[s-cars] Watkins Glen report

[Satoshi Mizutani]

Back from my 1st time at the Glen, it was quite the experience.

Intimidating track, with all of the baby blue Armco everywhere,
blind corners and very little runoff room in many corners. Once
I got more familiar with the track, it was a lot of fun.

I had my first experience with brake fade there- seeing approx.
130 mph (6800-7000 rpm in 4th, whatever that comes out to be)
going into the bus stop and at least 100 mph on the front straight
caused my Ate Superblue to boil, along with about 1/2 of my Hawk
HPS pads.

Looks like next season I'll be running Castrol SRF and Porterfield
R4 for the track, probably OEM Porsche pads for winter.

Having gotten a ride in my instructor's Porsche 951 Cup car in
the same session as Bruce in his S4, I got to see what the more
experienced/skilled drivers were doing in the same conditions, wow.
It was incredible to me to see Bruce lapping at the same or faster
speeds than a full-race 951 (equipped with a roll cage, glassfibre
Recaro racing seats and 6-pt. harnesses). That ride showed me that my
car clearly has far more speed potential than I am currently capable
of and that it can hang with some of the Porsches. :-)

Neat cars at the track included a Ruf RGT (!), 996 GT-2 (PCCB brakes-
oooh),
Ultima GTR, AC Schnitzer S5S(?- I think that's what it's called-
supercharged 540i),
Corvette ZR-1 (sounded like a SB-2 NASCAR engine with mufflers coming
down the straight)and the usual assortment of mega-buck Porsches.

Very neat to see the 996 GT-2 come out of turn 10, squat
down and rocket down the front straight like a giant slingshot had shot
it out of the corner.

It was also amusing to see the Z-06 in my run group- waving him by while
staying at full throttle and seeing him rocket by like I was standing
still.
It must be fun to have so much power on tap.

I gotta get myself a 951S for track days, forget about getting more
power out
of the Audi.

Taka

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