Anyone ever driven an Indy Car?

[LongtimeRamsFan42]

Hey all, I'm about to sign up for the "Petty Experience" but with Indy Cars, not NASCARS...It's 6 laps around Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Anyone ever done it or anything like it? is it amazing? Any info would be appreciated, thanks!!!

 

[forty_three]

Never have but I always wanted to. Please provide a full report afterward. have fun!

 

[LongtimeRamsFan42]

Never have but I always wanted to. Please provide a full report afterward. have fun!

Will do!!! I'll be going mid Jan, Can't Wait!!!

 

[IndyAndy]

The closet thing to that which I have heard of is a ride in a two-seater IndyCar down main street in Speedway (I'm assuming that they go pretty slow), which my brother-in-law has done

 

[ckhokie]

You have to go extremely fast in Indy cars just to get the downforce to work (and therefore have control).

I hope you're taking huge nuts. Let us know how it goes.

 

[LongtimeRamsFan42]

Just realized I never told you guys about this, so let me get to it.....

Upon arrival at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, they had us relax in this BIG room at the Petty heaquarters or whatever they call it. So the main guy come in and give us the rundown of what we will have to do. He mentions the first person in the car might have to shift it from 4th to 5th gear since sometimes its in the wrong gear. I picked this experience because I haven't shited gears since I was 16, so 25 years ago. I don't think I want the first time in 25 years to be in a $500,000 racecar...

Let me also explain, just do do this, you have to sign your life away, literally. The release alone had me nervous. Not only about harm to me, but if I mess up the car, according to the release, I could have to pay for the damage.

So they walk us to the track...As we approach, this badass orange indycar is sitting on the track. First they have us take a picture with the car. There were 4 of us to drive the car. As the four of us talked before the experience we all said "well, I don't want to go first!!!"...Of course, they called my name first...

As I approached the car, my nerves were going crazy, all I was trying to think about was the map of the track they had showed us. I step inside the car, slip down and they place the top piece over my shoulders and start screwing it in. At this point, I REALLY realized this was actually happening.

So there I am, literally INCHES from the ground in this car, getting ready to go and the more I breathe the more my visor fogs up. I start waving a hand to get someones attention and nothing. I start waving both hands and a guy runs over to see what's wrong. I tell him I can't see. He cracks the visor a bit and says to slam it down as we start going...

So the visor clears up and its time to go. I'm to follow another instructor indycar in front of me and keep him about 2 car lengths back.

So they push start me and we are off. First of all, I didn't have to shift, whew lol. Second, even though they gimp these cars, they're still powerful. I start going and following the instructor in front of me. They told us that we should be able to keep it floored all the way around, but I just couldn't do it. On the straights, I had it pinned to the floor. On the turns I had to let up a bit since I had never driven anything like that before. Pure Insanity, really was...

Thinking back, I did one REALLY stupid thing...We did 6 high speed laps, one warmup, one cool down(so eight total). On the fifth high speed lap, the chinstrap was cutting into my neck so on the backstretch I actually let go of the wheel with one hand to fix it. Not the smartest thing to do at 135mph lol

Also, there is a bump going into turn one that for the first few laps freaked me out at high speed...

Plus, from gripping the wheel so tight the whole time, my arms were shaking for over 30 mins later lol

 

[Retroram52]

Sounds like a blast LTR. Bucket list for sure.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Sounds like a blast LTR. Bucket list for sure.

Concur....

 

[Hank Kingsley]

I once sat in a Dale Earhardt Lumina. I could barely get in and out, couldn't imagine having to do so in a hurry.

And more than several years ago at a Vancouver Indy I saw a year old McLaren F1 car, no way in hell I'd ever even fit in it.

An Indy car is bigger than that but not much. I doubt I'd fit in one of them either.

 

[LongtimeRamsFan42]

I once sat in a Dale Earhardt Lumina. I could barely get in and out, couldn't imagine having to do so in a hurry.

And more than several years ago at a Vancouver Indy I saw a year old McLaren F1 car, no way in hell I'd ever even fit in it.

An Indy car is bigger than that but not much. I doubt I'd fit in one of them either.

Yes, they do have height/weight restrictions. I am NOT a "big guy"...I'm a little over 5' 10 and about 180lbs. However I do have broad shoulders. When they placed the top peice on and screwed it in, I could feel it right on the top of my shoulders, however I was barely hitting the pedals enough to floor it. The brakes were SO sensitive/tight, the pedal barely went down a inch, so that pedal was no problem.

Its a really strange postion to be driving from. You're laying down so close to the ground but the visibility in front of you is definitely restricted because of the shape of the car. The little mirrors on the sides were really cool. Even though there was no one behind me, was fun to look at them...

BTW, I've been a passenger in the NASCAR experience and I know what you mean. Slipping in and out of the window isn't easy at all...