Just spent two days with the car at Limerock. I ran the stock crap Pirelli Cintuaros that came on the 18" rims. I had stickier rubber on my 19" TSWs in the truck but decided the stock brakes weren't up to the task of doing any extra work. I intended to destroy the stock tires so I wouldn't feel so bad taking off brand new tires when I put on the winter tires. Mission accomplished.
Takeaways - my first session was disappointing, since it wasn't a Z06 race car and the complete lack of comparative performance was disheartening. I cooked the brakes in about 5 laps trying to brake late and hard like I'm used to (I got lazy and decided to run the stock brake fluid). Had the tires howling from pit out for the entire session. I passed only one car in the instructor group when I'm used to lapping most of them. Just clicked my stop watch a couple of times to get lap times and they were all 1:09s. I run 57s in the Vette.
So at first I was bummed. But the second session I started driving it like a stock street car instead of a prepared race car. I braked light and early to preserve the brakes. I started getting the car to rotate by snapping off the throttle and adding some Scandinavian flick when needed. That was fun. Rolled up on some Miatae and Loti and was able to get past them. Was pleasantly surprised that I had to lift to let the B8 S4s by in the straights.
So, after I drove the car more appropriately I started to have a lot more fun. Suspension was quite good. Car definitely needs high temp brake fluid and more aggressive pads. Power is a fine amount for the chassis and suspension. Car is far too quiet to make use of the DSG. I just left it in sport mode since it will shift itself at redline in manual mode and you can't hear the revs in the car with a helmet and the window down. But sport mode was mostly fine. A 6 speed would definitely be more fun on track.
It started pouring at the end of the day and that's when I really started to have fun. I drove the car in 2 20 minute wet sessions and my brother drove it for 20 minutes as well. The car was a blast to rotate with throttle applications, crap all season tires suddenly became the tire to have and I went from being one of the slowest cars to one if the fastest. Again car would have been way more fun in the wet with a 6 speed or if I had used manual mode in the DSG.
Soooooooooo my tires are shot (which was the plan) and the brakes need fresh fluid, but other than that the car was solid. Friday was 82 degrees and the car never got above dead center on the water temp gauge. With good tires and brakes car is capable of 1:05s at Limerock which ain't too shabby. I'd encourage any of you to get the B9 on track and ring it's neck a little. Tis a capable little car on track as long as you don't abuse it.
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Just dump it on the ground!
Originally Posted by GrapeBandit
![Bio][azard's Avatar](customavatars/avatar378922_1.gif "Bio][azard's Avatar"){kind=avatar}
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