# PIR track days and Eugene AutoX



## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

OR is packed with track events in the next 3 weeks. :thumbup:

1) PIR track day with the Lotus club this Friday, the 23rd. No pre-registration is needed. Most track time available.

2) PIR track day with BMW ACA on May 30th, Friday again. Pre-registration is recommended - last day to sign up is May 23rd. Sign up here:

http://www.bmwacaportland.com/

3) Eugene AutoX weekend on the 7th and 8th of June. Valley River Center parking lot.
No pre-registration is required.

Junkies! Come and join us for the ultimate fun.

:bigpimp:


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## The Roadstergal (Sep 7, 2002)

I wish y'all would have a track day on a weekend... I can't take weekdays off...


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

I know, this cuts off many folks. But with racing weekends and higher rates, the clubs must run weekdays more and more these days.


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

Off to the track. Report tonight. :thumbup:


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

Whew, just got back. Dead tired. Heat got to most of us today at the track. I guess we are not really used to hot temps here in OR. In the sun we hit about 90°F - not a pleasant experience.  You Southern guys must be hard core.

The heat was brewing since 5:00am. You could practically feel the air - never a good sign. The first session out at 9:00am was more or less OK, dry and not too hot. A spec Miata did manage to slam into the tyre wall on the third lap - cold rubber.










That cut our run time by half for that outing. 

Buy 11:00am the air became virtually unbareable for us. JIO's was running Pilots on his M3 and by lap 2 they had ZERO grip, in the total dry! A total POS tyre. It "fell apart" worse than Conti's. It should be illegal to use it on the M3. I really hope PS II turns out better.

I was running behind him (Victoracers on my car) and saw him drift practically through every curve, not even nearly pushing it hard. After just 4 laps it came down to a point where it was plain unsafe to drive the M at a decent pace. 










Looking back, S-03's (even my Conti's) never allowed this kind of behavior in hot weather. Jim was constantly checking and adjusting the pressures, so that was not really an issue.

Victoracers really came through however. I have nothing but praise for the tyres. First I had too much Psi in them (35F/33R cold) and they got a bit slippery. Dropped back down to 35F/33R HOT and they stuck like glue. :thumbup:

There were other misfortunes too due to heat. Well, I almost threw up (I get car sick  ) when stuck in "traffic" and adrenalin subsided. Had to even use the A/C. Got off the session early... We survived on wet towels and gallons of liquids.










Among others: Alta Sport WRX threw a rod. A Supercharged Z-06 with supposedly 600WHP blew the engine. An M-Coupe overheated, even running a oil-cooler. My friend in a Frankenstein NSX was cooking Hawk Blues after every 5 laps. Pretty nasty picture.










Not really a bad day, but we had better. The greates thing was that we met a whole bunch of cool people and exotic cars. There were 4 Lotus Esprit V8's, an Aston Martin (older one), SCCA Porsche GT2, 60' Formula car with a huge Chevy V8, Elise, Super Seven, Westfield among others.

I keep my fingers crossed for the next Friday, that it would stay dry and cool.


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## Raffi (May 18, 2002)

Akakubi said:


> *Whew, just got back. Dead tired. Heat got to most of us today at the track. I guess we are not really used to hot temps here in OR. In the sun we hit about 90°F - not a pleasant experience.  You Southern guys must be hard core.
> *


When HACK, SergioK, StahlGrauM3, doeboy and I were in Las Vegas last week-end, it was about 94 in the shade on Saturday - add the horribly high humidity, a helmet, balaklava, and you have REALLY hot weather! :yikes:

EDIT: BTW, it easily gets to 100-110 degrees in the shade at Willow Springs and Buttonwillow in the summer! We'll see how hot it will be in a couple of weeks at the next school...:tsk: :tsk:


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

Raffi said:


> *When HACK, SergioK, StahlGrauM3, doeboy and I were in Las Vegas last week-end, it was about 94 in the shade on Saturday - add the horribly high humidity, a helmet, balaklava, and you have REALLY hot weather! :yikes: *


That's why I admire your survival skills. 

I am a Northener by origin, so heat and I do not really mix well. :rofl: :rofl:


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## Raffi (May 18, 2002)

Akakubi said:


> *That's why I admire your survival skills.
> 
> I am a Northener by origin, so heat and I do not really mix well. :rofl: :rofl: *


I'm the exact opposite - I can't stand cold/cool weather. :thumbdwn: I'll take 100 degree weather anyday over 40 degree weather!


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

Raffi said:


> *I'm the exact opposite - I can't stand cold/cool weather. :thumbdwn: I'll take 100 degree weather anyday over 40 degree weather!  *


:rofl: :rofl: I would say 50° would make a perfect track day for me. :bigpimp:


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

What a blast! BMW track day just awesome!

We had 7 friends running together in different groups. All but one were BMW's. The other one was a Protege 5 in the Novice group. The guy was first really scared to drive. But after just one session, you could not pull him away from the track! :rofl: That car has suspension mods and corners really well, no power on the straights though.. He was passing Porsche's by the end of the day. That pissed them off a lot.










10 E46 M3's, including JIO's, got together for a photoshoot. That was quite a site. Two of the M's were '04 models with LED tail lights. Not my personal favorite, but not bad.

The weather was just about perfect. A little drizzle got me nervous in the morning session since I just put on the slicks with absolutely no tread left up front. The High Performance group drivers had multiple spins on the back side. I could feel my front pushing badly even at very slow speeds.

By 10:30am the track was dry though and the fast sessions started. The car stuck to the surface like it was glued. Gotta love the Victoracers. The fronts won't last much longer though, I would say two more track days and a couple of AutoX's. But the rears still have tread and should breeze through the next year easily. :thumbup:

Jim's M3 was doing much better this time. Pilots did not overheat until after lap 8-9, so he was really gunning it throught the curves. The tread looked sad after a couple of sessions though. Still a strong believer that 255 rear tyres are not nearly wide enough for the M's power. He had quite a tail happy beast on his hands in the chicane. A couple of M3's had a complete spin in the same corner later in the day.

And then, when you thought your day was going really well, this thing shows up and makes it perfect....




























I was just chatting with my friends when I heard an interesting exhaust note. I looked over my shoulder and saw something red passing behind a low fence. My first thought was: oh, the F50 is back. But the silouette was a little different. And then it hit me - it's an Enzo!!! Here, now, how?!

The whole paddock just dropped what they were doing and moved before the guy would even park. The owner is the same guy who owns that F50. He has just taken delivery and the car had about 100miles on the clock. He WILL track it once it settles. In person, it's a marvel. Everything is carbonfiber. The brakes are 15" CF dishes, look gigantic. The engine is a work of art. That made my day.

Here are some more pics that other fellow trackies took.


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## alee (Dec 19, 2001)

Akakubi said:


> *My first thought was: oh, the F50 is back.*


"oh"... wow, you ARE jaded. :tsk:  I think no matter how many times I'd see a car like the F50, I'd still pee my pants.


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

alee said:


> *"oh"... wow, you ARE jaded. :tsk:  I think no matter how many times I'd see a car like the F50, I'd still pee my pants.  *


:lmao: :lmao: I just wanted to play it cool. I would be freaking out too. hehehe


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## The Roadstergal (Sep 7, 2002)

Hey, that FrankeNSX came on a Miata group drive two weeks ago... at least, I think it's the same one. And how many of those can there be?

Is this the same Enzo that was at PR? Taking it easy?


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

What are those gold-colored round thingies ? (the ones which are connected to the pushrods)


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

Alex Baumann said:


> *What are those gold-colored round thingies ? (the ones which are connected to the pushrods)  *


You mean these?










These are for external damping adjustment.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Thanks, Akakubi.

Whoa, what an impressing engine.

Would it fit in my Alpina ?


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## The Roadstergal (Sep 7, 2002)

Of course! It will only delay delivery by....


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

The Roadstergal said:


> *Of course! It will only delay delivery by....
> 
> *


:spank:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

SHUT UP!!!!!! :angel:


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

The engine is huge. :wow: The bay is really wide and long and the engine just dominates it. It would really hard to fit this monster any other car...maybe into a Viper. 

If next track day he runs it, I'll try to capture it on video.


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## TGray5 (Jan 22, 2002)

Pushrods on a Ferrari:rofl: 
Looks like external reservoirs for the shocks to me.


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## Akakubi (Dec 21, 2001)

Eugene AutoX this weekend!

Whoever is in the area, come over for a weekend of fun!

:thumbup:


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