| August 14, 2010 | to | August 15, 2010 |
The Driver’s Edge is having a High Performance Driving Event at Motor Sports Ranch – Houston . MSR-Houston is located just off Highway 288, just south of Pearland just north of Angleton — August 14th and 15th.
What is a HPDE you ask? A HPDE is an opportunity to push your MINI to the max! It is a chance to safely learn new driving skills. Certified driving instructors will spend two days with you teaching high performance driving on the track and in the class room.
This is not racing; passing is permitted only if the car in front gives permission, an instructor will be in your car at all times. It’s exciting, fun, thrilling but most of all you will go home a better safer driver!
Let’s create a HMMS crew and go have fun and learn to be better drivers. The cost is $295 for most drivers. The event is already 67% full so register now! I went to the Driver’s Edge Event recently at Harris Hill – San Marcos and cannot wait to do it again. Questions just post and ask or email Rick Schwalenberg of the Drivers Edge.
Ron, if you are already in, I’ll see if I can join you! Anyone else out there? How many cars fill the event?
I’ll be in Colorado at MITM during this time. I’ll be doing a different type of twisties (ones with elevation changes)!
Yes I have sent in my registration. Sure hope you can make it.
Deb & Juha – sure hope you can make it too!
I am not sure how many cars total, but my guess is 50-75 — It splits up into about five run groups (green, blue, yellow, red, & instructors).
You drive and when you come back in you go to class, to go over the run and prepare for the next run — Then you have break to get your car ready for the next run. At Harris Hill we ran twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. I was busy all day and really “bushed” at the end.
I hope we can get a bunch of HMMS to attend — I know everyone will enjoy the event – Rick and Karen run a very organized program.
Who else is thinking about going?
If I wasn’t going to be out of town that weekend, I’d definitely be there. This is a really fun track. There are lots of different kinds of turns, but it’s not too hard to learn the layout. Have a great time, you guys!
Hey, Ron, Topper and I are registered!
We both are looking forward to it! …and I just received the Fedex tracking number for his new intercooler! Should be a great help.
Anyone else out there… Rick says there is still room for more novices. If you have ever thought about it, this is a great opportunity to join with other MINIacs for a fun weekend close to home!
I am not expecting the weather to be very nice to my MINI or myself. I am not saying No yet, but it will be so damn HOT!
Topper is scheduled to have his ASE certified tech inspection done by Bertinis!
I got my tech inspection (no charge) at:
Pro Technik, Inc.
9848 Southwest Fwy (just before Momentum MINI)
Houston, Texas 77074
281-879-8861
Steve the service manager is also a Drivers Edge instructor.
Man I have the worst luck with timing. I have a birthday party on saturday the 14th that I must attend. Wish I could go.
WOOT! Topper’s new intercooler arrived around 3:30 PM today and was fitted and road tested by 8:15 PM. Feels great, no major issues with installation, except I do have to stop at MoTW and pick up a few Pop-it fasteners that I broke. (Would have been a great project for Jeff’s Mod Day, if it had only showed up when expected!)Anyway, it should be a help at The Drivers Edge.
Anyone still on the fence, come on and join Ron and me at MSR. Should be barrels of fun, although I am a bit intimidated by the reading material!
Well, we are back from MSR at Angleton… What a BLAST! I’m still coming down. Talk about Fun Drives, this was it. I guess about 150 miles total on a great road course with an expert instructor alongside correcting bad habits by intercom in the helmets! Couldn’t be a better way to enjoy a MINI, unless it is doing it solo! Thanks Ron, so much, for suggesting this!
Just posted pics in the gallery — It was fun!
MSR-Houston is a very nice facility, my wife and niece had a good time watching and meeting all the racers. My niece was especially impressed by the “2 girls” car, an orange Lotus Elise driven by two girls. These girls were fast (there is a pic in the gallery of one of them blowing by me).
My instructor was terrific, this was his first event with The Driver’s Edge, he had never been a MINI before (or really any experience in a front drive car) — His car is the antithesis of my MINI, a Camaro on full race steroids — one on those cars that shakes the ground when it starts! But his race experience and communication skills just made it work. Got to ride with him one session — wow what a ride.
John and I also got to ride in Alan Wolfe’s MINI–He is fast, a terrific driver!
There will be another event, October 2nd & 3rd at Texas World Speedway in College Station and I am going!
Nice pictures! Ron- Looking at picture 6, there doesn’t seem to be much tread left on your left front tire!
Your are correct — I had an alignment problem at Harris Hill and wore the inside of both fronts — We flipped the tires on the rim so we could rotate them to the opposite sides. At MSR-Houston with correct alignment the tires wore much more evenly.
After Harris Hill I was very worried about the tires, but at MSR they were great. My instructor was impressed by them — lots of grip.
I meant to post this link when I posted above.
If you are wondering what it is like to have a good instructor on board with you, correcting your HPD technique, check out the attached video with Jackie Stewart as the instructor. We watched this in a classroom session on Sunday afternoon and I enjoyed it so much I had to find it when I got home on Sunday. It takes a little while to download but its worth the wait.
Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5rpFXdWtK4
I, too, am planning to go to TWS in October. Maybe you can reschedule the HMMS meeting to the 9th ???
John
If it can’t be changed?
What about planning a drive after the meeting so that others could come watch on Saturday afternoon?
Who else is interested in The Texas World Speedway (College Station,TX) Event Saturday – Sunday — Oct 2nd 3rd ?
I don’t know whether I mentioned that during my weekend at the HPDE at MSR Angleton, Topper picked up a nasty sound apparently after cooling off on Saturday evening. Something sounding very loose or like a disintegrating turbo might be how I would describe it. It paralleled the engine rpm up to about 3000 rpm and then disappeared each time. Anyway I could find nothing amiss by sight or feel (sure do miss some gauges!) so I decided to press ahead with the event on Sunday and then drove home and made an appt at MoTW for them to check Topper over. Before doing that, I changed out my AX wheels. When I pulled out of the garage to do that job, the rattling, loose marbles sound was worse than ever. I put Topper up on jack stands and removed the wheels. I started him up to see if I could pinpoint the noise with everything “accessible” from below, but the noise was totally gone!
Only thing I can think of was that somehow a piece of gravel (or an odd screw) had lodged itself where it was interfering with an external rotating engine part (it stayed put over 150 miles) and maybe when I jacked up one side of the car, it shifted enough to stop interfering or fall out entirely. In any case, I test drove Topper and then followed up with my scheduled appt at MoTW. They did some investigating, diagnosing, and took a couple of road tests but also could not find anything amiss. Topper really feels better than ever. I think he enjoyed the HPDE workout as much as I did. And equally good news is that MoTW checked him out without any charge! Thanks, Debby!
Glad it worked out without a lot of time or $$$$.
Filled out my registration for Texas World — Oct 2-3rd and going to mail tomorrow.
From the Metroplex MINI site it looks like several are going to make the event.
Hope we can have a few more HMMS MINIs there.
Hah! Sounds like I’m not the only one with a loose screw! Glad your problem resolved itself, John, as did mine.
(Be gentle with the snide comments, guys…)