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Hey all
Thought i'd share my experiences from last weekend at Palmer in MA. Been about 10 years since my last track day @ the Nurburgring, so signing up for a track day "US Style" was a big difference for me. Went with Chin Motorsports who set me up with our resident track guru and 'QV lurker' BostonDMD (aka Paolo). I found the Chin experience VERY well organised.
So the track day I found was pretty intense, it was more or less all go, all day and no chance to laze in my chair in the perfect weather! Woke up at 4:15am to get to the track by 7... oddly enough I stopped for gas and still got there ten minutes early... I was on A mode (honest!) so was one of the first to get there. Was a typical great mix of people rolling Radicals, Cup cars, a Viper, M3's, Evos, FRS, Lotus, Scoobs, Miatas and even an old Camero to name but a few. After the initial welcome meet and a mandatory egg n bacon roll 'n' coffee, Mr DMD showed my a couple of laps in my car and very kindly warmed up my Eagle F1's. First thing I noticed about Palmer is is has many blind corners (not too different from the Ring) but the incline and banking was new to me.
The concrete walls present a pretty violent 'welcome' accompanied with skid marks heading towards said walls (look at the vids). That fear soon went though and I started seeing what the Q4 can do. Although I think the Q4 is much quicker with paddles, I took the very sensible advice to go auto and concentrate on the line. The Q4 stuck like glue for me, didn't throw me about the car (you can see some corners were pulling G's) and was very happy with how I predicted the handling would be. There was only one lap where I went off line by checking my mirror way to much and did a little drift otherwise when I 'listened' to Paolo, the car felt awesome digging into the corners. I would recommend taking your Giulia whether you've got much experience or not, whether you have a base, TI or QV... you'll never see what it can do on the roads as fun as it can be.
The attendees I spoke to were all top class, very excited to see the Alfa attend, was getting repeated questions "What's the HP? What engine?" etc. Many came and sat inside too, lot of interest from the attendees and organizers.
Overall, I had a fantastic time and will 100% do more track days. I thought for someone who's been 'out of the game' for a while the Q4 was the perfect track car for me. I could use a lot of the power (no way all of it) and there's something I can build on. Only negative (if it was one) was coming out of the high incline sharp corners, the manual shifting would have been nice, but that's nothing to do with the car.
Lastly, big thanks to BostonDMD for encouraging me and coming a good two hours, leaving his family and yard work to be my instructor for the day. If you're lucky enough to go out with him, do so. Very patient, genuine top guy! Thanks
Now the important part... thanks Go Pro! I will post pics too as I get them off the wife's phone The dash footage is 4k so unless you're on a cell make sure you select the right res.. you can even enjoyed my keys flying around when I forgot to put them away
Enjoy!
4K Dash Cam @ Palmer
1080p Headest Cam @ Palmer
Thought i'd share my experiences from last weekend at Palmer in MA. Been about 10 years since my last track day @ the Nurburgring, so signing up for a track day "US Style" was a big difference for me. Went with Chin Motorsports who set me up with our resident track guru and 'QV lurker' BostonDMD (aka Paolo). I found the Chin experience VERY well organised.
So the track day I found was pretty intense, it was more or less all go, all day and no chance to laze in my chair in the perfect weather! Woke up at 4:15am to get to the track by 7... oddly enough I stopped for gas and still got there ten minutes early... I was on A mode (honest!) so was one of the first to get there. Was a typical great mix of people rolling Radicals, Cup cars, a Viper, M3's, Evos, FRS, Lotus, Scoobs, Miatas and even an old Camero to name but a few. After the initial welcome meet and a mandatory egg n bacon roll 'n' coffee, Mr DMD showed my a couple of laps in my car and very kindly warmed up my Eagle F1's. First thing I noticed about Palmer is is has many blind corners (not too different from the Ring) but the incline and banking was new to me.
The concrete walls present a pretty violent 'welcome' accompanied with skid marks heading towards said walls (look at the vids). That fear soon went though and I started seeing what the Q4 can do. Although I think the Q4 is much quicker with paddles, I took the very sensible advice to go auto and concentrate on the line. The Q4 stuck like glue for me, didn't throw me about the car (you can see some corners were pulling G's) and was very happy with how I predicted the handling would be. There was only one lap where I went off line by checking my mirror way to much and did a little drift otherwise when I 'listened' to Paolo, the car felt awesome digging into the corners. I would recommend taking your Giulia whether you've got much experience or not, whether you have a base, TI or QV... you'll never see what it can do on the roads as fun as it can be.
The attendees I spoke to were all top class, very excited to see the Alfa attend, was getting repeated questions "What's the HP? What engine?" etc. Many came and sat inside too, lot of interest from the attendees and organizers.
Overall, I had a fantastic time and will 100% do more track days. I thought for someone who's been 'out of the game' for a while the Q4 was the perfect track car for me. I could use a lot of the power (no way all of it) and there's something I can build on. Only negative (if it was one) was coming out of the high incline sharp corners, the manual shifting would have been nice, but that's nothing to do with the car.
Lastly, big thanks to BostonDMD for encouraging me and coming a good two hours, leaving his family and yard work to be my instructor for the day. If you're lucky enough to go out with him, do so. Very patient, genuine top guy! Thanks
Now the important part... thanks Go Pro! I will post pics too as I get them off the wife's phone
The dash footage is 4k so unless you're on a cell make sure you select the right res.. you can even enjoyed my keys flying around when I forgot to put them away Enjoy!
4K Dash Cam @ Palmer
1080p Headest Cam @ Palmer
