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DRIVING SPEEDS
It is not a surprise to most who know I really do drive at 62 MPH. I am now sitting in Lordsburg, NM in the Comfort Inn on my way to Pahrump to learn how to drive.
We have traveled across the southwest numerous times at 62 in the bus and there has been some criticism of my speeds so with my car I am doing the opposite. I am running 10 over the speed limit so a lot of today was at 90 MPH.
When I am in the bus I don’t care how fast the cars are driving because they can accelerate or slow or stop so I don’t consider myself a risk to them. But the criticism of my speeds sure got my attention and today especially I learned a lot.
With the exception of about 10 trucks that I came up behind every truck that was in the fast lane trying to pass a slower truck the speeds were between 66 and 73. If a truck is passing another I am assuming that truck’s speed is never going to be more than what it is when passing another truck. So I learned my speed is not that much different than the other trucks on the road. In about 1600 miles of driving so far only one truck passed me and that was when I was holding my speed at 75 in a 65 MPH zone. I passed every other truck and despite my 90 MPH speed, coming up on a truck in the fast lane doing 66 was no issue. I could see him, I knew he was going slow and easily adjusted until he cleared the other truck.
I know folks here drive a speed that they are comfortable with and I am no exception. I now know my 62 MPH is NOT a safety issue because there are a lot of slow trucks mixing with the trucks doing 10 or 11 mph more than I am driving.
Those who claim trucks are driving across TX at 80 or 90 or even 100 need to bring what they are spreading to my garden.
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19 Replies
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You’ll enjoy Spring Mountain. If you can, plan your final leg of the trip to arrive at Pahrump at sunset as the colors are magnificent.
And I’m sure you know that outside of having a great racing club, Pahrump offers a certain type of entertainment. Of course, I’ve only heard rumors!
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I KNEW IT….. Andy hit it on the head, well sorta, now I know why he used the Vette deal for an excuse.
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Obviously there are people on this forum that have their minds in the gutter.
Do you have to arrive at sunset or is it OK to get there early and watch the sunset?
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Do you have to arrive at sunset or is it OK to get there early and watch the sunset?
When I visited Spring Mountain, it was in August of 2015. I was driving West as the sun was setting and it was dark when I pulled into the entrance. Seeing the multiple colors of the sun setting over the mountains was a breathtaking experience.
Considering I stopped at an In ‘n Out en route to Spring Mountain, it could be considered a perfect day!
1984 96" with 8V92TA
(remodeled Liberty Coach)
Greenwood, MO -
Jon, just get there safely. If you miss the sunset on arrival day you can always catch it on one of the following days. The earth still revolves around the sun and there are still 365 sunsets during each full earth revolution around the sun.
Unless there is some other element that would enhance a sunset, such as maybe a volcanic eruption, what is the rush to get there just before sunset. BTW, at 10 over the posted in NC you have made your ‘Vette trooper bait. They typically will give you nine over but get to ten over and they start getting disrespected big time. You can tell the troopers temperature based on the wearing of the pie plate hats. If its on best be on good behavior.
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I got there in mid morning, and it was cloudy the three days I was there and I decided not to stay any longer because I saw a sunset once.
Actually it rained the last day I was there and I think seeing rain in the desert might have been a bigger treat than seeing a sunset.
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Jon you should have hung around a week. A week after rain in the desert makes all the plants flower and it more beautiful than a sunset. The desert in full bloom is inspiring.
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Jon;
Which driving course did you take? The 3 day level 1 or 2 course or the 2 day Program? C7 or Grand Sport/Z06 ?
Share some of your class photos !
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2 day Corvette specific course and they paired me with a manual transmission Z06 like I have.
When I reach home tomorrow I will have added about 4500 miles to the 660 the car had when I left home and with that many hours of using the car and exploring all the settings and menus combined with the opportunity to push the car to the limits on multiple venues such as the wet lane changes, wet figure 8’s, short oval, plus the class room sessions on the various systems I gained a lot pf confidence in the car.
The track work was done mostly in the wet and it was also great because we could push the car and ourselves to the limits also but at significantly slower speeds than in the dry conditions, not to be racer car drivers, but to know how much faster the car is capable of than I am. I was surprised but glad we ran the last day on a track with standing water on several sections so they were not afraid to let us experience conditions that would send us spinning if we were not careful.
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Since you’ll never drive that car in the rain on purpose, it would be educational to discover and get comfortable with the limit of grip in the dry. I suspect it is quite high, say over 1G as you probably have 325-30x20s on the back.
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I would be quite surprised if that car pulled over 1g in the wet. In fact, drivers should be aware that a wider tire will often hydroplane on standing water more easily and at a lower speed than a narrower tire supporting the same weight and with the same tread depth. Beware.
Jon?
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Joel’s right….I have won 75% of the “wet” races I’ve been in and go from a 12″ slick to a treaded 7.5″ rain tire…and would love to have one about 3″ wide. Geo.
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The track work was done mostly in the wet and it was also great because we could push the car and ourselves to the limits also but at significantly slower speeds than in the dry conditions, not to be racer car drivers, but to know how much faster the car is capable of than I am.
When I was there it was as hot and dry as it could be (August). By the afternoon the track was so hot the Z06 was having some slight breathing issues. It’s a fun track and the instructors were top notch.
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Dan, the only reason the car sat in the garage was because there was a prohibition about running with those tires when it was below 40 degrees. I ran into a lot of cold weather along the way so that prohibition is now out the window. As to rain, this and my last Z06 are daily drivers. I don’t care if it gets wet. I ran 10 over the speed limit on the interstates regardless of whether the road was wet or dry and did not feel uncomfortable, and after the last track sessions I have a lot of confidence in it for daily driving.
It has a setting for “wet” which I did not use but at Pahrump with it set to “wet” you would have to work pretty hard to spin it. I could not no matter how much I had the wheel turned or how hard I was on the gas. My pickup truck is significantly more dangerous in the wet.
My only driving restriction now is I am not driving it on roads that have salt or brine on them.
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There won’t be any salt or brine in Petosky, and the wind coming across unsalted Lake Michigan will make for a cool and enjoyable drive. (Third try Jon.)
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