Fun day at the track (nothing bad) :)

[Raymond Kawski]

Well I drove up to Pocono Raceway for a trackday yesterday.
I packed the NX the night before with various tools, brakes etc.
I was going to run my street Falken Azenis' because I hadn't
spent the money on some new R compound yet.

Well I got there swapped pads on the drivers side front wheel
and put the wheel back on and thought I should check the wheel
bearing.  Thinking that Kieran's Fiance's car had a bad wheel
bearing as did someone else recently.  So I checked it and
damn 1/2" - 3/4" of slop.  The car rarely gets driven
and it showed no signs of being bad on the street.  :(
I contemplated what to do.  So I went and talked to Joe
who runs PDA the group hosting the event.  I said I'm going
to have to bail or switch cars.  He said it's up to
you.

So I drove back home and got the Turbo.  The trans has been
making noise and the clutch has been slipping at more then
12psi.  It has street tires on it and the suspension is not
really good for the East course at Pocono which is very
technical.  But something is better then nothing I thought.

I got back to Pocono got the car teched and went out in
the Blue group because I missed my session with the Red group.
The car felt good but handled poorly as I didn't have time to
mess with tire pressures or suspension settings at all.

The second session I cranked the rear AGX's up to full stiff
and left the front on 3.  This time I went out with the red group.
I still didn't have time to mess with tire pressures because
I didn't have much time between my last session out.
I went out with a guy with a 350Z.   I had fun keeping him behind
me on the long straight of the Nascar track.  I cheated twice
and cranked the boost to 12psi just to pull on him harder.  :)

We broke for lunch and after lunch a fog had rolled in
and it started to drizzle.  After a drivers meeting PDA decided
the fog wasn't too thick but said give yourself extra room.
They also added spotters for the flaggers so they could
see everything.

Third session out I checked my tire pressures and they were
low.  I put the rears at 45 and the fronts at 40 in the street
Kuhmo 712's.  This was by far the best session yet.  The first
3-4 laps were yellow due to conditions.  After the green flag
was out I was passing 1-2 cars every lap on the Nascar
straight and the car was rotating pretty good.  I was having
a blast.  Rick Lepore was a few cars behind me in his
new WRX Sti.  Every car I passed he would pass.  I was
doing pretty good keeping him behind me.  I
was behind an RX7 when I noticed his left rear wheel going
from 0 camber to like -10!!!  I dropped back from him not
knowing if his wheel was going to fall off.  I pulled into
the pits and told them to get him off.  As he was still going
around!   When I went back out I had clear track and had a
few clear laps before the session was over.

After this session I talked to the 350Z owner and a guy with a
G35 who went for a ride along with the 350Z owner.  They
were both impressed with my car.  The last session out I
asked if the G35 owner wanted to ride with me.  He was like
HELL yeah.

We went out and he couldn't believe how much power my car had.
This was at 9psi boost controller off!  I only switched to
12psi twice just to piss off a few tanks that I was schooling in the
infield.  I walked them on the straights like they weren't moving
and you could tell they barely lifted.  Mind you this was the most
experienced run group of the day.  Black and Red were combined
so we had some good drivers out there.  I passed a number of
cars and got myself behind a newer M3.  He and I were very
well matched at 9psi.   He handled better then me but I
was a little faster on the straights again at 9psi.  So
he would put a little distance on me in the infield but I
would gain it back on the straights.  It was a lot of fun
following him around.  He had decent lines too.  At one point
we were 3 wide on the Nascar straight.  There were point by's
so it was all cool.  At one time I got a point by in the
braking zone where I would normally I would chicken out
and not pass.  This time I did.  And got pointed by 2 cars.
The last car pointed me by and I tucked right
in at the apex cone they had out and just tracked out
wide.  It was really cool!!! I thought for
sure we would get black flagged because it was an HPDE not
a race.  But since this was the advanced group it was all
ok.  The G35 owner just couldn't believe how much power
my car had.  He kept saying "The torque is always there."

A little about the car.  I was running 350/300 GC's with AGX's.
17" Kuhmo 712's on 17x7.5 wheels and a Quaife.  Fastbrakes 11"
setup with Maxima rears.  Stock Nissan pads in the rear and
Carbotech Panther XP's up front.  GTi-R Manifold extrude honed
and Swain coated.  GTi-R Turbo with T04B compressor housing.
Turbine housing extrude honed and swain coated.  Turbine outlet
pipe extrude honed and swain coated.  Cobra MAF, 50# MSD's,
Walbro pump, Fmax intercooler pipes and intercooler, Greddy
Type S bov and Profec B boost controller.  Cutsom full 3"
exhaust with no resonator, test pipe and sraight thru magnoflow
 muffler.  I was running with the boost controller off which
is 9psi except for the few times I went to 12psi.  I also have water
injection but I didn't use it because there appears
to be a leak somewhere :(

At 9psi I only had wheel spin coming onto the Nascar track
where it was a little wet at times.  I was entering the nascar
track in 3rd gear.  At 12psi entering the Nascar track I was
spinning thru most of 3rd but you could throttle modulate it.
I primarily used 3rd gear the whole day and it held together,
the gears are shot peened and chryo treated.  Thanks Mike.
I would grab 2nd in the hairpin and then stay in 3rd the whole
infiled.  Shifting to 4th on the Nascar straight.

Here is a picture of pocono the east course is what I was running:
http://www.pdadrivingschool.com/pages/poconoMaps.htm

RK
--
Raymond A. Kawski