jw461

iTrader: (1)

Just got back from this track:
http://www.hallettracing.com/

Had the Evo out there at a Z club lapping day. The car handled about as expected. It was very responsive, but a little down on power, and understeered quite a bit.

Among those of us with transponders in my run group, only my friend in his Corvette and a WRX on race tires turned faster lap times, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Most of the big corners on that track are left turns so my front right tire got the crap chewed out of it, but it should be fine for daily driving still. Brakes held up great for the first 2 sessions and then the fluid boiled 8 laps into the 3rd session. Now my calipers are a nice dark red/maroon rather than bright red. I flushed with some Motul and ran my 4th and final session and it was fine after that.

Looks like the next thing I'll be playing with is the brakes. Time for some nicer pads, brake ducts, and fresh Motul.

Secret Chimp

iTrader: (2)

Glad to hear some Evo owners are bring their cars out to the track...where they are meant to go! Well, Mitsu may not agree, buut...

What kind of car did you drive on track last? Was it awd also? If not, you might have to adjust your driving style. The car only understeers when you try to drive it like a RWD car. My experince was that when you try to drive it like a rally car (getting the rear to slide a little), it turns in much better!

SC~

jw461

iTrader: (1)

Actually, although I've driven nearly every car out there, the only other car I've had out on track was my Spyder (3000GT.) I don't think I ever drove it quite as hard as I did the Evo tho, and I've never been on a track quite as tight as Hallett. I've been on Texas World Speedway, Motorsport Ranch, and Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis.

The cool thing about the Evo is even if you go over the limit accidentally, it's very forgiving. Lift in the corner? Get a nice controllable drift rather than any funny stuff.

I think either a slightly bigger aftermarket rear sway bar or maybe spacing out the front wheels a little bit may get it handling like I want.

Also, for those of you interested, the Evo got slightly under 6mpg on the track, the way I was driving

jbrennen

iTrader: (1)

Perhaps related to this -- my second autoX in the Evo, I got three runs on dry asphalt and two runs after the rain started. In the wet, I would toss the car into the corners and get the back to rotate, then put down the power and steer for the exit. My two wet runs were faster than my three runs in the dry.

Of course you can adjust tire pressures and alignment to dial out understeer as well.

The original poster didn't state which tires he ran -- if running a road course on the stock tires, I would run minimum negative rear camber (-0.5 degrees) and minimum rear toe-in (1mm). Those are the minimum end of the factory specs. Some autocrossers have run zero toe (or perhaps even toe out) in the rear, but I wouldn't be that aggressive for a road course.

About the RF tire getting chewed up... Probably unavoidable anyway, but have you maxed out negative front camber?

Mister2zx3

Has anyone run the stock advans backwards due to rotating them diagonally ( RF -> LR, and LF -> RR )? In the dry, it shouldn't make much difference, even in the wet, not a whole lot.

jw461

iTrader: (1)

Nope, I didn't get a chance to get it aligned before I went out, but I did jack the tire pressure way up on that tire which I think helped a lot. It moved the wear closer to the center of the tire (although still on the outside, it didn't roll over or anything.)