Hi folks - We had a very sunny and beautiful day for autocross down in Quonset yesterday. There were quite a few participants for both the class in the AM and the full course in the PM. I think we had eight cars for class. And almost forty for the afternoon. There were actually more cars in the afternoon last time, but that's still a huge amount.
The class was almost definitely the best part of the day. We had Jeff in his supercharged FR-S with new AP Racing brakes that were outstanding, Attilio in his monster STi also with a few new go-fast/stop-fast bits, Phil in a Pontiac GTO V8 with CTS-V Cadillac brakes, Christian who lives in Cumberland near me with a 1985 911 Targa in stock condition, Kathy with a $400 VW Passat sedan with another $400 of mods that was damn quick, Jess with a '02 Mark IV GTI 1.8T that was also right quick even on three wheels, and Rich in his M3 that just turned 101,000 miles and looks great! I had a few new bits of dust on the Targa 4 but otherwise it was unchanged from last time out.
We started broken into groups - new to ADSI and those who were not new. We did some drills to warm up the tires and brains then got back together for an interesting drill where we used radar to measure corner speed and time to measure overall pace while trying different cornering approaches. That may have been the best part of the day. Attilio had the highest exit speed they measured so he's getting the power down well. I had some good pace in the corner itself, but clearly need Attilio to breath on my motor.
We did another line/corner drill with radar and time-elapsed comparison. That one was interesting because most of us were quicker taking lines that differed from what you would expect from the sizes/weights of our cars. I was quicker with a tight inside line despite the weight of my car - maybe AWD traction helped? The lighter cars were a little quicker with the wider corner - maybe carrying more momentum? It may also have come down to whether you could get power down. Or maybe Jess and Kathy are just better drivers - most probably!
The afternoon saw a pretty amazing array of cars show up. From replica Cobras, to many Miata's (most of whom forgot helmets), to M3's and STis. There were a couple of Boxsters and a shiny new 991 Carrera S. An early 70's VW bug...and the list goes on. The course was broken into two different courses so we had two tracks hot at once. The wait was still pretty long, unfortunately. And the corners were tight to maximize the time on track within the confines of the split tarmac. One course ran about 45 seconds. The other was just over a minute and featured a 360 turn in the middle.
I have no idea where anyone was with times as I had to head out a little early to keep peace in the house. Brandon Duggan in his new-to-him '98 M3 with slicks was very quick. Its hard to beat slick tires on a hot, dry, flat course it seems.
It was a great day. I am working with Anthony to try to get a little more "instruction" into the course and some more timing data for a renewed focus on improved technique. It may become a more advanced course that might be a tad more expensive. But we'll see how it goes. Hope you can all join us soon for a pretty amazing little unique thing we have right in our own back yard. Jump in soon as I think its going to explode in popularity if it hasn't already!