Where: New Hampshire Motor Speedway When: 6-12-2011 Weather: About 50 degrees, breezy, on and off drizzle. You can read that as cold. We get to the track maybe just before 8 o'clock after a 2 hour drive and go through the registration process which took maybe 5 minutes total. I thought that was great. That is immediately follwed up with a pretty good breakfast & coffee. After breakfast they start the introduction. This was probably around 9. The SRT driving instructors brief us on how our day will progress and what to expect. Througout breakfast and the introduction we found the instructors to be very personable and outgoing. It seemed clear they were there for us and actually wanted to be. They played a big part in making it an exciting day. First event: Autocross. We are told we get 3 laps. 2 in the Challenger SRT 392 and one in the Jeep SRT. Each cone hit is a 2 second penalty, stop box violation is a 5 second penalty. I will leave out my first run as a I dropped a couple of F bombs (hey it was my first time driving a 392 Chally, lol). It was a bit slow (43.7 I think) but no penalties. My second run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hv-dKZAfiA Only shaved 3.2 seconds off my time which was less then others but still penalty free which I was happy about. My third run was in the Jeep and was my best at 37.98, though I did hit a cone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3haQfmx8qrI Ultimately, the track was a little damp so times were up overall. It was alot of fun considering it was my first time ever on an autcross course. The instructors did some hotlaps for guests and one of the instructors actually drove one of the Jeeps into limp mode with my buddy riding along. They don't care about cones :grin: Second event was basically an introduction to Performance Driving using the road course. We all had a turn to drive a 2011 Charger RT, 300 SRT, Challenger SRT, & Jeep SRT around the road course. This helped get us familiar with the course and the cars for the real Performance Driving segment later. The instructors also spent some time trying to pair us up based on skill and comfort level so once they accomplished that and we all had a chance in each car it was time for lunch, which exceeded my expectations. After lunch we headed over for the Head to Head challenge. Like the autocross cones and stopbox violations were penalties but no specific time, just a penalty. 2 laps in a Challenger RT then 2 laps in a Challenger SRT. Had I thought about it more in advance I'd have just driven slower and made sure to stay penalty free since it didn't seem to matter how much later the second driver arrived at the finish, if they were penalty free and the first driver wasn't, they won. Points were such that more points were awarded for wins in the second two rounds then the first two, more points were awarded for losses in the first two rounds then the second two. Run 1 WIN, penalty free but finished just after the other driver. I apologize for the shaky vid, it was cold and hard to keep still. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4zQgtQoVyA Round 2 WIN, 1 penalty but so did the other driver and I finished first. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kyolYi5pAs Round 3 Loss. I don't have a vid for this one as it didn't come out. My worst run by far. 2 or 3 cones hit and a stopbox violation. Round 4 Loss. No video for this one either. This one hurt. Beat the other driver back by far and only 1 penalty but the other guy had no penalties and so took the victory. The instructors did some hotlaps for guests then we moved on to the Performance Driving event on the road course. This was awesome! The 2011 RT Chargers were pulled and replaced with these: Plus we still had the Jeeps, Challengers, & 300's. Here we just got to drive and the instructors would keep going faster as long as we were keeping up. Unfortunately some of the videos didn't come out, I don't know why. It's a little dissapointing because some of my best laps were missed. But, here's a few: My 3rd run in a 300 SRT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFjyUVRTFvc My 2nd run in a Challenger SRT 392: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLtNaOMG6u0 My 2nd run in a Jeep SRT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0uplUm6FrM None of my Charger videos came out, which sucks because I own one and it would have been cool to have. For the first hour and half of this you'd have to wait a bit as everyone was trying to get turns to drive but as the day wore on people got tired and you could pretty much jump in the next set of cars that arrived. We got alot of driving time! Guests were riding with instructors for much of this time. Finally we got a hotlap with an instructor and it totally blew me away. It made me realize I was being a wuss with these cars, lol. Also a few people got a hotlap in this: Ultimately, the SRT Track Experience was an absolute blast! I have no doubt that I'll do it again, hopefully I can bring my wife next time. Everything about it was well planned and the instructors did a great job ensuring us we'd have a blast even if it rained. As far as the cars, they were all awesome. I was very impressed with the 300. I don't know if it's because I expected a soft ride (yes, even the SRT) but I had so much fun driving that car. The Jeep was fun on the Autocross but was not my favorite on the road course. The Challenger 392 is a damn beast and I'm kind jealous of those of you who own one With that, I'll throw up a few more pics and end this already long post. Owners Lineup: Just liked this photo op: Thanks for looking!
Looks like you had a great time....I have been to 3 events and each were a little different...my favorate was when the Petty Driving School did the event...they had us drive harder and faster than the other 2 I went to....we reached 120+mph on the road course........in that first video it sounded like you said "f**k, this is f***ing junk"?.....LOL...maybe I heard that wrong...:erm:
Lol, D'oh! Nope didn't say that. I posted the wrong video, that was my first run. I wanted to leave that one out because of those F bombs. They were good though because the Challenger took me by surprise. Video fixed The Petty Driving School put this one on too. Same thing, they were pushing us harder and harder. I think the fastest we went was just over 110.
Sounds like you had a great day! As you said it also looked like they had put some thought into it by arranging cones so you wouldn´t get to much off the line and end up in the wrong place. Roadcourseracing is da shait if you ask me! Fredrik
Not to hijack this thread but is this possible.....On a whim after reading this thread I registered my USED 07 SN on the track experience web site...lo an behold I get a confirmation # and statement that I qualify for a free ride.......is this possible for a 2007 Charger built Sept 06????
No. Not unless they changed the terms and conditions. Or they just made a mistake. When I got mine in 2006 it was something like ... crap, I forgot ... maybe a year or maybe 2 before use-it-or-lose-it. Then in ... I think it was 2008, they made it a lot shorter. Like 6 months? Then they almost canceled the program altogether. Then they decided to continue it. Maybe they just don't have the check in there at the moment? Oh yea, used or not never mattered. It was just if that SN had been used for the TE yet or not. Come to think of it, although it did say the expiration period I never heard of anyone getting rejected. Never heard of anyone trying one outside of the period either.
I bought my Superbee in August of 2007. 3 years went by and they didn't come closer to me then New Jersey. Then I had another kid etc, etc. I emailed them late last year asking if there was a way I could still go. The re-entered my VIN into the database and told me to register. When the 2011 schedule came out I saw they were coming to NH and voila! All went just fine. The SRT folks were AWESOME! They put up ZERO fuss in making this happen for me. Am I the first to actually register for and attend the event almost 3 years past the expiration date?? I believe the expiration date is 1 year from date of purchase. It was 2 years during the first year and changed after that.
Be careful these can become quite addicting... just ask Matt R and a few others who now are dedicated road race guys... I do more with my M3 now than my MSRT.. solely because the SRTs were made in very few numbers compared to a M3.. In my case I spent 3 yrs in HPD and have had my Comp lic for the last yr... I get to the track at least 4 wknds a year minimum.. this year will be closer to 10 wknds.. But once in a while the Maggie goes out and plays... several people will come by and say is that a station wagon.... it is big.. it is black..but it does get down and fly...
That is already a concern of mine. I think I awakened something I didn't know was there. Just have to bide my time until the kids are older.
Got an email from the SRT Track people...asking for proof of ownership...I might just go to VIR next month...best track I ever drove on and just 3 hrs from me...
Yeah, I did two SRT:TE (Laguna Seca and Infineon) in 2006 on two weekends back to back. That was after being a crazy person and going out to Willow Springs in my own Charger by myself. And I got the bug after that. I did a track event (NOT SRT sponsored, but just guys with cars running on a course or autocross) about every other month until the last one where I found out I was pregnant a couple of weeks later. :maddy: With non-SRT-sponsored events, they are cheaper ($200-300), but its your car you're beating on that you have to drive home. Its good to go with other LXers in case something breaks because there's always someone with a jack or a set of tools or something. Also, you'll need a good helmet. I kept my helmet in my trunk just in case I had an excuse to use it. To firm up the ride, I totally recommend upgrading your swaybars, also a few hundred more dollars, but its like you're on rails. Tires, well, there's lots of opinions on the best tires, but the stickier the better when you're throwing that land-yacht through the turns. When Madeline's older and I'm not up to my eyeballs in debt, I plan on getting back into autocrossing and road courses, but for now I'll have to settle with terrorizing the local on-ramps and cloverleafs.
