I've been doing PCA DE's for three years now. My club always makes a trip to R/A. This is the first time I made the trip. Man, I didn't know what I was missing, that is a great track. We had some rain both days but, I managed to get some great laps in. There were some pretty cool cars out there too. I had three, count em, three 996 twin turbos in my group, plus a new M3 with the SMG. Two of the 996TTs were beating me up, the third with an obviously stock suspension was easily held at bay. He would slowly pull up on the three bigger straights only to be left in the turns. The M3 is a pretty quick car. My 951 seemed to be able to pull away at higher speeds, above 120. Other than that he was fast, faster than me. I think he was running 2:46s at best and I ran a 2:47. His on big street tires, mine on smaller slippery Yokohama track tires.

It was a blast though The hills are so much fun! Like the worlds fastest roller coaster. If you ever get a chance, that track is certianly one of the finest four miles of asphalt on the planet.

 

Great to see the 4cyl banner being held up against the "other guys"

How was R/A on brakes? I know a guy with a RS America that said he would go to R/A with fresh rotors and leave with warped ones. He even said he was warping what I think were big reds out there. Said he went to Alcon rotors and that finally stopped.

I always thought he was overdriving the car. It is a stock 250hp & stock weight so I would not have expected problem. He was running DEs only. No Time Trials or races.

Did you have and braking problems?
Still Using the stock rotor & caliper?

Just curious to see as I have never been there.
M758

 

I am running stock calipers and stock sized rotors. I did trash a pair of rotors, though it was their third or fourth hard day at the track. They were stock Zimmermans and I run Performance Friction compound 97 pads. I swapped those out for a slotted and cryo treated pair with fresh pads. The only other changes are DOT4 brake fluid (AP Racing 550) and the 968 brake cooling ducts.

The track is pretty tough on brakes. With three straights you have three heavy braking zones each lap. Turn one I was braking from ~145 down to ~90, then downhill to turn three, pretty heavy braking. Then there is another straight up to ~140 mph and back down to turn five at ~70-80 mph. The last straight before Canada corner I was hauling down from 140-150 to about 70-80, then two tuns later you need to scrub off another 60mph to hit the front straight again.

A good set of binders could definately win a race there. My car has 100hp over stock and I normally have trouble with brakes. This track was no exception, but not much worse than others. After a "break in"(new pads) bleeeding I was hammering it down with the twin turbos, no small feat By turn 12 (of 14) I did experience some fade towards the end of hard 25 min sessions.

I would think that a stock RSA with good rotors and pads should have no problems. It is VERY easy to brake too late in a bunch of the corners though. It was my first time there and I was definately guilty of that. I even got the car good and sideways once

Our club has quite a few well driven four cylinder cars. I suspect mine is one of the faster streetable versions. I was amazed at how well the little 951 did against the serious 996TT iron. The better driven cars exited more quickly and had the acceleration. The stock, "less well driven" one was not using his full exit potential. I was able to outdrive him in a clearly slower car. Once I swapped out to the better rotors, I was also braking with the best of them. Damn that was fun

 

Glad you got to experience this great track. I'm about to spend 4 days over the next weekend running my 158hp steed there (this will be the 5th time running RA). Historic, fast, and long.

On brakes, RA is good and bad. The bad is threshold breaking from near top speed for turns 5, 8, and 12. The good is the long part. If you use the braking zones wisely (don't brake over too long a period), the brakes get a chance to cool.

I run stock rotors with KFP pads and have never warped a rotor at RA or Blackhawk (notoriously hard on brakes). Let them cool and never touch that pedal from the time you see the checker to the time you start it up for the next session. If you don't already do so, make sure you let the compression slow and stop the car when putting it back in the paddock. Pads stay off rotors, rotors don't deform, pads don't melt, fluid doesn't boil... You get the picture. If this is review, pardon my preaching.

What kind of lap times were you pulling at RA? They're loooooonnnnnnnggggg laps, aren't they?

Keep the shiny side up,

 

Sorry, didn't see your lap time post from before. That's a nice clip. You big horsepower turbo guys drive me crazy from 14 to 1 and from 3 to 5. I catch up pretty good by 12 and then watch those horsepower monsters climb the hill up to the Billy Mitchell bridge.

Heck, maybe it's time for me to get a turbo...

 

Road America is definately on my list of tracks to visit.

Does anyone else have a goal to drive on a new track every year?!? Looking forward to tracks like Road America, Sebring, VIR, Laguna Seca...

This stuff is addicting...
-Z.

 

Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta are on my list. A trip to Atlanta when it's snowy in Chi-town might be just what the doctor ordered.

I've been to Laguna Seca to watch vintage cars and played it on GT3. The corkscrew kinda stumps me... My brother used to race motorcycles there and says it's not as intimidating as it looks. The balance of the track looks pretty inviting to a nice handling 944 variant.