So, it was time to take my not quite broken in yet 6 day old car to the track. What better way to break in the engine? :)
Unfortunately, the forecast for rain did materialize and we actually got quite a nice downpour in the morning. I typically never go to TH in the rain, both because it's difficult to fly there, and also because it doesn't give me a chance to compare my lap times and see if I've been driving better, or not.
But eh, I figured I should maybe drive my new car to TH myself at least once :) and I also knew that it would be interesting to drive in the rain, so I went.
As expected, the morning was very wet, but the afternoon turned out pretty nice.
my car ended up being a nice hand warmer :)
afternoon means time for slicks :)
Haha, that's cool :)
You're right, it'll go faster without this useless part :)
A friend and coworker of mine brought his personal toy:
He was nice enough to let me drive it for a session since he knew I was good for it if anything happened :) That said, my goal was definitely not to buy a new car, especially if damaged :) I started easy, and slowly went faster, but only down to 2:13 which really isn't that fast, but considering how scary that car is, was plenty fast for me :)
So, the car sounded absolutely awesome, like a real freaking racecar, and that's because it is one. I'm told it's not that comfortable on the street, but it's definitely a racecar on the track. I hadn't driven a stick on the track for like 7 years, so I didn't do any fancy heel and toe, or left foot braking, or downshifting multiple gears. With the old tires that were on (and lack of grip), I almost regretted it each time I put 2nd gear since it was more power than the tires had traction (quite interesting in turn 11).
I kind of wonder how it would have driven with fresh tires on a warm track, but at the same time, since its traction control was mostly useless, and I kind of like the safety net of computers being there to help just in case when I drive a car that's several hundred thousand dollars, I think I'd be pretty scared to drive this car anywhere close to the limit.
Anyway, a big thanks for letting me try it out. By the way this little clip shows how unsafe 2nd gear was :) . My laps are below, including 3 small mishaps in turn 11 :)
My car did well, I did have to get used to it, as expected, but I ramped up reasonably quickly:
it was nice to have real time feedback on tire temps and pressures
In the rain, it was easy and forgiving to drive, and big rear wing that comes in under heavy braking definitely seems to help, and looks cool to people behind me :)
As the track got better, I was kind of stuck around 2:09 which was sad considering I was faster in the F430, but once Arnaud passed me in his Scud in the last session, I just followed him and we got down to 2:03 for the last lap. The better news even is that it was with me making a couple of mistakes and catching back up with him, or lifting off in the straight not to pass him. The fun happens around 18:20.
(note that I was still short shifting because my engine wasn't fully broken in yet)
So it took me a while to warm up, but I was very happy about my last lap, and the potential that was still left. to be continued...
A few chosen pictures from Dito (unfortunately none showed the rear wing when it comes up under braking):
Anyway, this was a much better day than planned, considering. Good time sure was had and thanks again to the DnF team for making this happen, as well as Frank for riding in my car and giving me expert tips I sure needed at the time.
A few random pictures left over:
I'm really bummed I missed that day at thunderhill, I drove those exact cars at Mt Tremblant
Ditto and his impressive picture lab
Since for once, I had driven my own butt there, I had time for dinner:
