NASA HDPE
With Toyota collaborating with NASA and funding an Introduction to High Performance Driving (HDPE-Intro) day for free for all new GR Corolla owners, there was excellent attendance by GR Corolla owners. In addition to Mike, I think there were close to ten others, most fairly stock, but at least two with much more aggressive tires. We paid our track admission fee, our tech fee, and (for me) helmet rental fees-- Mike had his rental covered as part of Toyota's collaboration.
The day for everyone began with a mandatory drivers' meeting, then HDPE-Intro, HDPE1, and HDPE2 drivers all went upstairs for more instruction. With so many of us new to the track and a few old farts like me whose last HDPE experience was more than a decade ago, all the instruction was very much appreciated. In theory there would be four track sessions, with a lead-follow for HDPE-Intro, then instructor in car, then by the final session you'd be out by yourself. For HDPE1 (the regular beginner group for everyone else) there would be an instructor in the car all day for you for one-on-one instruction-- I lucked out and had Ricky, a young Ford Fiesta GRIDLife SundaeCup racer who was quite experienced with FWD.
We lucked out and while it was hot, at 96 degrees F, it wasn't quite as bad as expected. Mike somehow lost his lead-follow instructor in session 1 and ended up following me and Ricky around, as Ricky gave me pointers and I tried to remember a track I hadn't driven on in probably twenty years. Was kind of glad I stuck to pump gas and did not switch to E85, as rocketing down the back straight at 120mph (pretty sure I topped out at 95mph or 100mph or maaaaybe 105mph stock) and making up all the lost time in the corners on the GR Corollas and Evo's and M3's was an experience, and E85 would only have added even more power. Plus Mike later said the radio they gave him was pretty useless all day...
NASA head Ryan Flaherty and his instructors are clearly very experienced, with measured and quite effective classroom time. Session 2, Mike had an instructor in-car with him, and Ricky split the session with me driving the first half, and then him driving my car the second half. Smoothness and using the whole track were clearly things I needed to work a lot on, as well as positioning for all the corners and their apexes. With waaaaaaaay too much power and not nearly enough tire I decided to work more on driving the track smoothly rather than going fast the rest of the day.
Alas, while Mike made it out for session 3, pulling into the grid for session 3, my car decided to die, so that ended the day early. An old school SE-R veteran, Tom Paule, found me, and quickly diagnosed a spark issue. Didn't think it was plugs but I swapped those out to no avail, and then it was time for a tow home.
Despite only making it on the track for half the day, was still a great time-- Mike actually got to properly thrash his new toy around in a safe environment, we both got quite a few pointers in driving our cars faster and more safely, and we both (I think) learned quite a bit about our overpowered toys. Mike's GR Corolla is one heck of a car from the factory, and looks like none of the ones in attendance had any issues on the track. Compared to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR that was racing with his GR Corolla buddies, it was actually pretty amazing how much more effective the GR Corolla's newer AWD system is at putting power down. For me, the Yokohama ADVAN V701 tires on my car actually wore surprisingly well, but they clearly were way down on grip, and the Fastbrakes/Wilwood 12.2" x 1.25" kit was surprisingly good with very street-oriented Wilwood BP-10 pads. I can imagine wanting a more aggressive pad if I were to drive faster, but there were no signs of fade the whole day, and both pad and rotor life looked excellent.
If I can get an oil cooler installed maybe I can make the next NASA HDPE in September...