Inside the Car….(A Mustang obviously) Driving and Surviving Carolina Motorsports Park
| 01 July 2006
I recently participated in the Carolinas Regional Mustang Club annual Performance Driving School. I’ll tell you why you too should sign up for the next one later in this article.
Carolina Motorsports Park is a 2.3-mile, 14-turn road course that meets sanctioning requirements of the SCCA, NASA and AMA. It is referred to among aficionados as “Gingerman on Steroids”. This apt description is due to the many complex radius corners and the seemingly benign sweeps and turns in the track. The turns on the track, while numbered, are also named similar to famous European tracks and carry such monikers as “Breathless”, “Runaway Straight” and others. It is described as a very technical road course that demands near-perfect turn-in, hard but simultaneously delicate braking and a near-magical ability to use one’s throttle to control the vehicle.
I’d like to give you one man’s perspective on actually driving this road-course from inside my personal “hot rod”. That vehicle by the way is a 1999 Mustang GT convertible. It is reasonably “stock” with the exception of cold-air induction, low restriction Borla catback exhaust system, progressive performance springs and shocks that lower the vehicle some 2”, a 4-point roll bar, 6-point racing harnesses, stainless steel braided brake lines, high performance carbon-fiber brake pads and all fluids are designed for high heat and demanding conditions on the vehicle. I also am running Halibrand Cobra II 9” alloys with Kuhmo 275/40 rubber. Let me note I had not sorted these modifications out and was uncertain how all of this would work together under track conditions. I will say however that the car was predictable, the springs and suspension achieved my goal and the Kuhmo’s gave me plenty of warning if about to let go. I’m not endorsing these modifications or any brand, just letting you know that this combo worked nicely on my particular vehicle.
Vehicles are of every imaginable sort…ranging from full-blown GTS-R class Porsche racing vehicles to pure track cars that run SCCA, NASA, American Iron, BMW racing series and the like. Also one will find Mini Coopers, Subaru’s, Mazda’s, and of course Mustangs. There were a plethora of Mustang Cobras that as we all know are fast and a few GT’s such as mine.
The drivers are sorted based upon experience (demonstrable I might add) with ‘A’ being those who hold licenses to actually race in the many distinct areas of auto racing…the majority of these folks have “trailer queens” or track cars which are not street-legal and are designed for the sole purpose of going fast on road courses. Class ‘B’ includes some similar to those in Class ‘A’ who maybe just haven’t had sufficient track experience to rise to ‘A’. But one finds modified street vehicles in ‘B’ that are fast…did I mention FAST? Class ‘C’ (where yours truly resided) is a mix but each of us had prior performance driving experience as well as competitive experience such as short-track, AutoCross, hill climbs and the like. Our cars are also fast but typically not quite as much as Class 'B'’. Class ‘D’ is for novices or for folks who wish to run convertibles without a rollcage….not a good idea I might add.
Let me point out at this point in my discourse that you do not have to have a hotrod or track car! I saw a 10-year old Jeep Cherokee, inexpensive import sedans, 6-cylinder Mustangs and all kinds of cars. This is kinda a “run what ya brung” thing…so long as it meets all the safety requirements by the technical folks.
The classes are never mixed together on the track…also a good idea….you definitely don’t want to be exiting a high-speed turn and see someone approaching you from behind at nearly twice your speed. I will ask all of you who find this interesting to go to www.carolinamotorsportpark.com and look at the layout of the course as you read my shenanigans. You might want to print out the map and then turn it upside down since that better reflects the actual track and direction of travel.
After assembling the vehicles in the grid area, the vehicles in the respective class are waved onto the track behind the pace car. The pace car keeps everyone fairly slow for just one lap. After turn #14, the pace car exits and the cars accelerate hard down the pit straightaway approaching turn #1. Terminal speed for my vehicle in that short chute is approximately 90mph…turn #1 is a nearly 80-degree turn to the left. You approach at 90mph and carefully watching white markers on your right (which I might note go past quickly); you VERY FORCEFULLY apply your brakes (oh, did I mention the importance of brakes? At approximately 65 mph, I’m shifting down into 2nd and pointing the car as though I’m actually going to drive straight through and not turn…this is a late-entering turn so just as it appears you’ll drive straight off the track, a flick of the wrist and a judicial application of throttle brings the rear-end of the vehicle into a more or less straight line and then ‘BAAM’, throttle down as you place your two left wheels onto the rumble strip and start looking ahead to turn number 2. With throttle hard down, you run your two right wheels across the rumble strip and clear that slight right hand turn….
Now approaching #3, also a late turn-in radius, you once again put on the binders (did I mention brakes yet?)….HARD…slowing the vehicle to (heck, I don’t know…no time to look at speedometer or tach). Then aiming your left two tires towards the left inside of turn 3, you HAMMER the throttle….if you don’t, this seemingly benign turn which slopes to the right, will take you straight into the tire barriers…it is slick, slopes the wrong way and is very deceptive…if you coast through this turn, you’re off the track…the hard application of throttle transfers weight to the rear of the car to plaster your butt to the track. Throttle down hard is the only way through this turn.
Safely through (hopefully), you’re looking ahead at a left hand sweeper that immediately moves to a right hand turn that ends up being turns 4, 5, 6, and 7 that on the track diagram look remarkably like “going around in circles. That’s probably true since once you’ve cleared number 7, you’re going in precisely the opposite direction. Once entering #5 which is a right hand turn, you remain on the throttle the entire time…squeezing it up faster, faster and faster…as with turn #3, if you back off the throttle even one little bit, the weight transfers to the front of the vehicle and your butt-end comes out and you’re off the track….also, once you clear #7, you are approaching arguably one of the fastest straight-aways on the track…this is the area they call “Outback” for good reason. From session to session I improved through this circular turn with exit speeds increasing from slightly less that 60mph to 83mph on the last day.
Throttle down, you fly down this 1841 feet of downhill track…you actually cannot see the next turn until you crest the hill. I’m holding in second til slightly short of 100mph and shift into third at the crest,.but with turn number 8 rapidly approaching (did I say fast?). Using trees on your left as markers, you brake hard while on the far left hand side of the track (oh, did I fail to mention brakes?) You are positioning yourself to execute turn #7 that is a near full-throttle and nearly 75-degree turn to the right. With the right tires just “kissing” the rumble strips, it is once again full throttle thru turn number 9 with speeds approaching 105mph in my car..okay, okay, maybe 110! You approach fast (did I mention the word fast yet?) with the driver allowing the vehicle to drift or track towards the left of the track so as to enter the “Kink”. The “Kink” is a very slightly angled turn to the right with a very large 162’ radius, BUT it must be taken under throttle….not full throttle unless one is in a true race car….but this is the most dangerous and demanding, yet visually the most innocent turn on the entire track. If you lift the throttle thru the apex, you are off-track and NOW. Safely thru the “Kink” and with throttle still on, you approach #11 well to the right and driving as though you will drive straight onto the grass. Approach speed is (in my vehicle) something between 85-90mph, depending on how puckered up I was through the “Kink”. Hard right on the track, thinking, “okay..now, now, now…STAB THE BRAKES and bring this beast down to below warp speed”. In the lingo, this is a late-entry, double apex turn that if you’re following me on the track diagram, is approximately a 100 degree hard turn to the left….so you stay right before entry, brake hard and turn hard to the left with throttle nearly 85% down….(I did say something about braking didn’t I?). With throttle down you approach # 12 which is a hard right that requires late entry from the far left of the track aiming the right two wheels so as to “brush” the rumble strips. #13 is pretty much the same…hard braking and then hard right with throttle applied so that the rear end remains affixed to the track surface. #14 is the last one also approached under hard throttle with very, very late but HARD braking (that pesky word “brakes” pops up again) and a throttle-controlled steer right onto the pit straightaway and then you start all over again!
Did I mention braking at any point during this narrative? If not, let me emphasize that if you wish to run this track and do it fast, you gotta have great brakes, great brake pads and the really “good stuff” brake fluid. Without it you’re dead meat! Even with very expensive and superior quality Hawk high performance brake pads, my calipers were smoking once back into the pit after 12 laps…saw some others with their brakes on fire! Brakes?? Gotta have ‘em.
For those of you reading this with not so much as a smidge of desire to go fast or race, don’t dismiss an enthusiasts “take” on this. Performance driving schools are designed to meet two purposes. One being to enhance the skills of the hobbyist racer or autocrosser. The other being to prepare ALL DRIVERS for the even more dangerous environment of the highways. If there’s one near you, just DO IT.
For you Mustangers, a piece of advice…remember, I’m old so this might even qualify as “sage wisdom”. This performance driving school is sponsored by the Carolina Regional Mustang Club…YOUR CLUB. Tom Hennig, James Ray, Larry Kilgore, Karen Demers and many, many others have this thing working like a finely tuned wristwatch. The venue is superb, the facilities likewise and these folks know what they are doing when orchestrating the complexities of such an event. I think that emphasis should be placed on the fact that the “student driver”, whether novice or experienced will be accompanied by an instructor for each track session. The ratio of instructor to student is almost one-to-one so that means you are receiving superb advice from very experienced drivers/racers. I’d like to personally thank my instructor Chip Reed for being so patient and imparting so much incredibly useful advice (I say this even though Chip is a Porsche driver…guess we’ll have to give him a forgiveness slip for that oversight). From that standpoint, the experience was invaluable and easily worth twice the price of admission. Further, the classroom instruction (yup, you get that as well), is superbly delivered, timely, germane and incredibly valuable for either track or street driving. In my estimation, the entire experience changed my viewpoint on driving and on my car. What you’ll come to know is your own personal vehicle, your weaknesses and your strengths and understand the limits of both. This is GOOD STUFF folks. I’m told this event takes place about the same time every year. Go ahead and make your plans now. I am!
Oh, I forgot to mention that you might want to have your teeth brightened before you go! Why? Because even after all the self-doubt, an occasional stopping of the heart and the knowledge you just took half the tread off your street tires, you’ll find this large group of folks standing around afterwards with the LARGEST GRIN on their faces you’ve ever witnessed! Man is that fun!