Track Daze - NW Quattro Club

[steve.powers@spdg.COM (Steve Powers)]

Wow!!!

Yesterday at Bremerton Raceway was outstanding. We probably had 40
Quattros. Lots of coupes, including an '84 w/ 30k _kilometers_ on
the clock! A handful of 4000s, a couple of 5000s, 3 or so V8s, a
200 TQ wagon (more later), an S4 and our S6 wagon.

Ned was there with The Beast, which I got a wonderful demonstration
of. Also present was Ned's daughter Marni with her yellow coupe
which awaits some monster mods (as yet undetermined).

In the morning we did threshold braking, lane toss and cone weave
with a trail braking area at the end. As my wife and I were sharing
the car, the instructor (from the BMW club) offered up his M6. I
didn't have to think twice about that! I did the threshold braking
with it and got to compare it to the S6.

WHile the bimmer could make more HP, it couldn't get it to the
ground in the short run. I could enter the cones at 60 tops with
the M6. It stopped very fast and only hit the ABS at the final
8 feet or so. The S6 requires a _launch_ to make the same speed
in the same distance. I could only get 55 out of it easily. I
didn't notice much difference in stopping though. I would
attribute it mostly to not being used to the M6. The M6 _did_
sound nicer...

In the afternoon, we got track time. Took a recon lap and then
got to drive at speed with an instructor. Most of the instructors
were from the BMW club, but all that I met were really nice.
We even had last year's Pro Solo I champ - Joe Goeke as an
instructor.

My wife took the car out first. After a few laps, she was making
time on everyone in her group. Each instructor commented on her
smoothness - likely due to her motorcycle training. I went out
with the next group.

I learned alot each of the 3 times I went out. How deep to go,
where the better line was, when to get on the boost, etc., but
I learned a whole lot more by letting Joe drive _our_ car! Wow!!

He took about 4 hot laps in the 'grocery gitter'. He made that
car move!!! I got back in the seat and imitated his lines and
actions to the best of my ability. Much better times and higher
exit speeds! I found myself going deeper into turn 1 (about 110
to 115) before braking and letting the car enter at 40 or so.

The resultant drift put me right in line to apex the corner
where I had been drifting out too wide on the exit. Big improvement!

The afternoon also saw the result of Ned's tweaking. The 200 TQW
had Ned's latest tweak. The guy had swapped ECUs at lunchtime and
was getting pretty cocky in his second go around. Into turn 1,
he overcooks and hesitates. As a result, he swaps ends and backs
out of the turn.

The guy must have been pissed. He then accelerates into a 3 turn
sequence (L-R-L). He overshoots his line and does a 360 towards
the only wall on the track. He was black-flagged for the event and
decided to leave. (it was rumored that he'd just received an
extra 75-100 hp)

We finished at 6 and said our goodbyes. I finally got to meet some
of the list locals: Bernie, Linus, Pat, Scott, John and a few other
folks. Well run event. Nice people. $65 is awfully cheap compared
to value received. Kudos to everyone involved.
 
steve powers ... '95.5 S6 ... '95 620RX/C ... '91 K100RS-16V ... '88 R100S
spowers@spdg.com * stratos product development group * seattle, washington

"I must tell you that these are strong Bavarian beer-carrying horses, not
 the smaller ones of Italy." (Ferdinand Piech)