Pocono Track Day

[shotgunslade]

Had a terrific track day at Pocono yesterday with Performance Driving Associates (PDA). Back in action after a brief hiatus due to a dislocated elbow acquired on the mean steets of NYC (also very slippery when wet). They had all 3 subtracks open, and each run group got two 30 minute sessions on each of the 3 tracks. That's three hours of seat time. I was toasted at the end on the day. The SVX was down a touch on brake fluid, and actually, I think my front pads are toasted too. Otherwise in good shape. It did try to run hot a couple of times, but I made sure, that when I came off the track, I would drive around at slow speed in a high gear for a short time. No boil-overs, Thanks for the advice about the Water Wetter adn removing the grille. A tank and a half of gas expended for a good purpose. Below is a map



The north course is run clockwise and the other two are run counterclockwise. The banked oval turn on the south track is particularly steep.

Here I am after my first session. Pretty nice NSX next to me



Some really nice machinery there. Here is a Superformance S1 Lotus 7 knock-off:



Here is a really nice Ferrari 360 track car:



and here is a clutch of Lotuses, two Elises and an Exige: One of the Elises was in my run group, but I couldn't stay with him, especially on the very twisty East course. See the SVX in the background:



Took a half hour ride with an instructor in his c5 Z06 on the north course, He hit about 135 or more at the end of the long straight. Got a little rear end coming around, powering out of the turns. That was arush.

Performance wise, the car did very well. I was running with a '95 M3 before he broke a strut tower. He said I was following him around very closely on the twisty bits, but he thought when we got to the long straight he would walk away, but he was really suprised when I creeped up on him and he had to give me a point around. Even passed some c5 Corvettes in the hands of very noobie drivers. In the North course long straight, am well over 105 now, but the important thing is the cornering speed. Just learning how to use trail breaking, which is very very useful in this reliably understeering car. In the right places, it can bring the rear end around just enough to get you pointed better at the turn apex and and allow you to drift out under full power, with less power-on understeer coming out of the turn. That was particularly useful on the East course, which is very twisty. Didn't like it the first run, car just doesn't want to turn that fast, and I would lose a lot of momentum on the tight ones. The trail braking, that I started to use in the second run really helped out.

This is a good car. It suprises a lot of people with how fast it is, both on the straights and in the turns. I was drifting a little close to the wall coming out onto the superspeedway on the North course, and my instructor kind of flinched. I told her that I wsn't worried, because if I got too close I could just lift off a little bit. She flinched even bigger, being a Porsche person, but I reassured her, it's AWD, no lift-off oversteer, just less drift and a slightly tighter line. It holds its own with a lot of cars and it is very easy to drive.

Next month, Watkins Glen.