Swapped to my track pads for the drive up. I brought my lift along in the camper for ballast and because I thought my track pads might not survive the weekend. I wanted to be able to swap the pads for the drive to my Mom's house for Easter.
I need to come up with a system to secure the lift and other cargo in the camper. The lift slid on the tarp and marked up the fake wood paneling.
My brother had this GoPro suction cup mount that he never used so he gave it to me. It's really solid.
I left the mount on for a couple of miles to test its holding power.
Grabbed some delicious Mexican food in Madras on the way to the track and finished the trip in the dark. Somewhere along the way it started to rain. Temp got down to 34 *F on the car's sensor and it started to snow. It started to snow as I was passing a semi going up hill. The dotted line turned solid and I couldn't see E36 M3 but I was pretty well committed at this point. I thought to myself, "I'm going to look and feel like such an idiot if I go off the road trying to make the corner at the top of the hill." I was thinking of the internet rhetoric I've read about how terrible the Hankook RS3 is in the cold and/or wet. I drove sensible speeds and had no wheel slippage but my adrenaline sure spiked in that moment.
Beautiful day the next day
The QuickJack facilitates good underbody airflow and cooling between sessions 
At the end of the video you'll see a short clip of where I came into a corner a little hot and underbraked it. I went to turn in and the front tires said no. I opted to go off straight and miss the cone instead of trying to save it and go off sideways and pack dirt into the beads of my wheels. This was the result.
I removed the grass, put the airdam back in place and essentially, no harm no foul.
The airdam was ground down in the half pipe quite a bit, just like last time, but on the opposite side.
All in all a great day with 5 sessions for $130. I did get the low fuel annunciator in my 4th session. Fuel was $5.50 a gallon at the track so I threw on 4 gallons. I went out for the the 5th session. They combined Novice and Intermediate so you could run up to 40 minutes if you wanted to. I went out first since I had been pretty much the fastest one in the intermediate group. I ran a few laps and got bored all by myself out front so I pulled into the hot pit and let everyone buy. I wanted to run with the guy in the Blue C7 that I had been talking to all day. My video starts at that point. I ran until the low fuel annunciator came on again. I cooled down, packed up, threw 2 more gallons on and paid my bill.
This car flat out rocks, I can't think of anything else on the market that can do what it does for $20 grand.
After we left ORP, we went North to Biggs Junction, filled up and headed West on I84, through Portland and out to my Mom's place in Warren OR. The next day after Easter dinner we drove back. I had checked Trip Check and there was no snow on the mountain pass. There was rain in Portland and I should have checked again before leaving Sandy. At that point I could have taken I84 again along the Columbia River and stayed at low elevation. It's over an hour longer trip, but it usually stays snow free. We charged ahead on 26 along the normal route.
berkeley. E36 M3. This is only 2000 feet and we're going to have to get up over 5000. It's not going to get better. Debated staying in Portland for the night or taking the long way and getting home late. Let's take the long way. I sent this photo to my boss and said it was going to be a late night and I'd not be coming in right away in the morning.
Again, I'd like to reiterate all the internet lore about how terrible the Hankook RS3 is in the wet. I'm shocked at how much grip these things have at 32 *F in the wet. Shocked. Maybe it's just because my expectations were so low. Anyway, we head down the mountain, I'm pissed at myself for not making the decision early to take the low route. Now we've wasted an extra 2.5 hours of driving time and fuel. We top off fuel in The Dalles, it's a long trip from here with no gas stations. Even if there were, Oregon is stupid and we have to have someone pump our gas for us, because it's just such a dangerous and complex operation. So, unlike the rest of the country I can't just swing in and swipe my card. Lucky I stopped when I did too, because it was almost 9 and the station was closing up shop.
Somewhere along the way, I can't remember if it was before or after Maupin, but it started to snow. I'm in the middle of nowhere. I tell my GF, if it gets too bad we'll pull over and setup the camper. This is a great safety net for us. I really don't want to have to unload all our stuff and get it covered in snow, but I REALLY don't want to slide off the road. We drove probably ten miles in the snow. Uphill, curvy, dark. I stayed at about 20 MPH in 4th gear, ~1000 RPM. Never broke traction. Road was covered in slush, but not ice. If we had stayed overnight we probably would have been stuck until the next afternoon and the sun warmed the road. It surely turned to ice a couple hours later. I never took a picture, but I did stop and walk on the road to really feel the surface. I did brake checks, I gassed it hard. Epic grip from the RS3. I think a huge factor is that I had done a track day, gotten them hot and wore the surface to that feathered grippy surface.
I think this rough, beautiful surface saved my ass.
Once we started losing elevation the snow turned to rain and the roads cleared. We got home at 12:30. I pulled straight into the garage, disconnected the camper, shut the garage door and went to bed. Job well done Corvette, I love you.
