First I didn't book a room early enough and wound up staying in Manchester (dang). Then Saturday AM at the Gulf station near the track where I filled up with 93-octane I spilled about a half gallon of coffee on my passenger seat and helmet (shite!). Then leaving the parking lot of said Gulf station I heard metal-to-metal contact from the left front brake (FFFFUUUUU!!!!). Of course I absentmindedly left my spare brake pads in Pawtucket RI...
In my head and in my heart, I was in a bad place at this point. But to tell the absolute truth, simply signing in at registration with the gloriously moustachioed registrar put me in a totally different frame of mind. I was going to by God *enjoy* just being at the track and thinking about my students' progress and not driving. Yeah...
I did make it a point at the morning driver's meeting to ask if anyone had spare pads that would fit my calipers in the drivers meeting, but alas, no one did...
Then a fellow longtime COMmer offered to let me drive his Miata. Sweet! I took it out and damn if that car wasn't a HOOOT to drive! It reminded me of my old 240Z (albeit with a lot less power). Manual steering, light weight, very physical and very rewarding to drive, it just responded immediately to every little input
Then I was offered a drive in an awesomely fast (with a certain driver, anyway) E36 M3 out. WHEEEEE!!! Jeez Louise that car just did what I wanted, everywhere. Drift around 3 with barely-abated speed? No prob. Rail around the oval at unbelievable velocities, foot on the floor, with no scary business whatsoever? She did that too
By mid-afternoon, my student was doing very well, but I wanted to show him my line without taking any laps away from him. So I took him for a ride in his car in another group. I never would have guessed that a 2000ish era A4 4cyl turbo with only springs could be so much fun to drive at the track!
Then at the end of the day on Saturday I got to take a great track-prepped S2000 out. What a riot! Tail-happy in places, but dead-stable in the oval thanks to it's super-cool computer controlled rear wing Way way way fun. Quite a bit quicker than my stock '01 S2000
So thanks to you all of you guys for making my Saturday! It made the long trip down to RI to get my brake pads and back up Saturday night a lot more tolerable
Sunday went well for me in the RX-7 I had a great time driving it even though it didn't seem to have any drive grip anywhere! It has taken a while but now I really feel on top of the car, even if it's not really turning the lap times it probably could/should.
Really really glad to have one of (perhaps THE) best drivers in the club take it out and not pronounce the car a total disaster! Consensus is that it needs more serious tires and possibly stiffer suspension. Since it's supposed to be a street car, I'll try serious tires first...
Anyway, one of the best weekends I've had in a long time thanks to those mentioned above and ALL the guys who make the club work!
Great NHMS4 thanks to Mark, Mark, Nick, Mark, and Marc!
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