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View Full Version : Sebring with SVTOA 22-23 Apr



Varkwso
04-24-2006, 06:38 AM
Wow.

What a great track to run, what a great group hosting the event and what a great bunch of folks participating in the event. The weather was hot, HUMID and sunny. The track density was incredibly low in all the sessions. The Saturday night banquet was quite fun - they do tend to pick on Chevrolet pretty hard though. The Sunday AV8SS race went off without a hitch. I had great students all weekend (96 Cobra, O3 Cobra and 2006 ZO6) and I logged lots of track miles. I also logged over a 1000 miles round trip getting to and from the track.

The 1999 Vette Fixed Roof Coupe was spiking the oil temps almost immediately all weekend, I needed to bleed the brakes after the runs on Saturday, the brakes did great - matter of fact the Ford guys were pretty jealous of how deep the car could go into the corners, the tires held up with only minimal loss of traction if I did my part and it came home in one piece. I took it pretty easy on Saturday since I had never run the 3.7 mile course before and tried to keep oil temps under 295 degrees. I was hammering it hard in the corners and coasting on the straights to cool it back down. Sunday I hit 305 degree oil temps and then I quit looking since they seem to stablize there. I had some great runs with a 2000 Cobra R and several others on Sunday. I may have turned my 96 Cobra student to the dark side after he rode with me on Sunday at speed. The C5 stock is a pretty amazing animal rigt out of the box - he mumbled something about saving his money up for one. I had 04 ZO6 shocks, 04 ZO6 brake pads (from Jody), GS wheels with Hoosier RS03 315/35 (my 5th and 6th day on them) in the rear and Kumho 710 275/40 (unknown history) in the front (all from Cass). The car was incredibly smooth - even on the rough track surface.

Glenn (GlennF) rode with me on Saturday for a session to show me some home track insight and I rode with him on Sunday for the same reason - his 1995 Mustang is very, very well sorted out! He showed me some specific trailbraking locations that really helped me pick up my pace. Sebring does require precise car placement to maintain speed in several locations. It is so wide it really can throw you off.

Jody, do not drive a new ZO6 on the track. It will absolutely ruin you. To all you C6 ZO6 drivers, if a semi stock C5 passes you , you need to get more seat time. The car is incredibly forgiving, powerful, great brakes and sticks like glue. My student was pretty much a ham fist to start out and the car covered his mistakes easily. It is so forgiving it can hide bad habits without any problems - to a point that is not easy to get to. He did run out of gas on track after I left on Sunday though! You really ought to get a special license to drive one of those cars.

I am looking forward to running the track again, but not real soon, 10 hours each way is a real killer. About halfway down on Friday I was wishing I went to CMP instead for their 2 day event last weekend. Diesel at $3 and needing to put in almost 100 gallons also got my attention. Fly down and rent a Mustang V6 seems to be the cost effective solution. I stayed at the Economy Inn and Kenilworth Lodge during the weekend - both are interesting places to stay...