A Day at the Track
November 14, 2011
Have you ever had the urge to drive a car at lighting fast speeds? Maybe a better question, to ask, is who hasn’t? The four partners at Better Car People, Brian Musgrave, Matthew Belk, Tyler Uebele and Chris Martinez, had the chance to do just that at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Chandler, Arizona.
The partners were heading to Phoenix, Arizona for the 16th stop on the 17 city tour with GM eSummit 4.0. The day before they were scheduled to be at the eSummit, they had the opportunity to take part in the one day Z06 Corvette Experience at the Bob Bondurant School. It just seemed fitting that while on the GM eSummit tour they should go to Bondurant, where the official vehicle used is the American performance-icon Chevrolet Corvette – Z51, Z06 and ZR1 models.
The Corvette Z06 is one of the most powerful production cars ever made by GM. It is powered by a 7.0 liter V-8, LS7 engine that puts out 505 HP at 6,300 RPMs. The Corvette Z06 is the exclusive vehicle used in their Corvette Z06 Experience course.
The morning started off with a brief class with the instructors, were they did a Q & A session and reviewed the impressive Corvette Z06. The team learned to harness the power of the Z06 in a number of sessions that included skid control, line techniques, accident avoidance and plenty of track time on a quarter mile, autocross and the 1.6 mile road course. The only incident of the day came on the quarter mile track were Tyler slid off the track and got stuck in a gravel pit. Fortunately, no damage was done to the vehicle.
On the autocross course their abilities and training were put to the test with timed laps. Chris had the fastest single lap, three times out of the nine total laps, but Matthew had the fastest overall average! At the end of the day they were let loose on the 1.6 mile Firebird Raceway Road Course which combines high-speed corners, long straights and low speed turns. The 1.6 mile course is used by many professional racing teams, club racers and the Bob Bondurant School’s Advanced Road Racing classes. The day provided a great team building experience and an unexplainable driving rush!
As a side note: there was a small bet between the partners. The partner with the slowest overall speed, during the timed autocross, would have to hand-wash the others’ car in front of the office…Hey Brian, the wash bucket is out front waiting for you!
Entry filed under: Better Car People, GM eSummit, OvernightBDC. Tags: Better Car People, Bob Bondurant, Corvette z06, GM eSummit.