It was an awesome day until it wasn't...

[I12XLR8]

It's been a few weeks since I've been on the boards and boy do I have a story to tell First, let me clarify the name...I am I12XLR8 in disguise. The reasons for that will remain unclear but I should be switched back soon now. Anyways, this is going to be a long one. I want to get this all out and it has become much clearer after October 1st that the reason I love my car has more to do with what I have learned from this forum than what the car itself has to offer. Hopefully I am not punishing you with my poor story telling. If you are the impatient type, skip to the third post for the nitty gritty.

A few months ago I was invited to a chaperoned track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport); hosted by Castrol. The company I work for is a main purchaser of Castrol products so some of us car nuts were given a spot if we wanted it.



For those of you that don't know...Mosport is a fast track with long high speed corners and a long back straight that really gives you a chance to open up the car and let it loose. I get goose bumps just thinking about it

I have run Mosport before and wasn't going to miss the opportunity to run it for free and with an APEX driver training instructor in the passenger seat. It was scheduled for October 1st and I started getting the car ready a few weeks early. With the help of a few people and vendors on this board I ordered and installed new pads (carbotech), figured out my perfect sway settings, got the car aggressively aligned (-2.5 camber front with -.3 toe, -1.9 rear camber), replaced the brake fluid with Super Blue, etc, etc, finishing up the last items on the day before I left for Toronto.

I made the trip out to a friend’s house the night before as the track is 4 hours away from my place and only 1 from him. He's got an IS-F so we cruised around that evening, had a great meal, and got the cars ready for the next day.

The morning went well and I knew it was going to be a good day judging by some of the cars I had the chance to snap pics of with my phone:







You'll see that Ferrari in action a little later...

[I12XLR8]

After a drivers meeting and the itinerary laid out for the day we were out on to the track. The newer drivers had some classroom instructions to go through while us experienced drivers had the track to ourselves for the morning. I had a great instructor who was informative, not overbearing, super fun, and really good looking (yes, it was a woman ). However, I wasn't feeling the track. On the first two runs it felt like my first time in the car and I just couldn't find the line. I was about to find out that I was more worried about following her instructions than 'feeling' the track and how me and the car should be driving it. She didn't understand the power and the set up and so although she was great she was making me uncomfortable. Here is a video is me sticking behind my buddies IS-F to get some footage for him. I am choppy and inconsistent on the track although trying to stay behind a car isn’t helping that.




After the second run I told her and the guys I was with that I thought I was going to sit the rest of the day out and maybe get rides with them. I just wasn’t comfortable out there and as this was my last tracking event of the season I didn’t see a need to push myself. In the end I decided to try a run by myself and decide on the rest of the day from there. I’m not sure how to describe what happened but being alone in the car and letting it’s feedback determine how I should be running the course was nothing short of an epiphany. I stopped trying to follow ‘THE’ line and followed my own...the car hugged the corners blasted out onto the straights and handled hard braking smoothly. I was in heaven. I made an ass of myself at the end of the run by jumping out of the car, hooting and hollering that that was the best run of my life

Here is the beginning of that foolishness.

[I12XLR8]

The rest of the day was awesome. Absolutely incredible...until it wasn’t. I ran 4-5 more lapping sessions with and without my instructor but each session we deconstructed as this was a driver training event and I was going to make the most of it. Each run got better and better. I have a lot of video from that day but time is not on my side and the editing is going to have to wait for the winter. Here is one short video I managed to put together of a Ferrari in front of me. Super fast car but he just didn’t feel comfortable keeping my pace.



On my last run of the day, around 4pm, I decided to take it easy and just wind down. I was tracked out (although not tired at all) and just wanted one last cruise to end the day on a high note. As it ended up I should have called it quits before I headed out ;-( Coming out of corner 10 onto the front straight I wasn’t holding the speed I had got used to during the day and misjudged when to get on the throttle. That mistake was a costly one...















Everyone at the track was incredible from the instructors to the other drivers, organizers, on-site paramedics, etc, etc. The rest of the night was, as you might expect, a miserable experience. There is so much that you have to focus on while something this huge is still sinking in...I have to explain this to my wife and kids, call a tow truck (and have it towed 400km back to Ottawa), get the car off the track, wait for the tow truck and deal with all of the small talk that everyone wants to engage you in, and through all this wonder what the hell happened and what your next step is.

I was uninjured which is totally credited to this awesome car. The car did what it was supposed to do - protect me from myself. The frame up front was bent, air bag went off, and the seat belts locked. Not so much as a sore neck the next day though!

I brought the car to my dealer in Ottawa where they deemed it a write off with more than $20,000 in damage. I have never ‘believed’ in cars after frame bending collisions so I walked away from it. Just saying that hurts a little.

Anyways, I’ve run out of what little time I had to put this together but I wanted to make sure that I had the chance to post the full story here. This board and the people on it made my car what it was and I will be ever grateful. I do not yet know whether I will get back into another G8 but either way I will lurk around from time to time in the hopes that I can give a little back to a group that gave me so much.

[Eidolon]

... Dang. DANG. ... DANG.

Really sorry to see this, Grant. I know she was your track-toy baby. Glad you're alright. In the end, it's just a car. But it does somehow hurt to have them go out that way.

Do stick around, man. It'd be sad to lose ya!

(This also makes me slightly nervous for my next outing in November. Methinks I'll make sure to purchase track insurance...)

[Doug Hilliard]

Ditto to what Kevin said; I am so sorry this happened but glad you are OK. Just a car, but what a car! Loved all your videos and interaction on road course stuff. I hope you will stick around as well.

[-Ray-]

Sorry Grant. I'll get your user name fixed up shortly.

[Zodiac]

Damn sorry. It's just a car, a car you loved at that though, but it can be replaced. Glad you are okay and able to go home to your family.

[TooManyHobbies]

Sorry to see this. It sure does not look like a total, but I am certainly no expert.

[Zodiac]

Yeah doesn't look totaled but what do I know.

[MongosG8]

That really sucks man.. really sorry to hear and see this. This was your baby!

Its amazing how easily these cars get totaled because of the costs and whereabouts of the parts.