Making A Dream Come True

Following a Corvette Performance Training at Colmar-Berg circuit, Luxemburg

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I always had a dream to do a Corvette Performance Training. My ultimate dream car is a Corvette C6 and I drove it once in a test drive. But driving a C6 on a circuit....that is something else.....

Chevrolet had the opportunity for me to follow a Performance training at a real race track. And I took that chance. Man....what a day I had...saying awesome is by far not enough to explain what I have been through. I'll tell you now in short how I experienced that day..

At 09.00 am. reception of 46 persons with coffee and explaining the track and car and what to do and not to do (rules).

There were 20 Corvettes C6 and 4 Z06 (for pacecar) all production models. Overnight there were some rainshowers but luckily it was dry and a drying track.

We were divided in 4 groups of 12 persons with colors green, red, blue, and yellow. I was in group blue.

Red and yellow were going to another part of the track to learn powersliding and to catch a slide. (Anti-slide) Also driving in Corvettes C6.

My group blue and group green ( either 6 persons ) were going to drive on track. The other 6 + 6 persons were going to co-drive with two professional drivers in a black C6 and a blue Z06, one time for two laps in the C6 and one time for two laps in the Z06 pro person.

I shared the C6 with a 25 year old guy who owned a 2003 C5 convertible himself. This guy had the first stind. We had to drive with 3 cars behind the pacecar, switching positions every 3 laps. I thought there was first a slow lap behind the pacecar to know the circuit. But nothing of that... the pacecar left like an arrow...and my mate ( who was used to drive a fast car) went also along and followed close behind the pacecar.

I had to cope with all that speed and all that G-forces, pushing at my body and thinking at the moment that I have to take the wheel and have to do the same speed.......

But after 5 laps, which went more and more faster and I got used to the speed and the track, drivers change was up and I was on.

The Pace-car went off and I thought "what the heck..." go for it and if it is going wrong than let it be so.

Then I felt the power of that car and the grips and handling for the first time... fenominal. Never thought it was possible to go through corners with that speed. Even on the limit with braking ( ABS coming in) and cornering ( heck jumping away and ASR coming in) what a feeling... my heartbeat was maybe 220 !? but cooool... A lap round the circuit goes as follows: )…… third gear, first left corner (180° and even more), with banking, then full throttle and straight, hard braking and turning into 90° right, throttle and braking for 120° left, full throttle straigt, braking into 90° right, throttle up hill and 60° left over crest, into 60° right, full throttle and braking for 60° left and into 60° right, throttle and braking for 180° left into the long straight of 1400 meters. Here we were reaching top-speed in 4 th gear, maybe 5 th gear and finally extreme hard braking for the left corner with banking.

At the end of the stind I have set my record high-speed on 253 km/h = 157.2 mile/h. That was at the end of the long straight. My record of self driving before this event was 210 km/h = 130 mile/h. in a normal car.

My mate got the wheel back, drove his stind, maybe drove even faster and I went also out for another stind. It was hard working in a car that became hotter and hotter inside. And I was sweating like a ........(don't know the word) Far to soon my stind came to an end and the next group was going to drive. I got out of the car all wet on chest, back and head and feeling the adrenaline going through my blood-vessels.

My mate and I stood along the track, seeing the next groups passing by and hearing the roarr of the cars. Then my co-drive with the black C6 was coming up.... Man, I thought I was going fast but that driver was handling the car so agressive... I had to hold on very strongly of my seat, anticipate the breaking-points and corners and finally reaching a top-speed of 263 km/h = 163.4 mile/h. ( my new record).

Time to get out of that car and after 10 minutes jumping into the blue Z06. This model had an engine with 105 more Bhp as a normal C6 with 400 Bhp. This car felt like a very different car. The driver, in fact Patrick Hermann, a Chevrolet racing car driver, handled the car so very smooth but so enormous fast....I did not think that was possible. What a stunning car......what a stunning drive.... what a stunning driver. Fenomenal.. And that for a production model.

The last lap I yelled at the driver to go for it and go faster....faster....go..go..go.. floor it.... and he did. He even enjoyed himself and laught at me. And he set my record-speed even more faster at 282 km/h = 175.2 mile/h. 4 th gear on the rev-limiter.( don't know for sure).

I came out of that car with a smile on my face... you know probably which one.

Then for our group the anti-slide was on. Very interesting but nothing what I did not know, exept driving a Corvette, that was fun.

Lunch came up and it started to rain. Bad luck for those people who were going to drive on track. That was wet and the speeds were low and no grips at all. Our groups had been very lucky with a dry track.

We went on with the power-slide on a wet circuit but that was good for the learning. It was even lighter to get the car in that power-slide, you can understand that. But a bit difficult to get it out and controlling that powerful car. You had to be very fast on the steering and smooth on the throttle. The rain had stopped and the track was drying out with all that cars driving on the asphalt. Then there was a short debriefing.

Finally we all could drive again a few laps with 4 groups of three cars ( + pace-car) on track and again we were lucky with the weather.

At 17.30 pm the party was over and we all went to the main building for a drink and we chatted a lot about this past hours.

For a reminder of a very awesome day we got a sort of license that we are able to handle a muscle-car like the Corvette at high speed.

You can imagine what a day this was for me. A very long expected dream came through. An experience I will never forget.