Steve Levin
Master of Disaster
Since I've been pondering getting a pure track car (instead of using my Chrysler 300) I decided to take the opportunity afford by the Ariel Atom Experience (http://www.arielatomexperience.com/) to actually drive one at a track I'm fairly familiar with, Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California (http://www.thunderhill.com/). Sadly, (or perhaps not) they put a chicane in right at start/finish to keep the entry speeds into Turn 1 down. We ran the older 'front half' of the course but (http://www.thunderhill.com/html/trackmap.html) turned in just after Turn 7. Still, you can take the sequence from Turn 2 down to 7 at full chat without any other obstructions.
There were two groups, one of 7 people and one of 6, and we alternated in the cars.
The first part of the day consisted of two lead/follow sessions (with instructors in the car), with the second one at a quicker but still fairly mellow pace. One thing that didn't thrill me is that I saw many of the instructors (which had not been to Thunderhill before) not quite showing the right lines in a couple of places, most critically the entry into Turn 3, which is a reducing radius -- and more importantly, VERY off camber -- turn. A couple of people would end up spinning there during the course of the day.
The third and last morning session was a lead/follow/passby. However, since I ended up as the last car in the 'train' I only got one open lap after being waved by the lead car, and then it was time for lunch.
After lunch it was three sessions of open lapping (no lead/follow). With just 7 cars on the track, even with some disparity of speed, there was plenty of open track for the most part. After the first open session, one of the instuctors had to leave, and so I got to run the last two sessions of the day solo! Which was definitely cool. While I don't mind getting instruction, still, there's something neat about being out there on your own.
The car itself? We were running the track spec, short fendered cars with the base 245hp Ecotec engine. Still, even without the full-chat 300hp Honda mill, holy cow do these things accelerate. And far more impressive, to me, was the braking forces. I kept going deeper and deeper, and it just worked. No power brakes, of course, so you get a lot of feedback, and it takes a bit of pressure. Unlike the throttle, which is very sensitive and much more like an on/off switch.
I drove the track primarily in 3rd gear, except on the straight, where I'd shift into 4th for a bit and then back to 3rd at the chicane. If I were going for every ounce of speed I might have used 4th exiting Turn 1, but it would have been tenths of a second at most before you would be back down to 3rd for Turn 2, and it seemed foolish to make myself that busy in the cockpit (as compared to just deathering the throttle at redline in 3rd for a moment before the braking point to Turn 2.
It's a heck of a track car, that's all I can say. My friend is taking delivery of a Lotus 2-eleven in January and I'm looking forward to trying that out as well; I suspect the big difference will be aero on high speed corners.
I'll have some other pics and stuff up shortly, but for now, here's a brief youtube clip (note my spiffy helmet
[youtube]eqmBfb2_LHg[/youtube]
Questions?
Steve
There were two groups, one of 7 people and one of 6, and we alternated in the cars.
The first part of the day consisted of two lead/follow sessions (with instructors in the car), with the second one at a quicker but still fairly mellow pace. One thing that didn't thrill me is that I saw many of the instructors (which had not been to Thunderhill before) not quite showing the right lines in a couple of places, most critically the entry into Turn 3, which is a reducing radius -- and more importantly, VERY off camber -- turn. A couple of people would end up spinning there during the course of the day.
The third and last morning session was a lead/follow/passby. However, since I ended up as the last car in the 'train' I only got one open lap after being waved by the lead car, and then it was time for lunch.
After lunch it was three sessions of open lapping (no lead/follow). With just 7 cars on the track, even with some disparity of speed, there was plenty of open track for the most part. After the first open session, one of the instuctors had to leave, and so I got to run the last two sessions of the day solo! Which was definitely cool. While I don't mind getting instruction, still, there's something neat about being out there on your own.
The car itself? We were running the track spec, short fendered cars with the base 245hp Ecotec engine. Still, even without the full-chat 300hp Honda mill, holy cow do these things accelerate. And far more impressive, to me, was the braking forces. I kept going deeper and deeper, and it just worked. No power brakes, of course, so you get a lot of feedback, and it takes a bit of pressure. Unlike the throttle, which is very sensitive and much more like an on/off switch.
I drove the track primarily in 3rd gear, except on the straight, where I'd shift into 4th for a bit and then back to 3rd at the chicane. If I were going for every ounce of speed I might have used 4th exiting Turn 1, but it would have been tenths of a second at most before you would be back down to 3rd for Turn 2, and it seemed foolish to make myself that busy in the cockpit (as compared to just deathering the throttle at redline in 3rd for a moment before the braking point to Turn 2.
It's a heck of a track car, that's all I can say. My friend is taking delivery of a Lotus 2-eleven in January and I'm looking forward to trying that out as well; I suspect the big difference will be aero on high speed corners.
I'll have some other pics and stuff up shortly, but for now, here's a brief youtube clip (note my spiffy helmet
[youtube]eqmBfb2_LHg[/youtube]
Questions?
Steve