First Official Track Day at Texas World Speedway!!!
Discussion
Hello All,
I'm pleased to announce my first track day in the Ultima at the Texas World Speedway this past weekend. It was a HUGE success! I've sort of been lurking around since this forum started. Bought a Sports kit back in 1998. Spent about 5-6 years building the car and haven't driven it or really even looked at in a year. Went through a bit of a bad divorce and got turned off by the car. I built this car with the intention of doing track days and having a car that was street legal. I'd sort of forgotten about the car to tell you the truth, but my new girlfriend bought me a trackday weekend as a Christmas gift. Really blew my mind. I was really shocked. So I spent the entire month preparing the car and going over everything with a fine tooth comb. It still ran which was the first good sign! Rechecked the suspension alignment, bump steer, installed spring spacers, went with different spring rates, replaced a torn driveshaft boot, and replaced all the fluids. I probably spent the most time on the suspension. Ended up with zero toe at front and 2mm at the rears on either side. I also managed to stuff a 245/35/17 front tire on the car, and found a 3mm nylon spacer for the steering rack from Pegasus Auto Racing. I then rented a Uhaul car tow trailer on Friday and spent 4 hours loading the car with a lot of 2x8 boards. Had to have a couple people help me unload it at the track at 7 am on Saturday morning. Word of caution to other guys here in the states thinking of towing their cars, don't rent a uhaul trailer! Not worth the risk involved with damaging the car. I had to raise up the suspension quite a bit to get it on there. There were about 50 cars at the track day and we were divided up into 4 groups. I was in the green group with the rest of the turtles. I had two days with six 25 minute sessions each day. I had a fantastic instructor who held several lap records at the track with various classes of car. I spent the weekend learning the line and focused on being smooth. Stayed in 3rd and 4th gear the entire time and got up to around 120mph down the long straight. A race prepped M3 was hitting 130mph so I felt ok about this. I wasn't exactly going through the last turn all that fast anyway. Then the instructor would drive and show me what smooth really felt like! I don't know how fast we were going but we pretty well blew by everything in front of us. He was a really incredible driver. While I was driving I did get passed by a z06 and then thought to myself that I couldn't let a Z06 do that to an Ultima. So I closed the gap from 15 car lengths to 7 or 8 pretty quickly down the straight right afterwards. ha.
All in all, I'd have to say that this is by far the best weekend I've ever had! The car is simply amazing. I drifted through several corners and the car felt very well balanced. No understeer or oversteer. Very neutral and well behaved. A few times I got caught off gaurd b/c I could feel that I was going quickly through the corners but didn't know how quickly until I realized both front and rear tires were squeeling. Sensational feeling. The only mishap I had was that I lost 3 header bolts and developed a bad exhaust leak on Sunday and had to retire early. I also found out I'd only been driving on 7 cylinders on my last two sessions. Forgot to connect my spark plug boot back on when I checked my #1 plug. Doh... Ha. OH yeah, and my instructor intentionally let me carry too much speed through a two turn corner to show me what that felt like. Then he pointed out all the places on the track that I didn't want to do that at!
I really can't imagine owning an Ultima and not taking it to the track. I guess we all have our own opinions on that matter, but this car really comes alive out there. Not to mention I met so many nice people! Just about everyone came to visit and find out more about the car. A few potential buyers who really loved seeing one of these cars in person. They told me it sounded fantastic going down the long straight. Big American V8!
So I loved this past weekend so much, that I've decided to rent a garage at the track and keep the car there! Sure its 6 hours away, but this gives me more excuse to go see it and visit.
This car is much more capable than I am. The driver is the limiting factor in my car. I think it was pretty well understood by everyone that this was going to be a really fast car once I became a better driver.
Just thought I would share this wonderful experience with you all. Now I've got to get this stuff on video!
Cheers!
-Mack
I'm pleased to announce my first track day in the Ultima at the Texas World Speedway this past weekend. It was a HUGE success! I've sort of been lurking around since this forum started. Bought a Sports kit back in 1998. Spent about 5-6 years building the car and haven't driven it or really even looked at in a year. Went through a bit of a bad divorce and got turned off by the car. I built this car with the intention of doing track days and having a car that was street legal. I'd sort of forgotten about the car to tell you the truth, but my new girlfriend bought me a trackday weekend as a Christmas gift. Really blew my mind. I was really shocked. So I spent the entire month preparing the car and going over everything with a fine tooth comb. It still ran which was the first good sign! Rechecked the suspension alignment, bump steer, installed spring spacers, went with different spring rates, replaced a torn driveshaft boot, and replaced all the fluids. I probably spent the most time on the suspension. Ended up with zero toe at front and 2mm at the rears on either side. I also managed to stuff a 245/35/17 front tire on the car, and found a 3mm nylon spacer for the steering rack from Pegasus Auto Racing. I then rented a Uhaul car tow trailer on Friday and spent 4 hours loading the car with a lot of 2x8 boards. Had to have a couple people help me unload it at the track at 7 am on Saturday morning. Word of caution to other guys here in the states thinking of towing their cars, don't rent a uhaul trailer! Not worth the risk involved with damaging the car. I had to raise up the suspension quite a bit to get it on there. There were about 50 cars at the track day and we were divided up into 4 groups. I was in the green group with the rest of the turtles. I had two days with six 25 minute sessions each day. I had a fantastic instructor who held several lap records at the track with various classes of car. I spent the weekend learning the line and focused on being smooth. Stayed in 3rd and 4th gear the entire time and got up to around 120mph down the long straight. A race prepped M3 was hitting 130mph so I felt ok about this. I wasn't exactly going through the last turn all that fast anyway. Then the instructor would drive and show me what smooth really felt like! I don't know how fast we were going but we pretty well blew by everything in front of us. He was a really incredible driver. While I was driving I did get passed by a z06 and then thought to myself that I couldn't let a Z06 do that to an Ultima. So I closed the gap from 15 car lengths to 7 or 8 pretty quickly down the straight right afterwards. ha.
All in all, I'd have to say that this is by far the best weekend I've ever had! The car is simply amazing. I drifted through several corners and the car felt very well balanced. No understeer or oversteer. Very neutral and well behaved. A few times I got caught off gaurd b/c I could feel that I was going quickly through the corners but didn't know how quickly until I realized both front and rear tires were squeeling. Sensational feeling. The only mishap I had was that I lost 3 header bolts and developed a bad exhaust leak on Sunday and had to retire early. I also found out I'd only been driving on 7 cylinders on my last two sessions. Forgot to connect my spark plug boot back on when I checked my #1 plug. Doh... Ha. OH yeah, and my instructor intentionally let me carry too much speed through a two turn corner to show me what that felt like. Then he pointed out all the places on the track that I didn't want to do that at!
I really can't imagine owning an Ultima and not taking it to the track. I guess we all have our own opinions on that matter, but this car really comes alive out there. Not to mention I met so many nice people! Just about everyone came to visit and find out more about the car. A few potential buyers who really loved seeing one of these cars in person. They told me it sounded fantastic going down the long straight. Big American V8!
So I loved this past weekend so much, that I've decided to rent a garage at the track and keep the car there! Sure its 6 hours away, but this gives me more excuse to go see it and visit.
This car is much more capable than I am. The driver is the limiting factor in my car. I think it was pretty well understood by everyone that this was going to be a really fast car once I became a better driver.
Just thought I would share this wonderful experience with you all. Now I've got to get this stuff on video!
Cheers!
-Mack
That's great, Mack. Love to hear the energy. I remember the first track-day too, and it was a blast. I totally agree about putting the car on the track. Open track events are the reason to own an Ultima...and the reason I am building one.
There's nothing like the thrill of driving your car as fast as you can, or as fast as you want, without the chance of getting pulled over by the local police. You can really find the limits of your ability, and those of your car too. And, it doesn't really matter what you drive. It's still a blast. Just get out and drive!
Of course, it's a special treat to have the fastest and best looking car on the track...a red Ultima GTR.
If you shot some video of the event, I can digitize it for you.
-- Scott
PS: A few months ago, the local road course was extended to 4.2 miles!
There's nothing like the thrill of driving your car as fast as you can, or as fast as you want, without the chance of getting pulled over by the local police. You can really find the limits of your ability, and those of your car too. And, it doesn't really matter what you drive. It's still a blast. Just get out and drive!
Of course, it's a special treat to have the fastest and best looking car on the track...a red Ultima GTR.
If you shot some video of the event, I can digitize it for you.
-- Scott
PS: A few months ago, the local road course was extended to 4.2 miles!
Hey guys,
There's a few of my old buddies!
I'm pretty sure Progressive won't cover track time either. I kept this in mind and realized that I'd probably have to pay for whatever I broke. Like I said, there were a few places that you definitely didn't want to go off and after I went off the track on that two turn corner, my instructor really cautioned me about a couple of other corners that you didn't want to mess up on. Luckily, I'm so new to driving that I was only running at 50% of the car's true potential and it didn't really matter b/c I wasn't going to really get in trouble. If I got going a little too fast then the instructor slowed me down b/c he knew my skill level wasn't quite ready. Not sure if I mentioned this, but he had a great teaching technique, where he kept his hands in front of him the entire time like he was steering and so I could see when it was time to turn. Then he'd sort of wave his hand up and down as if he were patting a small child on the head(me) to start slowing down. Saying all of this, I think I do recall taking some corners at 70-80mph. I never really looked at the speedo. Just the big Stack tach. I kept it in 3rd and 4th gear but it was nice because the corners were all fairly fast. I maybe slowed down to 30mph at the hairpin I went off at, but the track had a really nice flow to it and not a lot of tight twisty technical bits that wore you out or anything.
I'll tell you what impressed me the most however. The caliber of people you meet! There were 3 large open bay buildings that we all shared as garages. No doors just a roof. Everyone left their tools and cars overnight at this facility and no one had any problems with theft or anything. There were guys who'd spent quite a bit more than me on their toys and they felt pretty safe. Of course this place has 24 hour security gaurds around the clock. Even the head instructor mentioned that in the past 10 years she'd been going to this track she'd never heard of any problems with theft. Really impressive. I hung out with everyone from the entire Texas Ford SHO car club to the high end car collector with their purpose built race cars. Everyone shared a lot of respect for one another and at the end of the day, we were all just car guys enjoying our toys.
Very cool indeed. The coolest thing though is that my new girlfriend is totally HOOKED! Maybe more than I am! Scary! She's ready to go back and get behind the wheel! We'll start her off first in a Miata track rental I think! Ha.
Cheers!
-Mack
There's a few of my old buddies!
I'm pretty sure Progressive won't cover track time either. I kept this in mind and realized that I'd probably have to pay for whatever I broke. Like I said, there were a few places that you definitely didn't want to go off and after I went off the track on that two turn corner, my instructor really cautioned me about a couple of other corners that you didn't want to mess up on. Luckily, I'm so new to driving that I was only running at 50% of the car's true potential and it didn't really matter b/c I wasn't going to really get in trouble. If I got going a little too fast then the instructor slowed me down b/c he knew my skill level wasn't quite ready. Not sure if I mentioned this, but he had a great teaching technique, where he kept his hands in front of him the entire time like he was steering and so I could see when it was time to turn. Then he'd sort of wave his hand up and down as if he were patting a small child on the head(me) to start slowing down. Saying all of this, I think I do recall taking some corners at 70-80mph. I never really looked at the speedo. Just the big Stack tach. I kept it in 3rd and 4th gear but it was nice because the corners were all fairly fast. I maybe slowed down to 30mph at the hairpin I went off at, but the track had a really nice flow to it and not a lot of tight twisty technical bits that wore you out or anything.
I'll tell you what impressed me the most however. The caliber of people you meet! There were 3 large open bay buildings that we all shared as garages. No doors just a roof. Everyone left their tools and cars overnight at this facility and no one had any problems with theft or anything. There were guys who'd spent quite a bit more than me on their toys and they felt pretty safe. Of course this place has 24 hour security gaurds around the clock. Even the head instructor mentioned that in the past 10 years she'd been going to this track she'd never heard of any problems with theft. Really impressive. I hung out with everyone from the entire Texas Ford SHO car club to the high end car collector with their purpose built race cars. Everyone shared a lot of respect for one another and at the end of the day, we were all just car guys enjoying our toys.
Very cool indeed. The coolest thing though is that my new girlfriend is totally HOOKED! Maybe more than I am! Scary! She's ready to go back and get behind the wheel! We'll start her off first in a Miata track rental I think! Ha.
Cheers!
-Mack
Ha..ha... Funny crafty... 
Thanks Stig. Nice to hear from you again! Don't worry, I've been lurking and checking on your progress for some time! Looks like your really moving along on the CanAm! Isn't it funny how when you own a closed cockpit car, you fantasize about an open cockpit version? Is it just me? Do the CanAm guys fantasize about closed cockpit GTR's? ha.
You know every time I drive this car, I'm always reminded that chasing after that last ounce of performance is such a waste of time for me. The car has so much more performance than I do as a driver. Great job Ted & Co.
If I were looking to do this and I was new to Ultimas or just acquiring a car, then I would focus all my efforts on properly setting up and building the car with maximizing reliability on the track. Checklists are a Godsend!
Cheers!
-Mack
p.s.I don't have any video of my car on the track, but found a lot of in-car video of others. Try this link http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?_adv_prop and click on TWSlap.wmv. This is a guy in a vette I believe. He's coming out of the last turn which is turn 15 and heading towards the long straight. He follows pretty close to the same line, but I think I used up the entire corner better.
Thanks Stig. Nice to hear from you again! Don't worry, I've been lurking and checking on your progress for some time! Looks like your really moving along on the CanAm! Isn't it funny how when you own a closed cockpit car, you fantasize about an open cockpit version? Is it just me? Do the CanAm guys fantasize about closed cockpit GTR's? ha.
You know every time I drive this car, I'm always reminded that chasing after that last ounce of performance is such a waste of time for me. The car has so much more performance than I do as a driver. Great job Ted & Co.
If I were looking to do this and I was new to Ultimas or just acquiring a car, then I would focus all my efforts on properly setting up and building the car with maximizing reliability on the track. Checklists are a Godsend!
Cheers!
-Mack
p.s.I don't have any video of my car on the track, but found a lot of in-car video of others. Try this link http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?_adv_prop and click on TWSlap.wmv. This is a guy in a vette I believe. He's coming out of the last turn which is turn 15 and heading towards the long straight. He follows pretty close to the same line, but I think I used up the entire corner better.
Mack - great post. Sometimes those of us who go to the track all the time forget what it was like in the beginning, but your post really brought it back. Glad you had a good time with the car, and the setup did so well. The first time I drove my Sports I was very suprised by how forgiving it was, I expected it to tend to snap around when the rear end started sliding, but it was pretty forgiving, which is damn impressive in a mid-engined car with a wheel base this short.
A few years ago we (speedventures.com) decided to try running events in TX and we did an event at TWS. It's one of the better tracks I've driven; it's got everything except elevation changes, and I miss driving it. The dive down the banking into turns 1 & 2 has a totally unique pucker-factor
Anyway a bit of advice. I'm sure you'll get used to the car at your own pace, and not let anyone push you beyond your confort zone, and that's a very good thing. I've seen drivers go out with an instructor who shows them that something is possible, then literally drive their car straight into the wall at turn 10 at Sears Point (a 100mph turn) the next session trying to duplicate a corner speed. But the big one you may not be aware of is race tires, or "DOT-R" tires. People will tell you that you need race tires, and I would definitely suggest you stick with street tires for many events. Get comfortable on the track before you move up. Race tires make far less noise, they break away much faster, and they raise your speeds at every point on the track, making any incident potentially much harsher. Once you drive on race tires, you'll also never want to drive on street tires again but try to put it off and I think you'll have a better shot at a long and happy driving experience with the Ultima on track.
Email me if you ever want to talk about tracking the Sports. I've been struggling with problems with mine, but it should be back on track by the end of this month. And if you ever decide to come to CA to drive any tracks, be sure to let me know
Ah, and for the person asking about insurance. It varies from state to state, but AAA has historically covered incidents that happen on track, given the provision that you are not A) being timed and B) you can show that this was a "Driver's Education Event". It helps tremendously if you have an instructor in the car with you. Other insurers cover incidents as well, you should check around. Allstate and I believe State Farm both exclude anything that happens on a track, fyi.
A few years ago we (speedventures.com) decided to try running events in TX and we did an event at TWS. It's one of the better tracks I've driven; it's got everything except elevation changes, and I miss driving it. The dive down the banking into turns 1 & 2 has a totally unique pucker-factor
Anyway a bit of advice. I'm sure you'll get used to the car at your own pace, and not let anyone push you beyond your confort zone, and that's a very good thing. I've seen drivers go out with an instructor who shows them that something is possible, then literally drive their car straight into the wall at turn 10 at Sears Point (a 100mph turn) the next session trying to duplicate a corner speed. But the big one you may not be aware of is race tires, or "DOT-R" tires. People will tell you that you need race tires, and I would definitely suggest you stick with street tires for many events. Get comfortable on the track before you move up. Race tires make far less noise, they break away much faster, and they raise your speeds at every point on the track, making any incident potentially much harsher. Once you drive on race tires, you'll also never want to drive on street tires again
but try to put it off and I think you'll have a better shot at a long and happy driving experience with the Ultima on track. Email me if you ever want to talk about tracking the Sports. I've been struggling with problems with mine, but it should be back on track by the end of this month. And if you ever decide to come to CA to drive any tracks, be sure to let me know
Ah, and for the person asking about insurance. It varies from state to state, but AAA has historically covered incidents that happen on track, given the provision that you are not A) being timed and B) you can show that this was a "Driver's Education Event". It helps tremendously if you have an instructor in the car with you. Other insurers cover incidents as well, you should check around. Allstate and I believe State Farm both exclude anything that happens on a track, fyi.
Hey thank fluxen! Nice to hear from you again! Yeah, that turn #1 and 2 are pretty wild as you come down from the oval to the roadcourse section. I'm not going to push it. I'll probably go out and keep the car in 3rd and 4th gear and just work on following the line and becoming smooth with steering, brakes, and throttle. I noticed that the car never broke away or got real out of control where I felt unsafe. I always felt safe. Even when I went off the track, the back end didn't spin wildly even though I went into a slide. Really safe feeling. The coolest thing was hearing all four tires squeeling and not even knowing your were drifting. I'll stick with the street tires until I learn to drive the car.
Oh yeah, what oil weight are you guys running? I was running a straight 30wt b/c I have been doing the engine break-in thing. The car has somewhere between 700-800miles on it now. After some hot laps with the instructor we pulled into pit lane and the engine died at idle and I think it was due to loss of oil pressure. I was able to restart and didn't have any trouble with loss of pressure through the corners. Didn't have problems after the engine had cooled down either.
Thanks!
-Mack
p.s.Fun getting back into the car thing again! Nice to hear from everyone again! I think I'm going to have to put up another website! Maybe documenting my trackday journeys!
Oh yeah, what oil weight are you guys running? I was running a straight 30wt b/c I have been doing the engine break-in thing. The car has somewhere between 700-800miles on it now. After some hot laps with the instructor we pulled into pit lane and the engine died at idle and I think it was due to loss of oil pressure. I was able to restart and didn't have any trouble with loss of pressure through the corners. Didn't have problems after the engine had cooled down either.
Thanks!
-Mack
p.s.Fun getting back into the car thing again! Nice to hear from everyone again! I think I'm going to have to put up another website! Maybe documenting my trackday journeys!
Hey Big Mack... You have to cut those guys from HK a little slack. They get excited about Mickey D's over there... 
Cool vids. I watched a bunch. That's a pretty fast track. Did you run in the same point-by group as this Vette? He's using the track pretty well. Looks like there is some good times to be had out there.
You definitely want to warm up to a big track like that. High speeds can provide for some very interesting "off-track experiences". Your instructors will keep you working on the important things first...line and contact patch management.
The only advice I would add is to get instruction from whomever you can...even in the same day. Instructors won't take it personally. It's best for students to get input from as many as possible. I have been doing track days for years. They even want me to teach this year (WoooHooo free track days!), but I still ride with anyone I can and take instruction from anyone that will ride with me.
Y'all are making me droooollllll.
Cool vids. I watched a bunch. That's a pretty fast track. Did you run in the same point-by group as this Vette? He's using the track pretty well. Looks like there is some good times to be had out there.
You definitely want to warm up to a big track like that. High speeds can provide for some very interesting "off-track experiences". Your instructors will keep you working on the important things first...line and contact patch management.
The only advice I would add is to get instruction from whomever you can...even in the same day. Instructors won't take it personally. It's best for students to get input from as many as possible. I have been doing track days for years. They even want me to teach this year (WoooHooo free track days!), but I still ride with anyone I can and take instruction from anyone that will ride with me.
Y'all are making me droooollllll.
Gassing Station | Ultima | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff