect - cheap price, more than 1 day, and actual racing speeds. You linked me to a bunch of racing sights a couple of months ago, and I still haven't been able to get through them.
You are the man.

 

Looking forward to see what prep you believe will be necessary, particularly in the area of brakes....

 

Where there is a will there is a way. For more HPDE schools look at

http://www.trackschedule.com then go to calander. The events are located under each track. Now there is a track in the St. Louis area called Mid America Motorsports track I think.

Hope you can make it to out event and or any other HPDEs.

Brakes are quite straight forward. Fresh brake fluid ( full flush ) with in 60 days. Use of a HIGH temp DOT4 brake fluid like ATE Super blue / gold, Motul, Ford HP, Wilwood 600, Castrol SRF. Any high temp brake fluid with a wet boiling point as close to or above 400* will work

Brake pads should be a minum of 60% original thickness. This would be a good time for new pads but not necessary.

I highly, I mean HIGHLY recomend NOT useing ceramic brake pads. These pads do not have the stopping ablity that is required for any track time. They fine for normal street driving, but not on the track.
the stock Z06 brake pad is fine. I have used the Hawk S and the HP+ I liked the HP+ but not the S. I used the Hawk S at my first school at CMP ( seond school overall )and they were toast in one weekend.
Currently I use the Wilwood H brake pad. It is a racing pad and ok on the street, but not recomended.

Fresh oil change and adding an extra quart of oil on the friday night or saturday moring of the event.

PPl can go overboard with modifcations and we ask that they do not. Doing the brake fluid flush and good brake pads Is all some one really needs to do. The other items are safty items. Lights work, brake lights work, lug nuts torqued to 100 ft lbs, battery is tight, clean out the car no items in the trunk, behind the seats, in the storage compartments, take out the floor mats and so forth.

We are also going to HIGHLY recomend the ppl use street tires. SO much can be learned about your cars capabiltes on street tires vs supper sticky R comounds. i.e. No "R" compounds for novice and intermediate students.

I did my first 10 schools on street tires. Mich P/S. I learned how much I could push my tires in a corner and have them "talk" back to me without the tires letting go in a slide. R coumpunds talk to you just as they break loose from the pavement. NOT Good.

Basic safty items is what we are looking for.

Hope this helps a bit.

Tom

PS One word of warning. Doing HPDEs is like eating Potato chips . . . .

 

We have Gateway International Raceway here - I rarely hear about any track events, though.

Did I read earlier that this would be open to all types of cars? I have a friend with a Boxster (and a truck w/ tow package) that would probably be willing to attend. All I need now is a trailer...

 

Doohhh St Louis - Gateway I should have guessed

Yes we will allow any vehicals. Corvette Musem membership will be notfied first a day or soo then open to all others for registration.

I am also getting more and more corvette racers who are also instructors at other HPDEs expressing interested in the event. Which we are very happy about. We want and will have instuctors that understand high HP cars in additon too the driving skills.

Tom

Here are a few more pictures of when I was at CMP last Octber.

Paddock






On track
C6

ZO6


94 ZR1

 

Since you were talking about pre track items, what would be a good set of track tires, damn cheap? I have Michelin pilots, near new on front, near 30% on back. I am planning on getting new ones this summer (Toyos or Firehawks, I think). Will make it on my current Michelins, or will I be on the rims by the end of the weekend?

 

AU N EGL here ( G/F nic ) See what your tires are like closer to that time. Some ppl do quite will with very little tread as the tire grip is in the rubber not the tread. as long as there is at least 2/32 of tread left you would be fine. No cords of course.

Toyos and Kuhmos are very popluar street / track tires. I have not used either so I could not comment on them.

Tom

 

Just got billed...so this is a

 

Hotel secured.......

 

The Colony Inn is the host hotel. They have a little resterant in back that will use for registration. It is also open at 5:30AM sat morning and 6:00 Sunday morning for breakfest. They also have a breakfest buffet.

There are serveral other places to each, one across the parking lot and many down the street for friday dinner.

We have a saturnight picknick dinner planned at the track.

Tom

 

I would be interested if it was in the northeast.

 

im in AU N EGL, ill be back from south america by then and i really want to go to one of these events, you say NCM are first on the list...say i became a member today how would i know if i was on the list to attend and is there a registration form yet? also does it require us to bring our own helmets?

 

The First National Corvette Museum High Performance Drivers Event will take place October 29-30 at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw South Carolina.

This event was has drawn so much attention by Corvette enthusists and NCM members that the event was sold out with in 72 hours for the Beginer Level and with in 3 weeks for the Intermediat / Advance level.

The popularity and demand was so strong that Roc Linkov, NCM Events Manager and I decided to have TWO Beginer groups. There will be 25 students in each beginer group. We will also have an Intermediat / Advance group of 20 students. Normally the Intermediate group 3-14 prior HPDEs and the Advance group More then 15 prior HPDEs have seperate groups. However, with the quickness, less then 24 hours of selling out the Beginer group we decided to have a secong beginer group and put the Intermediate and Advance studnets together.

Every run group and every student will have more then enough track time with individual instuctors in each car for all run groups.

So in short our school SOLD OUT with in 72 hours for the beginer group and within 3 weeks for the advance group. We also have 5 Advance students on a wait list.

We are planning 4 to 6 NCM High Performance Drivers Events in 2006 at 4 to 6 different tracks. Details should ( I say should ) be anounced at the Oct NCM event for at least a spring event.

We have students coming from as far North at Conn and south from FL and west from TX.

Our instuctors have years of HPDE and / or Racing experience IN corvettes. So each student will have a extreamly well qualifed instuctor riding in the passagner seat. Each Instuctor will have two students so each student will have one-on-one instuction all weekend.

In addition our class room instrucotor is a first class educator in the fine art of High Performance Driving Skills and racing.

This is NOT a racing school, but a High Performance Drivers event. Many many ppl take these type of events prior to going to racing schools and yet retun to the HPDE format to sharpen their skills.

Phew - enough formal talk. You will have so much fun and learn more NEW things about you corvette and how to drive a high performance Corvette that you may think that it is the most fun you can do legealy with your cloths on.

Warning - Warning - there is one MAJOR drawback to attending a High Performance Drivers event. It is like eating potato chips . . . . . . .


You cant have JUST ONE.

 

Sounds like a great idea, the price is good and location for me is good also...I'll give it some thought. Maybe 2006 would be better for me if you're doing the 5-6 you plan on.

 

Please don't take offense at this question:

What is the difference between a driver's school like yours and the ones that the Porsche Club of America and BMWCCA run? The price differential is huge, so there must be something that the clubs leave out.

In addition, which would be more practical for a person who wants to maximize his/her street driving abilities (and no, I'm not talking about doing a buck and a half on the street) rather than track driving abilities?

Regards,
GB

 

Bring this out west!

 

None taken GB. Almost all High Performance Drivers Events are run on a simular format. The basics are the same, car control, throttle control, braking threshold, cornering skills and track safty. I run BMWCC, PCA events, Audi Club, Mazda Drivers, and other sports car club events. I also instuct for several other car clubs as well.

But how many Corvette clubs put on HPDEs?? Many put on auto-x, very few put on HPDEs. I had the idea and Roc Linkov, the NCM Events Manager was at the table next to me at another car club event. He asked me a few questions, then said send me a business plan. I pulled one out of my pocket and gave it to him. We talked over last X-Mas and worked out a few details. I sent Roc an 'incar video of myselve running at Carolina Motorsports park and Virginia International Raceway. Roc took the video to the powers that be at the Museum and told them to watch. Mouths dropped and the comments were, "How do we do these for Corvette owners??"

Many many corvette owners know about other clubs HPDEs, however, they want to drive in a Corvette HPDE and want an instuctor who knows high horsepower cars and corvettes. Not little buz buz cars. Yes the techniques are the same, but the speed level is different.

Price wise we are right in the middle. Some events are more some events are less. Any proceeds that this event makes will go to the National Corvette Museum.

The skills learned at a HPDE are highly transferable to the street. One is braking skills. Truth be told we are never shown or told how to brake properly in our street cars, we are told to just step on the brake peddle. Well, what about car contol underbrakeing, braking threshold, underbraking ( which most ppl do ). Cornering skills, slow in fast out, sliding tires around a corner may look like fun but it acctully slows you down. Awarness of what is around you. I can tell you this from personal experiences that I think all drives during any cites rush hour are crazy and dangerious.

Also acceleration. Spinning and smoking tires may look cool but there is no 'hook up" and you actully take longer to get up to speed, no matter how much heat you put in the tire. So we also teach proper accerleation. Weight dynamics of the car, wight transfer from left to right, front to back and why cars slide out as the weight is one the wrong wheel in a corner or under braking.

This all sounds like a lot and it is. But dont worry ppl will get some great driving experiences.

CMP is not a track that some one can do a buck fifty, in most cases the beginner students will get to 105-107 on two sections of the track. But then again anyone can learn to go fast in a straight line ( yes I hve drag raced) The cornering speeds of students we increase over the weekend as we as the safty of that corner. There is one corner combination called Faith, Hope and Charity, a carrocel , that students start off at doing about 30-35 mph. By the end of the weekend they may be doing this corner combination at 50-55. Experienced students and instuctors take these corners at 70-85 mph. So that is a a big learning curve.

CMP map


Here are a few videos of my friend Falcon in his Red Z06
Hot lap of CMP
http://www.bigpinekey.org/cmplap.wmv

And following Falcon
http://www.bigpinekey.org/meatcmp1004.wmv


Yes the west cost is on our ajenda.

Thanks for asking

Tom

 

Tom........at least your consistant
I am not sure about that............an afull lot of cars lately on tracks & roads cant keep it straight Maybe you should teach some straight line 101 as well
And now Julie wants her own helmet........gezzes