rush race cars

[962porsche]

questions about smaller cars ?
my wife and I are heading to TX in a few weeks to visit the Rush SR factory to buy two maybe three of them to start a track day rental business.
being the cars are 950 LBS and single seaters does COM do lead shadow instructing for there novice students if we were to rent to someone that wanted to do com event's?
also does COM have a problem with cars of this weight and size? I used to run our diasio years ago and the rush and the diasio's are about the same size.

[breakaway500]

One of the Whiskey Hill club members has a Rush incoming this week so I studied up on them.

I don't think the size is an issue but the performance capability and skill demands of these cars, and the fact that an instructor cannot be directly in communication with the beginner student, experiencing their hands/feet imputs in real time, is an issue I would not want to face. Steering wheel motion and pedal application are too important to ignore.

Most of what I teach is not just about the line, but how to properly operate the controls to get the car around a corner smoothly and safely.

Lead/follow instruction with novices has not worked out well from my experience. You cannot correct a mistake after the fact,and bad things can happen quickly..

I don't think renting a car like the Rush to rank novices is a good idea.

Kind of like taking an F22 Raptor out for you first flying lesson.. ( I anxiously await my first drive in a Rush.. )

https://youtu.be/lyKc24VDsHo

[962porsche]

I instruct at every SCDA and for a few other clubs and find lead shadow instructing does work and works well even for a 1st timer on track.
you as the instructor set the pace and you are talking to them over a two way car to car radio.
no you can't see what they are doing with the controls but the 1st thing to learn is the line simply because everything is based off the line.
it's not like your trying to teach them threshold braking of they are off the racing line?
our cars will have data acquisition in our cars along with video as part of the rental. so we will be going over every point with our renters just like with instructing for Ferrari. what is really good with Ferrari is both are done in car along with lead shadow.

I have to talk with Dave at rush more when we go to TX in a few weeks about setting the cars up with to tunes and how we could swap from one to another quickly.
there is a race school down south using the rush SR's with much success and they do have 1st timer novice student's.
with COMSCC it used to be until you had a COMSCC comp license you were a novice even if you held a comp license from another club.

on a side note we will also have a few old MX5 cup Miata's to rent.

[breakaway500]

Best of luck Dave..hope it works out for you.

[962porsche]

thanks we ( the wife and I )feel this is going to be worth doing.
at this time we are set up with 4 track day organizations we will let our renters use our cars with. some we have no intent on letting our cars be rented to run with.
the 4 I do instructing with so our renters will be either my or Margarita's ( my wife ) students. so with COMSCC we would need an instructor to handle 1st lead shadow and then know how to also go over the data along with us with the student after there run sessions. this would only be for the rush cars and not our MX5's.

[TroyV]

To me, lead - follow depends on the individual. Someone buys a Rush SR and has no performance driving experience at all....I'm a pretty solid "no". I think it would be rare for someone to buy one of those prior to their very first track day, but given some of the choices I have seen with regard to what folks have done in this region, it can never be fully out of the realm of possibility.

I think I may be interested in a rental day as I have interest in these cars, but cannot commit to one unless I can try it out and see if it fits my needs.

[Boondocker850]

To me, lead - follow depends on the individual. Someone buys a Rush SR and has no performance driving experience at all....I'm a pretty solid "no". I think it would be rare for someone to buy one of those prior to their very first track day, but given some of the choices I have seen with regard to what folks have done in this region, it can never be fully out of the realm of possibility.

I think I may be interested in a rental day as I have interest in these cars, but cannot commit to one unless I can try it out and see if it fits my needs.

It’s not a Miata though

[jeffw]

What COM Super Class do these slot into?

[TroyV]

IIRC it was something like 5.8:1

[jeffw]

gasps in *Super Unlimited*

[dtlemoine]

Closed-wheel... Super A baby!!

[962porsche]

we just go back from a week in TX. we spent a day at the factory and a day at MSR Houston test driving the cars.
we are buying two to start with we should get them in June.
a simple and very fast ECU swap will take the cars from ungodly fast to the power of about a 600 or 700CC engine. thus would work great for a novice student as the cars very drivable and do not accelerate anything close to the Rush spec racing tune.
these cars are extremely fast but very easy to drive and very predicable. the brakes are fantastic with only one other car I have ever driven ( LMP challenge ) having brakes this good.
with us not knowing the track at all being our 1st time there this car laps a NP01 easy in a 20 minute run session and passes a Porsche GT3RSR like it's parked. lapped the exige twice the only car that gave the rush any competition would be the P2 car that's a full down force car.
the 2nd half of the day it was just us out on track it would have been nice to see how the cars stacked up agains the other cars as we learned the track more.
if you drive a miata and know how predicable they are you kind of have an idea how these cars are.
my question was how come they didn't use the more powerful GSXR engine. after driving it you quickly know way! there is a thing of to much power and putting it to the ground and this engine in it's spec tune is perfect.
the balance of the cars is just incredible.
we bought the cars fully loaded so it does bring the price up over there base model listed price.

does lead shadow work yes it sure does !
you as the instructor doing lead are setting the base of the student. the student does not set the base. your should be instructing the student over the head sets from car to car. if your seeing the student not following your line 100% you sure in the hell don't speed up you tell the student to shadow you and go slower! this has proven to work and how it's done with Ferrari. at COTA we will be doing over 200MPH in the back straight into a 55 MPH turn. by no means if a student is not following your line 100% do you get up to 200MPH you as the instructor set the base much slower. when it comes to the student taking the lead they have to do at least two run sessions being spot on line for each.
if COMSCC feels the lead shadow format doesn't work then it's best for us not to rent out our cars to run with COMSCC. with all other clubs my wife and I will be doing the instructing. we are not instructors with COMSCC so we would need an instructor/s that have experience with lead shadow and be willing to go over the data with the student for a few minutes after the run session along with us.

[SandyClam]

I wouldn't mind driving one of these beasts myself, but I think using them in our school format with lead/follow is a poor idea, especially for a novice. IMO, I don't know what business any 200mph-capable full-on race car has in Group 4. But you should bring one to an event and run it in group 1, that would be fun to watch!

I've had some good success with lead/follow sessions the past couple of years with my more advanced students, so IMO it's a good tool in the arsenal. But for the kind of events we run, I don't think having a new driver on track in one of these cars, with the wide variety of cars/skill levels we see, as beneficial to anyone. The speed differential is one thing, safety differential another, and most of all, what do you do if someone gets a little red mist? It's not like that ever happens

[paultg]

How loud are these things? Track noise restrictions are getting more difficult.
These are really cool looking.

[breakaway500]

They are about the same sound level as a new motorcycle..minus the catalytic converters. They are smaller than I imagined...seen in person...