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Closest to you in Texas would be Motor Sports Ranch on Hwy 288 between Houston and Angleton, about 140 miles from you.. They have track days every so often.
Just have to be willing to drive to them. MSR-Houston, MSR-Cresson, COTA (near Austin), Eagles Canyon, and many more are within a days drive. Lots of guys, self included, will make a weekend of it. Drive Friday to the track. Play on Sat & Sun, and then drive home Monday. Obviously many other combinations of days depending on a person's circumstances.
Once you've been on track, you realize that driving "the back roads" or "going really fast on the street" is equivalent to using about 50% of the car's capability.
Private property consisting of a large acreage with a paved road course, suitable for driving your car without speed limit rules, or other constraints and limitations. In short, you can run your vehicle *****-to-the-wall open throttle !!!
Once you've been on track, you realize that driving "the back roads" or "going really fast on the street" is equivalent to using about 50% of the car's.......
It's also illegal, and you're endangering the lives of others, which unfortunately many Corvette drivers do on a daily basis.😞
I find that as long a I can get on track at least once or twice a year, I seldom get the urge to "run the backroads" hard.
That wasn't always the case.
Back in the seventies, I had a favorite section of back roads through the farm country near my home. Used to run it often with my Datsun 240Z. Until one day I came around a blind corner to find a dump truck stalled in the middle of an intersection. I tried to squeeze behind him and the roadside ditch. Managed to stay out of the ditch, but glanced off his rear tires and wound up with black tire marks along the entire drivers side of the car and dented roof where I passed under the corner of his truck bed. paid a lot of money to get it fixed up but the car was never as perfect again.
Skip over the 30 years of 4 cyl commuter specials and I found myself, once again running these backroads in my '03 Mustang Cobra. Once I came upon an unmarked abandoned RR crossing and bottomed out the suspension hard and had to replace a bunch of front suspension parts. Another time I just hit a dramatic dip in the road at high speed and had to replace the damaged Xpipe and cats.
I'm in my 70's now but I still find myself downshifting my Corvette on some of these nice backroads, but usually remind myself of past experience and back off a bit. USUALLY!
Look around for a road course track near you. Call them, they'll have a starter's 'light track' 'course' where you can safely try driving. No major speed, not dangerous, no passing. Then you can move up from there. .
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