Took the S2000 on a track...
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A friend of a friend organized a drive day at a DECA facility (Driver Education Center of Australia). There was a large (200m x 200m) concrete area with sprinklers and witches hats as well as a short racetrack. About 20 people came (including me) and besides my S2000 we had a '94 MR2, HSV R8, XR8 and a lot of assorted Commodores, Falcons and family FWDs (some worked).
By the time I get there the large concrete area is coveted 3/4 in water with sprinklers going and a track made out of witches hats ... the whole 'wetness' thing wasn't appealing to me as I find the S2000 very slippery in the wet and I'm thinking that I have my work cut out (especially against the R8, MR2 and some of the FWDs). Anyway, I see about 10 cars go ahead of me and they are doing about 1:10min times around this 'wet cone' track. Best one so far is 1:07. I go out and 1st thing I noticed that the concrete is incredibly slippery even without water on it (later I find out it's like that on purpose in order to be eazy on the tyres'). I can launch the car from 3k revs and have the tyres spinning all though the 1st gear. So I 'doodled' around the track being real careful and not sliding (too much) - manage 1:02. Everyone has a go, I'm still the fastest and the R8 was next fastest with 1:04 then a FWD Pintara (Nissan) with 1:05 and then the MR2 with 1:06 (MR2 has very worn tyres ... np on the track but slippery in the wet). We have another go at this track and this time I'm more familiar with the grip levels and I push a bit more. In one area I'm doing about 70 - 80kph around a semicircle and the car wants to drift - which it does. The back starts going so with a quick (slight) counter-steer it's brought back in line - this happened about 3 - 4 times around the track and the car responded nicely every time. As long as I responded quickly and smoothly, the car behaved itself beautifully (no idea what would happen if I didn't respond quickly and smoothly here, but I've had the back give me a scare when I wasn't quick enough in the wet). Anyway, I managed 1:00 flat this time which put the time out of everyone else's reach. MR2 did 1:06 again, a lot of 1:10 people managed to shave of 2 -3 secs and the R8 got 'lost' so he took an extra long route and managed 1:06 in the 2nd run. the Pintara on the 2nd run managed to equal the R8's 1st run. That made me at least 3 - 4 secs quicker than anyone else there even though I find the S2000 slippery in the wet. MR2 could have shown a better performance if the rear tyres had some grooves in them ... it was still one of the quickest in the wet despite that.
Then there was another 'exercise' on the 'wet area' where they set up a large circle. You started on the edge, sprinted to the circle, went 2x around it and then back into the 'starting bay' and stop before hitting the cones. This was a tough one for me as I could not use the S2000's power or braking and had to rely on its wet grip. 1st time around I did 49sec time and didn't get out of shape ... that was good but there ware 3 - 4 FWD that were doing 47s. So on my 2nd run I pushed a bit more and I had the back stepping out every 5 secs or so. Each time smooth and quick steering input (and very slight throttle ease of) brought the car in line. At one stage I had the car in a drift like this for good 2 seconds. People from outside reported that it looked like 4-wheel-drift. This time I managed a very respectable 1:06 which saw me beat the 1:07 guys (who either mirrored or worsened their prev times).
On this 'wet' track a lot of people were commenting/asking on the grip of the S2000 - a lot were asking if it is a 4WD and some if it is a 4WS (4 wheel steer). They claimed that from outside the car was 'on rails' and that it 'turned on a dime' (while a lot of other car heavily understeered, slid around and some were very tail happy - more driver induced that anything else though :-)
Last event on the 'wet' track was to sprint all the way across (about 200m) make a 180degree turn and come back through a tight slalom. This was done with 2 'courses' set up next to each other and cars going head to head. Also, each time up, took 2 runs where each car get each side once. I went against a standard 3.8L Commodore. Even with a reasonably 'low-revs (3k) launch I had to feather the throttle of the line in order to limit the wheelspin. And even when the 1st gear gripped, I lost traction in the 2nd gear as I hit a big puddle. Either way I still won comfortably. Interesting was the line up of MR2 and R8. On this low grip surface the MR2 got of the line better and then held the lead all the way.
In between all this we ended up hopping to the track ... let me tell you about the track. It's like a 2 lane road in someone's backyard with areas where there are trees around about 10m from the track. Not only that but there are two pretty steep hills that you cannot see over and the track turns as you go over the rise and into the dip. One of these hills sees the track go into a fast S right over the hill and there are trees in particular around here. btw, this is a 3rd gear section. Anyway, after the initial fright of the track and pondering how did I find myself on something which resembled a very short section of Nurburgring from 20 years ago (ie. not many run off area and few trees around.) we went out. After a dozen or so laps we got the hang of the track and actually point the car in the right direction over the blind crescents without running of the road. Turned out to be awesome fun. I was topping the speed at about 160kph (100mph) and most of the track was twisty and needed 2nd or 3rd gear. Once we knew the track, most people (family sedans) were doing about 57sec to 1:10 lap times few people could do 55 - 56 lap times with their XR8's and family sedans. The 'fast' guys in these cars would do about 133kph on the straight and would do 55 lap time. One guy in a family 3.8L Commodore (current shape) managed 54.8 The R8 was lapping in 54's all day and was reaching 155+ on the straight. Though, the driver was not pushing it too hard though the twisties 'cos as I said the track was pretty scary. The MR2 managed 52.1 best time for the day but could lap somewhere in mid to high 52s all day, though his top speed was 'only' just under 140kph ... obviously all the time was made up with handling and brakes. Me in the S2000 managed 50.2 the best time but could lap in 50.4 - 50.8 range all day long. I could just brake 160kph on the straight. I definitely wasn't any quicker on the straight that the R8 I just pushed the car harder out of the corner and braked later.
So as I said, I was pretty tentative around a couple of sections (as was everyone else) as I did not want to end up in the trees. Though, car behaved beautifully. Car braked incredibly, had awesome turn in. Then with throttle I could hold the line and on the exit of some of the tighter corners (~75kph) I would get the tail out a touch on the exit when I pushed hard. Though, with the throttle I could balance the car through the corners really well and the car felt very planted and neutral. To be honest, while doing most of mine lap (at 50.x lap time) I would not slide the car at all .... it wasn't hard to keep it within the limits ... at most I'd get a slight understeer through one of the faster corners (~130kph) and a slight oversteer onto the main straight from a tight (~75kph) corner. I was very happy with the car on the track and wasn't suffering from high speed oversteer here. I could not complain about lack of power/grunt either :-)
Everyone else was impressed with the S2000 and everyone who got in it compared it to a 'slot car' and commented on the incredible brakes and how it corners like on rails. All in all, excellent fun and for anyone who has not driven the S2000 on the track, you should make a special point of doing so and find outn what this car is all about.
ps. I was running the same tyre pessure as I run on the road - 37/35psi (front/back). Felf good.
[Edited by DavidM on 05-21-2001 at 07:22 AM]
By the time I get there the large concrete area is coveted 3/4 in water with sprinklers going and a track made out of witches hats ... the whole 'wetness' thing wasn't appealing to me as I find the S2000 very slippery in the wet and I'm thinking that I have my work cut out (especially against the R8, MR2 and some of the FWDs). Anyway, I see about 10 cars go ahead of me and they are doing about 1:10min times around this 'wet cone' track. Best one so far is 1:07. I go out and 1st thing I noticed that the concrete is incredibly slippery even without water on it (later I find out it's like that on purpose in order to be eazy on the tyres'). I can launch the car from 3k revs and have the tyres spinning all though the 1st gear. So I 'doodled' around the track being real careful and not sliding (too much) - manage 1:02. Everyone has a go, I'm still the fastest and the R8 was next fastest with 1:04 then a FWD Pintara (Nissan) with 1:05 and then the MR2 with 1:06 (MR2 has very worn tyres ... np on the track but slippery in the wet). We have another go at this track and this time I'm more familiar with the grip levels and I push a bit more. In one area I'm doing about 70 - 80kph around a semicircle and the car wants to drift - which it does. The back starts going so with a quick (slight) counter-steer it's brought back in line - this happened about 3 - 4 times around the track and the car responded nicely every time. As long as I responded quickly and smoothly, the car behaved itself beautifully (no idea what would happen if I didn't respond quickly and smoothly here, but I've had the back give me a scare when I wasn't quick enough in the wet). Anyway, I managed 1:00 flat this time which put the time out of everyone else's reach. MR2 did 1:06 again, a lot of 1:10 people managed to shave of 2 -3 secs and the R8 got 'lost' so he took an extra long route and managed 1:06 in the 2nd run. the Pintara on the 2nd run managed to equal the R8's 1st run. That made me at least 3 - 4 secs quicker than anyone else there even though I find the S2000 slippery in the wet. MR2 could have shown a better performance if the rear tyres had some grooves in them ... it was still one of the quickest in the wet despite that.
Then there was another 'exercise' on the 'wet area' where they set up a large circle. You started on the edge, sprinted to the circle, went 2x around it and then back into the 'starting bay' and stop before hitting the cones. This was a tough one for me as I could not use the S2000's power or braking and had to rely on its wet grip. 1st time around I did 49sec time and didn't get out of shape ... that was good but there ware 3 - 4 FWD that were doing 47s. So on my 2nd run I pushed a bit more and I had the back stepping out every 5 secs or so. Each time smooth and quick steering input (and very slight throttle ease of) brought the car in line. At one stage I had the car in a drift like this for good 2 seconds. People from outside reported that it looked like 4-wheel-drift. This time I managed a very respectable 1:06 which saw me beat the 1:07 guys (who either mirrored or worsened their prev times).
On this 'wet' track a lot of people were commenting/asking on the grip of the S2000 - a lot were asking if it is a 4WD and some if it is a 4WS (4 wheel steer). They claimed that from outside the car was 'on rails' and that it 'turned on a dime' (while a lot of other car heavily understeered, slid around and some were very tail happy - more driver induced that anything else though :-)
Last event on the 'wet' track was to sprint all the way across (about 200m) make a 180degree turn and come back through a tight slalom. This was done with 2 'courses' set up next to each other and cars going head to head. Also, each time up, took 2 runs where each car get each side once. I went against a standard 3.8L Commodore. Even with a reasonably 'low-revs (3k) launch I had to feather the throttle of the line in order to limit the wheelspin. And even when the 1st gear gripped, I lost traction in the 2nd gear as I hit a big puddle. Either way I still won comfortably. Interesting was the line up of MR2 and R8. On this low grip surface the MR2 got of the line better and then held the lead all the way.
In between all this we ended up hopping to the track ... let me tell you about the track. It's like a 2 lane road in someone's backyard with areas where there are trees around about 10m from the track. Not only that but there are two pretty steep hills that you cannot see over and the track turns as you go over the rise and into the dip. One of these hills sees the track go into a fast S right over the hill and there are trees in particular around here. btw, this is a 3rd gear section. Anyway, after the initial fright of the track and pondering how did I find myself on something which resembled a very short section of Nurburgring from 20 years ago (ie. not many run off area and few trees around.) we went out. After a dozen or so laps we got the hang of the track and actually point the car in the right direction over the blind crescents without running of the road. Turned out to be awesome fun. I was topping the speed at about 160kph (100mph) and most of the track was twisty and needed 2nd or 3rd gear. Once we knew the track, most people (family sedans) were doing about 57sec to 1:10 lap times few people could do 55 - 56 lap times with their XR8's and family sedans. The 'fast' guys in these cars would do about 133kph on the straight and would do 55 lap time. One guy in a family 3.8L Commodore (current shape) managed 54.8 The R8 was lapping in 54's all day and was reaching 155+ on the straight. Though, the driver was not pushing it too hard though the twisties 'cos as I said the track was pretty scary. The MR2 managed 52.1 best time for the day but could lap somewhere in mid to high 52s all day, though his top speed was 'only' just under 140kph ... obviously all the time was made up with handling and brakes. Me in the S2000 managed 50.2 the best time but could lap in 50.4 - 50.8 range all day long. I could just brake 160kph on the straight. I definitely wasn't any quicker on the straight that the R8 I just pushed the car harder out of the corner and braked later.
So as I said, I was pretty tentative around a couple of sections (as was everyone else) as I did not want to end up in the trees. Though, car behaved beautifully. Car braked incredibly, had awesome turn in. Then with throttle I could hold the line and on the exit of some of the tighter corners (~75kph) I would get the tail out a touch on the exit when I pushed hard. Though, with the throttle I could balance the car through the corners really well and the car felt very planted and neutral. To be honest, while doing most of mine lap (at 50.x lap time) I would not slide the car at all .... it wasn't hard to keep it within the limits ... at most I'd get a slight understeer through one of the faster corners (~130kph) and a slight oversteer onto the main straight from a tight (~75kph) corner. I was very happy with the car on the track and wasn't suffering from high speed oversteer here. I could not complain about lack of power/grunt either :-)
Everyone else was impressed with the S2000 and everyone who got in it compared it to a 'slot car' and commented on the incredible brakes and how it corners like on rails. All in all, excellent fun and for anyone who has not driven the S2000 on the track, you should make a special point of doing so and find outn what this car is all about.
ps. I was running the same tyre pessure as I run on the road - 37/35psi (front/back). Felf good.
[Edited by DavidM on 05-21-2001 at 07:22 AM]
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Sounded like you had a great day David. The Vic HSCC went to DECA around 12 months ago - similar sort of tests but no one measured times on the day.
I hated the wet concrete - understeered incredibly because I was going too fast but loved the track. There's also a little concrete skid pan next to the track which is great for donuts!!
Did you have a go around the double 8 (3 circles together) that is great fun as you just hang it out in 1st gear all the way round.
Very impressed with your figures compared with other vehicles - what were the FWDS - Toyota Land Cruisers (just joking) or Rexes?
I hated the wet concrete - understeered incredibly because I was going too fast but loved the track. There's also a little concrete skid pan next to the track which is great for donuts!!
Did you have a go around the double 8 (3 circles together) that is great fun as you just hang it out in 1st gear all the way round.
Very impressed with your figures compared with other vehicles - what were the FWDS - Toyota Land Cruisers (just joking) or Rexes?
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Hi guys,
Yeah, it was excellent fun ... I had my previous cars on a fair few tracks but I've never been here. For anyone local, this DECA facility is in Sherpedon. They did have a 'figure 8' and a 'skid pad' and a lot of cars (like older worked Fords and Holdens) did go on it ... lot's of smoking rubber :-) My tyres are still reasonably new and in a good condition (on the way back I just ticked over 7k km) so I did not go on it or intentionally slid the car. I don't think I put much wear onto the tyres here ... was just looking at them just now and they still look very good - does not look like I worn them too much (in partcular around the edges).
If anyone knows this facility then you probably know that the track at the back has a potential on the front straight (the only straight) for good 170+ km/h in something like the S2000. We put wiches hat chicane before the end of it ... about 100 - 150m before the 1st turn to slow ourselves down as there's no run-of at the 1st corner. Still, I could just nudge 160kph before the 'artificial' chicane and was going though it about 100 - 110km/h. This was enough to bring the speed down to a reasonable level for the 1st corner. Anyway, the FWDs (Front Wheel Drive not 4WD :-) were Camry V6, couple older Magnas, Pulsar and Nissan Pintara ... no 4WDs there. The Pintara was very quick on the 'wet track' track in particular. In was always in the top 5 and often fighting for the 2nd spot in some of the events. On the track, from the 'family' cars, the XR8s (and in particluar a worked XR8 ute) did really well. They could get just bellow 55 - the XR8 ute manaed 53s on one lap. Though, on the track the MR2 was the closest match to the S2000 in terms of car/driver package. I went for a spin in it and even after owning the S2000 for 5 months I highly regard that car - a very fine handling automobile.
Anyway, there were no WRXs here ... they would have done real well on the 'wet track' in particluar. I felt like I was going pretty slow here but the figures showed me pretty fast comapared to everything else. I had minimal understeer but that's because I realized there was low grip and made sure to brake hard enough (and early enough) to wash of the speed. I was getting loose more under power or around the faster bends here (~70km/h). I think I got such good time in the 'wet track' course because I was very smooth and I did not overshoot any braking points. Because of this I could pull the car tight around the cones without any understeer and then just try to power out cleanly. I'm sure the R8 would have been no more than 2 sec of me here if he got another go. The MR2 had no thread so that was handicaping it a fair bit - did well here anyway.
I thought I would hate the 'wet concrete' as well. As soon as we got there and I saw it I was cringing a bit with the thought of getting the S2000 around there. btw, I don't think I ever went into 1st gear there ... even 180 degrees around a cone - I just kept in in 2nd 'cos that had enough problems keeping the traction. I ended up liking it as I had fun with the car on the limit without going that fast. It almast felt like what you see from a rally car.
Though the best fun was on the track - as I said, tried to make sure that I would not come of and still had a ball flying around ... the track has a lot of altitude changes and a lot of corners for such a short track. Though what impressed me most about the S2000 was not the handling or the braking (I already about that) but it was really the grunt that I could muster out of corners. Often I found myself sitting in 3rd when I could have shifted to 2nd. I had more then enough power to control the car with the trottle and that made me happy. Also, on the exit of corners I was not getting any udersteer which was good but through the fast sweepers I was getting some - that is exaclty what I'd want from a car. I'll stick with 37/35 psi pressures untill I find a flaw with this setup ... though, so far so good :-)
Yeah, it was excellent fun ... I had my previous cars on a fair few tracks but I've never been here. For anyone local, this DECA facility is in Sherpedon. They did have a 'figure 8' and a 'skid pad' and a lot of cars (like older worked Fords and Holdens) did go on it ... lot's of smoking rubber :-) My tyres are still reasonably new and in a good condition (on the way back I just ticked over 7k km) so I did not go on it or intentionally slid the car. I don't think I put much wear onto the tyres here ... was just looking at them just now and they still look very good - does not look like I worn them too much (in partcular around the edges).
If anyone knows this facility then you probably know that the track at the back has a potential on the front straight (the only straight) for good 170+ km/h in something like the S2000. We put wiches hat chicane before the end of it ... about 100 - 150m before the 1st turn to slow ourselves down as there's no run-of at the 1st corner. Still, I could just nudge 160kph before the 'artificial' chicane and was going though it about 100 - 110km/h. This was enough to bring the speed down to a reasonable level for the 1st corner. Anyway, the FWDs (Front Wheel Drive not 4WD :-) were Camry V6, couple older Magnas, Pulsar and Nissan Pintara ... no 4WDs there. The Pintara was very quick on the 'wet track' track in particular. In was always in the top 5 and often fighting for the 2nd spot in some of the events. On the track, from the 'family' cars, the XR8s (and in particluar a worked XR8 ute) did really well. They could get just bellow 55 - the XR8 ute manaed 53s on one lap. Though, on the track the MR2 was the closest match to the S2000 in terms of car/driver package. I went for a spin in it and even after owning the S2000 for 5 months I highly regard that car - a very fine handling automobile.
Anyway, there were no WRXs here ... they would have done real well on the 'wet track' in particluar. I felt like I was going pretty slow here but the figures showed me pretty fast comapared to everything else. I had minimal understeer but that's because I realized there was low grip and made sure to brake hard enough (and early enough) to wash of the speed. I was getting loose more under power or around the faster bends here (~70km/h). I think I got such good time in the 'wet track' course because I was very smooth and I did not overshoot any braking points. Because of this I could pull the car tight around the cones without any understeer and then just try to power out cleanly. I'm sure the R8 would have been no more than 2 sec of me here if he got another go. The MR2 had no thread so that was handicaping it a fair bit - did well here anyway.
I thought I would hate the 'wet concrete' as well. As soon as we got there and I saw it I was cringing a bit with the thought of getting the S2000 around there. btw, I don't think I ever went into 1st gear there ... even 180 degrees around a cone - I just kept in in 2nd 'cos that had enough problems keeping the traction. I ended up liking it as I had fun with the car on the limit without going that fast. It almast felt like what you see from a rally car.
Though the best fun was on the track - as I said, tried to make sure that I would not come of and still had a ball flying around ... the track has a lot of altitude changes and a lot of corners for such a short track. Though what impressed me most about the S2000 was not the handling or the braking (I already about that) but it was really the grunt that I could muster out of corners. Often I found myself sitting in 3rd when I could have shifted to 2nd. I had more then enough power to control the car with the trottle and that made me happy. Also, on the exit of corners I was not getting any udersteer which was good but through the fast sweepers I was getting some - that is exaclty what I'd want from a car. I'll stick with 37/35 psi pressures untill I find a flaw with this setup ... though, so far so good :-)
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