Pity you are not coming out here as 2nd Creek, for their last week open, is running FREE track days!! - Nov 2nd to the 6th. (you just have to be a member of one of the local clubs to qualify)

Paul's time just gos to show that it is not just having Ohlins but also having them correctly setup that makes you fast

 

It is very true what you said, the thing is that when top gear test tyhe fastest cars at their track you will find out that within the first 15-20 cars ever, ever tested (thousands of cars in many years) you will find out that the all the Evos are present on the top ranking.

They just tested the Evo 9 vs the Porsche 911(997s) and the Evo 9 still beat it by a few tenth of a second.

So basicly we know we have a above average handling car that in top of that is one car that has a freak of nature engine(4g63) that is very easy to significantly increase power with absolutely silly money.

On the other hand, everyone else have to spend thousands of dollars just to be able to be competitive.

Per instance my brother, he spent $4k to do Brembo 14" on his 98 M3 BMW, another 9k to do a Supercharger/tunning and labor by Dinan in Florida(BMW honored warranty) , another $2800 on 18" 3 piece rims. My MR accelerate faster, brakes better and still handles better.

Sometimes things can be miss interpreted .

my .2c

 

I dont think the lotus elise would get a very good lap time at nurburgring due to its low top speed.

 

kwman, since you already know the people you hang out with are dicks, it might be better to find someone with similar skill levels and share the same level of enthusiasm and just compare notes.

 

The stock Evo has pretty severe body roll... look at the Super Taikyu Test & Service Evo, power-wise still very close to stock yet turns in some pretty scary laptimes, mostly due to suspension setup.

 

Because it's AWD. Anytime you get a RWD car with awesome power, take a turn, then punch it, you will most definitely swing the tail out. Possibly get knocked out of your turn line.

 

Don't count on it. Mitsu loves to point to any change in suspension as a reason for powertrain failures due to the fact that the Evo is supposedly set up a certain way so that everything works together in harmony. It has already happened several times where people got denied warranty coverage on engine/tranny failures due to suspension upgrades, thus my initial comment.

 

In the real world, things are more complicated than that. e.g. road conditions, weather all play a part.

Besides this, the other cars cost a lot more and the owners typically aren't willing to take the risk and push the limits.

 

Exactly, despite what the car manufactures sometimes try to lead you to believe, if you only have RWD, 50/50 is not perfect weight distribution. 40/60 (a heavy rear), is much better for rwd so you can put that power down out of corners.

 

That makes the car much harder to drive though. Generally with porsche's you get the weight swinging, and you can't get it back. For the average driver, an evo is going to be much faster than a 911, simply because of the fact that you can man-handle an evo. If you try to do the same thing in a 911, you will end up backward, no question about it.

 

Well I have never drag raced the car and never will. Again this car is not about that but of course for the reasons being more expensive and more risk makes road racing harder to do. But after my first HPDE I dont' think I will do anything else with this car.

In fact I was at an impass when it came to tuning my car. I wondered what to do next, power, suspension or drivetrain reinforcment (new clutch)

Well after driving the road course, I found that power is not a problem. In fact I am an even match with many cars out there. I don't over power Porshces but I am not run down by them either. My clutch holds out just fine(never launch). So that makes suspension priority.

The stock suspension is unbeatable on the street. But on the track you find its limits very quickly. Under hard sharp turns the car understeers badly under full power. I had to learn to modulate the throttle under sharp cornering. In fact I believe my 255 RT615s kept me in good company with other cars under hard cornering. After all good tires are some of the cheaper ways to tune the suspension. Right now I have added a Hotchkis rear sway bar. Under hard cornering in the mid setting it allows the rear to step out and take out a bit of the understeer without sacraficing highspeed cornering or handling.

I also believe that more power is good for drag or street cred but under road racing conditions it could be a liability if not tuned properly. I used race gas even though my car is very lightly tuned for reliability. (Xflash, DP, Exaust)

Well I am most definetly going again. I hope to be able to tackle Laguna Seca sometime next year. But I need to do another HPDE at Thunderhill a few more times before I go there.

 

I believe that if I tried driving a RWD car the way I drive the EVO, I would have found myself in the bush. One kid with a Z06 (old one) found out that taking the last left hand turn at second gear was not necessary, the hard way. Also given the EVO's AWD, my instructors already new the limits of the car and knew I could push it harder into the turns than my body and mind were willing to do. Also I was not very smooth at first with the car hence "man-handling" the car was very tempting and easy to do which you do on the street but on a road course you need a finer touch.

 

The point I was trying to make is that the evo is very forgiving, which is why people can go much faster in them given a certain level of skill. However, when you get a pro driver behind the wheel, the rear motor, rear wheel drive car really shines.

I dont suggest man-handling the car. You should come out to the next thunderhill day with us. We have quite a few evos going up on sunday the 30th.