Yesterday was our second event this year, and I didn't think I'd be attending this one or any others after my last session. That was the first time I'd had the Clubby on the track and I was sorely disappointed. It didn't go well, it didn't turn well, it did stop well, but all in all I had a miserable time........I made one run and packed it in for the day.
Fast forward 28 days and Don has talked me into going one more time by telling me that he was taking his Classic Mini Pickup with the Honda Vtec motor that I'd helped him drive back from Georgia last October. I figured I couldn't miss that, plus I wanted to see how the Clubster stacked up against his little road rocket - I figured he was at about 12lbs per hp and I was at 15 so he should be quicker, especially down the straight. Plus too and also, I wanted to take a few laps in the P'up as well......
In the morning the weather looked horrible, there was a large thunderstorm cell over Topeka and it was raining buckets there, but as we don't run till 3 pm we thought we might have a chance if the storm followed the usual pattern for this area and moved off to the northeast. Sure enough, by 2 pm it had cleared Topeka and there was nothing to the west so we headed out - of course we got to drive thru the worst of the storm as it was heading towards KC now, but we broke thru sometime midway between Lawrence and Topeka and it was clear and dry from there on. The track had a couple of spots where there were some big puddles of standing water and a couple of spots where it was still running across the track, but we're on street tires not slicks, so while it's an inconvenience and you do have to be careful there, it wouldn't stop us from running.
After the driver's meeting it was decided that since the turnout was so light (30 cars instead of the usual limit of 60) they'd run the intermediate and advanced groups together, so that meant way more track time. I had decided that the reason the Clubster disappointed me so the last time was that I was driving it like I was in the '03 JCW, and it's a different car - the engine's a turbo with a lot of torque but not as high revving as the supercharged motors, and with the auto trans the shiftpoints are different - so I made a concious effort to start over and let the car teach me how to drive it, rather than try to force it into my pattern. Good decision as it turned out!
I don't know if it was the extra miles and the engine was just looser or what, but it definitely ran way better and I was having a ball. I was seeing speeds at the end of the straights as much as 18 mph higher than the last time! The car still rolls a lot more than the JCW, but the brakes are actually better, and I remembered to turn off the DCS. This had mixed results tho as like the '03 JCW did before I added the bigger rear sway bar, it wants to pick up the inside tire and smoke it out of low speed corners - the DCS would stop this at the cost of a slower exit. So I modified my line a little so I was a lot straighter coming off the corners to mitigate the spin and it worked pretty well.
In the meantime Don was having a ball with the P'up, we started at the back of the grid so we could learn our cars but within 2 laps we were passing people - it was pretty funny to see Don passing a 911 Carrera down the front straight - even the corner workers were remarking about it over their radios! We also passed a BMW M3 roadster and a Honda S2000, but truth be told, those guys were not running to their car's potential.
By the last session of the day we both were pretty comfortable with our car's capabilities and were running some pretty quick laps. Don was surprised to see how much faster I was in the Clubster than his P'up. I put it down mostly to brakes, with 10" wheels you can't get a lot of rotor and pad surface and in fact he was locking his rears on occasion, but when we drag raced up the front straight I was quicker there too, much to his disappointment. Still, he had a ball and the little car gets so much positive attention everywhere he takes it that it just brings smiles.......
All in all, a great day! I now feel a whole lot more comfortable with the Clubby on the track and I found it's a ton o fun to drive once I got it all sorted out. I'm going to see if I can find a rear sway bar for it and some summer rubber to tame the understeer a bit but I'm happy enough with the power and the brakes are, as usual, terrific. I got 10.5 mpg on the track compared to the '03 JCW's 8.1 too!
