[s-cars] Track Impressions(long)

[CaptMagu at aol.com]

s-heads

I'm back in Evahboost this beautiful Mother's day afternoon, no one forgot 
the mothers in their lives I hope, reflecting back on a great week of being a 
urS-car owner. Last Sunday you might remember i ran with the Bimmers at a tight 
short course in Denver called 2nd Creek. Yesterday I joined Frank Amoroso, 
Mike Pederson, and Mikes daughter Erica with our s-cars at Pikes Peak 
International Raceway.

The sanctioning body for this event is the USSS, United States Speedway 
Series. These guys use Indy cars that are several years old and invite high 
performance groups in to amortise the cost of renting out race tracks. In attendance 
were lots of very high performance eye candy. I saw lots of Ferarris, Vettes, 
Vipers, Porsches, Cobras, and pure race cars. There were 5 run groups. Group 5 
was the Indy cars, Group 4 was experienced street/race car, Group 3 was 
advanced street cars/race cars, Group 2 was novice street, and Group 1 was an 
introductory drivers school group. The Ferarris included a few 355s and numerous 
360s along with 2 F-40 LM race cars. In the Vette group were a few C4s and lots 
of C5s including Z06s. The Vipers included several all out race cars and 
several track cars. There were all sorts of Porsches including 996tts, Dan 
Aweida's(owner of ASW) GT3 Cup car, a couple of RS America track cars, a beautiful 
newer GT3 and several others including a local news anchor, Adelle Arakawa's, 
Carrera. The Cobras included several replicas and originals including a 427 side 
oiler and a Daytona Coupe. There was also a Shelby GT350 and a Pantera. Like I 
said, lots and lots of eye candy.

The first time I knew for sure that this would be a memorable day was when I 
saw the Group 2 cars pull out to grid. The Pantera, 996tts, 360s, Vipers, 
Cobras and I'm in Group 3???? For those of you that don't know PPIR is a Nascar 
type oval with full banking that has an infield for the twisties. After making 
sure the track wheels are torqued on properly and all fluids are checked its 
time to get strapped in for my first session. I'll be the first to admit that I 
don't have much track experience but that has been changing of late. This is 
the first time I'm going out there without an instructor and be allowed full 
course passing. That and there are real race cars in my group has me just a 
little anxious. 

As my group is called out to grid, I line up behind a Ferarri 360 that is 
running Hoosiers and the car behind me is a Viper with a full roll cage. Well, 
its time as we get waved out onto the track. I have strategized that whatever 
they do, I'm going to take it easy and learn this track. Wow, this is fun. I run 
the first lap easy and have the tires and pads warmed up so I start to crank 
it up a little. Coming out of turn 8, the last turn before the banked front 
straight, I'm on the throttle hard. Mr 360 has gone high so I stay a little 
lower and blow by the Ferarri. I come off it early as i have been warned about the 
transition to the infield track being a tricky endeavor indeed. The 360 
catches me and is on my bumper as I learn this transition but I lose hime 
accelerating onto the back straight and through the infield turns. The esses are 
problematic for me so I concentrate on them at a slower speed. I do catch the Viper 
in a couple of laps and pass him on the front straight. The only car that 
passes me is a full race Lotus 7 clone. Out comes the checkered flag and I 
complete my cool down lap. Back in the garage we check everything again and after a 
rest and some coaching by Dan Aweida, I go out for session number 2. More of 
the same, passing more super cars and a much nicer line through the infield. 

At this point we hear a PA announcement that since we were running behind 
they're going to combine Groups 3 & 4. Now I've got those butterflies again as 
I'm going to be out there with the F40s and Dan's GT3 Cup car among others. I 
grid up again and off we go. Did I mention that this is a lot of fun? Wow. The 
amazing thing is that other than Dan's car, I'm holding my own out here with 
this amazing wundercar. The F40 LM does pass me but he just gets by on the front 
straight. Brooks who has done a lot of racing takes me out with me as 
passenger and does give me few great pointers. Next I take out my buddy, Brian who 
goes to church with me and has volunteered to be my crew chief this day. We go 
out and there in front of us a couple of cars away is the Porsche GT3 with 
driver and passenger. We pass the cars between us and I'm on the Porsche's bumper. 
He makes me stay there for 2 laps and finally begrudgingly points us to pass 
on the front straight.

There were so many folks coming by to look at that large 4 door sedan:-) Best 
quote was a Z06 driver that came by to shake his head and say, "You know, on 
the surface this is such an innocent looking car. Then you see the those Big 
Red brakes at all 4 corners and that intercooler that looks like it covers the 
whole front end. Man is that thing fast. How do you get it to corner so well?" 
Best pass was that one with prejudice on the GT3. On my last session my 
friend Brian had me on the clock and there was one really good lap as I came up to 
speed and became more comfortable over the whole track. I still respected that 
transition to the infield. He timed me at 1:08. After that fifth session, I 
decided to call it a very satifying day. This is one great car. I drive to the 
event in luxury. Blast around a race course with a bunch of super cars that 
were for the most part trailered to the event. Then drive home in luxury all in 
the same car.

Can things be improved you ask. Absolutely, but at a price. I recently drove 
Mike's green car with the tubular manifold and a T-60 Garrett(bigger than 
mine). Convinced me that I'm on the right track going with the tubular manifold 
and GT35 ball bearing turbo. Suspension is very hard. I've recently revalved my 
Bilstein Sports to 10% harder on compression and 30% harder on rebound. I also 
went to full hard on my rear sway bar from the middle position just this last 
week. I ran 2nd Creek with just the new shocks and ran PPIR with the shocks 
and the harder setting on the rear bar. The handling improved with each 
addition. I could really feel the car set and the rear come around very nicely. 
Brooks wanted a harder bar at the rear and harder springs in front. The feel on the 
street now is at the limit of acceptability for harshness so I won't be going 
harder on the springs. I might just try the 28mm front bar though. Decisions 
decisions.

Hap, relaxin in Evahboost and plannin the next mod, Maguire