Running with the Big Boys

Got a message from a customer of ours down in North Carolina today telling me what an awesome experience he had at a track day this past weekend at V.I.R. .  Beau was in need of some inexpensive shocks since his were toast, and I sent him the old ones from my Z, since they were just sitting here collecting dust anyway.  Not only did he have an awesome time, he did incredibly well, considering his car is nearly stock!  Check it out:

“Thanks for the shocks!

Cliffs Notes: My fastest lap time was a 2:27!!!! Full factory suspension, only power mod is a catback exhaust for a whopping 2-5hp or so. Factory NON BREMBO BRAKES!!!! I used Hawk HP+ pads. And my 275/35/18 Kumho Ecsta XS tires. Absolutely nothing else modified on the car. See below for the average track times.

http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/index…al_Lap_T imes

I was faster than every Lotus in my run group (the only two were in my run group, 1 was an Exige S and the other was a last generation Exige something or other), most Corvettes, most Porsche’s, every WRX/STi/Evo, every FWD car, all but 1 Mustang (on slicks with a big brake kit).

Cars that were faster than me: Z06, Corvette, Turbo Toyota Corolla AE86, heavily modified 12:1 compression 80’s(I think) Celica, my friends Mustang with slicks and race pads on 13 inch brakes, modified (huge turbo) Porsche 944. I think that’s it.

The bad: I wore out my rear brake pads down to the backing plate. I didn’t realize my increased pace would wear out my pads faster than ever! So I didn’t check. I’m hearing a popping noise from the front occassionally so I think a ball joint may be on it’s last legs. I overheated my front pads once. That is WAY better than after every 4-5 laps like before. So my brand new rotors are either disipating heat better or I’m easier on my brakes by braking later than I used to.

The good: 2:27 baby!!!! I’m braking later than ever, trail braking more, my heal/toe is excellent now, and I’m only 10-15 seconds off of race car pace with a near factory 350Z!!!! Even though some of the cars were faster than me I DID catch up to many of them in the corners! But, they pulled away on the straights.

I’m pretty sure I’m nearly to the point that I need suspension upgrades to go faster. Absolutely need brake upgrades. More power would be nice, but my biggest gains will probably be in brakes and suspension.”

Beau was good enough to take some pics from the event!

And since I’m on a Lotus kick lately, the silver Exige really caught my eye – looks very heavily modded, with a K series swap (ps, Beau was still faster!).  Very, very cool looking car!

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