This past Monday Aug 18 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) in Loudon was my second HPDE event with the '05 Mustang. My first was at Lime Rock Park (LRP) in CT last November. The LRP event did end up well, but I was a bundle of nerves leading up to it, because I was really worried about wrecking. The anxiety just added to the adrenaline rush, however, and the whole day was just an incredibly exciting experience, and basically a total blast!

So, I went into this second event with less anxiety and a lot more confidence, despite it being a new track that I had never seen before. I was still in the Novice group with about 20 other drivers, but judging from a show of hands in the preliminary classroom, about half of them were at their first track day. There were four 20-minute track sessions with classroom sessions in between.

The NHMS road course is a 1.6 mile layout utilizing part of the NASCAR oval, with nice elevation changes and 11 turns total. It's a tighter, slower course than LRP, however, and takes roughly 20 seconds more per lap. My instructor was Miguel Aponte-Rios, who drives a fully race-prepped BMW M roadster for HMS Motorsports. He recently scored a pole position for some race he was in at the NHMS road course track. Anyway, he drove the first two laps of the first session relatively slowly to show me the proper line. I say "relatively slowly" because anyone who has been at an HPDE event knows this means a lot harder and more aggressive than normal street driving. I spent most of the first session (about 10 laps) trying to memorize the track and exploring the limits of each turn. Miguel gave me an earpiece/microphone setup that slipped inside the helmet and was awesome - he would tell me when I screwed up and missed the line or braking point, and also tell me when I nailed it. Each successive session during the day was better than the last, and by the last session I was hearing a lot of "you nailed that one" in the earpiece.

The first event at LRP was awesome and something I'll never forget as long as I live, but like the subject says, this second time was even better. I wasn't nearly as nervous, and therefore was more able to simply enjoy it. And I was a much better driver this time - at LRP I only passed one car (an Infiniti G35 who pointed me by twice), while I got passed by a Mazdaspeed3 (yes, that was humbling ) - while this time at NHMS I got point-byes at least 10 times (Scion, Porsche 928, Corvette, and BMW sedan from what I remember), while only getting passed twice (a Z06 and a spec Miata).

I'm still running a stock 5-speed GT (the only mod is a Hurst short-throw shifter), which is an adequate track car as is, but NHMS has a lot more braking and tighter turns than LRP, and was noticeably harder on the tires and brakes. The brakes never really gave up, but they did begin to fade a bit by the end of the last two sessions when I was really driving and braking harder.

My car is a daily driver and always will be. The serious HPDE guys will definitely want to upgrade the front brake pads at the very least, and probably swap the all-season tires for a set of Toyo RA-1 tires or something similar. I still consider myself a casual HPDE guy hoping to do perhaps one event per year, but I will probably upgrade to Hawk HPS pads before my next event nonetheless, since this the stock brakes' shortcomings were a lot more evident at the tighter NHMS track. But I think for someone who wants to try a road course event for the first time, it can be done with a bone-stock GT, and then they can decide how serious they want to get, and how much money they want to spend.

 

Sounds like a really great day. I love the track (I raced track on motorcycles) and will be look into something similar out here in CA. In fact, I started a thread about track days in California that no one responded to.

SoCal Trackday Information Thread...

Anyways, congratulations on your second event, I'm glad you had a memorable time.

 

Awesome. I want to do this myself. Maybe next summer.

 

The stock brake pads are listed as using an organic friction material. Almost anything is better than organic, but you're going to have more squeal and dust with metallic pads. The Bullitt is supposed to get Performance Friction Carbon Metallic front brake pads.

 

A couple other things I forgot to mention:

1. In the classroom session before the track session, the instructor recommended leaving driver aids like traction control and stability control turned ON. It turned out to be fine for me leaving the TCS on, as it never got in the way. I was able to to throttle-oversteer through the 2nd gear Turn 3 with the rear end hanging out, and the TCS never interfered.

2. I reset the message center computer when entering the track, so I would know the on-track fuel mileage, total miles driven, etc. I ended up getting 7.8 mpg while on the track! On the trip to the track, pretty much all highway, I averaged 27.1 mpg.

 

I'm going to Gingerman raceway at the end of August.

Should be fun.

 

Sounds like a blast, I'm always jealous reading about HPDE's. If you don't mind me asking, what was the cost for your track day?

 

HPDE? High Performance Driving Experience??? Right? If so, I plan on going to one with other cars, exotics mostly, when I get back from Iraq.

http://worldclassdriving.com/

This will be in Daytona Beach on like January 18th or something like that. I don't remember. But I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to get home and go there. How cool is that going to be? Anyone else done anything like this? Pics? I know I'll have a ton when I'm done.

 

I am surprised about the traction control being left on.

My uncle is a BMWCCA instructor and at most events they instruct everyone to turn off the tcs on most cars that do not have it as a performance aid.

The idea is that if you start coming around out of a corner sometimes you want to be able to dip into the throttle a little and counter steer rather that have the PCM cut throttle on you.

If it was stability control/tcs then I can see leaving it on. But I am unsure about the intelligence of the tcs on our cars sometimes.

 

Me too.Tell us more.
I have got to get involved in this.
The NH track is less than an hour from my house.

 

dident have to read to find out your in CT i seen the plate colors...... what part of ct? i grew up in waterbury

 

Time to join us in the Autocross and Road Racing subforum

 

This one cost $250. The club I went with was the Sports Car Driving Association. There's a FAQ and an upcoming schedule on their site.

The one gray area no one seems to have definitive answers for is insurance. Some policies apparently explicitly state that they won't cover any damage sustained at a race track. Other guys say their insurance agents told them as long as it's a non-competitive event, and it's considered "instruction," then they would cover damage. I can tell you from attending two of these events that they do indeed get competitive, even though it is not racing. Let's face it, no Mustang owner wants to get passed by a Mazdaspeed3 or a car like that, but if you don't push the Mustang and there's a good driver in the Mazda, you will get passed. It's not all about horsepower on a road course, especially a tight track like New Hampshire. But I wouldn't dwell on the possibility of damage either - in two events with roughly 100 cars at each, I've only seen two cars sustain damage, and one was rather minor.

 

You absolutely do want to steer with the throttle, and the Mustang's TCS will let you do that. I was skeptical too, but left it on like they recommended, and was still able to swing the rear around with throttle - in fact I had to feather the throttle on the 2nd gear turn because it started to oversteer a bit too much.

Of course it was just a recommendation - you could always switch it off if you feel it's getting in the way. And it was a recommendation for the Novice group, where the focus is safety and the goal is leaving the track with the same shiny paint you drove in with.

 

I gotta get me a new hat.

Mine is older than SN95