junktionfet

I meant to post this earlier but was so busy I never got around to it. In fact I was in such a rush yesterday that I forgot to bring my camera.

Anyway, I attended the Holiday Laps @ VIR event yesterday in my TL-S. I saw only one other TL out there but it was a 2nd gen. My buddy came along in his TSX.

It's $25 for a 25 minute session around the track (VIR Full course). They are parade laps, however depending on who's in front of you, you can get some decent speed. For example, there was a guy in a CTS-V (not the new supercharged one) in front of me, and while he held back a lot in the corners, he knew what to do when the nose of his Caddy saw VIR's looong back straight . We were typically able to go a fair bit over 100 (I got into 4th gear) before shutting it down for slower traffic.

If I let a bit of a gap form I was able to hit some of the corners at what I consider to be 80-90% of a trackday pace, which made the whole thing worth it.

I've done many track days on my bike at VIR, but I've never had my TL there. I took it to a weekend trackday event at CMP last fall and had a blast with it. After getting a taste of what the TL is like at VIR, I really want to do a full on track day with it there.

I highly recommend this event to anyone in the area the next time they do it, I went there with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

That's awesome! I'm no speed demon but I would love to take my car to a track for a day.

Btw I see you are in Raleigh! Howdy neighbor

I hate cars

That sounds like a good time. Any track time is good time.

One thing I've always been curious about though and it may sound really basic.... Do you take a different line through the corners on the bike vs the car??

OneWickedTypeS

Damn , I wish I would have known about this...

junktionfet

Cool! If you see a black TL-S driving like an douche around town with an NCSportbikes decal on the back windscreen, that's me. Actually if that's ATLP exhaust you have, I'd like to hear it in person some time. I've been debating making my car non-stock for some time now.


That's a good question and IMO I feel like the race/fast line is the same, and the same mantra usually applies with either vehicle (turn in wide, deep, and late).

There are a few differences though... On a bike you can use the whole track and sometimes part of the curbing if it's smooth enough. In a car you can often go a bit further and use all of the curbing; And at places like VIR, you can even cut the curbing a little if you want to reeeally straighten out some of the turns. You definitely don't want to do that on a bike.

Also your turn-in points may be a little different on a bike as a matter of necessity: At Road Atlanta for instance, there are numerous places such as the braking zones for turn 5 and turn 10A where the race/fast line is literally rippled like cheap carpeting due to cars on the brakes. On a bike the front forks usually bottom out with each ripple since they are already compressed so much from the braking force. That combined with the fact that you just have your single 120/70 front tire handling most of the mass of the bike at the time, makes it a bit hairy to say the least. In that case, bike riders usually choose to come into those turns more shallow in a line where car tires haven't been, which means they have to turn in later than usual and at a lower speed.

Speaking of ripples, Road Atlanta has more after turn 10B (under "Suzuki bridge") where cars peg the brakes before rolling down the "gravity cavity" aka turn 12. Bikes now usually use a new turn 12 configuration which which is much safer, but it means they are accelerating in the same place where cars have rippled the pavement. I always have to short shift there to keep the nose of the bike down, and even then the front tire still hovers a little. I hit one of the ripples at nearly full throttle in 2nd gear on my first ever lap of Road Atlanta and just about looped the bike. I'm sure it looked cool, especially since I had a dark visor on my helmet and no one could see the look of sheer terror in my eyes.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

I'll keep my eyes open for you around town.

I have the ATLP Base exhaust and I love it. PM me sometime and we can meet up so you can check it out for yourself.

Souljah

Man I want to track my ride.

SouthernBoy

I did 15 laps at Richmond International Raceway in June 2005 (actually it worked out to around 20 laps). This was preceded by about an hour of class time to acquaint us with track rules and such. Then into our fire suits and helmets, and into the detuned NASCAR stockers for our laps.

This was a Christmas/birthday gift from my daughters and my wife. I even have an in-car video of the event. It was fun, but the cars were detuned to around 500 HP (small block Chevies, and I was in a Ford Taurus stocker). All of the stockers had been cars that in their prior lives, had actually seen NASCAR races. They were governed to 113 MPH. The whole time, I kept thinking, "man would I like to take my '04 TL on this ride". It was fun.

VQPower37

i wouldn't mind running a car on a track as long as its not my car lol ... dont wanna put that kinda wear and tear on it

07tl-s6spd

iTrader: (1)

thats awesome i would love to track my car for a day!!