Road Atlanta Testing Days

Well, over the past weekend we headed up to Road Atlanta for a PCA Event/Testing Session. I was very excited about this as the new engine is fresh in the car and there is almsot no better track in North America better than Road Atlanta (IMHO). The last time I was at this track I had the T-25 setup and it just lacked the power to keep up with the Turbo 911's, BMWS etc. So I was very anxious to see what the new 16G setup was going to do there.

Friday morning 7:00 a.m I pull out of the driveway heading north to Raod Atlanta. I always get allot of looks on the freeway as I have an open trailor and most people are curious about the car and always get the stares and thumbs up. I even had one girl take a picture of the car going down the freeway

We get to Atlanta around 1:00 p.m. or so and get something to eat, check into the hotel and had off to registration and pit setup at the track. Setting up the pits takes a while as we have 2 EZ Ups, one is 10 x 20 and thother is 12 x 12. Then we have the tool box, air compressor, air tools, etc. etc. It takes around an hour to get everything the way I need it to be.

Saturday mroning we get the track nice and early at 6:30 a.m. and go over the cars to make sure everything is in good order. Drivers meeting at 7:30 and my group; Group 5, is up at 9:10. First run of the weeknd coupled with the first "real" run on the new engine setup and I was grinning ear to ear as we pulled out onto the 2.54 mile circuit. Scrubbing in the tires I see loads of 911's, a few BMW's, a Lotus and 3 Vettes. Green flag and I we are off. Getting a feel for the new power already and I am loving every second of it. We get to the first short shoot straight away and I rocket around 2 911's and a Boxter S (turbo). Heading down the long back straight, I pass 1 of the Vettes and BMW M3. Nothing too exciting really happened in the session, but what was VERY kewl was the fact that I was able to do almost 140 mph down the back straight. That is almost 30 mph more than on the old T-25 setup. Man that got me pumped up for the rest of the weekend. After the first session, one of the 911's followed me back over to our pit area and we talked for about 5 minutes. He was saying he was very impressed with the way my car looked on the track. After I had passed him early in the session, he stuck with me and we had some fun out there. He was saying he didnt expect that out of my car and just kept saying how impressed he was with the "little" 4 banger

After an uneventfull 2nd & 3rd session, we came to last session for me of the day. I was still verypumped up with the way the new setup was running and actually how I was driving. On the grid, about 4 cars back there was a 350Z I was talking to at lunch. After about 4 laps, he was right behind me and we were pushing each other to drive faster and harder the whole session. We were passing everything on the track it seemed every other lap. We started close to the back, but after about 15 minutes of a 25 minute session, we were strating to catch the guys who started up front. He never got closer than 1.5 car lengths, but our cars were so evenlly matched it was ALLOT fo fun racing around with him. I actually had someone taking our lap times thst session and was very pleased to learn I was turning 1:47 lap times out therre that session. That was a new perosnal best for me at Road Atlanta. That night in the hotel room, I checked the pro touring car guys lap times from the last event there and they were running high 1:30's. So I was not really all that far off what the pro guys were doing there. I know 10 seconds is an eternity on the track. But these guys also drive their cars every day here and I have not been to Road Atlanta in over a year. So I was really stoked about those times.

All and all the weekend was a GREAT success for me and the engine setup is AWESOME !!! I cant wait for the Grand Bayou Race Series to begin in October and see what have for those guys this year. Nothing bad went wrong with the car or me, everything went well except for some brake rotor issues that we'll get ironed out before October, I couldnt have asked for a better testing run there at Road Atlanta. Great preperation for the upcoming series.

Colour Tech South was there taking pictures of the whole event. I bought a CD from them and it should be here in a few weeks. When it comes, I will be posting them for everyone to see. There are some great pics on there from the event