maniac719

First things first major props to VinnyA and Chris for helping me fix my issue with Turn #5 and helping me drop my time lap times by over a second.

OK, on to the review. Ran NJMP Lightning today to a best lap of 1:14.22. Car is showroom stock down to the tires and the "street" alignment. I have a fair bit of experience in high horsepower and other track cars and I can say with certainty that this car is an animal. The powerband is so wide that I pulled off my best times without using anything but 4th gear, I ran most of the day shifting from 3rd to fourth and back but after talking with VinnyA I found fourth was useful exiting turn 5 and all the way down to turn 7, and 100% necessary exiting the lightbulb. The car has SO MUCH grip that your brain says no before the car complains. The carbon ceramic brakes are amazing to the point of being unreal, coming into turn 1 @ 152 and braking late never felt like a safety issue AT ALL. Braking AFTER the bridge into the hairpin at over 125 was a piece of cake EVERY time with ZERO fade.

PTM and rev-match make a hero out of even a guy like me for those times when you take a stupid line and are ham-fisted with the steering / throttle.

Only odd thing I found about this car was that I hit LIMP mode after pulling 1.3 G on a quarter tank of fuel. Called onstar and they confirmed that it was low fuel pressure, filled it up and it never complained again.

Video of my best clean lap is here.
For reference: I know i botched the exit of turn #7, and I could carry more speed in the lightbulb if I take it higher but I was concentrating on fixing my turn #5 issue more than anything else, oh and my tire pressures were WAY too high 39 PSI hot. VinnyA ran ATLEAST 2 seconds faster than me today, but I'm pretty sure that the three Z07's were the likely the quickest things out there.

Other stats: Max oil temp: 248*, max coolant temp 216*, ambient temp was 46*

Gary '09 C6

VinnieA

Great meeting you today and great driving!! Turn 5 is a hard turn to get but once you do it makes a huge difference. We were on a green track too. It rained all night and track was still wet in the morning. Get back there when it warms up and you'll pick up more time!! And get the track alignment done. It'll prolong the life of your front tires. Yours looked pretty smoked when I looked at them. See you at the Glen in a few weeks!!!

jsmbluecar

Great stuff guys!

RS4EVA

more laps please. That's my local track and am dying for some Z footage

JackTripper

Quick question, did you burnish your CCB's on your Z07 yet?

twist-a-grip

I am a complete newbie to tracking, but have done the Barber racing schools and a few MB and Porsche events. Please understand this is a question not an opinion. I thought you had some good lines, but I don't understand why you never shifted out of 4th. Seems 5th might be needed on the long straight and you were rolling the slower corners at 2-3k revs in 4th where I would have dropped to 3rd. Again, I'm not criticizing, just curious. I always thought you wanted to be bouncing off the redline the whole way around the track.

Looks fun - I was thinking about devirginizing my car at next week's Tracknight at NJMP - anyone have any experience with these?

thebishman

"Bouncing off the redline" in the new Z06 means 3 hot laps then a couple of cool down ones. Much better to use the incredible torque of the car to good effect and not hit redline consistently until the 'heat' issues have a solution. And even then changing up at 5K versus 6,500 rpm may still be worth it.
Bish

twist-a-grip

So, in theory, I'm right about keeping the revs high, but in order for the car to last more than a few laps, you can't drive it like you should? I'd like to hear if that's what the OP was doing. I read all about the overheating issues and still bought the car, but I'm starting to think I made a mistake and I only have 500 miles on it and no track time. Thank God I have a GT3RS allocation.

maniac719

Great question. My quickest laps were done in 4th the whole way around for a couple of reasons. Reason #1, driver skill, I was losing time in shifting out of third and into fourth coming out of the lightbulb, and out of turn 5/6. After analyzing the data with cosworth, I'm certain that I could have used 5th in the front straight if I was willing to hit the brakes harder BUT hauling the car in from 150 to make turn 1 was enough excitement as it was.

Reason #2 I avoided third on my fastest laps was that my trans kept jumping out of gear. It only did this if I downshifted for turn 1 after braking, I'd come up the hill and get back on throttle and find myself in neutral.

maniac719

Yep, did the street burnish 2 days before. Made myself sick, but made certain I had the white halo around the pads. VERY glad I did it before getting on track because the pedal went to the floor during the procedure.

Nope, never had any concern about heat. Even on my third gear laps banging the limiter on every straight the oil never got hotter than 250*.

VinnieA

I ran mine yesterday really hard yesterday. No heat issues at all. I'll post a thread later when i have time to upload video. I don't think we are going to have heat issues with the M7 till it get's quite hot out and at tracks that use a lot of 2nd gear.And when temps get really high just use 3rd instead of 2nd. Worked for me at PBIR. You will not be disappointed with the the Z06. It's an awesome car on the track and street.

twist-a-grip

Don't get me wrong, I love it so far. But, it's very discouraging to see how many are having heat issues. Let's be honest, it was maybe 50 yesterday in South Jersey, so I don't think yesterday was indicative of the typical track day weather at NJMP. But, I'm glad you've had no problems thus far. I'm probably going to WG later this month, and it could very well be my first track day in the car, so maybe we can meet in person and you can give me some tips.

gtrguy

Great car and lap. I instruct there and know track pretty well
What settings did you use and did you feel ptm at all?
Will be interesting to see your times in warm weather with more grip vs risk over heating

Racingswh

Any light traffic lap times?

VinnieA

I'll be at the Glen the 27th with NASA

Racingswh

Often times in a traditional standard transmission equipped car that's not the fastest way especially if you're running out of gear at trackout requiring an upchange. Also downshifting in the braking zone, rev match or not, requires proper brake pressure. Many times when a decision is made to forego the downshift at corner entry the good driver can concentrate entirely on the braking, brake release, corner entry speed and balance. This many times results in higher overall corner speeds and lower lap times. Great drivers have the feel and balance to know intuitively when to stay a gear higher and when not. Jackie Stewart was/is a proponent of this style of driving.

I personally am not a great driver but I do let the data tell me what is better. If lap times are comparable I will stay a gear higher.

Great to hear the OP had some fun. Looks and sounds like the car worked to your satisfaction and you're really happy. That's fantastic!!

maniac719

Thanks!

It was my first day on track with the Z06 so I started the day in "sport" and eventually progressed to PTM-Sport-1. I did feel PTM when I over cooked the corner exits a little. I dont think I was leaning on the computer too much but it was nice to know it was there.

I cant wait to be back there with hooked on driving in May to compare laps in the cold VS "normal" track weather. I suspect I'll be faster thanks to increased confidence in the track conditions.

RC000E

OP...this has been posted here for reference

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...imes-here.html

gtrguy

just looked up my lightning times with stock 13 gtr and was same 1.14.2! my top speed wasn't close to z06 though. probably down 10 mph. would have been fun to drive with the op but I no longer have my gtr and would get lapped in my lotus elise. lol

the 1.11 is a crazy fast time though