Cool C7 track day video + notes. Sonoma/Infineon Raceway

[joe1111]

So I did a track day at Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon and Sears Point) 2 weeks ago in my new C7 Z51 with manual trans, perf exhaust, magnetic suspension, 2LT. Some video is below – best watched in HD. Further below this are my notes, as well as one IMPORTANT pointer for all of you who plan to track your Stingray.

http://youtu.be/SKxpR4Hw-_8

It was a blast overall – had a huge smile on my face the entire time. I beat my personal best lap time (as expected) but this car is capable of 10 seconds a lap time faster and I prob was at 80% of the car’s limit. It has a super responsive throttle, strong brakes (never felt any fade), smooth shifting, never came close to losing traction, no odd understeer/oversteer tendencies. Basically it goes where you point it and it grips like crazy.

I am used to heavier, less stable, less powerful Camaro SSs and Mustang GTs, so I had to push myself to exceed the track limits that those other cars had burnt into my muscle memory. The Stingray is also much different than the Camaro and Mustang in that it sticks and the tires are quiet. In these other cars, I was sliding like crazy and the tires were shrieking.

In terms of “mods” all I did was follow the track prep guide to: upgrade oil to 15m-50 Mobile 1, brake fluid to Motul dot 4 with high boiling temp, and also lowered tire psi to 26 cold. That’s it. Once on the grid, I turned on active rev matching, the seat fan, the HUD, and put it into Track mode Sport 2. In the center console, I had PSI showing so I could keep an eye on this during the day. I also adjusted seats and mirrors for the track, inl extra lumbar support.

ONE KEY POINTER – I screwed up my Track settings for the first session so be careful with this. My intent was to turn off traction control and Stabillitrak. So under “track” I went to the PTM sub-settings, moved it over Sport 2, then clicked the button. Well, unknowing to me, this last click actually reset the setting back to traction control and Stabilitrak *on* and this was a big problem on the track. The engine was not responsiveness when I wanted it to be, and it would rev when I did not want it to. Not good at all and actually dangerous when you are at the limits. I figured out the issue by glancing down when the engine was bogging and I saw the yellow “on” light for Stabillitrak flashing. So somehow it was still on. So I re-did the PTM procedure to get into Sport 2 but this time I did *not* click the button at the final step. I just left it alone and on its own PTM went into Sport 2 mode w/electronics off. I quickly confirmed this by glancing down and seeing the yellow “off” icons for both traction control and Stabillitrak. Once I had these turned off, then the Vette really became fun, fast, and much safer.