I don't know anyone directly but I do know car sharing is just fine. But the scenario I have seen in the past is when the 2 different drivers are in different classes/run groups.

 

jeffjor@wi.rr.com
His name is Jeff and he is the group leader for HPDE 1&2

droyce@drivenasa.com
or
Dave Royce
NASA Midwest, Inc.
p/f 847.574.8032
dave@nasamidwest.com
Dave Royce, I think he is the Midwest region Director.

 

I just heard back from Dave. Sounds like it is not ideal for both people to be in group 1, but that's ok with us. I probably won't be up for driving every session anyway.

Do you generally have to sign up for the whole weekend with Nasa, or can you just sign up for one day?

 

What I have seen was that you can either sign up for the whole weekend or Sunday. I haven't seen the option to sign up for Just Saturday. You may e-mail Dave back and see about the possibility of paying for a full weekend and have one person drive each day.

 

yeah, i'm just not sure i'll be up to driving an entire day's worth of sessions myself.

If they make us pay for two people for the whole weekend it probably won't happen this time. Looking at their website that would be over 600 bucks by the time you throw in the memberships.

Assuming we have to pay for one person for the whole weekend, we'd come in on friday, run on saturday, and maybe do a couple runs on sunday before heading back. Jen can really only get one day off for this event. We are planning on getting a hotel room for this.

If this doesn't work out for us, do any of you do those "test and tune" sessions? I remember Al mentioning that to me. I saw where you can't have a passenger in the car, but perhaps we could do a "lead-follow" thing with one of you for a few laps. That is unless there is too much traffic at those for a newb.

 

I rode with Red Devil on one of those Test & Tune sessions. There were others that day also. Must be a new policy.

 

Yeah, they are under new management and you can have a passenger for the Test and Tune sessions only if you have proof of a valid competition license.

Shame, as having someone with experience like Al ride along is very beneficial, to say the least.


MD, hit me up with a PM if you would. I'll meet you out there for a Test and Tune some night. You can't ride along, but I can show you some sort of driving line and give a few pointers for the track.

 

If for some reason you can't make Gingerman you can always try RA with the Shelby club on the 19th. I'll be there, and they do allow passengers.

 

^ Thanks!

I just saw that info and registration is up for the NASA Gingerman day.

http://www.nasamidwest.com/season/ev...p?eventid=2554

 

I see that they are letting you sign up for one day or two. You guys signing up for the whole weekend, or just one day? If so, which day?

Still haven't heard back from Dave if they make you pay double for two people to share a car. I'm thinking we'll just sign up for one and see what transpires when we get there. My wife says she'd like to give it a try, but she's fine with doing the photography thing too.

 

I'm doing both days, my wife will be there as well.

 

I will be driving both days. I'm sure if Red Devil joins us he will be doing both days as well.

 

Are you guys staying around gingerman or driving back home?

 

We are planning on staying there. Took a look at a couple hotels there a few days ago but didn't really determine much yet. It says something on the website about a "host hotel", but they don't have a name posted yet.

You guys sign up yet? I haven't yet but I'm thinking I should do it soon.

 

I'm planning on staying up there. its not terribly far from my house but over almost an hour and a half each way is too far - and too much gas - to do 4 trips in 1 weekend.

I don't know about a host hotel but there is a Holiday Inn express & suites right off 196 that had rooms for ~129/night on priceline.com and I believe they were suits - thats all I was able to find on the Holiday Inn website for that hotel. Might want to call and check thought.

 

I just made my hotel reservations. Only place I could find with rooms were the comfort suites for around 150 a night and the holiday inn express. The AAA rate on Holiday Inn's website was 117 per night. We booked our room for friday and Saturday night.

Looks like rooms may be hard to come by that weekend, so if you are planning on going I'd go ahead and book right away.

I'm also booked for the track day (both days), so hurry up and join me!

 

I also contacted the shop in Crest Hill that can do pre-tech inspections, and they said that they are free. So I'm planning on getting that done as well. Figure that's one less thing to worry about Saturday morning.

 

tech for HPDE is just a self check to make sure the car is in working order. Nothing serious. Not going to discourage you from going to that shop - esp if its free - but they only really heavily tech check the TT and race cars.

I think my plan is to only stay up there Sat. night.

 

Ah, the website made it sound like you needed to go through an inspection when you got there.

 

Those of you that have driven at gingerman before - what kind of speeds are you hitting at the end of the straightaways? (Just curious - mine will be slower than yours)

 

They will have a "tech" but the way it was done for HPDE at Road America was that you got a checklist of things to make sure were in good working order or tied down or removed from the car etc and you self teched your car and turned in the sheet to the tech guys where were really checking out the race and TT cars. It may be a little different at Gingerman since there will be no TT or race classes there that day. And its never a bad idea to get a free tech inspection from a pro.


There are 2 straights where we can pretty much top out 3rd gear (90-95) and a 3rd where i come fairly close.

Having slightly less power and slightly less rpm would restrict you...a little bit...but either way I would say to just work on being in control and finding the good race line and mastering your turns at first.

 

Yeah, I'm not thinking about trying to hit a certain speed, I was just wondering what kind of speeds to expect. I'm definitely more concerned about driving the right line smoothly. After all, the corners is what our car is really about.

Al and I were talking about it at the last meet, and I speculated that I probably won't get out of second gear. My second gear with the new rear gear tops out around 70 mph. Sounds like maybe I'll barely get into 3rd if I have a good corner exit.

I looked up my gearing in comparison to the MTs, and with the upgrade my final drive ratio in 1st is about halfway between your first and second, and my 2nd is almost identical to your 3rd gear. My 3rd gear is between your 4th and 5th, and my 4th gear is actually taller than your 6th gear.

Here's the figures, in case anybody cares...

6 speed:
1st - 16.69
2nd - 10.07
3rd - 7.30
4th - 5.27
5th - 4.44
6th - 3.74

4AT with 4.77:
1st - 13.28445
2nd - 7.35
3rd - 4.77
4th - 3.31

 

Those actually wouldn't look bad if they had just narrowed the gap between 2/3 and made it a 5spd. something like

5AT with 4.77:
1st - 14
2nd - 9
3rd - 7
4th - 4.77
5th - 3.31

 

Well I got back from the dealer, I had to get an oil change and radiator flush. Turns out I need new tires

Mac,

Remember at Autobahn which was less then a month ago that I wasn't even at the wear bars in the rear. Turns out my rear tires are totally bald, I mean they look like slicks. I have no idea how they could off gone from what we saw at Autobahn to the way they look now. The fronts were about the same as last month. So I went ahead and ordered a set of Kumoh's MX's, and I'll have them installed at the dealer on Friday, along with that I'm going back to stock alignment setting for the winter. Good thing they caught it or else I wouldn't of caught it until Friday night when I do my pre track inspection. That would sucked having to run around on Saturday to get tires.

 

Tires are stickier at the end of their life - as long as they aren't cording - like you said, slicks. More contact patch.

And why are you changing your alignment for the winter?