cbender

Hi All,

I'm going to be in the Bay area over the Memorial Day weekend for the wedding of a friend of my wife's. While there, I figured I'd beat on a rental car at the track for a day. NASA's doing an event at Thunderhill on Thursday, 26 May. I generally don't like NASA, but this event will be for advanced/intermediate drivers only, so there will be NO RACE GROUPS and NO NOVICES.

It promises a lot of track time, and if you want to do back to back days that week, you can drive PIR on the way down (5/25, Team Continental), drive PIR on the way back (5/27, Lotus Club) or do back to back events at Thunderhill with NASA on 5/26 and the NoCal Racing Club on 5/27.

For more information on the 5/26 NASA event, check out the Nasa Webpage. If you want to drive on Friday, 5/27, check out the NoCal Racing Club site.

My buddy, Dave (supercharged NSX) will be there, but I don't know of anyone else who's attending. If you're up for a good event, this looks like it'll be a fun one. Hope to see a few of you there.

Best,
CB

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
25 PIR, Team Continental School
26 PIR, BMW ACA
26 Thunderhill, NASA
27 PIR, Lotus Club
27 Thunderhill, NCRC

dojo_s4

hehe.. I love that part.

"beat on a rental"

um sir would you like the limited liability damage waiver?

: um yes please... hehe....

enjoy sounds like a LOT of fuN!

mikegarrison

That is really tempting. But IIRC, NASA does not allow S2000s with stock roll hoops?

What kind of rental? When I was down that way last time I was at Laguna, and a couple guys flew down and rented an M Roadster and a Boxster. But they did have brake pad issues by the end of the day....

cbender

Hi Mike,

When I last ran with NASA (on the east coast), I hadn't installed the rollbar, but I had no problems running with the stock roll hoops. This is an HPDE event, so perhaps it's not an issue?!?? If you're interested, you might want to call the NASA NoCal guys:

California- North
Jerry Kunzman
PO Box 21555
Richmond, CA 94820
510-232-6272 Phone
510-412-0549 Fax
nasaregy@yahoo.com
http://www.nasaproracing.com/norcal/

As for a rental, you can get all sorts of interesting things in and around LA (I've rented MR2 Sypders for Buttonwillow, for example), but while such cars are available in the Bay area, they're a bit too pricey for my budget. So, I'll take whatever crappy thing I can get. Mainly, I'm just showing up to f(*^ck around for a day.

My buddy, Dave, will be there, and I'm sure he'll offer up some seat time in his NSX, once I've crapped out the tires. As for brakes, you just have to resign yourself to the fact that it's not worth pushing the brakes hard -- boil the fluid or overheat the pads, and things get a lot less fun....

In short, taking a rental to the track is really just an exercise in having a bit of fun but I wouldn't consider it a real track day, more of an opportunity to get to know the track a bit better. I've only driven T'hill once, and the turbo blew up on me before I got in more than a couple of sessions.

CB

mikegarrison

This is very tempting. I'm running a little light on the cashflow equation, though. (Damn all cracked teeth and emergency dental bills!)

I do plan to go to THill this year (I've never been), but I was figuring on probably doing it in the fall, or maybe risking the heat and going with Proformance in July. (Don has not said how much that trip will cost, though....)

cbender

Hi Mike, come if you can, but I'm sure there will be lots of other opps. But keep T'hill on your list, as it's a wonderful track. What I like about this event is the absence of race groups (which has soured me on NASA HPDEs before) and the absence of a novice group, so there should be plenty of track time for folks who do this sort of thing often. Plus, it's a mid-week event, which tends to be less crowded anyway. CB

mikegarrison

That is the thing that is attractive about Don's trip. Seems like it will be only two run groups. Two run groups, over two days, and that's a LOT of track time.

Also, I looked into NASA's website and they mention the S2000 as the example of a car that has effective factory roll hoops. So it sounds like maybe they do allow them.

cbender

I think you'll get in a LOT of track time, regardless of whether they run two (Don) or three (NASA) groups. To my mind, the real question is whether this fits with your schedule. In addition, if I were you, I'd probably also factor in the availability of track dates before and after any event at T'hill at one of the other Bay area tracks -- Sears/Infineon and Laguna -- as both are tracks well worth driving. You've driven Laguna, I think, but if you've not been to Sears, it's well worth doing. It's such a long slog down that driving two tracks in the same trip offers an obvious economy. CB

mikegarrison

Yes. Or at least, look for an opportunity to run several days at THill on one trip.

Sears Point is another track I would definitely want to visit. And I really liked Laguna, so I would go back there for sure.

But money is always an issue, and so is the "I still have to have a car that can drive 1000 miles back home" factor. I've driven to SoCal and back in the S2000, and it definitely starts getting confining. Maybe I need to start working on my dad to let me borrow his F250 and rent/borrow a car trailer.

mikegarrison

And I think the NASA trip just doesn't fit. The only possibility would be to fly down and rent a car.