I was talking with Robin (my wife) about the whole Corvette thing and telling her that I was going to add it to my bucket list.  She encouraged me to take advantage of the opportunity now.  You never know – things change.  Thank you my dear for your insight – you were right as usual.  I checked the availability and luckily they had an opening that would work.  Bonus, Heather was going to be able to go with me.  Having an experience is one thing, but being able to share it with someone else makes it SO much better.

We were there a little early and they were running a bit late but when it was time to get started we were led out to the car and strapped in without much more ceremony than getting into a rental car.  They wanted to make sure the car was in Track Mode and that your seat belts were fastened.  Other than that, just try to leave about 3 car lengths and follow that Camaro.  BTW the better job you do of following, the faster the lead car will go.

There were two cars following one lead car.  I was pretty tight on the Camaro but the other guy was a couple turns back; afterwards his wife admitted she was yelling at him to slow down.  After the first lap we headed for the pits – oops, maybe I’m following too close. Nope, there was another lead car waiting for the slow guy and for the next 3 laps, we were ON IT.  They know the capabilities of the C8 Corvette and the lead car won’t go any faster than that.  I’m sure I made several mistakes on the track that the built in track mode intelligence saved me from but  WHAT  A  RIDE!!

I am so happy to have had Heather along for many reasons – making this video is one of them.  Without her I would have no record of the time on the track.  They do have photographers but a movie from inside the cockpit is priceless – as is the look on her face, ha ha.  When the video starts, you can hear her say “Ugh here we go” and in a few of the turns you can hear her reacting to the g-force generated.  This was the 3rd lap and she was getting a little car sick with all the turns and braking and acceleration.  In the car you can smell the rubber from the tires getting hot from sliding a little in the turns.

When we got back to the parking lot I had a chance to talk to the guy driving the Camaro I was following.  When I thanked him, he said, “No, thank you.”  He said that about 70% of the folks that come here, pay their money for a ride around a race track in a corvette and rarely get above 30 mph in the turns or 80 mph on the front straight away.  The Camaro driver was very happy to have someone behind him that allowed him to go a little faster.  Would have been fun to go for a ride with him – he has driven thousands of laps here.

Everyone wants to know how fast you got the car up to.  I don’t really know because that happens on the front straight away and by the time you reach maximum speed you are braking for turn one and you ARE NOT looking at the speedometer; but I would say about 120.  I would have liked to have a track time; the Camaro guy estimated around 3 minutes.  The track record is 2.03 or so, now that’s FAST.  They do have a one day driving school here – maybe I’ll look into that, not in the summer time though.

This is not a little ride around a race track in a Corvette – you will be challenged and it is fast enough.  I highly recommend it, and I will be back again.  So Much Fun……