| The Call from Ross at AVO came out of
nowhere. "How would you like to do a day of lapping at Fuji Speedway?"
Reflexes took over at that point, "I'll be there!" out before the brain
had time to register the question. And here I am, roughly 110 laps and
10 gallons of high-octane later. It started out early, of course. Racing
and sleep are uneasy partners. There is some metaphysical law that has
deemed racing while well-rested against the nature of the universe. Turns
out that we didn't really need to get there at 5:30 in the morning, so
we ended up at Denny's for breakfast. Have I ever mentioned how good the
Denny's in Japan is in comparison to the original American version? It
has been thoroughly adapted to the Japanese palate, which demands a much
higher quality of food. My gain, definitely. There always has to be a
flaw in any good plan, though. Denny's, despite being open 24 hours, does
not serve breakfast till 6am. I can just see all those people that absolutely
demand dinner at 5am. Can't you? Our little group finally eased in to the circuit at 7:00am. Ross was in his little 1.6-liter Mazda roadster with a mild AVO turbokit setup for 206whp. His pit crew was also shoe-horned in there with some jacks and a full set of Bilstein suspension, which was to be tested that day. I was in the Blue Monster - my AVO massaged Legacy GT turbo, the twinscroll turbocharged 2.0-liter available here in Japan. I suppose I should mention that Fuji Speedway is closed right now. It is still being redone, and will be open soon. We were not to be lapping on the full circuit, but on the short circuit instead. Fuji Speedway's short circuit could kindly be described as a very nice kart track, only being 800 meters in length. Barely half a mile. It is quite quick, with a 1000ft straight going into a chicane, up around a hairpin into another pair of quick, off-camber curves with convenient corners to hump over on two wheels, then into another off-camber, short "sweeper" into the straight again. A pro driver had shown up for the day in the Endless Lancer Evolution 8. Most of the participants were in Subaru's, mainly STi models, though there was a solid contingent of Legacy turbo's. There was also a R32 Skyline GT-R, a few RX7 turbo models, and an odd Evolution or two. After we sat through the longest pre-race speech in the history of racing (several participants and a few of the race course officials were about to participate in a lynching), we were finally ready to hit the track. I started out pretty rough due to the usual reasons - a good variety of lame excuses and plain lack of practice. I was all over the road, not a situation I normally find myself in with AWD. I was literally floating from corner to corner on huge humps of torque and wheelspin. This was probably due to the current state of modifications - an AVO 3" center pipe that goes into a pair of AVO mufflers, a power air intake, SMT piggyback ECU, and a heavy right foot. Keeping me tied down through the corners was some Swift springs, AVO endlinks and misc. bushings throughout. Keeping me going on the track was an inherent ability to ignore the possibility I'd ever hit the dirt. Power was, conservatively estimated, around 320hp with lots and lots of torque hitting peak around 2800rpm. Despite 225 series RE-01 glue-level rubber there was rampant wheelspin exiting apexes. In some cases, all the way to the next corner entrance, that apex, and the exit after that. I felt possessed by the spirt of the drift king that day. First lap session lessons learned - too much power is possible, especially when I have been away from a track for nearly half a year. The new setup also mandated some S-rubber, better rebound damping and an alignment. Especially given that I was the odd-man out driving on street rubber, as everybody else (besides Ross) carried in racing rubber. Straight line intimidation was absolutely not a problem, as I absolutely bullied various Skylines, older Legacy turbos, Integra Type R's, Silvia (240SX) turbos and an STi or so out of my way in the straights. Braking wasn't even that much of a problem, despite the fact I am on a totally stock system. Despite coming in with smoke pouring off them after every 20 lap run, they held up just fine the entire day, and the evening drive back as well. Ross made a hasty switch to the Bilstein setup after the first lapping session. Esumi and Ross worked feverishly to make the next session as they installed the suspension front and rear, along with bleeding the braking system and re-setting the boost levels. It proved to be a "chalk and cheese" difference on the track for Ross, and he started shedding time off of his laps as he got used to the setup. We even managed to race against each other for some laps, and despite pressuring him into a spin, he still thoroughly whipped me in lap times with over a second advantage by the end of the day. While I had the edge on acceleration, his 2000lb roadster with 205 series RE-01R's was able to carry much more speed through the corners. Other entrants fared well, with only a few dramatic crashes. One STi went into the wall next to the chicane nose first, with a bit of body damage to the fender and a lot of damage to the drivers pride. A Honda Integra Type R took out one side on the wall. I hesitate to say this, but I think it was because I had passed him and he was trying to keep up. And one of the R34 Skylines managed to toast a turbocharger on the track, but he was able to limp in under power. Now naturally aspirated power. The fastest car of the day proved to be the very track-oriented R32 Skyline GT-R, followed by a similarly prepped yellow RX7 twin turbo. Ross ended up 10th of the day, not bad for his old Roadster on street tires. In fact, the time margin between his spot and first was around 1.5 seconds, so a switch to S tires would have had him competing for top honors. As the laps piled up, I flaked more and more rust off my driving. The third session dawned with a semblence of driving skill making an appearance as I ran the entire 20 minutes within 38.3 to 37.8 laps. I saved the evil driver within for the the very last run of the day, throwing out all restraint. I pulled a 37.4 second run out of my posterior, securing 2nd place in my class, and dominating the entire list of Legacy entrants, plus over half the rest of the field. Still, no S rubber, no win. |
