green_henry

I went to Track Night at Thunderhill and am pleased to report that the TSX performed really well.

This was my first track event, and I highly recommend looking into a Track Night session. It's less expensive than most (if not all) of the other track events, you can get an incredible package deal on a helmet, and you are pretty much completely on your own (no mentor in the car with you) Track Night in America

The only disappointment was the performance of my Continental DWS tires. They simply could not take the heat. We ran three 20-minute sessions. The tires were fine for first few laps of session 1, but they were squealing and sliding badly during sessions 2 and 3 (mind you, it was over a 100 degrees outside). One of the guys that I passed joked about how he could smell my tires even before I passed him. I will keep the Contis for street use, but I'll be looking for something a lot softer (like Ventus RS3s) before I do another track event.

In spite of the tires, there was only one car that was clearly faster in the novice group (a sweet S2000). And there was a surprisingly fast Audi A4 wagon; it had cheap tires, but they were better in the heat than mine. There were also much faster cars, but they had less aggressive drivers, so don't be surprised if you lap a Porsche.

green_henry

1-year later: Thunderhill, June 23, 2016...

Per my previous post, my Contis could not handle the heat last year, so I upgraded to Hankook RS3s on Enkei RPF1 17x8 this year. I also replaced the original suspension with Koni Sports / Eibach Pros and upgraded to Racing Brake XT-910 brake pads. What a difference!

The tires made a huge difference and the brake pads were also a major improvement. I really like the XT-910 brake pads for street use too. Last year, I couldn't push the car to its limits because the tires reached their limits much sooner. Last year, I spent a most of my sessions in 2nd gear and only got into 3rd on the straights; this year, I spent a lot more time in 3rd and only rarely felt like I was over-working the tires. I think the Hankooks will perform even better next time by reducing the tire pressure.

Again, the TSX is a great contender through the turns and can keep pace with WRXs, BRZs et al through the twisties; its lack of torque is its only obvious short-coming (at least on a short course like Thunderhill). This year, I was able to keep pace with the S2000s, so that was very encouraging.