[HumanWiki]

I'll comment more later. I have a lot going on today at work since I was out Friday and I didn't get home until late last night.

Here is one of my sessions from Sunday in good weather and after I had some seat time in the car to know where its limits were (still haven't found some of them).

Track was between drizzle/damp and sunny/dry. It was raining off and on both days. Temps were low 40s to mid 50s with moderate wind at times.

Overall the car did great. I ran it in manual mode for the A8 trans, in Sport Mode, all nannies on, 35-37PSI front/rear and the only performance mod done was the Motul RBF 600 in the lines. I was running the OEM Track Vents, but I don't count those as a mod since they're from Chevrolet directly.

I have an A8, non-NPP, MSRC and 4 piston fronts. This is with the OEM pads, rotors and lines.

I didn't have any serious fading issues all weekend long (10 sessions at 20-25min a session over Sat/Sun).

Oil temps shot to 270F-ish and stayed there. Trans temp never got much over 180F. Tires gained about 4PSI front/rear from track use, but settled back down after.

About 60% through the session I could feel the tires getting a little slippery, but it wasn't bad and was easily corrected with backing off a little.

For those of you that know RA, you'll know it's rough rough rough on brakes and you're always advised to have spare pads/rotors and to run higher temp fluids at a minimum.

My Grand Sport would lie in the HUD about gear at times. If you braked hard, from high MPH (like 120+) and manually commanded down gears, you'd get to a point to where the HUD would indicate, say, 2 but in reality, it was in 3. When you're going in to Turn 5 and your trans decides to downshift finally, that's a car upset danger. ----- I did not notice any such behavior with the A8. If I told it to upshift or downshift, it would do it and indicate correctly in the HUD.

I will point out, that for me, the Tach in the HUD was a little slow from the analog. To the point that a couple times I got complained at by the engine management systems because I was pushing to near red for some shifts due to RPM/Speed and corner speed. It's not that it's wrong, it's slow to ramp for some things. SO, just be aware of that if your local track has speed/RPM that make you straddle the red before you can safely shift.

In the last two sessions of the weekend, I was just then starting to get brake complaints from the car and it was a minor complaint that was corrected by changing up braking and entry speeds a little

Overall, I feel GM hit a serious home run with this thing. Even without a manual trans, the lighter 1SS, the upgraded track brake 6/4 kit, the car was solid all weekend long. I put around 205mi of hard track time in it and not once did it complain, over heat, brake fade to failure, tire over temp to failure or pop any sort of DIC messages or DTCs. Granted I'm still learning and not an expert, but I wasn't being easy on the car either.

I even had several others come over and ask about the car and state that it was quick. When 1LE and ZL1 come about and are in the hands of the capable, they're really going to surprise some people on the tracks (if the overall behavior and performance of my 2SS auto is any indicator). I'm still floored that I took what was basically a factory stock Camaro, only did a brake fluid change and it took an over 200mi track beating with a smile on its oversized grille.

Good job, Chevy..



Note: Around 20:00 in the video, you'll see a truck coming out. A car went off (they're ok, no impact) and I cut that part from the video as you could see the car, plates and number and I felt it would be disrespectful to leave it in. The session ended after Turn 14 anyways, so nothing missed in track time (though, the more important part is that the driver was OK)

[mjk3888]

GREAT POST!!! Great to hear such a great in depth review of a true HPDE session on a large track!

How well damped did the MRC feel? Did you ever try the track mode? See any improvement? If you were given the option to modify one part of the car only, what would it be, Tires?

[thescreensavers]

270 F oil temp? A 40wt Dexos2 is a smart idea for the track for sure.

[mbar]

Thank you for the post!
Here's a tip (you might know it by now) : after you almost finished your braking in the braking zone,3 seconds of consecutive pull on the downshift paddle will shift to the lowest possible gear.
You can try it in the street as well.

[JDP Sales]

Originally Posted by mbar

Thank you for the post!
Here's a tip (you might know it by now) : after you almost finished your braking in the braking zone,3 seconds of consecutive pull on the downshift paddle will shift to the lowest possible gear.
You can try it in the street as well.

Excellent information! Thanks!

All the best,

Jared Royce
801.545.4215

[jaymsu]

Glad to hear you had fun and had no issue. You didn't forget to charge the GoPro.
In my case, I was getting about 6-7 psi rise on tire pressure.

That track sure looks fun.

[Thor142]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

Overall, I feel GM hit a serious home run with this thing. Even without a manual trans, the lighter 1SS, the upgraded track brake 6/4 kit, the car was solid all weekend long. I put around 205mi of hard track time in it and not once did it complain, over heat, brake fade to failure, tire over temp to failure or pop any sort of DIC messages or DTCs. Granted I'm still learning and not an expert, but I wasn't being easy on the car either.

Great news! Was the right gear there right when you needed it? I mean was the shift speed in manual as quick to react as you wanted it to be? Did you even give it a chance to try shifting for you or just start right out in manual mode and leave it there?

Thanks for the review! Looks like an awesome track. I've driven it many times on Xbox lol.

[BradfordCamaro]

Awsome stuff, plan to make it out myself to some Track events myself this year.
Keep posting your thoughts and opinions, good info for the rest of us.
Thank you

[HumanWiki]

Originally Posted by mjk3888

How well damped did the MRC feel? Did you ever try the track mode? See any improvement? If you were given the option to modify one part of the car only, what would it be, Tires?

In Sport Mode, I thought it was fine. We're not supposed to use the gators in our group, so I don't have a ton of info on sudden changes like that. I will tell you that overall I felt the car was tight, responsive to direction changes w/o feeling like a boat, the steering was precise enough for me, I didn't feel that it was too firm or too pliable. Hard braking and hard acceleration only made my body feel the forward/rear motion, I didn't feel that the car was overly diving or lifting. Lateral movements had some give in them, but not like my stock Gen5.

I did not get in to Track Mode on the car, though I toyed with the idea. I felt that Sport was enough for me at the moment. It was on/off good conditions and I wasn't fighting the car and since this is a DD for me, I'm not hunting tenths here. A more seasoned driver may have a different opinion, but I think that for the occasional track toy, it's a hit and a lot of fun with minimal prep cost and investment.

If I had to make an improvement, I'd have made the track ducts integrated in to the car and only have the owner remove the front tire deflectors. They're nice to have on, but I get why they should be removed. I just don't like the caliper on/off each time for that.

I also would make the A8's Performance Shift Mode a setting or a button to enter. I tried leaving it in D and just letting it kick in and I couldn't make it do it. I don't know if it's just this track or where I was trying, but I couldn't get it to do it. I can on the street with "aggressive throttle modulation" but you don't drive like that here. You're smooth on, smooth off gas, steering and brakes. So, I didn't get to see if PSM in Auto would cause an over temp condition and honestly, I was actually feeling perfectly fine manually commanding it.

Originally Posted by thescreensavers

270 F oil temp? A 40wt Dexos2 is a smart idea for the track for sure.

Yes, saw that Dexos2 recommendation in the track prep area in the manual. Next time I'm out or if I do a smaller track in summer, I'll D2 fill it with 0W-40. I've not sent the oil for testing, but I didn't lose pressure (or if I did, it wasn't much) from when I was out.

Originally Posted by mbar

Thank you for the post!
Here's a tip (you might know it by now) : after you almost finished your braking in the braking zone,3 seconds of consecutive pull on the downshift paddle will shift to the lowest possible gear.
You can try it in the street as well.

Did not know that. I'll see how that works if I'm out at RA in this car again.

Originally Posted by jaymsu

Glad to hear you had fun and had no issue. You didn't forget to charge the GoPro.
In my case, I was getting about 6-7 psi rise on tire pressure.

That track sure looks fun.

It's a blast. It takes time to learn all the proper entry/exit points and you have to get in the habit of being VERY aware of your brake conditions as 1, 5 and 12 are high speed entry turns.

Coming down the front, coming up on Turn 1, I'm hitting the brakes at 135-140 depending on traffic and how fast I came out of 14. This one, while a fast straight, isn't as bad (to me) as 5 and 12 because your entry speed in to Turn 1 is higher than Turns 5 and 12.

Coming down the short hill in to Turn 5, I was 127-130 or so. This is the toughest one for me because you come up to the braking zone and the track starts a sharp down hill bit, while braking and you're in to a sharp left that immediately goes right back up hill and in to a blind left just after the bridge and you won't see your turn in spot till you're just about on it.

The back straight with the curve in it coming in to Turn 12, I was 121-123. This one is also interesting because once you're past entry at the Kink, you're pretty much flat out here and the track moves, so your perspective makes it feel like you're moving more laterally than you really are. So you slightly go out to the right through the slow jog and it sets you up for a straight entry in to 12. It's very easy to overshoot this area and come in too hot, not brake soon/hard enough or not have brakes and you're right in to the gravel. This is also a hot stop for me from 121-123 down to like 25% of that speed and then it's now a tight right turn, up hill at the same time, followed shortly by jog to the right, a brake tap, then left and swing out right to set you up for Turn 14. There's a lot of successive points here to hit.

They have run offs when you need them, but those areas are just hell on your braking.

Originally Posted by Thor142

Great news! Was the right gear there right when you needed it? I mean was the shift speed in manual as quick to react as you wanted it to be? Did you even give it a chance to try shifting for you or just start right out in manual mode and leave it there?

Thanks for the review! Looks like an awesome track. I've driven it many times on Xbox lol.

I felt the speed of shift was much better than my 2012 Grand Sport's A6. There's not near as much complaint from the A8 when I commanded it up. I didn't feel the delay in shifting was hindering me any.

Turn 14 was problematic for me. The car's ability to go through there at a certain speed was difficult because 3rd was too high RPM and 4th wasn't enough. I almost needed a 3.5 or like 400 more RPM because I would hit the limiter coming out of it so I wasn't shifting mid turn or I'd have a slower exit ramp up being in 4th. I tried a couple different things there and I never got something I liked. That was the only area I had gear choice issues. The other places I had it was due to me braking too soon and being slower than the car could do, or me not wanting to push to the edge on a car I'm still learning.

I left it in manual mode because I ended up getting used to it -- my thought on the Perf Mode Shifting is above in one of the other quotes.

[mjk3888]

How did the car feel at speeds over 120mph? Still feel very stable? Any chance you know what your top speed was?

[Tim Adams]

Great stuff. I have always wanted to do this. I been going there as a photographer since 2003, I see they added more catch fencing again this year to block views. :(

You did not go flat out thru the Kink. One of the most amazing things I have seen was the old LMP1 cars run there in the ALMS glory days. The P1 cars have so much down force they were full throttle before they were half way thru the carousel, and they never lifted, full throttle thru the Kink. It was just unbelievable to witness in person.

[jaymsu]

Watched your track video again. Man,,, I really like that track!!
When you have more track days out there, please share. If schedule allows, I would love to come out and play there. (wish it was little bit closer though.... No good way to get there from MI. Maybe I should try the car ferry... Lol)

[HumanWiki]

Originally Posted by jaymsu

Watched your track video again. Man,,, I really like that track!!
When you have more track days out there, please share. If schedule allows, I would love to come out and play there. (wish it was little bit closer though.... No good way to get there from MI. Maybe I should try the car ferry... Lol)

Look in to MVP Track Time or MFBA (Mid West Domestics) and see what their upcoming times at RA will be again.

You could do the scenic route up through da UP, eh? I did the circle last year in my GS and man that was beautiful cruising with the targa out.

It's a lot of fun at RA.. It's hell on the car, but it's a ton of fun.

[jaymsu]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

Look in to MVP Track Time or MFBA (Mid West Domestics) and see what their upcoming times at RA will be again.

You could do the scenic route up through da UP, eh? I did the circle last year in my GS and man that was beautiful cruising with the targa out.

It's a lot of fun at RA.. It's hell on the car, but it's a ton of fun.

Thanks. I was just checking MVP track time. They visit big tracks like COTA, Road Atlanta, and of course Road America. I also like the NCM track. Definitely bookmarking their site!