I am always preaching to the "Street Racers" about
taking their cars to the track and racing in a controlled environment.
But I really can't stress it enough, even attending a Gymkhana
- I guarantee you that you'll learn more about your car in those
two or three runs than you will ever learn in normal street
driving.
So, given the opportunity to take a Turbo Charged Twincam around
Killarney, there is only one answer - YES!
Attending a track day as a novice or first timer can be really
intimidating.
After all, most of us don't want to break or god forbid wreck
your daily drive at the track.
There's a simple solution to this though - Go as Fast as you're
comfortable with and don't let your ego control your actions.
We made way for a lot of cars (fast and slow ones), determined
to rather get a clear piece of track ahead of us rather than
trying to pick a race with guys we didn't really know.
Having
driven the car a lot on the street, I didn't expect the feel
to be much different on the track, man was I wrong. As a track
toy, the car is near perfect. Brakes were fade free lap after
lap, the grip is insane and the acceleration, for me at least
was more than enough with almost no Turbo Lag. The Racemaster
calls us "numerous cats" for not using high
boost LOL. After my first installation lap we came down the
main straight HOT, I tapped off way early, started braking early,
but as the corner approached I still felt the car wouldn't make
the corner so I went a bit deep.
At this point, Saleem sitting next to me is shouting "TURN,
TURN, Just TURN", so I did and it’s at that point
that I realised the car has loads of grip. From that point I
went faster and faster, until my last lap on turn 1, she stepped
on me. Now when a car steps on you the first time, it's a bit
of a bum clenching moment, but getting it back was so simple,
the car really did most of the work. But I had found my level
of "comfort", this was as fast as I was comfortable
with.
At the end of the day I would say I was maybe using 60% of the
cars potential, Saleem maybe 75%. Next time HIGH BOOST!
