I tracked my car at a performance driving school this past weekend at Texas World Speedway in College Station this is a road course 2.9mi long with 14 turns. What an experience, I can now honestly say, this car is awesome. I�ve been wanting to see how the car would perform when pushed to it�s limits ever since I got it. I�m a safe driver on the street, so I saved it for the track. This was my first time to drive on a track, so I was in the rookie green group. I had four 25 minute sessions Saturday and Sunday with an instructor. We had class time in between sessions which was very helpful, I must say that I learned a lot. My instructor had a little 140hp Miata MX5 that he took me on some hot laps in and was very impressed with his skill.

BTW - My G is bone stock�.
I was very impressed with car�s handling, very little body roll and the brakes are very strong, no fade what so ever. Brake dust was minimal, so it seems Nissan has the old brake problem under control. I was running the stock Bridgestone�s with 35psi front & 35psi rear. This was probably way too soft up front, because the car had a tendency to under steer or push in the turns. Next time I will probably run closer to 37-39 psi in the fronts. The Bridgestone tires are super sticky when hot and the grip is A+ IMO for a street tire. Since this was my first time, I ran in DS mode with VDC on. I didn�t have to worry about shifting and could concentrate more on my line. I didn�t notice the VDC at all, and I�m sure it kicked in many times, the system seems very unobtrusive, probably saved me a few times without me even knowing it. The rear end never got loose. The car is super stable at >120mph no shudder or shimmy what so ever.

The car had no trouble keeping up with just about everyone in the green group through the turns. But just couldn�t match the raw speed from the Porsche, Corvettes, and BMW�s in long straight away. I realize I have a lot to learn, but overall it was very educational weekend and one I will never forget. If you want to have some fun going fast legally I recommend taking your G to a performance driving school.

 

Awesome... I'd love to do an event like that.

Road course > 1/4 mile

 

Awesome, that's nice. I wish I could do that as well. It must be a good rush all the way.

 

It was very exciting and now I think I now have the bug. I plan on going up to TWS this weekend to see my buddy run his '07 G35S. He couldn't make it last weekend so he had to wait an extra week to track his car. Maybe I can catch a hot lap with one of the instructors.

Check out these links.... FTW

http://hart-photography.com/photocar...ewImage=301466

Not Me....

http://hart-photography.com/photocar...ewImage=302338

 

Cool - I did the same thing at Motor Sports Ranch in Dallas. Had a great time, glad you did too.

 

Why do you tape your head lights? The track is paved isn't it?

 

Even though the track is paved, minor debris is still around and you're usually close to the other cars. Easy to get a rock through the headlight etc.

 

man the s2000 in the youtube vid is crazy fast

 

Damn man, that looks like some serious fun. Being able to do 120+ legally just puts the icing on the cake.

 

Knowing personally how terrible our stock pads are once up to track temperatures, I'm curious to hear which race pad you ran.

Fade was a HUGE issue after repeated stops for me! Sucks that there was not a race pad available for my last event.

Also what were the track temps? We were sitting around 105 on the main straight, and after three-four lpps my Bridgestones greased over and offered little to no grip. I would like to blame it on temperature, but this tire has never been highly regarded for HPDEs.

 

Not trying to ***** this thread, but my experience was: Air temp was about 87 degrees, the track was mostly tight turns with two adjoining straights (terminal speed of about 100 at the end, into a tightening right-hander.

I ran stock pads, and experienced zero brake fade; brakes were strong and controllable throughout.

Also experienced good results with the tires, they weren't fantastic but quite good. Slip lights came on through the twisties called Rattlesnake, speeds were high enough in the other turns that the G was either balanced or understeering (especially on the off-camber, elevation-change turn called Boot Hill...)



Here's the link to the track: http://www.motorsportranch.com/1.7-road-course.cfm

 

I'll chime in on this as well...

I was running the sport rotors and brakes and experienced no fade or soft pedal at all. The track temp was pretty cool, air temp was in the mid 70's so track was probably in the low to mid 80's. The stock Bridgestones I ran had around 8750 gentle miles on em. With a tread wear of 140 they have pretty soft rubber and atomize in every turn. I think my biggest problem was that I ran too low a pressure in the fronts. Next time I'm going to play with tire pressure more to see if I can get the car to handle better in the turns. Your right, the tires grip great for the first few laps, but then you can really feel em go away. What tire pressures were you running?

When I ran the hot laps with my instructor, I found he could make that little Miata track through corners like it was on rails. Lighter car + racing tires make a big difference.

 

how much did it set you back to do something like this?

 

From what I know, track time isnt cheap

 

2 days at the track, 8 - 25 minute sessions w/instructor and class time + helmet rental $315 + ~30 gal of 93O gas $100+ 2 nights in hotel $130 + food and water ~$60 (2 plp).

So all together the weekend cost me around $600, and worth every penny I might add.