How was Sandown? (stephen - congrats on a new personal best ) Did anyone go to Winton today? There were some nice cars heading up that way today... an orange Gallardo, a few nice Porsches, many on trailers in full race gear. I went to DECA today to learn how the hell to handle a rear wheel high power car! Was awesome fun, and highly recommend doing it for anyone with a new car (whether a Ferrari or a WRX ).
How did you know?? There was a poignant reminder of the dangers of motorsport after a WRX rolled at the end of the straight in one of my super sprint rounds. Luckily the driver was OK, but the car was totalled. Three cars in total went home on the back of a trailer, I think. My son Jeremy was the 2nd fastest standard car from the times that were posted. He was a little miffed, because he swears he was faster in the later sessions, so reckons should have won. I managed to get my 1.25 at the end of the day, so it turned out to be a great day all round. I spent the last two sessions doing passenger runs for some of the kids,who seemed to be really thrilled to get some 'hot' laps in a Ferrari, even if it was only a poorly driven 550, rather than one of the sexy 360 race cars!
Congrats Stephen, and I'm sure the kids would have loved the hot laps (even I would and I'm not a 'kid' anymore really ) Just out of interest, what was the time difference between your best lap and that of your sons?
Thanks, do you think that would be consistent regardless of which one of you were driving the cars (i.e. is one of you a much slower driver than the other one )?
Good question, there is no way I would be faster than him if we swapped cars, if anything he has more natural talent than I do.(Not a big achievent though!)
fair enough, but gives me an indication anyway. what about the F430, or haven't you taken it around there yet?
A F430, when driven properly is meant to be 3 seconds faster around Fiorano than a 360 Modena and only 2 seconds behind an Enzo!
Igor, I'd be interested toknow what exactly was involved. I've never been, but it sounds interesting.
From what I understand Fiorano times aren't really indicative and appear to be more of a marketing tool. Your example would place the 430 equal to the 575 GTC H, which on a tight track is far from the case.
Stephen - I knew cause I was involved in the control tower at one of the WRX sprints a few years ago (in my ITR days) and met the guy who owns RaceTime.com.au. He said he usually attends the WRX days and uploads the results live onto their server, so it's available online. So I jumped on the site and checked out the times. I noticed that SuperSprtint Session 4 (or 5?) was abandoned. I assume it's because of the roll. Good to hear that the driver is OK. I hate hearing about track day accidents... DECA is a driver training facility near Shepparton and it's basically a 3 event day. The first is a skidpan which is set up as more or less an AutoX course, where you go around cones and doing 360s and stuff. This is to learn how NOT have a lead foot. Then we went to do some acceleration/brake thing which was crap to be honest... but usually it's a little hill-climb type course which is fairly slow speed (cause there are things to hit!) but beacause there were too many cars, didn't have time. The third event was lots of fun... they set up two identical slaloms (30m apart in width) and it was a 1-on-1 elimination. So you go around slalom course (wet) do a 180 at the end, come back and stop in a square. First to stop wins. All 350Zs and S2000s got knocked out 1st round... I lasted into the top 8 I think (got knocked out 6th round) and that was pretty cool indeed. And to finish up, they really watered down the pan, and set up a large circle and let you loose for a few rounds. Basically it was to experience drifting, sliding and totally loosing it! Was awesome way to finish the day! I will have footage tommorow, so I will upload and post some links. As I said, it's a great day to learn about the car's behaviour. For example, the RX8 that was there was getting BOTH understeer and then oversteer around the cones. You had to be really careful with the throttle. The Z on the other hand was fantastic at flipping the back around under a quick burst of the throttle. On a more personal note, it helped me a LOT. Due to my current weird tyre set up (waiting for a set of fronts to arrive from Sydney) I have had to kill my traction control and all associated s/w "features" (the computer goes bananas if you leave it on). Because I just got hte car I was a little hesitant with it as I am not really familiar with how controllable o/steer is on this car. THis day showed just how easy it is to handle a Z and I am now ready to whip some serious ass on the track I am going to go and collapse now. G'nite
I concede that these are only Ferrari test driver times and could be more of a marketing tool. However, comparing my F430 to my F355; it has 30% more power, 30% more torque, much better brakes, electronic diff for better traction out of corners, faster F1 transmission, more rigid, more down force etc etc.....now if I can only drive it properly and use R-rated tyres, it should be quite a few seconds faster than my previous PB lap times at all circuits.
Ahhhh, DECA. Should be compulsory for all new drivers and be an annual license requirement. I first went there before I even had a car, had got my license just a few weeks before - my great uncle shouted my older brother and I the advanced driving course and I had to drive my brother's Fiat 124 sport - certainly whipped the falcons and commodores there Does anyone remember the TV advertisement DECA ran in 1983-1985? It was extolling the virtues of advanced driver training and had a (prototype) red VB commodore doing some burnouts, handbrake turns and going through the witches hats? - no comments from the younger set about not being born then . That was me doing the driving At the time I used to sell TVs at Waltons and a few times when I was trying to flog a TV the ad would come on and make the sale a breeze
Stephen - last time I spoke to that lazy SOB was at least 2 years ago! I always used to time my laps using onboard video... best way to learn how to drive faster is see what you're doing wrong (or could be doing more right) Mark - I agree with you about DECA ... P plates shouldn't be given out until you have done that course and learn how to handle a car! Well... here are some videos (right click and save as please): Me going around the cones in 1 min (4th out of 60) Me trying to drift ... and failing miserably
Fixed the link. It's not that hard! WHen I saw a video of my friend from his last outing there... I was like "I am going get so confused I'll probably end up in teh next town!"... but once you get out there it's fairly easy. It's basically, cone on the right, cone on the left, cone on the right, cone of the left - sorta like college days you know
Updated URLs: Me going around the cones in 1 min (4th out of 60) Me trying to drift ... and failing miserably
