I was at Mosport this week with my friends and family. One of my friends has a McLaren 720s. I had to get out after two laps. I couldn't process the speed as a passenger fast enough to relax and enjoy the ride. I've instructed for 15 years or so . . . in all kinds of cars. But never in anything quite like that. Maybe if I had driven it, first, to understand its limits?
Anyone else?
This 720s, driver had a British accent?
I have nowhere near your experience, just a few Lemons races and track days. That said, riding shotgun with a much more talented driver (who instructs NASA) in an American Iron Mustang at Road Atlanta was... puckering. Like coal into diamonds.
I think it was a combination of how much that car wanted to be slid around, the diabolical nature of RA, and just the passenger-seat-factor. We really weren't going at face-melting speeds, but that day I realized I'm much more comfortable driving even if it's 2-wide into the kink at CMP at 4am.
I don't have nearly the experience you have but I understand. I had my first HPDE earlier this year. I was fine when I drove (street Miata but heavily prepped). Things ramped up when my instructor took me along in his barely street Miata. Then I had a ride along with a different instructor in a full race BMW 135. It was pretty intense and had me near my limit of comfort, and keeping down my lunch. I could easily see if it was any faster I couldn't have taken it.
Been there. Got a ride around Watkins Glen with a BMWCCA instructor in his modified 325is. After two laps he told me to go sit in the shade with my head between my knees and breathe slowly. He said I was hyperventilating. (He was a teaching surgeon at UVM medical school)
I'm a terrible ride along passenger and never do it. I have low blood iron and low blood pressure. Very susceptible to g forces and oxygen levels in my blood. I've been known to puke following go karting.
I've instructed at McLaren track days at Sebring. A good friend of mine is a Bentley/Rolls mechanic for a dealership that has several high end brands, including McLaren. Part of being a McLaren dealership is that they have to have two track days a year for their customers.
My last student was the ex-wife of a well know fast-food chain owner. She had a 720S that she drove everywhere. It was two years old and had about 38k miles on it.
I instructed her and her son for two sessions each, after which, she announced that she was done driving for the day, tossed me the keys and said I could take it out if I wanted. I took my friend who got me the gig out for a few laps, and he had to tap out on the fifth lap. His back was really starting to hurt from having to keep himself planted in the seat. There's not a lot to hold on to on the passenger side. The seats are better than most, but the performance envelope of the car is quite high.
We hit 168mph on the back straight (he was watching the speedo) on two consecutive laps. The lap he tapped out on, I was 4mph faster at the exit of T16, but he was done at that point.
Incredible car. The downforce it generates makes you feel like like a superstar, and the power is intoxicating. But you better be on your toes, because that next braking zone is coming up VERY quickly.
720's?
Brief update -- I was pretty sick on Thursday and Friday. Maybe I was in the "pre-sickness" phase :)
ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:Brief update -- I was pretty sick on Thursday and Friday. Maybe I was in the "pre-sickness" phase :)
I'll accept that excuse 
I got a ride in a factory Porsche GT3 cup car(992?) at Summit Point during the Colonial Cup Challenge. Driver was an instructor with more years than i had been alive. Him going 10/10ths in that thing was beyond fun. I dont get sick much and never felt it but the first thing he said to me when i got in(damn its tight in those things) was "if you feel sick give me the *waves hands back and forth* motion and ill slow down, give me the thumbs up if you want me to go faster".
I gave him the thumbs up the entire time. He clicked off some beyond mind blowing times in that car and you can tell the difference between a factory built race car and a street car converted over. Everything was built for exactly what needed it to do.
One of the best experiences of my time as a track day enthusiast. Dont think ill be able to top that one.
Been there, the first time I was given a ride along in a Track-prepped Cayman S with a fellow instructor put me pretty green for a spell. I also wierdly got it driving a GT-R during a skidpad event, trying to get it to misbehave with Traction Control off. Motion sickness happens.
ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:I was at Mosport this week with my friends and family. One of my friends has a McLaren 720s. I had to get out after two laps. I couldn't process the speed as a passenger fast enough to relax and enjoy the ride. I've instructed for 15 years or so . . . in all kinds of cars. But never in anything quite like that. Maybe if I had driven it, first, to understand its limits?
Anyone else?
I give a lot of track rides in my 720 since I instruct with Edge Addicts at COTA. In addition to "show and tell" with my students, I also oblige paid "joy rides" for the organizers who charge for the experience. I always ask, "Do you like roller coasters?" before buckling up since I like my car's interior. And every lap I'll signal for a thumbs-up or down, in case they feel ill.
Two weeks ago, I had a student go blank on me after the 3rd lap. He had been giving a thumbs up, but I then started to notice him slumped down a bit in the seat. I pitted.
He could not even speak. His eyes and mouth were both wide open. After a couple of minutes I was able to get him to talk. "I had no idea" were his words. It took another ten minutes before he was even close to normal again. He did not run his final session of the day, suggesting that he needed to do more work on his car before tracking it again.
His ride? A 720. And he was putting down decent laps for a n0vice (about 15 seconds off of mine).
Never happened before. I will be monitoring riders much more closely in the future.
My highlight on track was many, many years ago. I was working as a lot gopher at Brumos Atlanta. One weekend, we had to ferry a bunch of used cars up to Road Atlanta to support an event being put on by Schlumberger. It was something they were doing for sales winners irrc. Deborah Gregg (who owned Brumos at the time) was driving a Merkur XR4Ti in Trans Am at the time. It was one of two cars built by Roush for the series, and Schlumberger was one of her sponsors.
Hurley Haywood and Bob Snodgrass were on hand, giving hot laps in the various used Porsches we took up (mostly 944 cars) and Bob had his 914-6 race car there too. I was thrilled to get a hot lap from Hurley in a base 944. It was effortless for him, so much so that he was smoking a cigarette in his right hand while shifting!
The highlight of the day however, was getting a few hot laps in the Merkur. They somehow shoehorned in a passenger seat and each participant got a few laps. At the end of the day, Deborah asked me if I'd like to hop in. I couldn't say yes fast enough. It blew my mind how hard the car accelerated and how hard it braked. Going into turn 6 I was positive we were going straight off into the trees! The car in question:
Based on what I've read so far, I better skip the ride alongs.
My wife wants to "bail out" nearly every time I drive anywhere, in anything, at any speed, lol.
I get seasick/nauseated, but not while driving - mostly. When I was bedding in the brakes on Midlana, my brain wasn't calibrating fast enough to take in the harder and harder braking force and I managed to make myself nauseated.
When I got a ride on public streets in a Jaguar F-Type R, I also got nauseated, because I didn't know exactly when the driver was going to brake, accelerate, and turn. I made the mistake of telling my wife, who now says, "now you know how I feel!"
A friend was doing joy rides in a V8 radical for potential customers but pretty much everyone had had their fill. I'd driven a Stohr sports racer about 6 months earlier but I have to admit it took me a few corners for reaclimate to the amount of G-force the car could generate.
A 911 turbo owner asked me to step it up........I made them sea sick in their own car. I felt bad but it was a similar thing to what others have said here. They had no idea their car would do that.
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