I'm not sure the weather could have been any better today. mid to high 70's and not a damn cloud in the sky. It's always extra nice at lime rock when it's like that since it since in a little valley completely surrounded by woods. Arrived around 10.30am while the Lime Rock club guys were still on track (the rich people who by country club style memberships. Usually there are some high dollar cars there at this time of day, and today had the best attendance yet. A few obligatory Porches, 2 SRF's, 2 Radical SR3's, 4-6 Ferrari 458 spiders (including one in an awesome flat merlot color), a Lambo Murcielago and to top it all off...a freakin Lambo Super Trofeo.
Cut to the chase and I head out for the first session. The run group was packed and included a bunch of ass hats. Multiple people had difficulty keeping there car on the pavement, which got pretty frustrating. I wasn't able to turn what i felt was a good lap with having to slow for a yellow or someone who refused to give a point by. The car was under steering and severely lacking front end bite, it was basically plowing through the turn 2-3-4 complex. Came off track and found my front tires had heated to a little over 39psi so I bled them down to 38 and checked temps (155ish Outer and Middle, 170ish Inner). I then added a click to the rear suspension since I always start them soft to regain a feel for the car. Wound up managing a 1:06.xx
Session Two - Actually had some pace on track this time but kept getting held up by an ST class C4 vette who apparently didn't have any mirrors on his car. He was 10-20+ mph off the pace around the whole track and absolutely refused to put his hand out the window and wave me by while ignoring blue flags. Meanwhile...the car felt better through the tight section and was definitely rotating better. I was focusing on the "flick it" method that Jordan had showed me at Pocono, and actually wound up getting a pretty neat slip angle feeling out of the car. I think that i even managed to put it into a 4 wheel slide once or twice as I had to put in a little oppo. I also worked on trying to be back on the throttle by apex as this was another evo specific technique mentioned so that the rear diff can start clamping and pull through the exit. Maybe it's just my head, but it certainly seemed like I could feel the rear diff locking and the mid turn characteristics changing. One second it would feel like i was about to have to lift to not under steer off track and then there was a very neat "pulling" (technically pushing?) back onto line where I had the car pointed
Third session - Nothing that great to report. I had added another click or two to the rear shocks. The car felt better yet but overall really just felt all day like I had no tires under me. I think my RS3's are beyond the competitive lap times portion of their life.
The results? - In session two I somehow managed to click off a new personal best of 1:04.74. Of course I was the only tuner class car, but surprisingly that time was good enough to top the 3 cars in Tuner MOD class which included an Evo that as far as I know was on Hoosiers, a 2011 STi on R888's and an STi swapped 2.5RS. I'm taking that all with a grain of salt though...the other evo is either a terrible driver or running a terrible setup to be a second slower on Hoosier's and I really think the STi is a green driver also, but that being said they should have a higher level of modification on the car to be entering that class anyway...
(click for the video)
No comments:
Post a Comment