Took the cars out to Laguna Seca yesterday, my 914WRX and my brothers 912STI.
• Got about 4hrs of sleep the night before, anticipation and anxiety woke me up at 2am and I couldn't get back to sleep.
• Cold as balls on the way there, terrible, but sooooo glad Im towing instead of driving a racecar to the track these days. Stereo, cup holders, heat, relative silence.
• Laguna is the most convenient track I've been to yet, so close and easy to get to. I'll be going back soon.
• Soooo glad my Rover has a low gear because the 16% grade going into Seca is *steep*.
We get all set up, get the 914 off the trailer and prep some things for the first session...
• I roll out onto track, accelerate into turn 3 and theres a 5' wide stream of water going across the track. Cold tires and I go full opposite-lock, Tokyo Dorifto through the entire corner, thinking to myself "please don't be that guy, please don't be *that guy*". I save it.
• By the time I start going up the hill I see water shooting over my shoulder. By the time I the corkscrew, the car is full-on puking steam and boiling water. I pull over to the far right of the screw and shut it off. I wait for a quiet moment and coast the car down the screw, down 9, into the paddock. allllll the way across the paddock, and pull it directly into our pits, all on gravity power. Not even a full lap of Seca
• I triage the situation for ~1hr, finally pull the thermostat and cut it open, rusty water drains from the motor (not good). We fill it, and after an hour I try for the 2nd session. Temps are all over the place, 170, 220, 190, 230(!!!). I get a few laps, maybe 3, and the car is spitting again so I bring it back in. Another hour goes by and we finally get it burped, temps are stable.
Meanwhile, Mike is driving the doors off the 912 and having a blast
• Session 3 we go out together, temps look great, so we chase each other for the whole session. It was amazing. The 912 is sooo goddamned fast, he walked me on every straight, but I would catch him on the tight corners. The sway-bars we added to both cars have worked wonders, so stable and predictable through all steering input. The 914 is still a bit tail-happy, may need some bigger rubber.
• Session 4, no drama, just fast and fun laps
• Session 5, getting *realllllly* tired now, the lack of sleep has caught me bad. About 3/4 of the way through the session I loop the car diving into 9 at pretty high-speed. Wiggle-wiggle-scccccrreeeeaaacccchhh. 360, all on the pavement, but the car won't start or bump-start, so I coast it down 10 into the pits, alllll the way past the pit garages, and ever-so slowly into our pits. Got some weird looks, seeing the car silently rolling by, so I yelled "ITS A HYBRID!" and just kept going.
Car is fine, just needed a moment to cool off and she started right up. A few take-aways:
• The '02 WRX motor really isn't enjoying life at 5500+ RPM. All the grunt in the power band is 3-5K. The engine is vibrating, not smooth, at 5K+, so not sure whats going on there, so I kept it under 6K for the whole day. Redline is 7K.
• The Racecapture computer in the car is pretty good but the shitty Fire tablet Im using for it kinda sucks, makes things complicated. Going to find a fix.
• BRAKES. OMG, the 914 needs race pads. I had good pressure and decent proportioning, but no bite. Going to upgrade those for sure.
We stopped in Salinas for mexican food and beers, had the trailer parked in the driveway by 8pm. A solid day. Can't wait for the next one.
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