first HPDE (long)
The stock pads suck ***, I'm surprised they held up at all! I haven't tracked the Evo yet, but I already have the brake cooling air deflectors from Mitsu that bolt to the control arms and will have new pads on before I even think of tracking the car. And a change to some Motul RBF600 of course.
I've done TWS twice in my Nissan, I love that track. When coming off the banking and into turn one, you can try to either come down a little sooner where the transition isn't as sharp, or scrub off some more speed. It's not a race afterall!
I was hitting about 130-135mph in 5th gear on the straight, probably start braking about 100m from the end of the fence, turned down off the banking at the end of the fence, where I guess I was around 105-110 mph. Downshifted to 4th for turn 1 which I guess I was taking around 70mph on entry. Could of downshifted to 3rd, but heck, just out there having fun and needed to drive the car home
I've done TWS twice in my Nissan, I love that track. When coming off the banking and into turn one, you can try to either come down a little sooner where the transition isn't as sharp, or scrub off some more speed. It's not a race afterall!
I was hitting about 130-135mph in 5th gear on the straight, probably start braking about 100m from the end of the fence, turned down off the banking at the end of the fence, where I guess I was around 105-110 mph. Downshifted to 4th for turn 1 which I guess I was taking around 70mph on entry. Could of downshifted to 3rd, but heck, just out there having fun and needed to drive the car home
what's up with that????
Evolved Member
Joined: Oct 2004
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But at the track where you are asking it to do so much more at the limit, the car is heavy, it understeers like a son-of-a-biatch, the brakes are inadequate, and 271 - 286 crank hp (depending on year and model) just aren't enough to move a 3250 lb. car down a long straight.
Fortunately, compared to most cars out there, an EVO is pretty cheap to modify into a track monster. I'd do suspension work and track pads first, then R-compounds, then power mods.
Last edited by Richard EVO; Mar 7, 2007 at 07:05 AM.
Was he drafting? Also, the Evo just has a really high drag coefficient so the effects really start to show up past 80 mph.
no drafting. I had passed him earlier in the technical section of the course, entered the straightaway fast (executed the last turns very well) and about 60 yards ahead of him. By the time I was at 125 (5-6 seconds later) he had closed the distance to about 25 yards. We were out of straightaway before I was able to let him pass. I ran away from him in the twisties and never saw him again that session.
no drafting. I had passed him earlier in the technical section of the course, entered the straightaway fast (executed the last turns very well) and about 60 yards ahead of him. By the time I was at 125 (5-6 seconds later) he had closed the distance to about 25 yards. We were out of straightaway before I was able to let him pass. I ran away from him in the twisties and never saw him again that session.
It is addicting and the need for speed pulls you in deeper and deeper
My advice is to be patient and carefully plan your mods. Buying things (like springs/bargain coilovers, etc.) and then outgrowing them gets expensive.
Good luck to you and have fun-(still shoveling the white stuff up here
)
My advice is to be patient and carefully plan your mods. Buying things (like springs/bargain coilovers, etc.) and then outgrowing them gets expensive.
Good luck to you and have fun-(still shoveling the white stuff up here
)
Evolving Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 190
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From: Sacramento
I would echo the sentiment to take it easy and mod slowly. I did without coilovers for quite some time, and it helped a lot having to learn to drive the car when it pushed, had a lot of body roll, poor suspension travel, and fought back in transitions...made me a LOT faster when the car was set-up correctly (Muellerized). Yes, a stock Evo is dog slow, at least a stock Evo 8. The 9's are much better. Stay with your advans for at least 6-7 events, so that you improve your prioperceptive abilities without the interference and dilution of R comps. It will make you faster in the long run. Good luck.
About the car, it's one of the best STREET cars out of the box for a track day. Compared to a track prepped car though, yes, the suspension is a bit squishy.
My advice to you would be to only upgrade the brakes (pads, lines, fluids, cooling), and leave the suspension alone. Imentioned this in another thread, but a great handling car can mask up a lot of errors from the driver. The Evo is sorta pig slow (all relative of course) in a straight line so a couple power mods wouldn't hurt, after you've upgraded the brakes of course. Just keeping the car track ready is $$$ enough without modding it (fresh fluids, pads, tires, alignment checks, track day fees).
About the last track section.... well, the end of the track is like this: a left sweeper into a short straight. Then a left hander with a very short straight section into a right-left chicane that dumps you onto the front straight.
I've made up TONS of ground going through the chicane. Many people also apex too early going into the intial left hander which screws them up for the chicane. But back to the chicane, I've seen people late apex the right hander into it and then that sets them up for a normal apex into the left and onto the straight.
I tend to apex it about normal (early relative to those apexing late) on the right into the chicane and slightly tap the curbs. This does put me in a position where I have to early apex the left/2nd half of the chicane. But the thing is, it dumps you onto the straight so there's TONS of space off to the right as you're exiting the chicane onto the main straight. So by the time I'm at the apex of the initial right into the chicane, I'm at full throttle all the way through the rest of it and let the car use up as much space as it needs to go wide on the exit and onto the straight.
My advice to you would be to only upgrade the brakes (pads, lines, fluids, cooling), and leave the suspension alone. Imentioned this in another thread, but a great handling car can mask up a lot of errors from the driver. The Evo is sorta pig slow (all relative of course) in a straight line so a couple power mods wouldn't hurt, after you've upgraded the brakes of course. Just keeping the car track ready is $$$ enough without modding it (fresh fluids, pads, tires, alignment checks, track day fees).
About the last track section.... well, the end of the track is like this: a left sweeper into a short straight. Then a left hander with a very short straight section into a right-left chicane that dumps you onto the front straight.
I've made up TONS of ground going through the chicane. Many people also apex too early going into the intial left hander which screws them up for the chicane. But back to the chicane, I've seen people late apex the right hander into it and then that sets them up for a normal apex into the left and onto the straight.
I tend to apex it about normal (early relative to those apexing late) on the right into the chicane and slightly tap the curbs. This does put me in a position where I have to early apex the left/2nd half of the chicane. But the thing is, it dumps you onto the straight so there's TONS of space off to the right as you're exiting the chicane onto the main straight. So by the time I'm at the apex of the initial right into the chicane, I'm at full throttle all the way through the rest of it and let the car use up as much space as it needs to go wide on the exit and onto the straight.
Last edited by spdracerut; Mar 7, 2007 at 02:05 PM.
About the car, it's one of the best STREET cars out of the box for a track day. Compared to a track prepped car though, yes, the suspension is a bit squishy.
My advice to you would be to only upgrade the brakes (pads, lines, fluids, cooling), and leave the suspension alone. Imentioned this in another thread, but a great handling car can mask up a lot of errors from the driver. The Evo is sorta pig slow (all relative of course) in a straight line so a couple power mods wouldn't hurt, after you've upgraded the brakes of course. Just keeping the car track ready is $$$ enough without modding it (fresh fluids, pads, tires, alignment checks, track day fees).
About the last track section.... well, the end of the track is like this: a left sweeper into a short straight. Then a left hander with a very short straight section into a right-left chicane that dumps you onto the front straight.
I've made up TONS of ground going through the chicane. Many people also apex too early going into the intial left hander which screws them up for the chicane. But back to the chicane, I've seen people late apex the right hander into it and then that sets them up for a normal apex into the left and onto the straight.
I tend to apex it about normal (early relative to those apexing late) on the right into the chicane and slightly tap the curbs. This does put me in a position where I have to early apex the left/2nd half of the chicane. But the thing is, it dumps you onto the straight so there's TONS of space off to the right as you're exiting the chicane onto the main straight. So by the time I'm at the apex of the initial right into the chicane, I'm at full throttle all the way through the rest of it and let the car use up as much space as it needs to go wide on the exit and onto the straight.
My advice to you would be to only upgrade the brakes (pads, lines, fluids, cooling), and leave the suspension alone. Imentioned this in another thread, but a great handling car can mask up a lot of errors from the driver. The Evo is sorta pig slow (all relative of course) in a straight line so a couple power mods wouldn't hurt, after you've upgraded the brakes of course. Just keeping the car track ready is $$$ enough without modding it (fresh fluids, pads, tires, alignment checks, track day fees).
About the last track section.... well, the end of the track is like this: a left sweeper into a short straight. Then a left hander with a very short straight section into a right-left chicane that dumps you onto the front straight.
I've made up TONS of ground going through the chicane. Many people also apex too early going into the intial left hander which screws them up for the chicane. But back to the chicane, I've seen people late apex the right hander into it and then that sets them up for a normal apex into the left and onto the straight.
I tend to apex it about normal (early relative to those apexing late) on the right into the chicane and slightly tap the curbs. This does put me in a position where I have to early apex the left/2nd half of the chicane. But the thing is, it dumps you onto the straight so there's TONS of space off to the right as you're exiting the chicane onto the main straight. So by the time I'm at the apex of the initial right into the chicane, I'm at full throttle all the way through the rest of it and let the car use up as much space as it needs to go wide on the exit and onto the straight.
Thanks for the good advice. I will for sure stay on street tires for quite a while. The reason I am planning on upgrading the squishy suspension is not to be faster, but to fix some of the things that make me aprehensive about driving on the track period. The car's odd behavior at the end of the front straight, the setup turn 5 into 6 scare the crap out of me. I need to fix the tail-wagging and hobby-horseing before I feel good about driving on the track. it just feels too out of control at the moment.
oh, and I "own" the last chicane you are describing. for some reason I just hit it better than most. I late apex the entry and get right next to and parallel to the curbing on my left. There's a little white spot in the patching on the ground which marks my turn-in to the right, and as soon as I hit that apex its gas all the way out. I pass the Ford GT's coming out of that chicane onto the straightaway. ALso the little u-turn called the carousel. I out-turn the miata's on that one, and thunder by them on my way to the sweeper (turn 12) that leads into that last little chicane before the straightaway.
too bad I suck at all the other turns...
Last edited by texrex2002; Mar 7, 2007 at 07:35 PM.
I just remembered.... I have heard of some Evo owners complaining of instability/lack of rear downforce at high speed tracks. A simple wickerbill/gurney flap (spelling on both?) added to the trailing edge of the rear wing added the necessary rear downforce.