This 3rd-4th was the first "Club" track weekend at MSR Houston since opening on the 1st and I actually had the Camaro ready and inspected in the nick of time for it.

Picture of track:




First day was learning the track and by the second day I was actually making decent laps without mistakes. Hardest section for me is the technical turn 8-12 section....was just begining to actually get the idea how to properly take it on the last session of the first day. I had it absolutely nailed the third session of the second day...very fun once you can properly take it all in third gear....wooooweeee! The section I liked best was the turn 15-17 combo to the front straight...I just clicked with it right away.

That pit wall is very close though...and I almost met up with it on my last run session (session 3). I was experimenting with using 3rd gear around the whole 15-17 combo and it was going just as well as shift down to second for 16-17 then back to 3rd on the main straight. The close encounter came when I turned in just a tad too early on the last turn and started pushing wide. And since I was in third gear instead of second powering out was not as effective and I drifted still further out than normal, where there was loose rocks between 1-2 cars width from the wall. That actually wasn't too bad since it helped to rotated the rear enough to keep me a few feet off the wall. My instructor, Mark Wilson, was pretty calm and let out a sigh of relief once we were actually going straight down the main straight... Third gear actually works better than second for me in the 15-17 combo (I have upshifting difficulties from 2-3 on this corner only... a driver induced problem combined with a very notchy Hurst Competition shifter) but it's more critical to get perfectly right...corner entry has to be spot on for 17 or the wall will be an issue. That's the only concern a lot of guys have with this track... the close proximity of the pit wall to the corner exit.

Mark Wilson said if I wanted I could go solo on the third session of day two, but I didn't mind having him in the car if he wanted to be there. By my last session I was sticking onto a blue Z06 in the corners, not loosing any ground to him until the track opened up and his 400hp Corvette walked away from my 200hp Camaro. I was almost able to stay with the group of Elise's in the corners, but it was the same story as the Z06 once the track opened up - 1000+lbs less weight with about equal hp = walking away from me. I was also having issues with a particular mustang in being given the passing signal but not being able to pass because the signal was given once on the straight instead of just before coming onto the straight. Problem with the signal being given on the straight and not during corner exit was he wouldn't back off the gas enough...supercharged V8 verses stock V6 = not a chance of me passing unless he would get off the gas. So I had to ride his butt for a few laps until he finally got the idea that he had to really slow down to let me by safely. But wait, what's worse than a V8 supercharged mustang not letting you pass...how about a Ford Lightning that eats your lunch in the corners and absolutely obliterates you in the straights...that particular Lightning was ran in three run groups and was passing Ford Cobras down the straight... and even for the driver (same truck) in my run group it was let him pass and watch him get away. That is some truck!

My brother was clocking a GT3 Cup Porsche at a consistent 1:43...both with and without traffic. He seemed to be the fastest driver/car combination at the event and was a treat to watch and listen too. Only better car to listen to was a Ferrari F355 challenge car...gotta love those downshifting Ferrari engine sounds.... Well there was also this MSR member with a Lamborghini Gallardo...that sounded really nice on track too.

The Camaro held up fine until coming into the pits on the third session of the last day, when the power steering gave up...dumb chevrolet design of putting the pump right under the left header is notorious for failing from track/autocross use and finally did. So that was the end of my track time, no sense fighting on without power steering and with a small sparco Ring steering wheel and wide 275/40-17 DOT-R rubber. Brakes and tires were great the whole event..even with the 25 minute run sessions on the last day.

The SVT Cobra group ran a great event and there were no incendets other than a few off track excursions on the back sections. Overall, MSR is a great track..I love it (even the semi-butt puckering controversal turn 17) and it's only around 45 minutes away. Once the camaro power steering issue is fixed (turn-one racing pump with line cooler and best temp resistant fluid available...that should do the trick) I'll be back.

P.S. I'll be getting some incar and GT3 cup/F355 Challenge footage I took onto the computer soon, hopefully within the next day. I'll also take some new pictures of the car with the Kirkeys in and new SS type spoiler on (which will probably block rear vision unfortunately... I may have to revert back to the stock one if vision is impared too much... the rollbar already takes up the top 1/4 of the rear view.)

 

Nice writeup!

Looking forward to that incar footage.

 

Cool. My friend Rick McNutt was supposed to be out there taking an American Iron car for a test drive. His wife was there in a silver Z06.

 

I can't wait to race there. The first Driver's Edge event there is January 21 & 22 http://www.thedriversedge.net/02_tracks.htm and the first NASA Texas race there is Feb. 4 & 5. http://www.nasatx.com/main.asp

 

Heard there was someone who came down to test drive an American Iron Mustang before buying. There was a guy with a brand new bone stock silver C6 Z06 that ran the second day...maybe same car?

I can't believe I forgot the coolest/scariest part of the weeked for me in my original post. My instructor took me out in his session with his E30 BMW M3. This would be the session which the GT3 Cup car and Ferrari 355 was running in.... Going down the back straight the GT3 caught up and passed and set in for corner 7. It was like watching the incar footage on SPEED - camera panning to the side to follow passing car past and in front of the car you are watching from...and the cars are really close, like nearly reach out and touch close. And it wasn't like the GT3 cup car was walking away fast either. And have a train of 3 cars (E30 BMW M3, Mustang Challenge/AIX car, and E36 BMW M3) mid session going full tilt bumper to bumper through the 8-12 complex was almost too much for me...that was a wild rollercoaster ride. Then the ride got even wilder later on when a silver E36 BMW M3 (one of several) got a little sideways starting at the apex of Turn 17 (the one with the close pit wall) and recovered via a really sideways power slide to just miss hitting the wall right at the outside of the track. Mind you we are right on his tail at the apex when all this happened and watched him clear the wall in the rearview mirror right after passing him. I got to see his powerslide right outside my window up close and personal.... ... I think I'll wait a while before taking a ride with the Red/White run group again...

Have the videos uplaoaded to Google and right now they are "verified", just waiting to go "live". I will let yall know when they are up. I just took a few new pictures of my car and they can be found HERE.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Vracer111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Heard there was someone who came down to test drive an American Iron Mustang before buying. There was a guy with a brand new bone stock silver C6 Z06 that ran the second day...maybe same car?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nah, his wife Jayne drives a C5 Z06. She has a set of Hoosiers mounted on black CCW's. Rick's toy is a white 1997 Cobra convertible.

 

Videos are up HERE...the ones by Paul Vincent


Modified by Vracer111 at 11:47 PM 12/6/2005