Man, the first track day of the year...what a freaking B L A S T! Sime, Perry (Stealhty_S2K), and Jay Li (both in Perry's car), Keith (aquatic) and me represented Soichiro's jewel this fine day...

Keith came down from Green Bay last night and we met Jason (Scrag) for dinner...here's a shot of us three dorks.

That's my scary self on the left, then Jason, then Keith...


Then we left for South Haven, Michigan about 10 and well, I won't say what time we arrived...that would give our secrets away...(thanks Mr. Valentine... ). Keith had his his girl Linda with him...(he calls her "Peppy"...don't ask! ) Then we hit the track for a terrific day of ball's out fun.

Here's a picture of Scarlet resting like a champion after the first session. She's so perfect...awwww....the only woman who truly loves me (well, besides my mom)


Here's a great shot of all of us after the end of the last session...what a great day!


Then we went and had munchies at the only (well, maybe not ONLY) restaurant in South Haven called Clementines. In the the shot are Keith, me (looking like Satan again), Bill (who really didn't want his picture taken, much less posted on the Internet), Erik (ffdrift) the IT genius behind King Motorsports (and a badass Type R), Brian (good friend of mine, kick ass black Mugen-ized Lude)...and damn, I can't remember the guy on the right's name...please, guy on the right, forgive me!


Anyway, I realized that even though the last time at Gingerman was only in November, it is an awesome place to drive my Scarlet where she belongs. Life is good...

 

Sounds like a blast Greg! We just had an event down at homestead Motorsport Park in mid-March with 2 S2000s, a bunch of NSXs and a variety of other fast cars. I had fun badgering a 911 that couldn't pull away from me .

I noticed that you have the center hub caps on Scarlet in the second picture - I was advised by the NSX guys to remove them because they are plastic and will melt when the brakes get really heated up. I guess you didn't have any problems with this?

 

Funny you should mention that joshua... 2 of my center caps on my stock wheels are disformed, but I never knew why... i will have to see if they are the fronts or not.?

I HAVE FINALLY FOUND THE ANSWER AS TO WHY VOLK DOESN'T MAKE
ANY CENTER CAPS TO FIT MY WHEELS (well... TE37's mounted on S2000's).


Scot

 

Joshua, no, no I didn't have any melting center caps...

And interesting as I was really driving hard today, hard and late threshold braking...I'm a late braker anyway and I really like how it feels to stand on them hard late just before turning in (not a fan of trail braking) and even with that, I had no melting caps. Braking like this is something I have had to work on, as fade can be a problem. I can't wait to put the brake ducts in (yes, from MG Racing) and help reduce some of that...there's nothing like standing on the brakes and the car not slowing down even though I have racing fluid and everything. (note to self: must get Spoon pads...remembering shipment from MG Racing)

mmmmmm....

And as an aside...why is Scarlet troublefree with all the abuse I throw her way? Why do people keep replacing diff's and crazy stuff like that?! Only one answer...she's the perfect S2000. Or maybe, nah, nevermind...

Today was great as there was a huge variety of cars there...TT's, TTRx7's, one of the King MS drivers was there showing us ALL how it's done (wow!), ITR's...but this was the first day I have been there without a single NSX. Hmmm. But a very diverse showing...two cars blew their engines and one shattered 4th gear. That was the first time I had seen that many failures in one day there...

Yea, it was a great day...great track, great folks, all the way around a fantastic day.

All smiles in Chicago...

 

Greg,

Sounds like a great time was had by all, I'm sad that I missed it. Did you find the track too crowded? The reason I ask is that this was apparently a well publicized event. I had invites from no fewer than 3 seperate groups of people; you, the local S4 group, and a buddy in the local Subaru group. I would have gone had my eyes not just been lasered last week, but it did sound like the track was going to be rather crowded too. How was it?

Clark

 

I've also been told that center caps could fly off during track events, which is why you should remove them...

speaking of which, anyone recall the previous body style M5s with those finned, turbine looking wheel covers?

There was a recall back then about those wheels... I recall chuckling about the Consumer Reports listing...

M5: wheel covers may fly off at speed causing serious injury, possibly death...

imagine being decapitated by a hubcap?!

 

Greg, with all the stuff you mentioned, I'm surprised you left out the turbo Miata with the flaming brakes! Yes, when this Miata did hard braking, he literally had flames shooting out of his wheels...crazy! Anyways, it was a great time even though I could only ride...hopefully one day I'll get out there with my car!

 

You guys are killin' me!

I can't wait to get back home...

Greg- is that a small cardboard box of brake pads I see next to the jackbox in the picture? Why is there only ONE box?

The guy on your left in the picture is Bill- the Man with the Incredible Exploding Celica GT-S.

Who was the one from King Motorsports? I'm curious...

FYI- I'm planning to be there at GingerMan on the 14-15 of April to continue some late testing of the other car... Will you be up for some more track time? We're testing brake pads and working on some suspension and fuel delivery tuning issues. A couple of my friends from XS Engineering and MotoRex will also be out here to help with the tuning, as will Emmanuel. One Lap is just a month away...

 

Nick, yea, the CGI event at Gingerman may be a possiblity, but I have to talk with Giampiero about the next shipment of MG Racing stuff to come this way. I will likely be working on the car with Jason, Brad and whoever else wants to help out. I would also like to take Scarlet to King to have the alignment done and corner weighted, as well.

Man, I couldn't remember the last time I put brakes on and the ones that I had ordered didn't get here in time (......) and I was S.O.L. until I found out that Keith had brought a complete set with him. So I borrowed a set and will get him another one when mine come in. And when we do the rotors, we'll do the new pads, as well. I'm looking forward to see how those perform at the track...

Yea, poor Bill. When we met last summer, he had thrown a rod in his new Celica GT-S. He is STILL fighting Toyota...I just can't believe that whole thing is happening to him. It's likely that more than twice the amount of money has been spent on attorney's fees than it would have cost to replace his car...he's beyond pissed. What a nightmare...

Anyway, we'll see about G-man in a couple of weeks. But the whole crew was there. Tommy from Speedtrial had rented a Maxima and he was doing some hilarious drifts around the whole track...we were in stiches when that thing would go flying sideways around turn 2. Hysterial stuff...

And be on the lookout for some very cool video of Sime...that's all I will say for now. But he made a VERY impressive maneuver...and I was lucky enough to catch it and someone else caught it on video. Awesome...

Nick, when are you coming home? Let me know if you need a ride from the airport...

 

Hey I finally made it back to Green Bay. 7:00 pm sunday.
Long weekend. But great weekend. Both the drive in Chicago, two S2ks vs Mits GXR and a serious red light drive through. We where legal the mits wasn't. Little playing around in the city, and off to Mich. oh yeh thanks again Mr. Valentine.

Lots of cars, but not crowded as far as I was concered. There was 5-6 of us in the advance session 7-10 that in intermediate and the same in beginning.

Fun to watch those 5.0's spin around and ruin the sod. Not to mention a suburu who wanted to off-road it.
Then there was the miata that tried to out do Gregs Beachparty.

A great way to start out the year. Love that track. After all its what our cars are all about.

I can't wait for Asheville.

aquatic

PS Silver rules, unless you like seeing red in your review mirror. Or spinning around.