I recently had my first DE event. It was a freaking blast! I was a bit intimidated at first, not just because I've never been on a track before, but because my group had a lot of REALLY fast cars in it. Of the 26 cars, there was a Lamborghini Superleggera, a GT-R, a Tesla Roadster, a C63 AMG, a vette, a viper, 370z, an m3, a bunch of s2000's, and a ton of Porsches including a few 911 turbos, a 996 turbo, 944 turbo, a 996 c4s... you get the point. I was the cheapskate of the group!

The result: I was the fastest there I never got passed, yet put a pass on pretty much everyone else in my group. My X is 100% stock on factory tune. I did nearly 100 laps during the weekend and was almost as fast as some of the instructors by the end. All that time I spent karting really paid off! The car held up find. Rotors are good, lots of pad left on the brakes, not squishy. Stock tires down to about 15% tread.

This was probably the most fun I've ever had doing anything. Can't wait for the next one! Pics or it didn't happen... ok, here ya go

 

Roebling Road!!!!!

I have yet to make the jump from autocross to road course/HPDE, but I've been told Roebling Road is a great track for first timers: lots of grassy run off, less chance of messing up your car making a newbie mistake.

What club did you run with?

 

I'd highly recommend it for a first time. It's complex enough to really get you appreciate a lot of things you'd otherwise overlook, but simple enough to make it easy to improve on something every lap. The run-off areas are pretty big and there isn't much to hit, as long as you dont try to save in the wrong parts of the track (ie: entering the straight).

Nothing is 100% safe.... this guy can vouch for that!

 

i was gona say. that track has some faaaaaaast corners.....you have to know the limits of your car or you could very easily roll it.

 

tbh, I didn't have much trouble on the fast sections. It was the technical ones that made my SAWC lights look like a christmas tree (yes, i kept stability control on).

The above pic happened on the exit of turn 4. Thats a pretty slow corner. Turn 3 was the trickiest turn for me, because you hit it all out and follow a odd line through the middle of the track without ever letting up on the throttle. If you lift off the throttle, you lose grip and could slide off. But you can't help but worrying about hitting your grip threshold when accelerating to +90mph to enter the apex of a turn

Then as soon as you exit, you gotta get on the brakes hard because its a short run to the much sharper and slower turn 4. In this case, the driver came into 4 too hot and underestimated his brakes, then put the back end off the track around turn 4, tried to save it, and headed full speed across track towards the infield with no traction.... right towards where I was sitting! Yes, I ran like a little girl

 

run like a lil girl...hahaha.

you did very well for being stock, a...men!

looks fun, looking forward to doing one of those in the future.

 

nice

 

Looks great..seems like you've got the hang of it

 

great job stock x killing all thoes expensive cars wait until you get some mods you will kill it

 

my priority for moding the car really changed after doing this. Intake, exhaust and UICP are way back behind a 5-point harness, gloves, brakes, and various suspension stuff.... heck even a hitch so I can take r-comps will probably come first Only power mods I'm really considering for now are safety things to keep the engine healthy, like a better IC

 

very nice!

 

Nice, how did that guy flip his car? Evo X ftmfw

 

The first time I had my Evo out on the track, a yellow Ferrari 3 cars in front of me lost control on a straightaway (!!) and smashed it to bits. Something failed on the rear suspension. Guy was OK, though.

 

he made a typical noob mistake: he let his instructor drive it to show him how it's done the instructor didn't know how it'd handle and tried hot ******* it. he didn't so much roll it as took it into that dirt mound barrier, which caused it to roll over (instead of going into the infield).

i dont think that guy will be instructing any more I wonder that'll go over with the insurance company

 

nice pictures!