My first Drivers Ed, but not my last!

[jhelgesen]

The borrowed car was slow and the semi auto tranny sucked.

Here's my pucker factor story for the weekend.

Last run of the day, I'm about 5-6 laps in. Come out of a long sweeping carousel turn way faster than the boxster in front of me, gaining ground quick up a medium straight, before a wide 90 turn onto the back straight. I'm maybe 6-7 car length behind, keeping up momentum going to the brake zone so I can shoot past him after the corner. Hit my brake zone, I'm half the distance cause he brakes early and my brake pedal goes to the floor. "NO BRAKES! NO BRAKES!" I yell to my instructor. We dive to the right to go around the boxster, he starts coming right for the turn, I yank up the parking brake and keep feeding in right. Finally the rear end brakes loose and starts to rotate, slowing us down. I get maybe 2 inches off the right rear of the boxster when the car comes around, spin around 360, and stop on the track. Got it pulled off the track, corner workers get us out of the car, smoke is coming off the old motor. We checked, nothing hit the car, except one of those fiberglass track markers, so I have a white mark to polish off.

We get a flat tow back to the pits, get the front up and check the calipers, nothing blown, no fluid showing, pedal feels just like my car at the house, air in the system. TA DA, I boiled the brake fluid. After it cools, I flush the system (yes I was smart enough to bring all the stuff to flush the system with me, pressure bleeder and all). Works like new again.

So, lessons learned: When they say flush the brakes before a track event, they mean flush the brakes! Next time I do this, I'm changing fluid before every days event. I figure I didn't do it any good on sat, I felt it fade a few times, should have known then it would need to be changed. Got to the end of the second day and it was DONE!

Also, put new pads on before the event. I wasted the first set of street pads that were half gone to start, on the first day, had to buy new ones at the track for the second and got porked for $80 dollars for $30 pads.

Good news is my instructor was really impressed how I handled the car, controlling it in the corners, feeding in throttle and steering inputs, using all the track, hitting my marks, etc! Said I should get the good driving award for getting the car stopped on my "event". Years of driving games on the pc and the playstation have done wonders.

Will I do it again. Heck yes.

Will I borrow Bills car again, Heck NO! I'm taking my car next time, more HP, bigger brakes, stiffer seats, better belts, stiffer car, stickier tires.

I'm I hooked, oh my god yes. There is a race prepped 944 in my future (and a trailer). Dude had one for sale, posted at the track for 3500. Might not be this year, but in the future. I'll track the 911 till then, or a WRX if I have one. There were 2 STI's there this weekend, stupid fast.

I will say one thing, it gave me a respect for the speed. Too many things can go wrong on the street to drive that fast, I'm gonna save it for the track.