I went out there still rolling on the Kumho ASX tires. But I only went to mess around and have fun, so it didn't really matter.

They surprisingly held up pretty well. I can still see actual tread blocks. I figured they would ball up into chunks of rubber after a couple of sessions, but they held up well.

Now traction, on the other hand, was a problem on these tires. During maximum braking and a downshift into second gear, the tires briefly locked up and screamed in protest. It was miserable. And around turns, they were completely helpless.

So enough of that... let the car cool down for a while. I hopped into my buddy's S2000. Bridgestone RE-01R's (he's been dying to get these tires... if you know the story on these tires, then you know what I'm talking about), meticulously dialed-in suspension, and a good driver. Unfortunately, the front camber kit did not come in on time, so he had to settle for the maximum allowed negative camber with the stock plates, which was -1.0 degree; for comparison, the rear was set up at -3.8 degrees.

So, yeah... coming out of a turn and entering another one, the car stepped out to the right. He corrected it, but the ass end swung out the other way, so he steered into that direction. We were looking straight now, but only for a split second, as the ass end stepped out abruptly again to the right. This time, there was no saving it. Still going a good 50 mph or so, we slid sideways into the in-field, hit a rumble strip and saw the front bumper flying off the car, accompanied by a loud bang. Yeah, did I mention we were sliding to the right? I had the best seat in the house as we went sliding. I was holding on to the "oh-shit" handle for dear life, meanwhile thinking "why the hell did the car step out again like that?"

Well, we still don't know why. But the camber kit is coming in from Japan, and the car will be re-aligned once it come in.

Oh, side note. On the way back from the track, I-69 was completely dead. No traffic, nothing. So I decided to see if she still had it... and went for a top speed run. Yep, she still had it alright. I hit 147 pretty damn quickly, hit the governor and slowed down.

Who do I see in my rear-view mirror hauling ass toward me? My friend in the S2000. Two seconds later, another friend called who was driving 3rd in the convoy...

"hey, Rob, did you hit something on the road?"

"no, I didn't see or hit anything."

"Weird... I just hit something huge. Wait, Andrew's calling. I'll call you right back."


A minute later,

"Yeah, it was Andrew's bumper. It flew off the car."



Well, we had recovered the broken piece (which was about 2/3 of the whole bumper) and zip-tied it back on. Somewhere around at the speed of 120 mph, it flew off and hit Gareth's car.

No pictures, because, well, I forgot my camera... and no video, because, well, we broke the camcorder while at the track.






We went off track while exiting turn 8 and entering turn 9.

 

Haha. . you guys are crazy. . I wish one day I'll be at the track racing with my friends. . Too bad my TL is stock except for RSB. I'll be so embarrased to go to track with my car.

 

sounds like a good time. what were your lap times and the s2k lap times?