Track day!

So today I got to spend some quality time with my VT at the race track. These are my thoughts on the car, so they will be pretty sporadic as things pop into my head.

I got to run 4 sessions of 20 minutes with an instructor. This also my first track event ever.

Impressions of the VT:
1:needs new tires.
2:this thing can handle anything most people can throw at it.

The track I went to is a "club track" that hosts driving schools from time to time and other events but it's a smaller track and therefor not the best maintained track in the world. It has a nice layout, some pretty technical turns and some decent straights. During the laps I kept the car in 4th gear the entire time, there was 1 turn were I could have gone down the 3rd but I did not want to worry about shifting so I could concentrate on steering.

My car is completely stock minus a cone filter I throw on it so I could hear the engine at least some. I had 2915 miles when I arrived at the track. The car is a pretty capable car, its limits were well beyond my own limits (as evidenced by the 3 hot laps my instructor did prior to me driving the car, holy hell that guy can fly) and adding some good tires would have pushed that even further. The brakes on this car are also pretty impressive. Towards the end of each session there was a small amount of fade but nothing that affected my breaking points on the track.

People (including myself) have complained some about the VT's rear suspension and how "darty" it can be. I found this to be the least of my worries around the track. The track has a few spots where it gets a little bumpy even through a turn or two but the car always felt planted to the ground and remained completely predictable through out my time on the track. I would like to go back with some better tires to give a better evaluation of the suspension but for my experience level it was just fine and dandy.

I did fill the car up with premium the last time I filled-up and ran a half tank of that before filling up and going to the track. Power was always available but over 6k it does seems to begin to run out of steam a little. There was one straight were I would reach this point (90mph). But even towards the end of the day there may have been some heat soak but the car handled it well.

Impressions of the Event:

If you ever get the chance to do one of these, take it. It is a blast and I can't wait until I go to another one.
It is tiring, lol. I'm sitting here exhausted and it was only 4 sessions, I can't imagine how the professionals handle it.
Drink lots of water, listen to your instructor, and have fun.