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I attended the HOD (hooked on driving) track day at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, Ca. last Friday. This was my first track day experience, and let me just say WOW! The course was a badass compilation of turns, straights, and varying degrees of incline...a true playground for the Zed. Some notable highlights: Ride along w/ David Ray in his 350Z championship car - Nismo suspension, sticky toyos, and stock brembo's w/ Hawk blue pads. What a driver,...he was pushing that 350 to its absolute limit - using up every inch of the course...rumble strips and all. I was also fortunate enough to recieve some in car instruction from him towards the end of the day - gave me some great tips. All the great cars of course - 4 Ford GT's showed up, along w/ a Shelby Cobra roadster, various Porsche GT2's/GT3's, a C6 vette, a couple Lotus Elise's, a Viper, BMW M5/M3/Z3, and numerous others. Testing the Z's resolve against some formidable opponents - I was able to make it through the day with only one car passing me...and I gave him the point by due to his ability to fly through the corners. I managed to eat up a few really fast cars in the straights...passed a Ford GT, C6 vette, both Lotus Elise's, and a Shelby Cobra roadster, among other less notables. Not much feels better than chasing a big fish around the track and then blowing by them in a passing zone like they were standing still - especially when they DON'T give you the point by :-) Getting the "sticky pod" pro pak mounting system delivered the night before & getting it to work w/ my new HD camcorder - got some great footage that I'll figure out how to post sometime soon....even got video of the Shelby spinning out in front of my brother in law (brought his G35). **For the record, the budget racer honda that's riding my ass in a lot of these pics was the one guy that I had to give a point by to...very humbling. He had slicks, and an integra type R motor swap pushing appx. 200HP out of a 2300LB car. As it turned out, he was a pretty cool guy - owns a Nissan shop in Tacoma, Washington and drove all the way down just for the track day. Now for some pics: 
Notice the dirt on my right front...I came into turn #9 (an uphill left) going over 100mph when I stepped on the brakes, only to experience my own slow motion horror show as the brake pedal depressed all the way to the floor. I attempted to quickly pump the pedal, but no dice...I had absolutely no brakes! I guess I found out a little about myself too...instead of freaking out, I calmly down shifted to third gear - slowing the car down as much as the gearing would allow. I eased the wheel left in an attempt to be as ginger in the turn as I could, and I prepared for the inevitable wash out to come. When the rear end broke loose, it sent me immediately off track into the dirt - out of control and into a spin of gravel and dust. Luckily, I was back on the track in seconds, but black flagged by the man in the tower who had witnessed the entire event. Upon further investigation, it seems that I had somehow caused a hose connected to the brake booster to pop off at the right side of the plenum (have no idea how)...and that was why my brakes went out. I zip tied it back on and resumed the day, but I made a mental note to check for loose hoses BEFORE any future track days.
 
TT Swap = Element of SUPRISE!
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Thunderhill 10/5/07 - Freakin' awesome track!!! - 
