Wesmaster

This weekend was my first road course event, it was at Texas World Speedway outside of College Station, Texas. I just wanted to provide a review of how the car did on the road course, as many people have asked this and I was unable to comment before.

The first day I just listened to what my instructor told me to do. I followed his lines, I used his gears, I made his moves. I wasn't passed that often, but Joe_S2K consistently drove faster than me in the infield, and I had to let him pass a few times. He'd let me pass on the straight away, but still, he was out-driving me on the turns. I would pass maybe 5 cars in a 25 minute (about 10 lap) session, most of those were during the straight away.

After talking it over with the other HouStooks that night I decided that the next day I needed to use 3rd gear more often. My instructor had me using mostly 4th gear on the track, and I was rarely in VTEC. This was in contrast to what everyone else was doing. I told my instructor that I wanted to use 3rd gear, and try to stay in VTEC, and he said that was fine. It made a world of difference, as you would expect. I immediately noticed that I was passing many cars. By the end of the first session I had passed around 20 cars. There are only 30 something cars in each group, so I was closing in on the whole pack. As the day went on the car did better and better. I was more confortable, I was pushing it harder, I was passing more and more cars.

The SC did not suffer any heat soak, even sitting in the hot sun. I would let the car cool down for 3-5 minutes before shutting it off. I'd keep the hood up for 10-15 minutes, then I'd close it to keep the sun from heating it up. I did however see 4 bars from time to time during the second day's driving. I'd get 4 bars in the straight away, then by the time I made it to the back straight away it had gone back to 3 bars. I was just watching to see if I hit 5 bars, but it never did. My exhaust temps seemed fine, I never saw anything over 1,400 F. I've seen up to 1,500 F on the street, so the car seemed to be in good condition. I might add a gauge to watch the temps a little better in the future.

I have the RM Racing springs on. Even though springs have gotten some weak reviews for our car, I noticed no problems with these on the car - which has always been my story. I wasn't handling any different than the other S2000s.

I could not notice anything different with the Kaaz differential. It may have been helping me out but I couldn't notice it.

I'm running on stock pads, I noticed no problems, and I did not have any fade...that I could notice. The only thing that got weak on the car was the tires. They got a little mushy after running for a day. Running OEM tires, both sets with less than 4,000 miles on them.

ChuckS2k

Truly a fun time had by all.
At least in the s2k the road course at TWS was a 3rd gear event. There were times in the straights where a short shift to 4th and back to 3rd would have been warranted in a true road race but I'd just feather the throttle for a bit and hammer the apex---- kind of lazy I guess--- no that's not it I'm just not skilled enough in the quick shift art.
For instants on the front straight there was plenty of room for 5th but I'd just feather the throttle at ~ 117 and accelerate down turn 1, brake and downshift to 3rd before accelerating at the box turnin point for corner 2.
Good time.
Anyone up for the Drivers Edge Event at TWS in Oct.??

Speedy

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Wesmaster
[B]

Tedster

Speedy,

can you provide more details on the Panther Plus pads? Do you have the squealing issue that others have reported? How's the dust level? Are you using them for track only, or on the street too?

Thanks,

Ted

E30M3

>>>The SC did not suffer any heat soak, even sitting in the hot sun. I would let the car cool down for 3-5 minutes before shutting it off. I'd keep the hood up for 10-15 minutes, then I'd close it to keep the sun from heating it up. I did however see 4 bars from time to time <<<

It might be tough to feel the engine fade. You'd have to measure output.

>>I could not notice anything different with the Kaaz differential. It may have been helping me out but I couldn't notice it. <<

Since it is a clutch type diff, one of the things to focus on is corner entry understeer compared to a gear type diff. Also, with other clutch type multiway diff, some folks can feel the transition to higher lockup as power is applied.

>>I'm running on stock pads, I noticed no problems, and I did not have any fade...that I could notice. <<

This is a little bit like the engine fade thing - it can be tough to feel when you're pulse is at 160 bpm. If your wear is high you are getting pad fade since the wear and fade go together hand in hand. Basically brake fade is a reduction in efficiency. There are various causes of and fixes for brake fade. If you can stop fine but you have to push harder on the pedal that is fade too. It's not just when you have like 10% braking power and scare yourself. I have seen people bend brake pedals on the track and not even realize it at the time. Autospeed has an article about a custom brake setup this week - worth a peek. Braking is the last thing that a race car driver learns to do properly - it's deceptively hard to get it perfect.

Stan

Speedy

street and track...they work great for both. as i said, they're night and day over the OEM, especially if you've never tried aftermarket pads on the s2k before (i hadn't before these). they bite so much harder that it takes some time to relearn brake modulation. you develop "muscle memory" in terms of how hard/long to push the brake pedal with OEM...you have to unlearn this to compensate for how much quicker these pads slow the car.

the pads seem to grip equally well on the street, even after cold starts. they do dust quite a bit but the dust is supposedly non-corrosive. no major issues washing off the dust so far. as for squealing, it's not bad at all...they squeak a little under moderate braking on the street but it's not enough to bother me.

oh, i also tried these pads at the autox last weekend and they worked great there too. i was worried they'd be too grippy but i had no problems.

one thing: don't put the pads on backwards (nevermind).

derryck

Wes,
Can you tell me what class you participated in. I have repeatedly e-mailed the local SCCA organization and can't seem to get any response, guess they don't like me or something. The SCCA.org site doesn't give me enough info. to know if my car is still eligible for competition. Thanks in advance.

Wesmaster

When I run autoX, non-SCCA, they make me run in the V8 class. Never ran SCCA, and the event I posted about here was just a high speed driver's training.

Master Apex

Wes,

What was your speed before braking to take turn 1?
Just curious to understand how much more mph one can get out of SC.
My stock S2K hits about 122 - 124MPH before I braked.
There was a WRX Turbo and he told me he can only get 112mph...it was obvious that the Subaru has less HP during the straight line acceleration.

Wesmaster

I could have hit 138 (without 200 lb instructor), but I didn't like carrying too much speed into turn one, so I went to 128 and then just cruised for the last few seconds.