GREAT PIC!!!!!

Hey Dave, do you have any pics like this of the Camel???? :(

 

Sounds very encouraging. Keep us posted with future track runs.

 

Afraid not.

 

Another photo of a t/c car on the track...

 

it definantly could pull away from me in the straights. (Big surprise there, as I have a 15% pulley and a few other mods, but not nearly the power of the tC car.) But that issue about the RPM limit and staying in one gear? I tried it for half a lap and it wasn't what I'd paid to do, so I just blew it off.
Honestly, the classroom instructor meant well, but missed a few key things. So I selectively listened to his advice, and since my in car instructor gave me free reign to run solo, that's what I did!

The tC'ed car did fine on the track.

Matt

 

Good for you Matt,
Can't say I'm a fan at all of this Wicks program. I was just talking today with a close friend who has been tracking her Mini for years with just about every group around. She brought up that the Wicks' was about the poorest of them all. From the many post that I read here I do tend to agree.

It is good to hear that a TC car did well at a DE, but it sounds as if the car was only being pushed at 7/10ths.

 

If you do not have access to other tracks / instruction i guess $ 300 is a decent deal. But in comparison to local venues where I have seen full days ( 5 - 30 min sessions ) lunch and a tee shirt from $125 on a full size track it did seem to be a bit on the expenisive side. I did not spend a lot of time there but while watching the last 3 sessions there seemed to be a lot of parades making there way around the track. I think this was more do to the short track than anything else. I saw quite a few experienced drivers taking a run down the return lane just to avoid a slower pack of cars. Those that didnt figure that trick out were stuck playing folow the leader. Bottom line is that it looked like what it was, a entry level event to get more drivers interested in track type events. If those that participated had fun and want to carry on then the event did its job.

Randy
m7 tuning

 

Phil Wicks is a nice guy doing his thing.

I cant say the same about the yellow group instructor.

As a participant in yellow group, I had an awesome time and I would totally go to another Phil Wicks event, just to support the Ol Blighter. Phil is doing great things for the MINI community, and for that reason alone, we need to support him by signing up to his driving academys.

 

I agree on the price and the comment about being for entry lever ( for the most part )

With that said we did a phill wicks at big willow and my 17 year old took her mini out and had a BLAST, the event we attended was priced better and was pretty well put together.

I was really bummed I couldnt take my car on the track, but then again I wasnt willing to hand out that much $ for that track either <--- is cheap

Camel pilot, did you get my email ?

 

Thanks for the reminder, just replied to it.

ALso forgot to mention in above posts, I highly reccommend Phil Wicks for people who have never tracked before, because that's what it was mainly made up of last weekend. It's alot easier on beginners when everyone else is a beginner.

But it will be a bit of a pain if you're not a beginner. The Phil Wicks "Intermediate" group was definitely the most Beginner Intermediate group I have ever run in.

 

I felt right at home in that group. There were a couple of challenging drivers out there, then there were some of the beginners that were in the intermediate group (placed there by Phil because there were too many in the beginner group). Coming in and getting separation was the key to having fun.

 

I agree.

 

Cool. Sometimes it felt like I didn't have all that much power as compared to other cars. Then I reminded myself, that it comes down to corner speed and, also important, corner exit speed that will get you around the track the quickest. There were few drivers that could do just that with their cars. Considering it was only my second track I've run agressively on, I thought I did OK. Again, it this track experience for me was more about me learning my car, than it was about me proving to the world that a t/c'd car could run a full track day...even though I accomplished both.

I think if it was a two day event, I would have come back the next day with more confidence and done a bit better. But no where like what instructor Matt Jensen was able to do in my car.

 

but at the straight parts, I needed a car in front of you to keep up! For a second time out, you did fine! Just keep working the line. I found that one of the cones was placed way too late, and that coming in tighter and earlier on that turn helped the entire sequence.

Now that you have all that power, time to spend money on handling!

Matt

 

An instructor who drove my car, who is also a MINI owner, says my car's handling is spot on. All I need to do now is to get to be a better driver.

photo credit: Judy Rochat