HPDE - Road Atlanta - CHIN

[ryancassidy]

Wow.... What a weekend! Great weather (low 50's, mid 70's) incredible turn out and wow.. what a fun track. I feel spoiled as having just drove Laguna Seca (AMG Driving Academy) and now Road Atlanta this weekend, both are two incredible natural terrain type tracks.

If you haven't done a HDPE I'd highly encourage it.... With CHIN the reasons I started with them were...

A.) Seat Time - I put 322 track miles and over 125 laps over 2 days with them
B.) Instruction -They require an instructor for novices with them... the instruction is invaluable if you want to learn these cars a bit more on track. In addition there are 3 classroom sessions over the weekend.
C.) The format - Novices and Novice Solo's are in the same run group, and on a 2.54 mile circuit it was easy to not get bunched up (which is the WRONG thing to do at a track IMO)

Holy crap is all I can say about the car... I'm no where near close to even beginning to find the limits.... its actually terrifying I think what the car can do. And I didn't even get to messing with Tire Pressures, the downforce adjustments etc. My instructor (Also a Porsche guy) was very knowledgeable about the track, line, reference points etc etc. By the end of the two days the laps were becoming more and more natural....

Car held up great... Lost a fair bit of rubber of the Dunlops, but as I'm only 5 miles from the track I haven't driven it long enough to get all the track rubber off and the tires cleaned up, but I feel I still have more than 65-75% life left in them. (this is also after 1400miles otherwise too). First time I saw real brake dust on the PCCB's.. they got a workout for sure. I mean way less dust still than if I drove 30 normal miles in my GLC63 with Steel Rotors and brakes. Zero Issues otherwise with the car, burned slightly over 2 tanks of fuel, never an issue with temps, brake fade, anything. She was great! Somehow a rock unfortunately found its way into my front wheel/brake caliper and left a scratch in the inside of the wheel for about 3/4 of the diameter of the wheel before it broke/got loose... So that sucks... but nothing else but bug guts and some rubber that needs to be removed. May see if I can figure out a way to touch that up nicely.

I am surprised though at the amount of rubber "boogers" that accumulated inside of the wheel and as well, in the front of the front wheels there is a little plastic 90 that seemed to have acted as a catch for the rubber. I probably pulled a pound combined out of both sides over the weekend.

All and All.. Great stuff! Will do it again in the future.. but need to get her back to being nice and clean this week.

There were LOADS of other cars there too.. Many 911's, several pro teams (different run group of course) and several rigs where this is their retirement hobby traveling all around with GT3RS's, C8's all kinds of stuff. That was really cool and the people were wonderful as well. I'd definitely recommend checking it out. Even if you don't drive, you are welcome to go and see what its like which is cool.

Unfortunately in Day 1 there was a write off of a new 992 911 S which was tough to see and an Alpha Stelvio which wasn't good either. Otherwise a very safe and very well run weekend!

Any questions.. happy to help out. Loads of safe fun if you are smart about it.

[Tom]

Sounds like an awesome time! No pictures?


In contrast, out in sunny California we had an atmospheric river drop a couple inches of rain with epic winds. So while you were out having the time of your life, I was cutting this with an old dull handsaw I had. I would have used a chainsaw, but didn't have any gas and couldn't go get any because, well, the driveway was blocked...

log-down.gif (938.12 KiB) Viewed 2470 times

[ryancassidy]

That's horrible to see bud! Hopefully that was the only major thing that happened. We were watching all that unfold on the news out here... For all the weird weather we have in the south east sometimes.. you guys definitely have some doosey's out there that top it!




LOL Working on the pictures.... Its funny, I spent 10 years behind the lens of a camera for every event etc I went to... Now... hardly a picture anymore.....

There was an event photog there and he's still aggregating the pictures. as soon as I get them I'll post up here.

[ryancassidy]

Some Pictures

[t1gerb0y]

Lovely car, lovely track... Road Atlanta is one of my favorites!

Glad you got to enjoy it in such an awesome P-car!

No tow strap?

[ryancassidy]

It's in my bag (and in the car) but hoping to not need it. Ready to do so of course.

RA is a blast!!! and CHIN puts on a great event. I've driven with ADS, JZilla, CHIN, PCA and Project EG and I feel PCA and CHIN run some of the best events. Don't get me wrong, I had fun at all of them, but the safety/coaching with CHIN and PCA is top notch.

[t1gerb0y]

Cool, hope you'll never need to use it!

We usually run with our front and rear tow straps already installed, so that the car is ready to be towed right away, if needed.

Are you going to this year's Petit Le Mans?

[ryancassidy]

You bet. Will be there although I will miss last years nice weather

PM me and let's connect up. I live about 2 miles from the track so I'm up there a fair bit.

[t1gerb0y]

Attending the 2-day Porsche Track Experience in Birmingham on Oct. 3-4 so we booked our flights back in Feb. for Oct. 1-5 (tickets have doubled in price since). Totally forgot then but should've flown in a couple days earlier to go up to Road Atlanta for the races. We might drive up to catch the 3rd quarter of the 10-hour. If so, I'll let you know!

[ryancassidy]

Safe travels!

Don't hesitate to give me a holler

678.852.5608

Always enjoy connecting! I live close so I normally go for the first 1/2 day and then go home, open the windows and watch/listen to the rest.