on friday, 10/24, i went to willow springs out in Rosamond, CA. It was an event hosted by www.redlinetrackevents.com just for track time... i've only been to the racetrack twice before... driven on it only once before. It's something i'm looking to get into, so i was like nice, not too many people, run the streets of willow for a bit.... track map
8:00PM the night before : pack all my stuff... food, water, change of clothes, helmet, sunglasses, tools, a couple spare parts, do a quick tech inspection on my car. no leaks, battery's tied down tight, have enough brake pad, tires have good tread depth, quick oil change, check all fluids, no wheel bearing play, everything seems tied up tight.
11:00PM : email my friend who's also heading to the track, tell him to gimme a call tomorrow morning, maybe we can meet up be4 the track and roll in together... sleep.
5:00AM : wake up, take a shower, grab my stuff, eat, leave around 615. Willow Springs is about 1:15, 1:30 from my place out in the westwood area...
7:20AM: get there, take all the junk out of my car, re-torque my lug nuts, check in, talk some cars w/ other people.... there were lots of types of cars there... civics, integras, a wrx & an sti, an evo8, a c5, a z06, other rx7's, a ferrari, a bmw that was towed in, looked like some serious work had been done to it... a couple of miatas, a sentra se-r spec v, a supra, and a couple of nsx's... everyone was cool and all... on big willow... they were running some serious sh!t tho... there were some ferraris doing some test runs or whatever in the morning, i was like *drooool*...
9:00AM: first run group goes out (i'm in the 3rd) i'm watcing them go around... it's still kind of cold out, but the track's heating up... they're going FAST in that run group, i was like daaayam....
9:30AM: 2nd run group heads out... a car gets loose onthe skidpad, catches himself and drifts back into his line... sweeeet!!!
10:00AM: my first run out on the track... i take it slow at first... getting to know the track a bit... where the course is banked, when it's off camber, what speed & what gear to take which turns, etc... i'm pretty much in 2nd & 3rd the whole time, except for one hairpin i downshift into first to get back into my powerband...
a couple of runs later, around 2:00, after lunch, i come back and make a run w/ one of the guys organizing the event, he gives me tips, and i'm like hey!! and i start running the track a LOT faster... i'm pushing my car a lot harder through every turn, actually get REAL loose on the bowl (a large, banked, decreasing radius u-turn at streets, if done right, you could prob'ly shoot through it at like 100mph on racing slicks)... almost lose it into the nsx that's behind me... straighten out and let him pass... whew!! i shoot through the chikane, downshift into 2nd, and power through the turn, hit the skidpad with just the right entry speed, hear a little squealing coming from my tires... and shoot out of the turn, pass the nsx up, and keep on going... MAN it was a rush....
i end up taking the next run session w/ an rx7 buddy of mine who brought his turboII out the same day and actually got to run it the whole time for a change (he bought it as kind of a project/track car, but it has never run well enough for him to get a full day's worth of track time on it)... and he was impressed with how i was doing for my first time on the track... UNFORTUNATELY as i was going through that same chikane, after i downshift to 2nd, start going through the next turn... BOOM. i bust my radiator. coolant all over my windshield, shorts something out, engine shuts off, low coolant buzzer goes off, no power steering, no power assist for my brakes, i'm like CRAP!!! wave my hands out my window, pull out onto the pits (it's at the end of the skidpad).... barely have enough speed to get to the pits... i push my car back into the parking spot, pop the hood, and good lawd!! i had a 6" crack in my radiator's endtank!! the weird thing was that my passenger was watching my temps the whole time (he was having prob's w/ his temps) and my temps were fine, i wasn't overheating or anything!! i guess it's just time for a new rad...
so i check my options...
- AAA/tow truck... 120 miles... NO.
- call my dad and have him leave work, come rent an auto transport, come pick me up, yell at me for being at the track on a schoolday 🙂.... NO.
- rent a u-haul and truck my car back home... *sigh* the only option i had....
the uhaul cost me an arm and a leg... shiiiiet.... and they didn't have anythign to tow the auto transport except a 17' trailer!! wtf!? so i'm driving this empty trailer home (it took me like 3 hours to get home) with an auto transport behind it... man, if the truck were any bigger, i could almost have driven my car into the truck!! anyways... so after all that... i still had a blast, it was simply amazing driving on the track... the only thing that bummed me out wasn't even the busted radiator... it was having to rent the damn uhaul!!!
anyways, here are some pics... pics... i didn't get a chance to take too many pics or get anyone else to take pics of me... but there's a pic of the track in the morning, a pic of my friend's turboII, and a couple pics of my car on the trailer, the cracked radiator, and the tires that i was using... i'm thinking next time i might change my tires there for some r-compound tires like the toyo proxes ra-1's but i gotta find someone that sells them and can shave them too...
btw, for my radiator... i've decided to get a koyo over a fluidyne... a little cheaper, larger core, dual vs. single pass radiator... only downside is i have to figure out how to use the stock fan/shroud b/c it won't fit w/ the koyo like it will w/ the fluidyne, which is a direct drop in replacement... maybe i'll go w/ an efan........
i know a lot of you ATOT guys are into cars and stuff... it'd be nice to get some of you cali guys out to make some track runs, get some track time, etc...
hehehe, sorry, long post 🙂
edit: btw, mods are as follows:
1990 gxl, large streetport, racing beat headers, presilencer, hks dual 50mm catback (not dual tips, dual pipes), apexi intake, jacobs ignition amp, mazdatrix strut tower/firewall brace w/ a torque brace adapter, suspension techniques sway bars, brembo xdrilled & slotted brake rotors, hawk hp+ pads, falken azenis sports on all 4 corners, kyb agx's w/ eibach pro's, mazdatrix short throw shifter, mazdaspeed shift knob, recaro srd (x2), an off color (aluminum, not steel, actually saved 30 lbs) non-cf hood, soon to be a koyo radiator, and a custom dent job 🙂
UPDATE:
so i just got back from another track day at streets of willow... and i've decided... maybe some people just weren't meant to be on the track... it was kind of saddening to see such a gathering of evo8's, sti's and civics.... thinking they could all drive... a lot of them drove balls to the wall w/o even knowing the lines or anything... dipping into the dirt on the inside of a turn, trying to use the gutter initial D style.... some of those people... if they didn't have the cars they had would have wrecked their cars, and several others... today's event (digitalracer) was almost like initialD meets 2fast2furious... i know not all evo8 and sti drivers are like that, but man, someo f those guys got really nice cars... but can't drive worth sh!t and don't pay attention to track etiquitte. sheesh.
8:00PM the night before : pack all my stuff... food, water, change of clothes, helmet, sunglasses, tools, a couple spare parts, do a quick tech inspection on my car. no leaks, battery's tied down tight, have enough brake pad, tires have good tread depth, quick oil change, check all fluids, no wheel bearing play, everything seems tied up tight.
11:00PM : email my friend who's also heading to the track, tell him to gimme a call tomorrow morning, maybe we can meet up be4 the track and roll in together... sleep.
5:00AM : wake up, take a shower, grab my stuff, eat, leave around 615. Willow Springs is about 1:15, 1:30 from my place out in the westwood area...
7:20AM: get there, take all the junk out of my car, re-torque my lug nuts, check in, talk some cars w/ other people.... there were lots of types of cars there... civics, integras, a wrx & an sti, an evo8, a c5, a z06, other rx7's, a ferrari, a bmw that was towed in, looked like some serious work had been done to it... a couple of miatas, a sentra se-r spec v, a supra, and a couple of nsx's... everyone was cool and all... on big willow... they were running some serious sh!t tho... there were some ferraris doing some test runs or whatever in the morning, i was like *drooool*...
9:00AM: first run group goes out (i'm in the 3rd) i'm watcing them go around... it's still kind of cold out, but the track's heating up... they're going FAST in that run group, i was like daaayam....
9:30AM: 2nd run group heads out... a car gets loose onthe skidpad, catches himself and drifts back into his line... sweeeet!!!
10:00AM: my first run out on the track... i take it slow at first... getting to know the track a bit... where the course is banked, when it's off camber, what speed & what gear to take which turns, etc... i'm pretty much in 2nd & 3rd the whole time, except for one hairpin i downshift into first to get back into my powerband...
a couple of runs later, around 2:00, after lunch, i come back and make a run w/ one of the guys organizing the event, he gives me tips, and i'm like hey!! and i start running the track a LOT faster... i'm pushing my car a lot harder through every turn, actually get REAL loose on the bowl (a large, banked, decreasing radius u-turn at streets, if done right, you could prob'ly shoot through it at like 100mph on racing slicks)... almost lose it into the nsx that's behind me... straighten out and let him pass... whew!! i shoot through the chikane, downshift into 2nd, and power through the turn, hit the skidpad with just the right entry speed, hear a little squealing coming from my tires... and shoot out of the turn, pass the nsx up, and keep on going... MAN it was a rush....
i end up taking the next run session w/ an rx7 buddy of mine who brought his turboII out the same day and actually got to run it the whole time for a change (he bought it as kind of a project/track car, but it has never run well enough for him to get a full day's worth of track time on it)... and he was impressed with how i was doing for my first time on the track... UNFORTUNATELY as i was going through that same chikane, after i downshift to 2nd, start going through the next turn... BOOM. i bust my radiator. coolant all over my windshield, shorts something out, engine shuts off, low coolant buzzer goes off, no power steering, no power assist for my brakes, i'm like CRAP!!! wave my hands out my window, pull out onto the pits (it's at the end of the skidpad).... barely have enough speed to get to the pits... i push my car back into the parking spot, pop the hood, and good lawd!! i had a 6" crack in my radiator's endtank!! the weird thing was that my passenger was watching my temps the whole time (he was having prob's w/ his temps) and my temps were fine, i wasn't overheating or anything!! i guess it's just time for a new rad...
so i check my options...
- AAA/tow truck... 120 miles... NO.
- call my dad and have him leave work, come rent an auto transport, come pick me up, yell at me for being at the track on a schoolday 🙂.... NO.
- rent a u-haul and truck my car back home... *sigh* the only option i had....
the uhaul cost me an arm and a leg... shiiiiet.... and they didn't have anythign to tow the auto transport except a 17' trailer!! wtf!? so i'm driving this empty trailer home (it took me like 3 hours to get home) with an auto transport behind it... man, if the truck were any bigger, i could almost have driven my car into the truck!! anyways... so after all that... i still had a blast, it was simply amazing driving on the track... the only thing that bummed me out wasn't even the busted radiator... it was having to rent the damn uhaul!!!
anyways, here are some pics... pics... i didn't get a chance to take too many pics or get anyone else to take pics of me... but there's a pic of the track in the morning, a pic of my friend's turboII, and a couple pics of my car on the trailer, the cracked radiator, and the tires that i was using... i'm thinking next time i might change my tires there for some r-compound tires like the toyo proxes ra-1's but i gotta find someone that sells them and can shave them too...
btw, for my radiator... i've decided to get a koyo over a fluidyne... a little cheaper, larger core, dual vs. single pass radiator... only downside is i have to figure out how to use the stock fan/shroud b/c it won't fit w/ the koyo like it will w/ the fluidyne, which is a direct drop in replacement... maybe i'll go w/ an efan........
i know a lot of you ATOT guys are into cars and stuff... it'd be nice to get some of you cali guys out to make some track runs, get some track time, etc...
hehehe, sorry, long post 🙂
edit: btw, mods are as follows:
1990 gxl, large streetport, racing beat headers, presilencer, hks dual 50mm catback (not dual tips, dual pipes), apexi intake, jacobs ignition amp, mazdatrix strut tower/firewall brace w/ a torque brace adapter, suspension techniques sway bars, brembo xdrilled & slotted brake rotors, hawk hp+ pads, falken azenis sports on all 4 corners, kyb agx's w/ eibach pro's, mazdatrix short throw shifter, mazdaspeed shift knob, recaro srd (x2), an off color (aluminum, not steel, actually saved 30 lbs) non-cf hood, soon to be a koyo radiator, and a custom dent job 🙂
UPDATE:
so i just got back from another track day at streets of willow... and i've decided... maybe some people just weren't meant to be on the track... it was kind of saddening to see such a gathering of evo8's, sti's and civics.... thinking they could all drive... a lot of them drove balls to the wall w/o even knowing the lines or anything... dipping into the dirt on the inside of a turn, trying to use the gutter initial D style.... some of those people... if they didn't have the cars they had would have wrecked their cars, and several others... today's event (digitalracer) was almost like initialD meets 2fast2furious... i know not all evo8 and sti drivers are like that, but man, someo f those guys got really nice cars... but can't drive worth sh!t and don't pay attention to track etiquitte. sheesh.
