09/15/05 With the Elise being for sale I didn't want to track it, so the Box got track duty for this Porsche club day. I instructed, as usual, so again it ended up being a lot of time in various cars. I therefore decided to cut my own driving a bit short at only 3 sessions. One of those I ran with GPS and was happy to see a best lap of 1:44.9. Here is that lap on video:

Video in later sessions showed a number of consistent laps in the 1:45-flat range so that seems to be the new solo benchmark for me in this car (12 seconds slower than in the Elise). I ran half the GPS session with a passenger and the time penalty is a consistent one second. What's interesting is how different the car feels with and without a passenger - it slides around a whole lot more solo than with someone in the right seat. Given that PIR is mostly right-hand turns this makes sense. All in all, the Box did really well and was an entertaining drive despite its pedestrian pace on the straights (my newfound corner exit speed did gain me 2mph on top versus earlier GPS logged runs). Even so, people kept asking me what I've done to the motor. Funny.

UPDATE:

I've spent some time looking at the GPS traces and learned a few things. Below is an overlaid trace of my best recorded Elise lap (1:33.4, black trace) and best recorded Box lap (1:44.9, red trace). The track map shows where things are happening.

The most obvious thing from this, especially apparent at the markers, is that I'm way over-braking for turn entry in the Elise. You'll notice that the speed (top set of traces) actually dips below that of the Box for a bit, then rises to a comfortable 4-5 mph above. Clearly if the Box can do the corner entry and the corner itself at a certain speed and the Elise can carry more speed mid-corner, it should be able to enter the corner faster too. Well, the car can - for whatever reason I can't, yet. It's the same thing that kept my R1 lap times from dropping even as I increased straightline speed - going faster on the straight just makes me overbrake for turns. So the Box ends up being a valuable learning tool, it points out that whatever limitations I'm encountering in the Elise are all in my head. And in turn this tells me that if I were to drive the Elise as well as I drive the Scion, I should be looking at 1:32 or better lap times. Which for a stock car on 280-treadwear street tires would be pretty damned cool :) Actually, even my 1:33-some is not bad but obviously it can be improved upon. Well, if nobody wants to buy the Elise maybe I'll keep it and see what I can do?

09/26/05 Internet is a great resource. Example - I did the oil change myself on the Box, but as the miles accumulate it has decided that it hasn't been serviced yet so the 'Service Required' light went on. I figured there's got to be a way to reset it without a trip to the dealer (their service department is booked 2-3 weeks in advance anyway). So I did a quick search and sure enough - the trick is to make sure the odometer is not in trip mode, turn the car off, hold down the odometer reset button, then turn the ignition on without starting the car. It goes through its little procedure and bingo, the light is turned off. Just saved several hours of my life and probably $50, too.

So why is the mileage accumulating? Well, I've been doing a bit more driving than customary. One such recent trip was to the Aston Martin dealer in Seattle to see the new AMV8 in person. VERY nice. Below is the color combo of choice, interior and exterior.

Yep, I'm on the list. Whether or not I'll actually do it will depend on many things. In my present situation this would be a very foolish purchase, to put it mildly. But I have until late May - just in time for my next birthday. Hmmm... This was a factory intro gig so no driving. Dealer demo cars don't arrive until early next year. When the dealer gets one I'll drive it and see if I still want it as bad as I do now. Then it'd be just a question of how :) Inevitably I was asked 'what do you drive now?' - a Scion xB, of course!

On the much nearer horizon, my new '06 M5 has been built and is awaiting transport stateside. I won't keep that one for very long. The goal is to break it in carefully, do one track day and sell it. Gotta see what a 500hp V10 7-speed sequential sedan is all about. Should be fun.

09/29/05 (Updated 9/30) The fifth trackday for the Box, a BMW club event. I briefly considered running the Elise, at least in the morning, but decided against it. The forecast called for rain starting at noon (only a tiny sprinkle actually materialized). More importantly, I signed up to instruct again and so would be spending a lot of time in cars. The Box is just more forgiving and 'relaxing' to drive in such situations. So it got to go for the whole day. I had the GPS for the first two sessions but the first one the card ran out of space so I didn't get any data. In the second, I was able to improve on my time slightly with a 1:44.7. Comparing traces wtih my 1:44.9 from a previous track outing I have made a significant improvement in the esses, being about 0.5 seconds ahead at that point, but gave most of it away at the end of the back straight in 10-11. So if I did everything right a 1:44 flat should be doable. Don't know if I'll get to try again this year. We'll see. In the meantime, highlights of this particular outing were harassing a C6 Vette in the corners and watching a 318ti spin in front of me. All this in the instructor group so we're not dealing with novices here :) See video.

Oh, and apparently I'm two-wheeling the Box in the chicane (picture courtesy David Birkbeck, click it for larger version).

Coincidentally, Larry had his collection of Group B rally cars out in the track's grass parking lot being photographed for some magazine. So I snapped a few shots of my own...

The cars represent pretty much the whole history of group B, from the early production-based Audi Coupe to the shortened and more powerful Audi Sport Quattro...

To the normally-aspirated V6 MG Metro...

The Lancia Delta S4 is a rare beast and has both a turbo and a supercharger...

And finally, the end of Group B evolution, just before the whole class got outlawed following several fatal accidents, the clean-sheet design of Ford RS200.

I keep trying to talk Larry into doing an online Group B museum of sorts, with each car's history, driver commentary, videos, etc. Maybe someday. In the meantime, I got an all-too-brief drive in his Mitsu Evo VI Makinen. The thing is AWESOME :) It just wants to blast through every corner in a very manageable, controlled powerslide. The car makes it so easy that the third and fourth turns I ever took in it were nicely sideways, grinning ear-to-ear. This on Kumho 710 race tires :) Unfortunately one lap with traffic is all I could get, but hopefully there'll be opportunity for more later. Here is the car with Larry driving (photo by David Birkbeck) - click for larger pic.