waited to post about the Driving Event till I got them.
First of all it was a great experience. Learned some things about the car and my lack of driver knowledge. I want to thank Gary@Ronal, Larry, Pirelli Tire, and mostly my instructor, Mary Mado, who put her life in my hands while trying to train this ham fisted A6 Driver!!!
The Event started out with some classroom time and then it was on to the excercises. My first one was the slalom. I was very tentative about pushing a car that I own to find out its limits. I did get the rear end loose on my last run and had to brake to a stop. The next event was the 60-0 braking. Again it was hard to just mash the brakes to and beyond the floorboards!!! This showed us how the car would react to full braking and what the ABS system does when this happens.
The 3rd event was the lane toss test. You speed up to ~35-40 and you must react to some lights place one to a lane. 2 lights go red , 1 stays green and you have to swerve into the green lane and then brake to a stop. Very good practice and I was amazed at how responsive the A6 was.
My track time on the first day was limited to 1 time on the track(just worked out that way). Mary had me go fairly slow and we worked on what lines to take. I was getting hounded in the turns by the TT's, A4's and S4's, but they would fall back in the straights. But since there was only 1 passing area the first day, I would let them pass on the back straight and continue working the lines with Mary. After I was done, I was thrilled but I was wondering if the A6 would not be good for this.
I then went with Gary Allison from Ronal in his A4. Oh what an eye opener!!!!! I was thrilled, excited and scared to death all at once!! LOL. Gary is a turn maniac. He is so quick thru them. I learned from riding with him that, a singing tire is a Happy tire and what that singing noise sounded like. I didnt even get my tires to make a chirp during my track time.(I was bery,bery cautious!!)After I pryed my right hand from its death grip on Garys over head handle, I started thinking about the whole track. That night since Mary had drilled into me,,,line,line,line, safety,safety, I did not sleep much but kept going over in my head every single turn and what visuals I needed to use. By the time for my first track session on Sunday I had the track memorized.
Mary and I headed out and for the first lap I went slow and talked the whole way around. 1st turn, constant throttle, smooth, look ahead, turn for the apex, smooth , smooth gas, looked for the fishing sign, brake, turn in , gas . The first lap was much faster than the day before and I was going smooth and easy. The 2nd lap I started to ease more gas into it and now the tires were singing!!!! All around the track I had those babies just singing away. That and with the lines Mary drilled into me I started to noticed that no one was on my tail and that I was backed up behind the S4's and TT's and A4's. Then the straight would be there and whoosh the A6 flew down the back straight sometimes hitting 105mph. Mary had me work on braking hard and then releasing the brake , hit the gas and drift right around the apex and by the time the turn was done I was at full boost and moving out. It was amazing. I couldnt hit all the turns just right and had trouble with turn 5 and 9/10. But every once in a while I hit a turn correctly and drifted out under full power and proceeded to laugh and have a big ol grin plastered on my face and mutter, Yaaaaaa, that was cool!! Then I'd High 5 the instructor and whoosh on down the straight! I recommend these driving events to all. Great experience and was fun meeting the other Audi people.

 

Leaving turn 8 for turn 9. Z28 in background

<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/turn_with_camero_1.jpg>

Starting turn in at 9
<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/turn_with_camero_2.jpg>

Further into turn 9
<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/into_turn_9.jpg>

Drifting out of turn 9 for 10
<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/drift_turn_9.jpg>

starting heavy braking after turn 8 for 9
<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/setting_up_turn_8.jpg>

Tipsters S4 drifting under full power after turn 10
<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/tipster_drift_after_turn_10.jpg>

Some of the gang of Audis
<img src=http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/part_of_the_gang.jpg>

 

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/4525/tracking_down_s4-a4_into_turn_2.jpg"></center><p>closing on S4 into turn 2.

 

Great stuff! Thanks for posting it.

 

... how you lulled the other drivers into a false sense of security on day 1, then schooled them on day 2!

I am looking forward to my first driving school!

 

Ming,

man, reading your post took me back to last November (my 1st Track event ever), the Grins, the singing tires (are Happy tires), getting my 1st ride with someone fast......ah yes, what an experience!!

It truely is some of the best spent Time & Money that I personaly can remember in a long long time!

Nice Read!! Thanks!

Audi On!

 

Cool ! Play much with throttle steer ? The SVX who attended last year was quite interesting. Things happen so much faster than they appear on film, eh ? Street driving is soooo tame after;-)

 

The things my instructor worked on a little with me after she got comfortable with my driving, was,
brake hard in straight line, then as I was just coming off the brake(but still on it) turn the wheels to where I wanted to hit the corner. I could feel the rears unweight and start to slide but its so slight and wham your pointing where you want to go and give it gas and drift on thru. We practiced this at turn 3. Turn 7 she had me braking hard early then turn the wheel to the apex and just gas it all the thru and around the corner and the car would drift out almost to the rumble strip and I was already at full power. I had trouble with turn 5b because they like for you to come off the gas let the car settle then dive into the apex and drift heading to 6. Sometimes my car would not have the throttle response after coming off gas like that and it would lag, then wham the boost was full on, and you had to back off some. I was not very smooth at 5b.Wonder if DBW had something to do with that.
I was shocked that the stock suspension but with Eibachs worked so well. I wanted to check to see what my speeds were in the turns but I never did. I do remember seeing 80-85 going to turn 6 and not braking till 7. Turn 1 and 2 I had to be the 50-70 mph range, the S-02's were just howling the whole way. My poor tires!!! I used all of the tread!! oh Dean was there in that white quattro of his. That thing is an animal. 375hp or something. THe owner took his Z06 out for some laps, that was interesting to see how that car took to the turns. Very nice. After it was a said and done, I learned some things, and realized I have a long long way to go to just get to being a Fair driver.

 

Man, looks like a blast, great post. Thanks.

 

I had the opportunity to go to Seattle International Raceway and take a high-performance driving school. No Audis, but LOTS of track time, and an SCCA novice license at the end. Plus, even better, at the end I competed in a Novice race. I was driving a Corolla GTS, interior stripped, mildly set up for racing. It was a BLAST!. We were on the track with many types of cars (MR2s, BMW 3 series, RX-7s, even a Mustang GT or 3!) It was really eye-opening to see that many of us in the Corollas were able to lap faster than cars that were MUCH faster in a straight line. The keys were the corners, braking, and maintaining momentum; and smoothness rules! I can't wait to get the 2.7T out to Ginger Man (MI) or Blackhawk Farms (IL) to try it again. Let us know when you get out again, particularly if there are pics! Oh, and NICE RIDE!