My RX7 buddy was out at the track so i decided to show up and snap some photos.

Made me want to drive real bad

Enjoy!



My friend's Turbo vert aka my future car








New brakes on the Lexus.
Quote of the day:
Lexus owner - "I saw you went off track behind me... everything alright?"
Lotus owner - "yeah, my car just doesn't stop as fast as yours"










Now those are some tires


480 horse twin turbo Nobel














Nick, this one's for you.. i think it's powered by a motorcycle engine or something.




Hey who is that!?

 

Very cool dude! I take it the one you said for me is tiny?

 

The first few pictures you took is like the ONLY place on that track that if you over drive you car you could do damage to it. Its the dead zone cause of that hill, no run off. Roll bar goes in before I do a lapping day.

 

Yeah, but a Mustang managed to lose it on turn one (i think... the kink onto the drag strip) do a 360 hit the jersey barriers backwards and roll over the top. It was a total loss but i got there just after it happened.

 

Thats the other place you can total your car.

Edit* Did you see the rustang aftermath? Any pics fo that?!

 

Nope, i guess it was just hauled off right before i got there.

 

Great pics! Which club put on this track day?

 

Nice pics. Good job!

 

hey man, wanna come take pics for the lapping day on friday? or maybe just attend?

 

Proformance Racing School. It costs $500 for the first class but i guess it's a really good school. After you get signed off by an instructor you can attend any of their events.

Maybe. At Pacific? Which event is this? I probably wont run but i might come to take photos. I have to be at my house all morning though. An insurance adjuster is coming out to look at my car again. They owe me more money!!

 

it starts at 4pm at pacific so you should be good. come hang out!

 

I might stop by and hang out/watch/take pictures. I'm curious!

 

That'll work out pretty good but i can't stay for long. I'm supposed to be up in Seattle Friday evening but i'm not sure what time yet.

 

ok sweet. i'll post details once i decide to look them up. i believe it's 4pm start though

edit:

- Mandatory drivers meeting for all drivers: 3:30 p.m. in the grandstands.
- First car on track at 4:00 p.m.
- Box dinners provided around 6:00 p.m..
- Last cars off the track: around dusk..

 

You can't lift off the throttle in that tiny bit of a turn. It's not much of a turn but the ground is a little uneven and that's normally the fastest you'll be going, so any tiny jerky movement will off balance the car (even the lifting of the throttle.) That's what I think makes this car so fun, it has such little power you can bury your foot on the floor and take the turns without goosing it.

 

he actually lifted coming up to the grandstands into the straightaway. the not white concrete barriers there are the ones replaced because of him

 

right after 9 or in the middle or before 1?

 

right after 9

 

wow not good. do you think he let up while in the turn?

 

While I certainly encourage roll bars, and any other safety feature one can reasonably put in a car, don't fool yourself into thinking 5A is the only dangerous place on Pacific Raceways. I personally have seen wrecked cars at turn 1, going into turn 2 (ever lose your brakes at 125mph, with a tire wall that close?), coming out of turn 2, turn 4 (a Porsche got impatient at a track day with an idiot who wouldn't point by, and got loose as he passed), turn 5A, turn 6, turn 7 and turn 9.

Pacific Raceways could be a really fine track, but it's in a horrible state of upkeep, and there's insufficient runoff at many places.

 

When taking the school Don Kitch said the original owners are back in it and are looking to put some money in it. They had a a mock up of what the track will look like when they're done. Turn two will become a 90 degree right, a 90 degree left and then a 110 degree or so left. (it's basically getting a boxed corner set of turns instead of the nice curving turn. (and yes boxed set of corners is the technical term )) I'm not sure what else they'll do to the rest of the course. Hopefully they'll really get it up and running real nice.


I think with stability control, and the performance of todays cars, is getting a lot of people out to a track and have a bit of fun where they wouldn't have before.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath on those track changes. I haven't done a track day in a couple of years, but that same model was circulating in 2006. The only thing that has been done to the track itself in the five years I've been driving it is selective paving, principally at turn 9 and those strips in turn 2.

IMO, in order to be at least a second class facility, PR needs the following changes: (i) FIA curbing at all significant apexes and exits; (ii) runoff at more places; (iii) grass/sand instead of rocks where people predictably drop two wheels, so that those behind them don't lose windshields with such frequency; (iv) a full repave, so that we don't have a mish-mash of 50 year old asphalt, newer asphalt, patches, etc.; and (iv) proper brake markers at the significant braking zones.

In order to be a first class facility, it should have a proper paddock area, rather than one that turns into a thousand lakes when it rains, and isn't big enough to fit everyone for many race weekends.