(Check out my video clips for this article here: CLICK TO WATCH VIDEOS)
I know, not your typical part review, but I wanted to try something new. It’s always nice to see something different and out of the normal routine. This is the first part of what will be many more articles to come about my personal path to obtain my license in order to enter into NASA Time Attack series. The car of choice is the project evo, obviously. With all the part reviews we do with this car, it has everything needed to be a good track car and a serious competitor. By running this car through each HPDE weekend also opens the door to follow up articles on how some of the modifications on the car hold up after a solid HPDE season.

So now let’s start from the beginning. Why am I doing this? This was a dream of mine since I was 8 years old. With the near death experience I went through that ultimately took Mark’s life, I decided that now would be the best time to pursue some dreams of mine. I have the car, so now all I need is the experience behind the wheel. With any project, I always like to plan out what my path will be and try to stick to it the best I can. This project isn’t going to be easy and will be challenging at times, but in the end I think it will be worth it.

What’s the first step? Well there are many choices to make before you get into this. The first and most critical decision is to decide which driving school program to go with. I wanted to go with a driving school that carried a big reputation for having one of the best instructor staff and was able to hold a fair amount of track events in a season. The other nice thing is to have these events at tracks that are close by and easy to get to. I’m sure you’re thinking “why not stick with NASA?”. NASA has a good driving program, however, they are a regional sanction and have events at tracks that may be too far to attend. I wanted to stick with one school as much as I could in order to get consistent instruction (or close to it). Once I get to a more advanced level, I will then go through the NASA ranks to obtain my license. So in the end, the program I decided to go was the one at Car Guys. They’ve been around since the late 80’s and carry the experience that will help improve my ability as a driver. The company owner, Aryan, is a phenomenal driver (One ride along with him in his Z3 and you’ll understand why I use the word “phenomenal”) and with his knowledge/experience, he has developed a very successful HPDE program. I’m not new to HPDE events. I’ve attended a few HPDE sessions before with Nasa and other racing organizations. The only difference now is, I have a goal and this was the program to go with.

The next decision is to really figure out the costs associated with all of this and to see if it’s worth pursuing. Many of you attend HPDE events and know that the costs vary. Between the amount of money for gas, alignments, tires, brakes, fluid changes, HPDE entry fee, etc, it starts to add up. If you are not taking the same path as I am then the costs will probably be much less. You really wouldn’t need R compound tires, race brakes, high temp fluids, etc. You can still go out and enjoy the weekend and do things with your car that you wouldn’t be able to do on the street, without the big bill at the end. Anyways to bring us back to the original point. The total average I was looking at was about $1,200 per weekend. That includes the HPDE entry fee, fluid changes, incidentals, replacement (brakes, tires, etc.), hotel stay at some tracks, and food. Pretty big bill for a weekend! It may look like an overestimate but it’s better to do that then to underestimate. The decision wasn’t easy, but in the end I decided to go for it.

With a plan set in place, I decided to sign up for the 2 day event and get ready for VIR.

First Day
I got in at around 9pm the night before after a grueling 6 hour drive to the track (traffic was horrible). That night I decided to hit the bar and calm down the nerves before the event the following day. Being this was my first time to VIR, I made the mistake of talking with other experienced VIR attendees about what to expect on the track. Usually at this time at night with a couple drinks down, some people can get overly dramatic with their stories to say the least. I was told, “watch out for turn 10. if you lift you’re done for!” or “make sure you’re careful through turn 8 and 9 because someone had a bad accident there last time”, pretty overwhelming stuff the first night.

The weather early in the morning wasn’t pleasant. With a layer of frost on the car, I was hoping that my run group wasn’t going to be the first ones out. Luckily I wasn’t going out till mid morning, which gave enough time for the track to heat up. The advanced run group went out first to help the heat build up as well, which was nice.

With any HPDE event the first thing to do is to get the car tech’d inspected. Basically a check to make sure your car is mechanically able to run on the track. (I should mention that I did receive a tech form in the mail a few days after I registered for the event, in order to get the car checked out by a mechanic before hand. ) The next thing you do is to get ready for the morning class/meeting. The classroom sessions help first timers and even seasoned attendees on how everything is suppose to go. Flag definitions, passing zones, lines, etc are all discussed in the classroom. After my classroom session, I got to sit back a little and just wait for my run group to be called. CarGuys were very well organized when it came to the schedule. Nothing really overlapped and I got a ton of track time that day.The instructor assigned to me was extremely helpful the first day. A pro driver with a very detailed oriented mindset, he gave me a 4 page packet with a survey and rules to follow. At first I was pretty annoyed that I had to read a 4 page packet and fill out a bunch of questions so early in the morning, but after the first session I realized why it was important. It really helped set the tone for the instruction and we were basically on the same page the entire time. What also really helped was that he took me for a ride along earlier to learn the line of the track. Sort of like an orientation before we started our sessions.

The first session out was sort of an “installation session”, basically getting comfortable with track, looking for the flag stations, etc. The next few sessions got better and better. I was faster each session out and was improving pretty quickly. After I was able to pass a couple of C6’s (Z06’s by the way), I knew I was doing something right. Before I knew it the day was already over and I was exhausted. The horror stories from the night before exited my head and all I kept thinking about was the next day. I got a taste and I wanted more!

Second Day
Now one thing that’s really important not to do on the last day, is to get overly cocky about your driving ability. Remember this is the last day and if you drove the car to the track you should really want to be able drive it back home. The classroom session on the second day specifically includes this topic in their discussions. Aryan has done this for years and knows the feeling you get after a good day. That’s why he specifically brings the entire group back to reality by showing a video of an instructor driving a Ford GT, who made a mistake by driving it a little too hard, and ended up in the wall (even instructors can make mistakes). Sending himself and passenger to the hospital and causing $50,000 + worth of damages to the car, something that no one wants to do. It seemed a bit morbid, but it got the point across.

On this day I decided to start off slow in the morning and progressively turn the dial up in the later sessions. With the lessons I learned the day before; I made sure to apply them today and tried my best to make sure I was consistent. After the first session in the morning I was feeling pretty good and my instructor was basically speechless during the sessions. He was surprised at my improvement and basically pointed only a few minor items to fix. At my last session, I was basically passing most of the cars in the group. My instructor recommended me to move up to the next run group for the next event (Nov. 11th & 12th @ Shenandoah).

Project Evo
Let’s face it; doing something like this isn’t really good for the life of the car. But what’s the point of having this much potential and having most of its life wasted on the street. With each session that went by the car would perform without any issues. I would constantly check tire pressures and fluid levels at the end of every session. The car never showed any signs of weakness. The Nitto NT-01’s still have enough rubber for another weekend, which is pretty good considering it already went through a full weekend before. Plus I drove the car 500 miles round trip to the track and back. The brakes (GiroDisk Rotors with Ferodo DS2500 Pads) held strong each day with no signs of fade. This car was born on the track.

Conclusion
This was honestly one of the best HPDE experiences I’ve had in a long time. The Car Guys group really did a good job of keeping things organized. Their instructors were top notch and provided a ton of input to help improve your driving. I felt very satisfied with my level of improvement and really can’t wait for the next event. This was the first step towards my goal and it couldn’t have gone any better. A special thanks to Mhyar (aka Az3ar) for being a great friend and helping out when I needed it. Also it was great to meet other evo owner’s and I hope to see more f you in the next coming events.