Waterford Hills RR "Warm Laps"

[Meteorite]

I am still unable to wipe the :D from my face.

As a member of Ford Motorsports Enthusiasts, I was invited to take some touring laps of Waterford Hills Road Racing course, located in Waterford (actually, Clarkston), Michigan.

They were nominally "parade laps", behind the pace car, but the fellow in the pace car let us have quite a bit of fun. For most of the laps the parade order was: (1) Miata pace car; (2) late-model Corvette; (3) M-plated 2004 Mystichrome Mustang Cobra; (4) me and my son the Marauder; (5) some kind of Audi, that kept falling behind; (6) a purple Trans-Am that wished he was up with us, instead of behind the Audi (we had to stay in line, no passing).

When the pace car guy sped up, the Corvette driver could pretty much stay with him. The Cobra could catch the Corvette at any time. I was being a bit conservative with the Marauder on this very twisty road course, but I can tell it would be a lot of fun -- the car was quite well-behaved, but the driver (me) was too scared of putting it in the weeds to really get near the limit. Besides the driver, tires were probably the weakest link. FWIW, I had the O/D cancel on, and that seemed to be a very good decision.

If anyone is interested I'll be out there with FME again tomorrow, and they let us drive around 12:30 during the corner-worker break. Come watch me thrash around the place a bit.

If I can get picture from the photog who was there, I will definitely post it.

[jgc61sr2002]

Sounds like a lot of fun. Enjoy.:up:

[SergntMac]

It's more than "fun." It what this car was born to do.

[Bigdogjim]

Wish I could have been there! Great job!

[bigslim]

Hey Meteorite, you didn't tell me about that when I saw you thursday. Sounds like fun. You will have to tell the guys about that.

[Meteorite]

Slim is right -- I didn't mention that on Thursday. I didn't think it would be all that exciting ... because at that time, the picture I had in my mind was that we would navigate the track at 25-30 mph and wave while the announcer read stats about our cars. Glad I was wrong!

If this opportunity happens next year, I'll let everyone know about a month ahead of time.

[Meteorite]

Here's a photo from yesterday at Waterford Hills. You can see my son taking some primo video footage of the inside of our A-pillar.

[BUCKWHEAT]

Meteorite, the MM really does OK on the road course. One week before Marauderville, I took mine out on the 1.9 mile 11-turn Motorsport Ranch south of Ft. Worth. Did twenty hot laps after some really good instruction. We got to run as hard as we could and could pass on the two longer straights. I got on the tail of the lead car, a new Infiniti G35 and stayed there. He couldn't get away, but I couldn't get around him either. The MM brakes never faded--I drove hard into the turns, slammed the brakes, then made the turn. Rear end stayed planted except for a few times when I oversteered & got it loose. Never got into the grass tho.

I have the Dennis sway bar & it really helped keep the nose level. With the 4:10's, I ran the whole course in 2nd gear, except for two straights that needed 3rd. The car was brutal coming out of the turns. I would have to lift to keep off the Infiniti's bumper while his rice motor spooled up. A better driver probably could have gotten around. Huge amount of fun. You have to get the car onto the road course and let it rip. You will get your son hooked just watching!

[martyo]

How do you spell "envious"?

Nice Meteorite!!! Thanks for the pic too.

[bigslim]

We will have to get together so I can see the pictures and the tape.

[JamesHecker]

I'm sure that you and your son had a blast!

My son and I did the same thing some time back.
We spent the day at Willow Springs Raceway with the opentrackracing.com group.

They charge $125 for the day. It includes a classroom instruction in the morning, followed by training laps following instructors. Then 5 30 minute open sessions on the track for each of 3 classes.

Here is a link to the video my son took of the day.

www.sof.ws/files/wsmarauder.mov

It even included an all you can eat tri tip & chicken BBQ lunch!

It was an awesome day.

Please post your son's video so we can all share in your fun!

[TripleTransAm]

Excellent editing job on that video clip, James. Cool photos, too (James and Meteorite). Nice to see Marauders doing other things than just straight line antics...

[Meteorite]

Thanks BUCKWHEAT, bigslim, and JamesHecker,

I took the MM out again yesterday. The early session was a lot of fun. Left a 1960s "Bullit" clone in the dust, and was able to stay right with the Corvette. (We lined up in order of power-to-weight ratio for that session.) Second session, the Bullit guy raced out ahead of me, so I got stuck behind him, and while he was working like the proverbial one-armed paper-hanger, I could've been tooling around with one hand if I'd wanted to.

Automotive suspension sure have come a long way in 35 years.

Unfortunately, I have no more pictures to show. The video my son shot was not that great, and I don't know any way to convert it to avi or similar format. I can dump some of it to VHS, however, for Slim and others to check out.

James, I may have to try out that "open track" thing. Did you sustain any abnormal wear & tear on your MM that weekend?