PDA

View Full Version : ACCNA Road America Sept 2003 driving school



JP4
October 4th, 2003, 04:27
Well....I'm going to make an effort here to give you a quick and dirty description of the Audi Car Club Driving School that I attended at Road America 2 weeks ago. I've got some photos too but I don't think the quality is very good. I'll attempt to post some of them anyway as pictures usually speak a thousand words.

There were about 150 participants at the 2 day school and we all got 3 sessions per day of 25 minutes each. The rest of the time was spent attending excercises, classes and hitching rides with the instructors in some really awesome cars with the really good drivers.

The track was wet the first morning as it rained early that morning. The track however was pretty well dried out by 10 am with a good breeze helping the process.

There were NO serious mishaps thank goodness as all participants were able to drive their own cars home!

As for the RS6 at Road America...the words that come to mind are ones like....WOW....AWESOME....SWEET. I could go on but you get the idea. The track is arguably the fastest road course in North America and I was able to really stretch the legs on the beast. I'm going to tell you right up front that I never drove the car 10/10th's as I was getting use to the feel and performance of the car on the fast track as well as my meager abilities to keep it all under control. I concentrated on being very smooth through the transitions and consistent.

Overall impressions:

The power is certainly awesome. I ran the tranny in tip mode most of the time but did run a few laps in sport mode just to see how she behaved. Sport mode was certainly adequate as the engine was always in a good part of the power ban and the auto downshifts were aggressive enough. However I felt that I had a bit more control in tip mode. As for the brakes...well...I never pushed them REALLY hard but they are far superior to the brakes on the '00 4.2 that I previously had. Pad wear after about 300 miles on the track was minimal with no adverse wear signs on the pads or rotors. I was running track tires on forged rims (see photo's). Michelin Pilot Sport Cups 265/35/18 and they were quite effective. Excellent turn-in response and very predictable. They seemed to handle the weight of the beast quite well as the wear is acceptable for a tire with an 80 treadwear rating.

If there are any specific questions about the track, car or pix just let me know as I don't want to be boring everyone to death with all the details.

BTW-There was one other RS6 at the event black/black.

JP4:addict: :race: :incar:

Erik
October 4th, 2003, 10:00
Bad pics? I think not! Bore us to death? I think not!

Here's an example... :bigeyes:

http://www.rs6.com/pics/RS6/JP4-5.jpg

Track tires. I've seen these on Porsche before.

http://www.rs6.com/pics/RS6/JP4-9.jpg

jimmy94507
October 5th, 2003, 18:01
Wow, 150 cars participating in the event? How many run groups did they have? Do you know who had the other RS6? By the way, you won't bore us with more details. There are a number of us who will be attending the drivers school at Sear Point in November. Any observations we should be aware of prior to this event?

Thanks, Jim

Erik
October 5th, 2003, 18:12
Once we get the copyrigth issues settled there will be an article under www.RS6.com.

JP4
October 5th, 2003, 21:05
Originally posted by jimmy94507
Wow, 150 cars participating in the event? How many run groups did they have? Do you know who had the other RS6? By the way, you won't bore us with more details. There are a number of us who will be attending the drivers school at Sear Point in November. Any observations we should be aware of prior to this event?

Thanks, Jim

There were 5 run groups. The groups were setup according to experience level and to a certain extent car capabilities. Group A was novice, Group B was novices with a little more experience (> 2 schools, < 6-7 schools), Group C was Intermediate students or a little more advanced students with no experiece at that particular track. Group D was advanced students with plenty experience at that track and Group E was the Instructors group.

With the track being 4 miles long even with groups of 30 to 40 cars, there was still many times when you could drive around and not see another car.

I don't know who had the other RS6 but I think it was a dealer car from up in that neck of the woods. The car had dealer plates on it.

I wish I could attend the Sears point event but my business obligations aren't going to allow that to happen this year. I know several folks that WILL be making the trip to the west coast even from the central US. It's supposedly a great event on another great track. The Instructor core for the ACCNA is very good and very helpful. I know you will enjoy it.

The next event that I will attend is Oct 25-26 at Heartland Park in Topeka Kansas and from what I understand there are several openings left.