[hboyle2003]

A short report from the MSR Houston event.



After having corvettes for a number of years, my wife and I traded in our vert on a Heritage GT about three weeks ago. It was quite a change. Even driving it back home it was a handful and the computer had not released the 2nd set of injectors or the supercharger yet (takes 50 miles for the computer to enable them it seems). So one of the GT Forum folks sent me the link for the SCMC event. I talked it over with my wife and we decided to sign-up – and did. The next few weeks we drove the GT every day to get some miles on the car before the event as it only had 6 miles on it when we picked it up. It was a hard and thankless job … but I took it upon myself to drive the car as much as I could and we actually had 670 miles on it when we showed up at the event. The bummer was that we had to get the brake fluid changed for the event and that cost $387 when it was all said and done and we had hardly even used the original fluid…oh well. BTW, I had to give the dealer a week to figure out how to do it as their techs had not been to the Ford training. But, it got done and only took about 3.5hrs for them to do it (I took a nap in the waiting lounge).



I printed out the instructions and off we went Friday afternoon to head south for the track. The instructions said it was off Hwy 288 at County Road 48. Well, we passed North County Road 48 and my wife asked “is this the road”? No, I said, it is County Road 48. On we go and in due course we passed South County Road 48. Once again she asked “is this the road”? No, just County Road 48 is what we want. Well about that time we had a “discussion” on the quality of the directions and the appropriateness of having maps in the car. I pointed out, in my defense, that we had the GPS unit so we did not need the maps. About that time she gets out her cell phone and calls the track. Ok, it was South County Road 48 we wanted. Wife - 1, husband w/GPS - 0. I will hear about this for many years to come but we got to the track in plenty of time to register etc.



Saturday was a nice and cool but a little windy. Since this was our first time at a track, we were assigned to the beginners groups. I was in the Blue group and my wife was in the Green group. The instructors really were very helpful and gutsy. I can’t imagine going out on the track with someone who admits that they know nothing and letting them drive a high performance car with me sitting there wondering if I will survive the day. Our instructors John and Wayne were great – THANKS GUYS!



They talk about “tunnel vision” in the pre-event discussion and it really is true. I was concentrating so much on the track that I did not initially notice much of what was going on elsewhere on the track. It got better as the day went on but I was quite glad to have the instructor with me. On one lap John and I were coming around “the sweeper” and he said there is a yellow flag. I started breaking hard and about that time we see another car in the “bus – stop” that had spun around and was now pointing at us. It is very disconcerting to find yourself suddenly face-to-face with another driver when you are on the track. Yes, John was a handy guy to have in the car. They also talked about having a “death grip” on the wheel and I often caught myself holding on to the wheel “robustly”. It is fair to say the wheel was not going anywhere without me! I got better on the last runs of the day but I clearly need a lot lot lot more track time.



Larry was there with his Mustang and his GT and it was interesting to watch him run the track. He was much better than I was and so it was helpful to watch his GT and see what he was doing. He was reaching 135 in the straight sections and turning in 2 min laps (an approximate time as no one was timing of course). Now it seems Larry has a bit of farmer in him but even with his occasional farming activities, he was doing far better than I was. And, in fairness, his last farming activity was likely helped by some “junk” on the track as he started plowing the field about where a car was hit during a pass earlier. Yep, the principles of physics do not take a rest on Saturdays. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time and it is fortunate the two drivers involved were both skillful and lucky and no one was hurt. The corner flag man Yellow flagged that corner the rest of the run.



Now one of the best moments for me came after that run. As some of you know, the track has a lawn mower looking blower-tractor with a big blower on the front that is used to blow sheet metal, tires and the occasional frog off of the track to keep it safe. Well, as the blower-tractor was coming around the “Sugar and Spice” corner and heading into “the pit straight” I looked at my watch and noticed with great excitement that my time was 2 tenths faster….



My wife and I had a great time and we thank all of the folks that helped put on the event and thanks also for letting us non-mustangs participate!!!!



Howard