jaym3smg
08-06-2007, 07:03 PM
So I went to the lapping day at Shannonville today that was put on by Image Motorsports. Was a decent day, there were a LOT of Civic's there accompanied by Integra's & RSX's. If anyone's interested here are my general thoughts. FYI I have only attended a Fastlaps before this.
1) There was no drivers meeting or discussing of the rules. This of course led to some confusion as to the passing policy as well as general behavior. I preferred the Fastlaps version.
2) Passing was open, using hand signal OR blinker to indicate. HOWEVER some people decided that they didn't want to wait for signals and passed anyway on straights. Not I guess the worst place to pass but not courteous IMO.
3) A good number of the drivers were not experienced which is not an issue, but without a drivers meeting beforehand it leads to problems. Many drivers drove way beyond their capabilities and as such wiped out. I myself witnessed 6 ppl go off the track, several times in some cases. In another case I signaled I was pitting in and a guy took it to mean to pass on that side (the left). That almost ended poorly.
4) There was definitely a larger 'show off' quotient. For example, one guy pulled into the pits next to his friends and pulled in behind me, and came damn close to hitting my car cause he came in so fast, but he braked real hard and came about a foot from my bumper. He backed up and had a good laugh with his friends. If looks could kill... I wasn't impressed.
Personal lessons:
1) I know what a BMW Low Brake Indicator Lamp looks like now :)
2) Don't do 20-25 more laps after the indicator goes on or you'll have no pad left. Guess how I know...
3) Made a great improvement in my lapping from what I learned at Fastlaps, had some of the instructors' lessons going through my head like Obi Wan Kenobi through the force, lol.
4) Having no confidence in my brakes wasn't a good feeling at all. Its hard to really give it in the straights wondering if your brakes will work when you need to slow down. Never again. I'll always have a spare set of pads OR I will make sure I have lots of pad left. I didn't know how fast pads wore and thought 4mm would be fine (as 3mm is the warning limit). Wow, was I wrong.
I would go again but I'll probably recommend to the organizer a drivers meeting beforehand to make sure people are aware of how things work. I found that very helpful at Fastlaps.
And I am SOOO looking forward to my SS brake lines. I am putting my new pads on tomorrow.
-J
1) There was no drivers meeting or discussing of the rules. This of course led to some confusion as to the passing policy as well as general behavior. I preferred the Fastlaps version.
2) Passing was open, using hand signal OR blinker to indicate. HOWEVER some people decided that they didn't want to wait for signals and passed anyway on straights. Not I guess the worst place to pass but not courteous IMO.
3) A good number of the drivers were not experienced which is not an issue, but without a drivers meeting beforehand it leads to problems. Many drivers drove way beyond their capabilities and as such wiped out. I myself witnessed 6 ppl go off the track, several times in some cases. In another case I signaled I was pitting in and a guy took it to mean to pass on that side (the left). That almost ended poorly.
4) There was definitely a larger 'show off' quotient. For example, one guy pulled into the pits next to his friends and pulled in behind me, and came damn close to hitting my car cause he came in so fast, but he braked real hard and came about a foot from my bumper. He backed up and had a good laugh with his friends. If looks could kill... I wasn't impressed.
Personal lessons:
1) I know what a BMW Low Brake Indicator Lamp looks like now :)
2) Don't do 20-25 more laps after the indicator goes on or you'll have no pad left. Guess how I know...
3) Made a great improvement in my lapping from what I learned at Fastlaps, had some of the instructors' lessons going through my head like Obi Wan Kenobi through the force, lol.
4) Having no confidence in my brakes wasn't a good feeling at all. Its hard to really give it in the straights wondering if your brakes will work when you need to slow down. Never again. I'll always have a spare set of pads OR I will make sure I have lots of pad left. I didn't know how fast pads wore and thought 4mm would be fine (as 3mm is the warning limit). Wow, was I wrong.
I would go again but I'll probably recommend to the organizer a drivers meeting beforehand to make sure people are aware of how things work. I found that very helpful at Fastlaps.
And I am SOOO looking forward to my SS brake lines. I am putting my new pads on tomorrow.
-J