This is the ultimate!!! When you girls want to stop braggin about how good your car is and actually experience the humilty of track racing, sign up for a run at Willow Springs with about 50 heavily modified racers. I certainly wasn't the fastest car out there but my A3 did hold it's own. Hands down, I'm not a very good driver but the A3 masked a lot of my mistakes. Which allowed me to run the entire day without a flaw and I saw many. After running the car at 5K to 7K the entire day, the only wear I can see is the tires. Which look like an eraser after erasing a 1000 word essay. Other than that, I had to add a half quart of oil. Not bad for running the car at 120 mph in 5th gear (the straights were too short to put it in 6th). Even if your not brave enough to run the track, you've got to see and hear some of these awesome machines. I'm talking about Porsche GT2's passing you at 150mph. Or going head to head with VW GTI VR6's until they wipe out on turn 9. Or maybe setting on the butt of a Vette on the curves only to get blown away on the straights. You guys have to get a real life and try this just once. Put your talent where your mouth is.


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where's this willow springs place? i really wanna go. got any video? do they run everyday?

 

There's dozens of websites that cover track days at Willow Springs but here's the main site:
http://www.willowspringsraceway.com/home/home.asp
The company that I went through was Speed Ventures and their website is:
http://www.speedventures.com/2006_Schedule.asp
and they do have videos of people driving the tracks. You can go to any of the car club sites and search for track days at Willow Springs and they will have something going on, even the Audi club has a couple of track days there. I went through the Alfa Ramero club to find this one.
It's well worth the money and it's amazing how hard you can push this car (the A3).

 

Let us know the next time your going out there. Or if anyone else wants to go. $160 is not bad for full day. I need two more mods before I will step on a track (rear sway and some intake of somekind.

 

Mod all you what but that won't make you a better driver and it probably won't make the experience any more exciting. Don't worry about the car (A3) it can handle more than you can give it. The real fun is finding out how much can you take, not the car. It's E-ticket all the way.

 

Sounds like a lot of fun. I'm in for the experience the next time I feel $160 richer. I'd love to find a big enough track to get our cars up to 130-150mph though. Might be a little scary with our brakes however. I saw Audinam melt his rotors going from 110mph to 0 in a block.

Glad you had fun Tim and I'm sure that you represented the A3 very well!

Cheers!

Chef

 

for 160 bucks, i think i'll save another 100 bucks to get a CAI.

 

Any mods required to the car to track it? Some other clubs (PCA & POC) require extensive mods and training before they allow you on the track. If I track my Porsche with them, I would first have to do six autocrosses and then install both a 5-point harness and a fire extinguisher.

Beside tires, brakes also wear fairly quickly. Also, hopefully they don't post your name or results on the web. Porsche did not cover a warranty repair for an individual because the individual tracked his car.

It is a cool experience. Last time I was on the track at a POC event, I had a Gulf-Porsche 917 accelerate very quickly behind me once just like in the movie "Le Mans". It was the coolest thing ever.

 

That's why I choose Speed Ventures. All they wanted was an SA05 certified helmet (but they don't check it, so you could go on with a motorcycle helmet DOT certified and no one would know the diff). First timers had to drive the first session in a lead-follow, but after that, you were free to go. It was alittle iffey on the first couple of solo runs but you quickly gain confidience in the car and the times just keep dropping. Unless you run off the track like the VW GTI I mentioned earlier. What a story that was!!!!

 

Do tell. Stories are for what forums were made.