I was fortunate enough to be selected to attend an inaugural Nismo Performance Academy HPDE at Circuit Of The Americas in Austin. We were allowed one guest so my uncle Paul & I made hotel arrangements and left town Saturday evening.
We got to ATX around 9:15pm, checked in, and got dinner before heading to our rooms to crash, as those 5:30am alarms were gonna come around quick! We grabbed breakfast at IHOP because we didn't want to roll the dice on a "catered breakfast" that ends up being danishes & OJ. We met up with the caravan & rolled to COTA.
They took our cars/keys & prepped them for the day with decals/name badging/numbers & then we went inside for registration, drivers meeting, and to collect our gift bags!
Our first event was a vehicle dynamics course where we did acceleration, braking, and slalom on a course in the '13 GTR's & 370Z's. we got a few looks when Paulie took his own route on the slalom & I took TC off on the Z for launch.
After this we were shuttled back for a classroom session, then took our personal cars around COTA for a few lower speed (60mph) laps, then got out at the top of turn 1 to look at the track/angles/surface, then we switched drivers and Paulie drove my car.
From there we went to the Auto-X track to try out the new Juke Nismo. Fun little car, turbo'd, boring CVT trans, no tarks, and sits too high...but still fun to rip on! Paul had it on 3 wheels twice, diving into turn 1! There was also a timed competition later in the day on the same track that we all participated in.
from there we were shuttled back for lunch, and then it was time for some instruction sessions on track in the '13 GTR's. we had an instructor in the lead car speaking over the walkie talkie (we got earbuds after the first session) so we could all hear while driving/riding, and we would do car changes twice per lap. The sessions gradually got faster as drivers learned the lines, apex, cornering, braking, acceleration, etc.
After this we did the auto-x competition, had another classroom session to learn about Nismo, future products, testing & development in their race programs, as well as the guy that won Nissan GT Academy & now races for Nissan.
the last part of the day was taking our personal cars on track for a session like those before where the instructor was leading. For the first time since owning it, I had the highest hp GTR at a racing event. We did three sessions, each getting progressively faster. However, on any straight I was right on the car's ass in front of me so it wasnt a full WOT pull, but that took nothing away from it. My car also has suspension mods so I took more aggressive speeds into turns than the stock & bolt on cars could....bottom line, the track is incredible!
Paul & I both looked at our phones at 2:15 thinking it was almost the end of the day. It was very well organized, and Nissan/Nismo spared no expense for us. It really was a great experience, and if any of y'all get the chance to drive COTA, do whatever you can to make it happen!
We got to ATX around 9:15pm, checked in, and got dinner before heading to our rooms to crash, as those 5:30am alarms were gonna come around quick! We grabbed breakfast at IHOP because we didn't want to roll the dice on a "catered breakfast" that ends up being danishes & OJ. We met up with the caravan & rolled to COTA.
They took our cars/keys & prepped them for the day with decals/name badging/numbers & then we went inside for registration, drivers meeting, and to collect our gift bags!
Our first event was a vehicle dynamics course where we did acceleration, braking, and slalom on a course in the '13 GTR's & 370Z's. we got a few looks when Paulie took his own route on the slalom & I took TC off on the Z for launch.
After this we were shuttled back for a classroom session, then took our personal cars around COTA for a few lower speed (60mph) laps, then got out at the top of turn 1 to look at the track/angles/surface, then we switched drivers and Paulie drove my car.
From there we went to the Auto-X track to try out the new Juke Nismo. Fun little car, turbo'd, boring CVT trans, no tarks, and sits too high...but still fun to rip on! Paul had it on 3 wheels twice, diving into turn 1! There was also a timed competition later in the day on the same track that we all participated in.
from there we were shuttled back for lunch, and then it was time for some instruction sessions on track in the '13 GTR's. we had an instructor in the lead car speaking over the walkie talkie (we got earbuds after the first session) so we could all hear while driving/riding, and we would do car changes twice per lap. The sessions gradually got faster as drivers learned the lines, apex, cornering, braking, acceleration, etc.
After this we did the auto-x competition, had another classroom session to learn about Nismo, future products, testing & development in their race programs, as well as the guy that won Nissan GT Academy & now races for Nissan.
the last part of the day was taking our personal cars on track for a session like those before where the instructor was leading. For the first time since owning it, I had the highest hp GTR at a racing event. We did three sessions, each getting progressively faster. However, on any straight I was right on the car's ass in front of me so it wasnt a full WOT pull, but that took nothing away from it. My car also has suspension mods so I took more aggressive speeds into turns than the stock & bolt on cars could....bottom line, the track is incredible!
Paul & I both looked at our phones at 2:15 thinking it was almost the end of the day. It was very well organized, and Nissan/Nismo spared no expense for us. It really was a great experience, and if any of y'all get the chance to drive COTA, do whatever you can to make it happen!
but thats how those things go to keep it safe i guess.
