some observations at the track (the good, bad, ugly)

cossie1600

I decided to jumpstart my track season with an event at Watkins Glen. It's been five months since I last went on the track, here are some observations I had today.

The good:
#1 Car didn't break down and I didn't put my blue paint on the blue armco, always a priority
#2 I had over 120 miles of driving at the track, my group had less than 10 cars. I saw a total of 7 different cars the whole day at the track.
#3 Drove my first session in damp weather, finished with a dry track.
#4 The 285 RE11 handled beautifully, the noticeable understeer I had last year with the 265/285 was improved greatly. I can see myself fighting the steering wheel a lot less. I was also surprised the tires didn't overheat after a good 30 minute session (it was about 60F today). I think I didn't heat the tires as much as I didn't have the nasty plow, creating all the extra heat on the front tires.

The bad:
#1 As much as I like the RE11, I am done with them at the track (at least WGI). They are just a lot slower at the track, especially at tracks like Watkins Glen where there are long corners.
#2 The armco put me in self preservation mode, had a tough time gitty up for some of the turns in front of the railing.

The ugly:
#1 I usually have a packing list on what I need to bring to track days. Well I had added a 5 gallon jug to the list, but I forgot to take it with me on Monday. I ended up having to drive 5 miles to the gas station to fill up 5 gallons every session. Go f-ing figures.
#2 I have had it with these XP10s. While I didn't hit the dreaded ice-mode ), I had a tough time stomping on the brake at the braking zones. The front brakes bit so hard that my front end would drift left and right. I think it has something to do with the EBD. It was so bad that I couldn't run close to the grass because I was afraid I would drop a wheel on it. I am going to run XP8 next time in order to eliminate some of that, perhaps slicks would help too. Also as the brakes heated up, I ended up getting a nasty pull under heavy braking. (not just a drift)
#3 F-ing gas was $4.30 a gallon, I burnt through like 40 gallons in the entire trip.

Someone had mentioned about pulling the ABS fuse, well I guess I missed the part where I am suppose to get new fuses for the power windows and my VVEL. I ended up having to stick the fuse back in, couldn't test out how the car would brake without the ABS