#HPDE Instructor

[performancedrivingenthusiast]

HPDE tips – The effect of weight transfer

When you're driving your car on a race track, weight transfer can occur in the longitudinal direction (from front to back or vice versa) and in the lateral direction (from side to side). To elaborate on this principle, let’s imagine a car with very soft suspension. The body of the vehicle leans in the opposite direction, which compresses the suspension on one side and decompresses it on the other. The way mass transfer occurs can either hinder or help on the road or track.

(1) Acceleration – weight transfer to the rear... When you accelerate, the mass of the vehicle shifts to the rear. This compresses the rear suspension and increases the available grip of the rear tires. Rear-wheel-drive vehicles are therefore at an advantage in this scenario. In a front-wheel-drive vehicle, front tire slippage is more likely, so you need to accelerate more gently. Oversteer is caused by a lack of grip on the rear wheels. The rear of the vehicle swings out and rotates excessively. When a front-wheel-drive vehicle experiences oversteer, slight acceleration and the rearward weight transfer can increase the grip on the rear wheels. It is possible to prevent or correct this oversteer situation. For a rear-wheel-drive vehicle in an oversteer situation, more acceleration is rarely the solution, as it may exceed the tires’ grip threshold. Another situation where an inexperienced driver might worsen oversteer is by instinctively lifting off the accelerator suddenly in a corner. This worsens oversteer by unloading the rear of the car, reducing rear tire grip and increasing the risk of losing control. We therefore recommend maintaining light and steady pressure on the accelerator throughout the turn. This keeps consistent load on the rear tires and maintains grip until the end of the corner. If you accelerate too aggressively in a turn, it results in a rearward weight transfer and a reduction in front tire grip. The front of the vehicle will be more inclined to continue straight ahead (understeer) despite your steering input.

(2) Deceleration – weight transfer to the front... If you enter a corner at high speed, turn the wheel, and notice the car tends to go straight, you're experiencing understeer. You can try to correct this by lifting off the accelerator, which will transfer weight to the front and increase grip on the front wheels. If that’s not enough, a slight brake application will transfer even more weight to the front and help reduce or eliminate the understeer. If you brake suddenly and hard, the rear wheels tend to lock up first. The rear brakes require less force because weight is shifting to the front. The rear becoming lighter is also why cars have smaller brake calipers at the rear. Despite this, the rear wheels are still more prone to locking up if you brake too aggressively. This is the main reason why heavy braking in a turn should be avoided — it can lead to wheel lockup, oversteer, and loss of control. To get the best lap times on track, you should complete most of your acceleration and braking in a straight line. A car coasting (neither accelerating nor braking) loses valuable seconds on the stopwatch and won’t be as fast. We advise our participants to transition smoothly from throttle to brake to reduce weight transfer and prevent the car from becoming unbalanced.

(3) Cornering – weight transfer to the opposite side... It’s also important to consider weight transfer during cornering. If you enter a turn gradually, the weight shift to the outer wheels will happen progressively. Since the outer tires do most of the work, the gradual increase in grip helps you take turns at higher speed. On the other hand, if you throw the car into a corner with a sudden steering input, the abrupt weight transfer will destabilize the vehicle and cause a loss of grip. Reminder – Smooth inputs are essential for speed and maintaining control of your vehicle. Don’t hesitate to ask an instructor for advice before pushing your limits on a track you’re discovering for the first time.

HPDE track days at Calabogie Motorsports Park for the 2025 season:

May 10 and 11

June 12 and 13

July 12 and 13

August 7 and 8

September 6 and 7

*** French below this line ***

Effet du transfert de masse.

Lorsque vous conduisez votre voiture, ce transfert peut se produire dans le sens longitudinal (de l'avant vers l'arrière ou vice-versa) et dans le sens latéral (d'un côté à l'autre). Pour expliquer ce principe, imaginons une voiture avec une suspension très molle. La carrosserie du véhicule pivote dans le sens inverse, ce qui comprime la suspension d'un côté et la détend de l'autre côté. La façon dont le transfert de masse se produit nuire ou aider sur la route ou la piste.

(1) Accélération - transfert de masse vers l'arrière ...

Lorsque vous accélérez, la masse du véhicule est projetée vers l'arrière. Cela provoque une compression de la suspension arrière et une augmentation de l'adhérence disponible des pneus arrières. Les véhicules à propulsion arrières sont donc avantagés dans ce scénario. Dans un véhicule à traction avant, le patinage des pneus avant est plus probable donc il faut donc accélérer plus doucement.

Le survirage est causé par un manque d'adhérence sur les roues arrières. L'arrière du véhicule décroche et pivote de façon exagérée. Lorsqu'un véhicule à traction avant fait face à une situation de survirage, une légère accélération et le transfert de masse vers l’arrière augmente l'adhérence disponible aux roues arrières. Il est possible de prévenir ou corriger cette situation de survirage.

Pour un véhicule à propulsion placé dans une situation de survirage, la solution est rarement réglée par une accélération supplémentaire car le seuil d'adhérence des pneus sera dépassé. Il existe une autre situation ou un participant inexpérimenté peut aggraver la situation de survirage ; son instinct de lever le pied de l'accélérateur soudainement lors d'un virage. Cette situation aggravera le cas de sur-virage car l'arrière du véhicule sera allégé. Il y aura alors une réduction d'adhérence des pneus arrières avec probabilité de perte de contrôle. Nous recommandons donc de maintenir une légère et constante pression de l'accélérateur pendant la totalité du virage. Cela permet de garder un appui constant sur les pneus arrières, de façon a maintenir l'adhérence constante jusqu'à la fin du virage.

Si vous accélérez trop brusquement dans un virage, cela se traduira par un transfert de masse vers l'arrière et une réduction d’adhérence des pneus avant. Le devant du véhicule sera plus enclin à continuer en ligne droite (sous-virage) en dépit de la position de votre volant.

(2) Décélération - transfert de masse vers l'avant ...

Si vous défilez à toute allure vers un virage, tournez le volant et constatez que le véhicule est enclin à continuer en ligne droite, vous êtes victime de sous-virage. Vous pouvez essayer de corriger la situation en soulevant le pied de l'accélérateur. Cela se traduira par un transfert de masse vers l'avant du véhicule, ce qui augmentera l'adhérence disponible sur les roues avant. Si cela n'est pas suffisant, un léger appui sur la pédale de frein va transférer encore plus de masse vers l'avant et vous aidez à réduire sinon éliminer votre situation de sous-virage.

Si vous appuyez soudainement et fortement sur la pédale de frein, les roues arrières auront tendance à se bloquer en premier. Il y a une moins grande force requise par vos freins arrières, car le transfert de masse se fait vers l'avant. L'allègement de l'arrière du véhicule est la raison pour laquelle les voitures ont de plus petits étriers de freins à cet endroit. Malgré ce fait, les roues arrières sont toujours les plus susceptibles au verrouillage lorsque vous utilisez les freins trop agressivement. Voilà la principale raison pour laquelle le freinage puissant dans un virage doit être évité. Cela peut entraîner un blocage des roues, un survirage et une perte de contrôle.

Pour obtenir les meilleurs chronos sur la piste, vous devez accomplir la majorité de votre accélération et de freinage en ligne droite. Un véhicule qui roule au point mort (aucune accélération ou freinage) perd de précieuses secondes au chrono et ne sera pas aussi rapide. Nous conseillons à nos participants une transition de l'accélérateur à la pédale de frein en douceur, pour réduire le transfert de masse et prévenir un déséquilibre de la voiture.

(3) Virage - transfert de masse vers le côté opposé ...

Il est aussi important de considérer les transferts de poids dans les virages. Si vous négociez un virage progressivement, le transfert de masse vers les roues extérieures se fera d'une manière progressive. Comme les pneus extérieures font la majorité du travail, l'augmentation progressive de l'adhérence vous aidera à prendre les virages à plus haute vitesse. À l'opposé, si vous projetez la voiture dans un virage avec une manœuvre brusque du volant, le transfert de masse soudain déstabilisera le véhicule et provoquer un décrochage de l'adhérence.

Un rappel - la douceur des manœuvres est de mise pour être rapide et garde le contrôle de votre véhicule.

Journée de Lapping à Calabogie Motorsports Park pour la saison 2025:

10 et 11 mai

12 et 13 juin

12 et 13 juillet

7 et 8 aout

6 et 7 septembre

[motorsportclubofottawa]

Call Out for Lapping/HPDE Instructors

Call Out for Lapping/HPDE Instructors

Are you interested in becoming an Instructor?   The MCO is pleased to offer 15 subsidized spots to candidates to compete The Motorsports Safety Foundation Part 1 Instructor Training.  Please email lapping@mco.org for additional details. In your email, please outline how you will help advance equity, diversity, and inclusion at our HPDE events.  

[hasafraker]

This just wrapped up. I participated in the HPDE Beginner Class, what a stellar event. Shout out to my instructor Connor, I couldn’t have asked for a better instructor. The staff was awesome, as was the event.

[sandhillsporsches]

Fifty cars at CMP yesterday....26 PCA HPDE instructors and instructor candidates participated in the full day instructor qualification/examination.  Very warm, beautiful day.  Thanks to chief instructor, Shane Tisdale, and his team for a very professional exercise....and some good hot laps on track!  Several Sandhills PCA members are at CMP all weekend for the Spring DE event. New CMP owners and management have scheduled June & July to repave the track!

Marty 

[smoothshift]

I went to an HPDE at Circuit of the Americas with the TT2 Exige. via /r/cars

I went to an HPDE at Circuit of the Americas with the TT2 Exige.

So this weekend I got the car back out this time to the home track COTA. I was there just for an HPDE with http://www.edgeaddicts.com/ where I am one of their instructors. This was my students car on Sunday: https://i.imgur.com/2hOEu6S.jpg

I was there with a goal of beating the old track record that I set at Nationals in the fall (2:23.7). A stretch goal is the beat the ST2 qualifying time of 2:20.1 which was set by a slightly detuned BMW GTR.

On saturday on fairly old tires I was able to run a 2:22.5 rolling lap (a full lap with the most optimal start/finish line) and I was excited to try with newer tires on Sunday. I put on the tires from last weekend and despite the fact that it was much hotter sunday I managed a 2:21.7 getting me about half way to my ideal goal and showing that there is a 2:20.9 or so in the car without making any more changes or driving better.

Check out the video here, I posted a longer video this time, but all the interesting stuff is in the first few minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOWeiYKGBSs

If you want to talk Texas track stuff check out www.trackjunkies.org and our discord at https://discordapp.com/invite/PcXZqPU

[yammineyammine]

Yammine: United Car Care Warranty Review – Total Scam

Thinking of buying a United Car Care warranty?

Buyer beware, it’s a total scam.

If you’re buying a used car through a dealership that doesn’t qualify for a Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program, chances are the dealership will try to sell you an aftermarket warranty through a company like United Car Care, aka United Auto Care, aka Automotive Warranty Services, aka Consumer Program Administrators, aka The Warranty Group (they change their name a lot, probably to avoid their reputation catching up to them), claiming it’s “just as good” as a factory warranty.

Depending on your dealership, they’ll also make claims like the warranty will “pay for itself” if anything ever goes wrong.

I fell for this logic twice, first on my B7 S4 (also insured through United Car Care) and again on my TTRS.

Even though I didn’t end up using it on my S4, I figured it would be nice to have that added assurance that if I ever had a very costly repair like a blown motor on my TTRS, which costs over $20,000 from Audi if it were to go out.

It was also a company used by Penske Automotive dealerships for quite some time, and given Penske is a publicly-traded company with a multi-billon dollar market cap, I figured it must be decent…but I figured wrong.

Fast forward to 20 months later, with just 34,000 miles on the odometer and doing nothing unusual, my engine blew.

Initially I was relieved I had purchased that warranty, but my relief quickly turned to regret as I learned that United Car Care was not going to cover the repairs.

I had been scammed.

Not only did United Car Care deny the claim, but they went to shameful efforts to find technicalities to get out of their financial responsibility…and when pressed for detail, they were unwilling to give any detail and told me I could write them a letter and they’d reply in 7-10 business days with any additional detail they felt necessary.

United Car Care only cares about their profits and will do anything they can to get out of a claim, and they go through little effort to hide that.

If you have an issue, you’ll spend hours on the phone getting passed from person to person, each less helpful then the last.

You are then in a bad situation where the cost (and time) of hiring a lawyer is probably more than the expected return, so you have little choice but to eat the cost of the repairs and vow to never be scammed like this again.

You’re also without a car, and each day they drag it on you is one more day you either have to rent a car, miss work, or incur other costs to get by.

If you’re thinking of getting a United Car Care aftermarket warranty read on as to my experience and judge for yourself as to whether this is a company you should do business with.

I for one would never recommend United Car Care to anyone, not even my worst enemies.

My United Car Care Story

I was driving to work on the freeway with cruise control on, doing nothing out of the ordinary.

The Check Engine Light (CEL) comes on, but it was not flashing. I finished driving to work and immediately called the dealership to schedule an appointment for later that day.

I drove the car for the dealership to review, assuming it was something minor like spark plugs or coil packs causing a slight misfire. I had also put a fresh tank of gas in the day before, so perhaps it was just some bad gas passing through.

Regardless, I didn’t think much of this trip to the dealership as I baby my car and it spends the majority of its mileage going back and forth to work at low RPMs.

The dealership diagnosed my car as having low compression in Cylinder 1 and dropped the oil pan to find remnants of a piston and/or piston ring in the pan.

I was disappointed and surprised given how carefully I treat this car, and how low mileage it is (just 34,000 miles on a 2012), but this is exactly why I had purchased an aftermarket car warranty through United Car Care so at first I wasn’t concerned.

My service advisor at Audi San Diego promptly called United Car Care to file a claim, and no one was worried as the engine was clearly covered under the Gold Plan.

Here is a picture of what was found in the oil pan, for what it’s worth:

At this point, it’s obviously something went seriously wrong with the engine mechanically and the dealership recommended a new engine.

A few days go by and I’m informed that due to the size of the claim, United Car Care is sending an adjuster to look at the car themselves before approving the work.

I thought that was odd, but my service advisor said the car needed a new motor which was going to be expensive, so we waited another week for United Car Care to visit and give word back.

My service advisor shared that when United Car Care came to inspect the car, the inspector seemed to be fine with everything and that they expected to hear the claim would be approved soon.

Five long days go by between the adjuster visit and my next call from Audi San Diego, which seemed like a long time.

The reason for this day became painfully clear once I heard from them – they needed more time to dig into my personal life and social media to find an excuse not to pay.

Their in-person inspection didn’t yield any legitimate reasons to deny the claim, so they had to go deeper.

Why did they deny my claim?

Here is the actual letter they mailed me a few weeks after denying the claim.

I’ll dissect both reasons below as they’re both completely absurd and false, and quite frankly shameful.

It’s also interesting they’re using yet another business name in this correspondence, the fourth or fifth business name I’ve come across which is clearly concerning.

Issue #1: They found pictures of me driving my car!

They told the service advisor they were denying the claim due to “racing.”

When pressed for details, they said they found pictures on my Facebook, Flickr, and Blog of me “racing” the car.

Here is an example of one of those pictures:

Why is this absurd?

Here is what the warranty says about racing and how it voids the coverage:

Is used for racing on or off-road, competition, or speed contest.

The car was not racing, the event in question was not a competition, and there was no speed contest.

Furthermore, the picture in question was from 18 months ago, so they’d need to prove that this event resulted in my engine blowing thousands of miles later, which would be a stretch for even the most clever mechanics.

I of course appealed their decision, a process that was made intentionally difficult by United Car Care.

I tried explaining over the phone to them that they were incorrect in their assumption and that the photo(s) in question were not racing but instead a High Performance Drivers Education (HPDE) event in which there was no official timing, no official start, no official standings, and no measurement of speed or trap times.

I even provided a letter from my driving instructor to confirm that the primary function of the event was to learn how to drive the car more safely, but it all fell on deaf ears as they really didn’t care – they just didn’t want to pay.

Even the pictures themselves clearly admonish me – notice the instructor in the passenger seat (something you’d never do in an actual race), the lack of other cars on the race track (pretty weird to have a competition against no one?), the sharp turns in the road (clearly not a speed contest), the lack of timer on the front of the car (how could they tell my speed if they aren’t timing it?), and so-on.

Instead, they found a picture from 18 months ago and used that as their “smoking gun” to get out of their financial and contractual obligations.

Furthermore, even if I were racing (and I wasn’t), one race nearly a year and half ago wouldn’t cause an engine to fail. The law under them Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act makes it clear that deny a claim they have to show how the violation clearly contributed to the engine failure and that warranty companies can’t find arbitrary reasons to deny claims.

Under this logic they could find a picture of anyone driving fast and claim it was a race, and anyone who takes their car to any car shows, events, or has their car photographed in any way is at extreme risk of having their claim denied.

The worst part is how violated I felt, knowing they spent 5 days looking for dirt on me online.

I didn’t even think of taking down any blog posts, pictures, social media posts, etc. as I didn’t (and still don’t) think I have anything to hide.

I still believe the one (and only) event I took my car to a closed course did not violate their terms and conditions, and none of the modifications I did to my car (all of which are detailed on this site!) are also within their guidelines.

Issue #2: the engine blew because of Michelin tires?

They also mentioned they took issue with me replacing the OEM wheels and tires with upgraded ones.

To be fair, their warranty does say you cannot use “oversized / undersized tires / wheels” but even when I was able to show them they are the EXACT same size tires and wheels as OEM, they were unwilling to admit responsibility that they made an error.

The car was originally equipped with 19×9 wheels with 255/35/19 tires, and the aftermarket setup I have is the exact same specifications and sizes which is extremely easy to verify as the tire size is printed right on the sidewall.

Instead of admitting they messed up, they tried to pivot and say because the current tires are Michelin Pilot Sport (a DOT-approved street tire) and the OE tires were Continentals, that it was clear I was racing the vehicle or that the new tires somehow were a violation of their agreement.

This is completely absurd, and a clear sign of how desperate they were to not honor the warranty.

Audi uses the Michelin Pilot Sport tire on many of their cars straight from the factory, and the difference between the Continental and Michelin is negligible at best (both are around the same UTQG rating, both are summer performance street tires, etc.).

Interestingly enough they added in new language “not otherwise recommended by the manufacturer” that was not in my service contract with them, which is both illegal and laughable.

As mentioned before, Audi equips Michelin tires on countless of their cars including their top of the line R8.

Audi even lists Michelin as an approved tire on their Audi Tire Center website, which can be viewed here: https://www.auditirecenter.com/

To allege that Audi would not otherwise recommend Michelin tires is a claim so ridiculous that it can only be construed as bad faith, but in my opinion it was completely malicious and a sign of a clearly corrupt company doing anything and everything they can to wiggle out of a claim.

The United Car Care Appeal Process Is a Joke

At this point it was obvious they were scrambling to deny the claim, grasping at straws.

Neither of their reasons for denying the claim made any sense nor would they pass muster to any reasonable jury or third party.

Upon calling them to appeal the decision, they transferred me from one rep to another rep. After 45 minutes of that, I finally got a “manager” who said they were unwilling to speak with me further and I can appeal the decision in writing to their PO box in Chicago, at which point they will reply by mail to me 7-10 business days later.

I also recorded all of the calls so you can hear how condescending and unhelpful they were that I’m happy to share with any media contacts that would be interested.

Regardless, they knew that in the meantime I had no running car to get back and forth to work, and a rental would cost $20/day while I played a game of snail mail with them that was likely to last the better part of the month.

They also knew that if I were to call a lawyer, the retainer just to get a basic settlement would be $2,000 or more, and if it went to court the lawyer would work on a contingency basis and take 40% of the proceeds. They also knew that even for a $20,000 claim to replace an engine, most lawyers wouldn’t take this on because of how much work it’d be.

Nonetheless, I did find a lawyer who said I had a 99% chance of winning it.

The lawyer I spoke to deals with insurance and warranty claims all of the time, and informed me this was incredibly common in the industry. He said that many unscrupulous companies (like United Car Care) will always try to deny it first as they have nothing to lose, knowing 90% or more of buyers will just eat the cost and move on rather than spend the time and money to hire a lawyer and try to fight it in court.

Companies like United Car Care know the system is rigged in their favor, and they exploit people like you and me to make amazing profits.

Want further proof they knew they were in the wrong?

As I continued to fight them, they agreed to refund the warranty purchase price in full.

Not a pro-rated amount based on how much time was left in the contract (as they’d be legally required to do) but the FULL AMOUNT.

It was a clear admission they knew they were in the wrong, and knew it would effectively cancel the contract and eliminate any legal risks for me to pursue them in court.

They knew they needed to cover their butt since I had proven their denial was flimsy at best, and even then they tried to find the cheapest way out which was to refund the purchase price of the warranty, a mere 10% of the actual cost it would take to do the repairs.

Here is the check they cut, if there is any doubt:

I was only able to get this to them by appealing through the Penske dealership I bought the car from, and thankfully since Penske sells so many of these warranties they have negotiating power that I don’t.

Without my dealership helping out, I would have gotten nothing from them.

While I think Penske should seriously reconsider their relationship with United Car Care, I don’t hold any ill-will towards Penske or the specific dealership that sold me their warranty at the moment.

I asked United Car Care what their official relationship was with Penske, as I noticed they had been named on multiple lawsuits together, but United Car Care and Penske both claimed they there is no official relationship (i.e. Penske does not own United Car Care), and instead Penske uses United Car Care as a vendor/partner.

Penske, if you’re reading this, I urge you to end sending United Car Care any business.

At the very least, you should seriously consider alternative vendors, or better yet create your own warranty program that can only be used at other Penske dealerships which is probably a good business model to consider. This is what CarMax does and it seems to be pretty successful.

Conclusion

In summary, my motor blew with just 34,000 miles on it. United Car Care denied the claim because they found some pictures of me driving the car on a closed course. They also apparently have a thing against Michelin tires.

Their appeal process was beyond ridiculous, and even when they were proven wrong they refused to admit any fault or change their decision. If you have any issues with them whatsoever, the best outcome you can hope for is to get a refund on your warranty.

If the entire point of a warranty is protect against the worst case scenario, then this warranty is completely worthless. You’re better off not buying the warranty, putting the purchase price in a high yield savings account, and then paying for any repairs out of pocket when the time comes – you’ll save countless hours of dealing with their inept & corrupt customer service representations, and you’ll have earned some interest so you’ll actually have more money to cover the repairs than otherwise.

Personally, I’m out a considerable amount of money and time from this purchase.

I’m not asking for anyone’s money or pity, instead I’m only asking one thing:

Do not, under any circumstances, buy a United Car Care warranty for your car!

If you are buying a car soon, or know anyone who is, please send them this link and warn them against United Car Care (or whatever name they’re doing business with at the time).

If you know anyone at Penske or have ever bought a car from one of their dealerships before, please send them this link.

Due to how poorly UCC treated me throughout this entire ordeal, I want to do everything in my power to stop them from scamming other car owners. As long as Penske (and other dealerships) are selling their contracts, United Car Care will continue to get away with this.

You see, people like you and me aren’t even United Car Care’s customers, the dealerships are, so United Car Care doesn’t even care that I’m unhappy – they just need to keep Penske (and other dealerships happy) so they continue to resell their products.

I’m fortunate that I can cover the repairs out of pocket (and found a shop that could actually rebuild the motor for far less), but I can’t imagine how many others out there could not afford this and could lose their income, job, home, or health over this.

Please share this post on social media, email it to your friends, or leave me a comment below.

Every little bit helps spread the word on how awful United Car Care really is.

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[idreamofdriving]

The beginning

This blog will be dedicated to my track driving experiences. I have loved motorsports, particularly auto road course racing, since I was a small child. I was able to do my first official track day this past weekend (6/16/18) at Road Atlanta. I started out in HPDE 1, like most others, and had an excellent instructor in Roy Parsons. I used my daily driver, a 2017 VW GTI at the event and it did pretty well considering it was on factory tires and brake pads. Only mods to date are an APR stage 1 (low torque) ECU tune, APR carbon fiber intake system, GFB DV+ diverter valve and Motul 600 brake fluid. 

Some takeaways from anyone considering doing their first track event:

1. Trust your instructor. They did not just happen to be there that day. These guys know what they’re doing and want to help you develop into a fast and safe driver. I’m pretty sure that I will never forget my instructor. 

2. DOT (full-face sport bike helmets) may be legal, but you have to have this intercom piece in your helmet to talk with the instructor on track. It was incredibly painful for me and the intercom piece jammed into my ear to the point it was distracting. I ended up buying the cheapest SA rated helmet sold by my new friends at Discovery Parts. Apparently many SA rated helmets have a little gap in the ear area for these intercoms. 

3. Get track day insurance. I used Hagerty, but there is no way I could have pushed as hard as I did with confidence without this. A very new (2017 or 2018) Corvette had a spin turn 11 with our group and had minor damage (he was lucky that it wasn’t far worse). 

4. Respect your car. I knew I had to drive back home, so I was short shifting to keep temperatures and stress on the car down in the final sessions on Sunday. Unless you’re an F1 driver, we can all still learn something by focusing on smooth transitions and line mastery. My last session, I shifted at 4500 rpm (redline is 7100) and was only 1.8 seconds off of my fastest lap of the weekend. My oil temperatures got really high and I had to cut one session short because the dual-clutch gearbox overheated and the car went into limp mode. 

5. Watch your tires, brakes, and fuel. I separated these from point 4, because I didn’t feel like these were actual abuses of the powertrain. 

- fuel: pay attention to how much your car is using and know the size of your tank. I lost 10ish minutes of track time because I started a session with more than 1/4 of a tank, but received a sudden notification of 0 miles until empty. Your car’s fuel estimates are often based on driving habits so I did not get a warning for 30 miles, 20 miles, etc that I usually do in normal driving. I typically get 25-30mpg and averaged 7.6 mpg at the track.

- brakes: by Sunday afternoon, my factory pads were done. I had 8000 miles on the factory pads, but there is now well under 25%. Get track day friendly pads.

- tires: I was using factory all-season tires. I could push hard for 1.5-2 laps before they became too hot and really lost a lot of grip. My instructor recommended 200 or maybe even 100 treadwear tires. Do not use R-compounds if you are just starting out as they do not give the cautionary feedback of street tires. 

6. There are always faster cars and faster drivers. Learn from the latter. It can always be humbling to yield to lower power cars, but if you follow them through the turns and watch their lines, you just might learn something to help you develop. 

7. Try not to get frustrated with the traffic. Trains (strings of cars that you are not allowed to pass, but may be faster than) do form. We are all learning together, but not all at the same rate. It was hard for me not to get frustrated with this. Check your mirrors, back off the car in front of you, and let some clear track come to you. The longer the session goes on, the better chance that these will clear up. 

This will probably be mostly a stream-of-consciousness type blog, so... you’ve been warned. 

I’m working on editing the GoPro videos from the event down and will post them soon. 

[motorsportclubofottawa]

MCO 2022 Lapping Instructors - Call for Volunteers

MCO 2022 Lapping Instructors – Call for Volunteers

The Motorsports Club of Ottawa is issuing a call for Instructors for our upcoming HPDE days at Calabogie Motorsports Park If you are experienced working with Novice Drivers please email lapping@mco.org for additional details.  Instructors can work one or all of the days, and will be provided with track time as a thank-you.

[motorsportclubofottawa]

MCO at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant!

MCO at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant!

For years, many lapping participants have expressed interest in attending an HPDE event at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant.  This year, we have an event for you, thanks to BMW Club of Quebec!  This event, on July 25th, is an ideal way to experience this incredible track with familiar faces.

MCO will be providing a number of instructors to work with the BMW Club,  Those instructors will be assigned to…

[smoothshift]

Finally got my Cayman GT4 to the track (Texas Motorsport Ranch, 3.1-mi)... via /r/cars

Finally got my Cayman GT4 to the track (Texas Motorsport Ranch, 3.1-mi)...

I've wondered why I've never seen many track experience posts on here (especially since I can't seem to find a decent track sub in my half-assed searching), but in my endless vanity, I've decided to share my track experience with you all in the hopes that you enjoy it and think I'm kinda cool.

I finally got moved up to the advanced run group with my HPDE group during this event. W00t! Moving up is not only nice because of the ego stroking but because drivers are mercifully faster and more aware of their surroundings (meaning better about passing). This is my first solo session in the advanced group, and the first session where I got Harry's Lap Timer "working"... only "working" because I couldn't figure out how to calibrate the accelerometer in landscape mode, which is why the G-meter is out of whack, nor could I get steering or braking inputs to display, nor could I integrate with my external GoPro helmet camera =(. The last 3-5 minutes are just the cool down lap and pulling into the paddock, so the video isn't quite as long as it appears:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjSUE2DrkXs

(yes, my phone had a focus problem with all the splattered bugs and melted rubber on my windshield)

And here is the aforementioned GoPro helmet cam video. I didn't get as many clean laps as I'd hoped here, but I found a couple decent ones... then in the last couple minutes, for entertainment value, I edited in clips from all the weekend "drama' (spins, fun sideways trips, etc). For some reason, sound is quite a bit more muffled on the GP with the internal mic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc92cH9ZSIw

It's amazing how much of a difference it makes watching videos after/before track visits. There are so many obvious places where I can pick up speed that I just don't easily realize while I'm in the moment. I'm braking way too soon before the rattlesnake, for example, and can be more aggressive on the throttle over the hill (the "leap of faith"). I'm also not sold on this short-shifting that my instructor recommended.

Some pics: http://ift.tt/2BhEcHh

What do you guys think about the camera viewpoints? Helmet or "dashcam" view?

[smoothshift]

First track experience at Hyperfest 2017 via /r/cars

First track experience at Hyperfest 2017

This past weekend i went to Hyperfest 2017 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. I had previously decided to participate in a "hyperdrive" which is a super short version of an HPDE event. I wasn't fully ready to commit to a full day of tracking since i was going to the event with friends, and I wanted to see what it would be like before doing a whole day and spending all of that money.

Alas i did have to pick up a SNELL helmet because none of my motorcycle helmets were snell rated. The classroom section was very short and to the point, and I was very nervous when my instructor jumped in the car with me and we were about to take off.

First couple of laps on the Patriot Course at VIR were a real learning curve of making sure to brake late, hit the apex and accelerate out. The instructor was really good to push me and my car (2016 VW GTI-stock) and by the end of the ~12 laps i was really getting the hang of it.

I am definitely going to have to do a full day of HPDE at some point in the future now. video for anybody who cares https://youtu.be/Mj0jnzlNKVQ. Definitely felt faster than it looked, and this was towards the beginning of the laps. Oh, and i was glad that the only person who passed me was a late 90's 3-series BMW with a damn Corvette V8 swap and racing slicks for tires.

[motorsportclubofottawa]

Announcing our new Chief Instructors It is with pleasure that the club introduces Andre Corriveau and Guy Parent as our team of Chief Instructors for our Lapping and HPDE events.