Sounds like something a ford owner would say.

 

"I own a GT500. I shouldn't have to change my brake fluid before a track day like some peasant."

 

correct. why should you?

 

On the other hand though, those things are big bitches and can get going pretty fast in a straight line. Can even boil nice new fluid with ease lol.

 

my guess is that he cooked off the friction material or he got some kind of ABS ice mode thing.

 

That ice mode stuff just scares the heck out of me. The manufacturers should provide a way to disable that for track cars.

I actually had an "ice mode" issue on an F/A-18 once due to an intermittent Weight-on-Wheels switch. Lined up for a division takeoff (I was -3), and all of a sudden -- no brakes!

 

Will you please start a "hornetball's fighter jet stories thread"

I could read that fer days.

 

Oh and that was one serious badass save. Whether or not he was boneheaded.

 

Did you pull the fuse? Or have one of the yellow shirts turn himself into a wheel chock?

 

Pulled the emergency brake -- which disabled the anti-skid system. But I came uncomfortably close to -2 before stopping -- and the CO was -1 and was wondering WTF I was doing. It all happened fast and in the end got me an atta' boy.

The reason for the WOW interlock was to save tires. Occasionally a junior aviator would pucker up and trap with the brakes applied. I knew more than one guy with call-signs of "Boom, Boom" or "Bam, Bam."

 

I've had an ice out event happen in my RX-8. I was on 255/40R17 BFG R1's and the track was Arroyo Seco Raceway in New Mexico. It is pretty bumpy, and also a private track so the runoff is not groomed. Just untouched desert with lots of shrubbery up to about three feet tall.

Hit the brakes at the end of a small straight and it was like a rock. Nothing happened. Let off, stabbed again, pedal still hard as a rock but I can feel ABS pulsing. Stabbed at the brakes over and over again but could not depress it even half an inch. Left the end of the straight and had only managed to scrub off maybe 10MPH, and I mowed down a ton of vegetation. I thought the whole front of my car was going to be fucked but my splitter that I was testing for the first time that day managed to cut everything down pretty well. Pulled the ABS fuse after that and never put it back in.

 

My crash from April '15. Turn 16 at ORP (cw this day) is not to be messed with. I touch the dirt outside the exit kerb, the tail comes out, hello pit wall.

This is not recoverable; it must be prevented in advance. I am aware of the mistake(s) that lead to this happening. Armchair drive if you wish, but take this away, if nothing else - do not put the outside wheels off when they are laterally loaded. It can be un-recoverable.

 

Holy ****, Richard. That was quite a hit.

:(

 

Ouch. That happened rather quickly.

So, I'm curious -- early apex led to wide exit? Or is that the correct line but just a bit too fast?

 

Wow. That was wicked. Just a moments distraction waiting for your pass in an area where you weren't even pushing hard. Looks like the car was unsettled from the elevation change right before the turn -- add in the dropped wheel and it just flipped on you.

I hate concrete walls.

 

Either too much speed or laziness. There was no countersteer, it almost looked like he had enough grip to stay off the outside, just didn't. You're trained to turn the wheel once and hold it, this might've simply been a case of needing to turn in a bit more, but I wasn't the one in the car. That turn is a killer. I've seen a Mini have a similar accident, and I was almost part of one myself.

Personally I think they need more run off and curbing there.

 

That corner is frightening CCW too, but there's no wall to run into if you screw it up CCW.

Just looked like an early apex, and then he got distracted by the carcahead and maybe lost track of where he was on the track. The curbing also ended abruptly.

I have plans to drive here at least twice this year...

 

Curious as to why the drivers airbag deployed but the passengers did not.

 

Over in the track day safety equipment thread, Richard said the passenger airbag was turned off.

 

Several things. The car had more power than the previous year. The car was running less grip than the previous year. I had taken that corner the same way the previous year without issue.

That corner is off camber and has a crest in the apex. You need to take it either very slowly, or with steady power over the apex, or slow then power on over the apex to keep the rear planted.

I knew the pointby was coming and was power on as I had the year before, but drifted wide tracking out.

I should have recognized what was happening and got out of the throttle.

This was my first time in the history of tracking this car where I had both more power and less grip. The limits had changed and were not where I thought they were.

When you change the car, re-evaluate all your marks.