Raceway Park Saturday

Today at the track was nothing short of, well, FUCKING AMAZING. My car took the tight turns and straight away like nothing happened. Even with my slightly off alignment I was able to take the corners hard without the tires scrubbing. It was fantastic. The cars that showed up were amazing as well. BMW M3's, race prepped Ferrari 355, many porsches, too many Subaru's if you ask me, and also Evo's. There were a few civics and automatic cars that didn't do all that bad. The staging session was actually fun. I got to talk to a lot of different people and get to know how their cars were setup. It wasn't too suprising to me that a lot of the novice road course guys didn't have a clue on how to make their cars better. It was still fun to talk to people and learn a thing or two about other cars for once. Today was not a day to prove to everyone that one person was better than the other but just a day to have fun and learn how to drive on the track. That damn WRX wagon behind me kept trying to cut into the corners and get on my inside line, too bad he was understeering so badly that he scrubber off most of his corner entry speed and lost almost all the speed he had for his corner exits. Haha. I do want to go on the track with the blue STi that had a fear no Evo sticker on though...

The overall impression of the track was amazing!!! It's a nice street styled track, as the pavement was nearly 5 years old and wasn't exactly flawless. The Spec R springs worked amazingly. Words can not describe how much improvement can come from just a spring upgrade, especially if you go with SWIFT springs. Just brilliant! The tighter sections of the course really allowed my car's overall setup to shine. The "aggressive" negative camber up front gave me the best turn-in capabilities as possible mixed in with the stripped out trunk and rear seats in my car. The tail just loved to kick-out. The instructor became a bit hesitant when I exited one of the corners a little too spirited-ly and the car nearly went side-ways. The car felt extremely balanced and poised, the rear-end of the car was able to rotate better than ever. The only way I can describe my track experience today is, FUCKING INCREDIBLE. Don't get me wrong, I love opening up my car when ever and where ever but it's true, the track is a completely different experience.

Bottom line, it doesn't take coilovers to have a great handling car. It's all about the way you set things up and most importantly it's about the driver more than the car. I find that many "tuners" these days are quick to jump the gun on the suspension front and go straight into coilovers. Adjustable height isn't the best thing in the world especially when the "tuner" has no idea what he/she is doing to them. It's better to start slowly and figure things out as you go and from that point on fine tune certain things like tire pressure, camber settings, toe angle and weight bias in the car.

Video of me on the track leading the pack:


Not too many pictures today:


A taste of the cars that were there...




Video of my run, enjoy!