wow...seeing Goo Roo fly by that Mustang is very inspirational. Does anyone know if Andy and Damian are going to be at VIR on 11/18 & 11/19 with the Audi Club? If so, i'm looking forward to meeting them.

 

both are class acts, I was actually at that event

 

hella fast

 

Any premonition (if I'm using that word correctly) that I had of Damian was blown out of the water. LOL. Good kill. When I ride passenger, you'll be lucky to hear a lil blip of an "oh ****". I was crackin up at his excitement.

 

LOL, Damian's giggling like a schoolgirl.

"It's a GT3!!!"

Dave

 

wow that FD disappeared @ the end -_-, was hoping to see more action from him.

 

Hey all, lots of questions... I'll try to answer them all. If I miss something just ask me again.

1) Yep, black FD was me, in full NASA sticker glory.

2) I don't have a mod list... I tried to make one once and then got distracted before I finished it... I have alot of mods though.

3) Yes, that was the GT500, and the mod list you had there was pretty accurate...

I think he said they had it up to 500 rwhp, and then they detuned it a bit for the event. Something like 470-480 at the wheels. An exceptional car from the factory... and Bruce knows the few things to get it up to speed at the track. It is a pretty heavy beast though.

Bruce also has a 2000 Cobra R that is significantly modified and capable of beating me up pretty good. That weekend he wanted to bring the new car out for a first ride though... It still had the temp tags!

4) Yes Bruce (driver of the GT500) can drive!!!

5) There are always an interesting mix of people/cars out for the Speedseekers events... And most of the people in groups 3 and 4 are fairly experienced!
I know for a fact that the guy in the C6 Z06 can drive. His previous car was a well prepared M3. I suspect that it was his first time out in the new car. Plus you never know what mods people have or tires/brakes etc etc etc. Nevertheless, everyone in that group is going pretty quick, yes that includes Phil and Veronica in the turbo/super charged miatas! That said, we did beat up on most everyone in the group. (Except the crazy fast NSX... that car was at a different level, almost running world challenge GT times!) We know some people in A group who wanted us to move up though... heeheh There's some other very fast guys up there as well.

6) Yes Damian is goofy and that's how he is in the car (and out of it haha) most of the time. Ok, that was a little more than normal enthusiasm, but not much. hahah

7) Thanks for the compliments Fritz... You know my car is 50% 'Flying Fritz Flynn FD Recycling' parts by now...

The only thing that I wanted to correct was that my car has a GT35R kit from A-Spec... and a billion other mods. I dyno tuned (by Steve Kan) the week before this event at 390 rwhp (dynojet numbers) at about 1 bar of boost at max power.... I wasn't running quite that high of boost for this weekend though... probably 12-13 psi at max power, maybe 350ish Dynojet numbers. It was nice and cold outside too... At that power I could pull just slightly on bruce in gears 2-4, and he pulled on me when we would go to 5th. His gears ran out a little sooner than mine though so that helped some too.

8) Unfortunately no, we will not be there.
I wanted to go, since I just got to ride along last year, but we just ran out of time/money/vacation/energy. I think Damian did 35+ days this year, and I did 20+ so it's been a long year. Hopefully I'll/we'll be able to get out there sometime again next year.

 

Don't worry, we have ALOT more good footage from RA.... we had 3 FD's there for the weekend all running cameras, Rotary4TW was there too for his shakedown event after we helped him rebuild his car. And Bruce was of course running his for all the sessions too.

For the record, that weekend was probably the most fun event I've done yet.

 

I've always believed that turbo was more suited for drag racing. Are you sure he's running the r85?

Btw, that video wasn't bad. I am willing to believe that gt500 was modded a bit, didn't they only trap like 112 stock? 500 motor hp ain't bad, until you throw in a 4500 pound curb weight.....I just looked in road and track and they ran 13.1 at 112 with it, slalom of 0.87 g's. I am underwhelmed.

Edit after reading goo roo's posts:

It makes sense that the gt500 was modded and pushing almost 500 to the ground, it certainly seemed fast.

I'm not surprised by the 35r, it seems to be the ideal choice for road racing

 

Yep, the gt500 was very quick. For a nearly stock car it was impressive. The front brakes are beautiful Brembo 14"!

The 35R worked very nice. At no point on a hot lap did I need to go below ~4000 rpms in 3rd, so it is instant spool coming out of all the corners. Damian commented on that when he rode with me, that he can hear the turbo spun up in the middle of the corner as soon as I'm on the gas. He said his car (with the R85) it takes a bit. That said, his car is still faster.

PS. If you still need that (old style) ASP turbo->IC pipe, just let me know, I have some of those now in stock.

 

Damn, I was looking foward to meeting you guys at VIR.

I wont be there in the FD anyway, had a slight mishap involving the front eccentric shaft bolt on the highway. While everything is apart, I'm thinking about going with a GT35R/T4 setup, good to hear it works well on the track.

 

So who is quicker the cobra R or Damian? i recall seeing a vid awhile back but is there a conclusive result?

 

Very cool You "track dawgs" have your very own self-motivating culture. ("eat 'em up, eat 'em up man"--GT3 pass, "his car is outta control!"--FD flyby, "dig baby dig! muahahaha!"--deep cornering). Boy you guys look like you're having fun! I hope one day I get the opportunity to drive my car(s) like that on a road course.

Kind of an off question: what is your racing budget for a given year/season (Goo Roo and Damian)? I'm assuming you do all the mechanical work on your own cars but have to purchase parts... any thoughts? PM me if you don't feel like talking numbers, I'm just curious

 

What kind of springs/shocks /coilovers are you using GooRoo ??? One day I would love to take my FD on a road course a well. It looks like your setup did fantastic. So if you wouldn't mind sharing. I would love to know.

 

another thing, after seeing this vid it really makes me want to try lime rock again. the first time i didnt really have an awesome time. I felt stressed out the whole time. i was afraid i was gonna crash my car, blow soemthing up and basically stressed from being at "full throttle" for 20 mins straight and if i slowed down someone was gonna be on my ***. Any advice from you track guys? Maybe its cause i have a high stress job therefore a high stress hobby doesnt make sense? what do u guys think? did any of u go through anything like this? or maybe i am just a wuss....lol. but if u guys had a similar start up in this hobby please share.

Maybe i should pick up a second gen and use that as a track car.

 

what a tank!

 

I've done one track event and I will say that it's not whoopin and hollerin for most people most of the time.

It takes a lot of seat time to get comfortable and really learn a track to the point where you can deal with distractions like that and have fun chasing cars without making a serious mistake. Matty, I know what you mean how it can be stressful, but really my experience was that it got much better as the laps counted. And the nicer your car the more stressful it will be - I don't see how to enjoy tracking a really clean car on a regular basis.

As for budget, in my very limited experience the cost depends greatly on the mods on the car (more power, more money for tires, fuel, brakes, broken stuff), and how hard you drive (how fast, hot weather, length of sessions). For a mildly modded FD running on street tires with good cooling mods, I'd say you can do a few events a year and not greatly increase your maintenance costs. Think of every track mile being 10 or 100 street miles worth of wear. Add at least a grand per year for race tires. Remember, the entry fees for most track days run at least $100, plus the hundred+ spent on fuel. So while the maintenance costs increase noticeably, your wallet is already been bled quite a bit after just a couple times out.

Dave

 

oh i too def got much better...in fact i was was amazed at what my car was able to do once i pushed it alittle more. in the end though i just felt my car is to clean to rip it likie that. the stress of running off was out weighing the fun.

 

Nice vid, they pass everyone but couldn't even catch up to the 1.3L FD, not to even mention passing the FD, which was out of sight in a few secons. Passing corvettes and the porsche...to me it looks like those drivers were eithere there for the first time, or not even trying at that moment. Also the "yeah" and "wow" comments become a little annoying. The performance of that mustang looks impressive, especially considering the wieght. I didn't think it would perform this well during cornering.

 

I recommend autocrossing as much as possible and going to empty parking lots etc.....to increase your confidence in car control.

It's not unusual at all to feel that way after your 1st HPDE. It's a whole different driving experience that's almost impossible to duplicate anywhere but a track. IMO it takes a huge # of events to even go 7/10s. It's really difficult not to get caught up in the competite nature of this sport but try to focus on your own driving, and not the cars around you.

I think what freaks most people out the most is how much the car moves around and how easy it is to control it if you just stay calm and react smoothely with your eyes focused well ahead. After you slide through a few 50 to 70 mph corners the hootin and a hollerin is only natural and if it's not then you will most likely find a new hobby cause it just keeps getting wilder. As crazy as this sounds for some people who only go 3 or 4 times a year this 1st stage could take you 10 or 15 events and for others it may never happen because they just can't allow themselves to free the car up to fully start to grasp it but again it just keeps getting better.

There's a huge skill difference in pro driving so you can imagine the difference in skill at HPDE events so those cars that appear to be going slow probably are not really going that slow but if you're a track DAWG you most likely have mad skills because you go monthly, have tons of seat time compared to the guys your passing and most likely are a little ******* crazy.

It's really weird how many phases to the learning curve there is but honestly I've never done something in my life that makes me as happy as driving a car at speed and I continue to realize how bad I am and how good the pros are. Like most things in life the more you know the more you realize that you don't know lol.

 

I'd say just the opposite is true. I have a high-stress advertising job, and am getting a master's degree at the same time... golf simply wouldn't chill me out. I need an activity that will literally beat the stress out of me. Concentrating 100% on driving for 20-40 minutes at a time means I can't think about anything else... and that's a good thing.

As far as having more fun, two things to suggest:

In terms of worrying about wrecking or blowing up, preparation makes the difference. I don't like going to the track unless everything is just right, and the car is thoroughly prepped. Things always go better when you're totally prepared.

The other is, you'll need to suspend your compettitive nature for a while. Tell yourself you're going to get passed by everyone out there, and go out with the goal of letting them by and concentrating on making incremental improvements, and impressing your instructor with a calm demeanor and smooth driving. You'll find that you'll be passing those people back before you know it.

 

Amen brother AMEN

If you suffer from ADD like me it may be the only way you can focus

 

I completely agree! When i went to nurburgring a while back my mentality first time on track was "if its in my rear view mirror and it wasnt a second ago, let it pass"

It was a good mentality - and by the end of the weekend i spent there, things appearing in my rear view went from quite a few cars (porsches, vipers, mitsi Evo's etc) to nothing. I didnt get passed once on my last 3 laps out of the 8 i did. and the kill list ended up being quite a few 911's (including a GT3RS, GTRS, and various other flavours) an M3 CSL, impreza's, evo's, and even a ferrari 360 CS.


P.s - watching that FD fly off into the distance is priceless

 

Halleluah!

Car preparation is the most important key to having a good day. If you have to worry about anything other than watching the gauges your car isn't well prepared. If you even suspect something isn't right you make certain it IS right well before going to the track.

 

Amen brother! haha.

I meticulously checked EVERYTHING on my car before its first proper track event, which happened to be a 500 mile drive, and then a few laps round the nurburgring (13 miles in itself!)

I changed my radiator, checked my fluids, changed my spark plugs, new pads, bled the brakes etc etc. Not a single problem with the car...but then again, i did spend $1500 preparing it