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I again participated in the CECF Daytona event this week and decided since my father was coming into town that we would take the C7 along with trailering my regular track car to the event.
So...here is a breakdown of what happened:
1. Having never used launch control and only putting it on track this week, I never played around with the PTM settings. Mine won't enable. I know there are people who had this problem and it was simply a matter of the dealer clearing codes and it was good to go. I suppose a dealer visit is in order.
2. The first session on track on Thursday the car was in "Tr"ack mode. I left on TC and Stabilitrak. It didn't like that. I got a "Service Rear Axle" message a few laps into the session (which inexplicably disappeared and didn't return). It was severely pulling power on the infield portion of the course and I got a "Transmission Temperature High, Idle Engine" message accompanied by the car not letting me downshift into T8 ("Shift Denied"). FWIW...trying to read such messages on the DIC entering your braking zone at 150+ isn't exactly convenient (listening GM?). And, most frightening, it freaked the h*ll out on the banking on turn 12 and the car began to violently zig zag at over 140 mph. I would not advise tracking the car will all systems on full alert.
3. After the "Zig Zag Incident", I pitted in, checked the tires, and tried to simply turn off everything. It would not let me turn off Stabilitrak. So I went back out. It was a waste of time with Stabilitrak still on and running.
4. Sunday was much better. I decided to run the car with all aids turned off, and did so in "Tr"ack mode. I ran about half a session before getting the same transmission temp warning, at which point the car would automatically shift to the next gear at 5500 rpm (and not let me manually shift at 6500 rpm). It did the same thing during the second session.
Aside from the tranny temps, the car just felt wonderful. Grip is tremendous, steering feel is fantastic and the car is very well balanced. Daytona is easy on brakes, and I didn't even install the cooling rings, but brakes were strong all around the track. Not that it's any major feat, but stopping from well over 160 mph into T1 was completely drama free and accompanied by nice little rev-matched downshifts into 3rd. The car rotates VERY nicely, and is extremely nicely balanced. It really feels like a smaller car on the track.
This is a part of my 2nd session, from pit out to ~12 minutes. At around 11 minutes, I got a tranny temp warning and you'll see that at 11:46 it automatically shifted to 5th while in "M" shift mode. Also at 11:16 I got a little loose from being a little hot and wide into T7. :yesnod:
The car ran 2:09-10's, and IMO I can get an :06-07 even with the automatic, but it would have to be early in the session. FWIW...I ran pretty consistent 2:06-07's in my GT500 (stock on stock tires with Hawk pads). It's highly unlikely that I'll take this car back to the track. While I think the A6 is a strong performer, GM will seriously need to address cooling to make it live on the track, and I'm going to go ahead and say this will be an issue for the A8 in the '15 and Z06 as well. Note, I saw two different GT-R's limping around the track this week after their tranny temps got too high.
S.
So...here is a breakdown of what happened:
1. Having never used launch control and only putting it on track this week, I never played around with the PTM settings. Mine won't enable. I know there are people who had this problem and it was simply a matter of the dealer clearing codes and it was good to go. I suppose a dealer visit is in order.
2. The first session on track on Thursday the car was in "Tr"ack mode. I left on TC and Stabilitrak. It didn't like that. I got a "Service Rear Axle" message a few laps into the session (which inexplicably disappeared and didn't return). It was severely pulling power on the infield portion of the course and I got a "Transmission Temperature High, Idle Engine" message accompanied by the car not letting me downshift into T8 ("Shift Denied"). FWIW...trying to read such messages on the DIC entering your braking zone at 150+ isn't exactly convenient (listening GM?). And, most frightening, it freaked the h*ll out on the banking on turn 12 and the car began to violently zig zag at over 140 mph. I would not advise tracking the car will all systems on full alert.
3. After the "Zig Zag Incident", I pitted in, checked the tires, and tried to simply turn off everything. It would not let me turn off Stabilitrak. So I went back out. It was a waste of time with Stabilitrak still on and running.
4. Sunday was much better. I decided to run the car with all aids turned off, and did so in "Tr"ack mode. I ran about half a session before getting the same transmission temp warning, at which point the car would automatically shift to the next gear at 5500 rpm (and not let me manually shift at 6500 rpm). It did the same thing during the second session.
Aside from the tranny temps, the car just felt wonderful. Grip is tremendous, steering feel is fantastic and the car is very well balanced. Daytona is easy on brakes, and I didn't even install the cooling rings, but brakes were strong all around the track. Not that it's any major feat, but stopping from well over 160 mph into T1 was completely drama free and accompanied by nice little rev-matched downshifts into 3rd. The car rotates VERY nicely, and is extremely nicely balanced. It really feels like a smaller car on the track.
This is a part of my 2nd session, from pit out to ~12 minutes. At around 11 minutes, I got a tranny temp warning and you'll see that at 11:46 it automatically shifted to 5th while in "M" shift mode. Also at 11:16 I got a little loose from being a little hot and wide into T7. :yesnod:
The car ran 2:09-10's, and IMO I can get an :06-07 even with the automatic, but it would have to be early in the session. FWIW...I ran pretty consistent 2:06-07's in my GT500 (stock on stock tires with Hawk pads). It's highly unlikely that I'll take this car back to the track. While I think the A6 is a strong performer, GM will seriously need to address cooling to make it live on the track, and I'm going to go ahead and say this will be an issue for the A8 in the '15 and Z06 as well. Note, I saw two different GT-R's limping around the track this week after their tranny temps got too high.
