Did anyone else sign up for this event besides me? Can't beat $75 for a casual fun autocross day with 10-15 runs.
Event: March 8, Sonoma Raceway
Trackmasters-racing.com is hosting autocross and road course event March 8,9 at Sonoma. See the website for details but I've done the autox event several times now and is a great way to learn the cars limits. $75 for a day of about 10+ runs. I'd love to see some FiSTs there.
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I wanted to but I won't be in town.
Have fun.
Have fun.
Had a great time competing with my totally stock FiST against a diverse field yesterday. Conditions were sunny and warm. I will upload some video when I get the chance and have a few observations on the handling and performance of the car.
Also, ran it on a skid pad to test thresholds, e-brake, and throttle lift-off techniques.
Just for a preview, my best run time was 1 min 7.2 seconds. A competitive driver in a stock BRZ was 1 min 7.8 seconds. 1988 e30 M3 was 1 min 8.3 sec. However a S2000 c/r spanked us all with 1 min 2.9 sec. I drove a couple other cars including BRZ and rode along in a couple including a modified porsche turbo (1 min 8 secs).
Will share more when I get a moment.
Also, ran it on a skid pad to test thresholds, e-brake, and throttle lift-off techniques.
Just for a preview, my best run time was 1 min 7.2 seconds. A competitive driver in a stock BRZ was 1 min 7.8 seconds. 1988 e30 M3 was 1 min 8.3 sec. However a S2000 c/r spanked us all with 1 min 2.9 sec. I drove a couple other cars including BRZ and rode along in a couple including a modified porsche turbo (1 min 8 secs).
Will share more when I get a moment.
Here is the link to lower quality video on YouTube.
1. ESC, even if left on, allows some play in the car and some wheel spin. With it off, depending on tire and track conditions, I found myself easing off the throttle more to avoid wheelspin on turn exit. It seems crazy but most runs were almost as fast with ESC on.
2. There is a good amount of body roll. So much that in some of the off camber skidpad turns, particularly when turning clockwise, the lighter passenger side almost felt as though it was lifting both wheels. On the main raceway at 60 mph on some sharper turns it made me a bit nervous.
3. Had a lot of comments on 3 wheel motion in turns.
4. The car is fun to "point-and-shoot" by lifting off the throttle mid turn which gives good and predictable rotation of the back end
5. I have bruises on both knees from bumping the middle console and driver side door with heavy turning. Would be useful to add some padding there
6. The break pads faded hard after three autocross runs in rapid succession. Had to let it sit for a while.
7. The torque vectoring seems to work best when applying a small amount of throttle when understeer occurs. It seemed counterintuitive to me but a little throttle seemed to bring the back end around more, almost like a RWD.
8. The torque vectoring would occasionally catch me off guard as it kicks in. Mid turn I would occasionally get a jolt of turn in that was not linear. This didn't reslut in any loss of control but requires getting used to.
9. The ediff and TV are abusive on the breaks in AutoX
10. The gearbox is much softer than the BRZ which feels like a firm click into place.
11. The BRZ was pretty boring to drive. Feels slow in acceleration, required much earlier braking, had way more understeer. Only thing I thought was better is the feel of the gearbox and the position of the shifter.
Thats about it folks. Happy to answer any questions.
1. ESC, even if left on, allows some play in the car and some wheel spin. With it off, depending on tire and track conditions, I found myself easing off the throttle more to avoid wheelspin on turn exit. It seems crazy but most runs were almost as fast with ESC on.
2. There is a good amount of body roll. So much that in some of the off camber skidpad turns, particularly when turning clockwise, the lighter passenger side almost felt as though it was lifting both wheels. On the main raceway at 60 mph on some sharper turns it made me a bit nervous.
3. Had a lot of comments on 3 wheel motion in turns.
4. The car is fun to "point-and-shoot" by lifting off the throttle mid turn which gives good and predictable rotation of the back end
5. I have bruises on both knees from bumping the middle console and driver side door with heavy turning. Would be useful to add some padding there
6. The break pads faded hard after three autocross runs in rapid succession. Had to let it sit for a while.
7. The torque vectoring seems to work best when applying a small amount of throttle when understeer occurs. It seemed counterintuitive to me but a little throttle seemed to bring the back end around more, almost like a RWD.
8. The torque vectoring would occasionally catch me off guard as it kicks in. Mid turn I would occasionally get a jolt of turn in that was not linear. This didn't reslut in any loss of control but requires getting used to.
9. The ediff and TV are abusive on the breaks in AutoX
10. The gearbox is much softer than the BRZ which feels like a firm click into place.
11. The BRZ was pretty boring to drive. Feels slow in acceleration, required much earlier braking, had way more understeer. Only thing I thought was better is the feel of the gearbox and the position of the shifter.
Thats about it folks. Happy to answer any questions.
Didn't see your post until you referred to it. Seemed like a very open course with fairly large straights and slaloms with a couple of tight radius turns. Interesting run off area as well.
Good driving btw...it just looks a lot different then our local events here in the snow belt.
Good driving btw...it just looks a lot different then our local events here in the snow belt.
This was one of the more fun courses recently. I hit the rev limiter in second on the first long straight every time.Didn't see your post until you referred to it. Seemed like a very open course with fairly large straights and slaloms with a couple of tight radius turns. Interesting run off area as well.
Good driving btw...it just looks a lot different then our local events here in the snow belt.
This brings up a question I forgot to ask previously. Is anyone able to heel-toe in this car well?
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