This was my first time at Thunderhill, and unfortunately it was raining all day. Still had fun though, and I got to explore the limits of the R in the rain on a set of well-worn RE010s. The 3rd session out, I felt really smooth despite the track conditions. Ran for 25 mins. or so until the gas light was coming on. After filling up the tank and turning on the camera for the first time all day, I wiped out half way through the first lap. A Nissan decided to brake in the middle of a turn that I had been taking full throttle all day...I got caught at the top of 3rd and didn't want to be right on his *** at 90 mph, so I lifted... . I got back on the gas and cranked the wheel, but no chance of recovery on the wet track. Oh well...it only took me 4 hours to get all the mud off of my car.

Right click and save as: 5.5 MB

 

Where are the pics...your car is a little bit dirty. Was that the ABS light coming on after the wheels became caked with mud?
Austin


[Modified by Austin, 4:36 PM 11/19/2001]

 

Yep, the ABS light came on and stayed on...but it was off when I started up the car to go pressure wash it. I guess the mud just tripped the sensors. I'll upload those pics now.

 

Here are the pics:







[b]My personal favorite[b]







[Modified by Austin, 4:45 PM 11/19/2001]

 

Wow that was fun!

 

Yes, it was... Thanks for letting me use your car wash facilities!!

 

Those RE010s look positively BALD!

They let you on the track with those? ...in the rain?!!??

 

Man, those tires are crazy bad. How do you even get traction?

 

Ahh yes.. the famous "Throttle-Lift Oversteer".. on wet pavement no less.. Nice footage!

 

LOL, yep...they are pretty bad. The innner and outer edges of all four tires are pretty much bald, though there is about 1/16" of tread on the inside. I guess that is enough to get the water out of the way. But I'm sure the baldness made the rear end break loose much more easily then it normally would have...the front tires (in the pics) are actually the two best tires I have!!

 

Hehehe...I know all about lift-off oversteer, what I didn't know about was half-bald-RE010-in-the-rain lift-off oversteer, which is like normal lift-off oversteer times 10!!

 

clank...tinkle..bing...bang...rattle...crack...Bet that noise got old real quick!

 

Wow, do you drive on those tires everyday?

 

Hahah it sounded like a freak hail storm as soon as you got back on the track Time to clean your R's belly!

 

Holy ****! That video was badass.

how much does it cost to run at thunderhill? I might be interested in going...

-Chuck-

 

Yep, they are perfectly safe within the posted speed limits.

 

This event was $165 for the day...if you are interested, I'll let you know next time I'm going to an open track event in N. Cali.

 

Dude there is no thread on those tires....

 

That's the perfect depth for street tires. They won't chunk when they are that worn down

Warren

 

WHOAH!!! That's pretty scary. You got some ballz for racing in those conditions on the course. Can you explain what happened? Are those RE10's on the stock wheels? What temp was it outside where you were?

yeah...you could say your car is a *little* dirty. haha.


[Modified by Yellow Dragon, 10:18 PM 11/19/2001]

 

Yes, stock RE010s with 12,500 miles on stock wheels. It was pretty cold out, maybe mid 60s or so. For some reason, my ballz were extremely big at this point in the track....I was taking this turn full throttle in 3rd, shifting into 4th and carrying speed to the edge of the track (while simultaneously fighting the wheel as the car started to hydroplane on various puddles). I honestly don't know what got into me, but that was the best turn on the track IMO. Anyway, I planned on full throttle 3rd to 4th again, but this guy in a Nissan started to BRAKE, I didn't want to shift to 4th and be right on his ***, so I sort of got caught in 3rd and lifted. Got back on the throttle, but no chance of regaining control on the wet track, the rest is history.

 

Yeah, I heard it was raining all day friday. I went the following day, saturday, and the track conditions were better. Dry.. to some extent. Except I still have NO BUMPER from sears point!


Edit: WOW, after watching the video, i'd say your pretty lucky. If the ground conditions were any thicker you "might" have rolled the car. Good clip though.


[Modified by addicted2VTEC, 8:48 PM 11/19/2001]

 

Wow that video is intense. You look like your going over a hundred when you went into that spin!.

I'll be pulling my crazy rain spin tonight (if Nicole didn't tape over it)

Awesome Video!!

 

I was wondering if the bumperless type R was on a diet or sth. I, and a bunch of friends + ken (aka seadawg) also showed up for the $175 Sat Thunderhill school.

Did you catch any of the off-roading vehicles? One of them was a buddy in his black Si. Spun out into the mud on the off camber 3. He also was bit by the lift throttle gods. I heard a type R sustained some damage (cracked lip, sidemarker hanging).

When I pulled in from my last session my brakes were smoking. I also boiled my fluid. And I'm only in the A group! What kind of brake setup are you guys running?
I was on R4S, Superblue and stock rotors (maybe should have resurfaced them when I swapped pads at ~7k). I'm stock otherwise except for S03s, which handled themselves nicely. Maybe should have removed the dust shields as well.

Wondering how to have good brakes on the track and stay G-stock for autox,

-al

PS I got passed like I was standing still by some Supra. Whooooosh.

 

They will have a track day on 12/15, I will be going, anyone is going??