:. Racing .:. 2003/08/09 - Road Racing
Results:: New Times: 1:20
Writeup/Notes:
Time for some real racing!
After taking several events to get used to my new RWD torque machine autocrossing, I decided to raise the stakes a bit and go road racing out at SC with the rest of the guys from Colorado DSM, who make fantastic racing companions.
Perhaps I sound like a broken record, but boy was it a lot of fun! The car was an absolute gem to drive. It is so much less twitchy than the Eclipse was, most notably braking hard down the back straight. The rear-end never wiggles when you're on the brakes hard, it just slows down like you ask it to.
Perhaps this means I wasn't braking as hard as I could? Probably, that, plus the PFC pads and DRM brake ducts were astonishingly good. These pads are so good, I could only use about half pedal pressure before the ABS started kicking in significantly. Time after time, the pedal was rock hard, and brought down the car like a anchor had been thrown out. No heat troubles at all - my rotors have no heat checks or cracks, and even the ball joint and tie-rod boots are intact!
My first two stints out (that is to say, about 5-6 laps :-( ), I was able to immediately do 1:22's, without pushing terribly hard, as you can see from the videos. The third time out, with Erik A. in the car, I had a good lap and whipped off a 1:20. Compared to a 1:16.50 in the Eclipse, which was with about 100 more hp and racing tires, I feel pretty darn good! Definitely harder driving could have led to something in the teens, so not bad for a first day. Recall that the 16g and Wilwoods was worth 4 seconds in the Eclipse, so a bit of HP could really help things here.
Any downsides? YES. Oil temperatures. While coolant temps were good and stable - around 235-240, for the most part, the oil temps climbed rapidly to where I would get out of it at 280* on the DIC. Perhaps if I end up being able to go 5+ laps, coolant will become an issue, but for now, I will just upgrade an oil cooler.
After noon, we broke for lunch, and then ran counterclockwise, which is a whole different ball o' wax at Second Creek. Everything is a lot more intimidating, that is for sure. I managed a 1:26 by the end of the day, which is pretty sad. Hopefully I'll figure out a bit more about how to take things backwards. The kink at the end of the front straight is absolutely terrifying - got a nice little drift going there at one point, and thought I was done for. God I'm a wuss.
It was quite a different experience not to be the fastest car on the track. I had nothing for the vipers in the corners, and even less for them on the straights. Going to be interesting to see what it takes to put those dudes behind me.
NEW MODS:
Media:
- Movies: (warning, they are 16-40MB in size, ~3-6mins
- Stint 1, set 1
- Stint 1, set 2
- Stint 2, set 1
- Stint 3, set 1 - this is my fast time.
- Stint 1, set 1
- Stint 4, set 1 - first time counterclockwise, slow speed
- Stint 5, set 1 - again, little faster. 1:26
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