| Orange Crush 1LE |
07-24-2013 12:11 AM |
1LE Maiden Track Voyage
4 Attachment(s)
If any of you are thinking about tracking your 1LE and haven't yet, just do it! This car absolutely defies it's weight and horsepower, you would swear it was a super-sized Miata with titanium balls the way it stays planted around the track! So easy to drive at it's limits, very predictable, inspiring confidence.
I took it for a track weekend at Thunderhill Raceway in NorCal. The car was barely broken in, no plates yet! Prior to tracking it, I had a track alignment done with -2.0 degrees front camber, -1.1 rear, and a high temp brake fluid flush. Other than that, this 1LE is bone stock (for now :biggrin:).
Although I had a little experience tracking and took the Ron Fellows ZR1 school, this was the first time I had tracked the 1LE, and also first time at Thunderhill. So I was a little anxious, wondering how hard I should push it. Once I learned the track, I felt immediately comfortable carving the corners. A friend of mine came with me that is an instructor. After riding with him and then him riding with me and helping me figure out the line, we both went solo. I started in the intermediate group, and by the end of the first day moved into the advanced group. There were several Boss 302 Mustangs, some with R compound tires and slicks. Other than the one in the third photo, I was able to pass them. That black Laguna Seca was wicked fast. He was also pulling away on the straights, clearly modified. I have a plan on how to even the playing field, but more on that later in another thread. But even stock, I'm telling you, this 1LE can hang with some pretty fast cars.
Once in the advanced group, the speeds of the cars were quite a bit higher but this Camaro held its own. I passed a GT40, a number of Porsches, and a few cars on slicks. These Goodyears stick like glue, I can only imagine what this will be like when I get some R compound tires. The last picture is the Cyclone, which is Thunderhill's version of Laguna Seca's corkscrew. Most of the faster cars were fairly even, with the exception of that yellow beast closing on me fast in the last picture. That's a Ferrari 458 Challenge running slicks. Far from street legal and brutally fast. There was also a brand new Z06/Z07 with Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, he and the Ferrari were in a league of their own. I was impressed with how the showroom stock Corvette with lesser tires could stay with the race-prepped Ferrari on slicks! I'd wave them by, then enjoy trying to keep up for the 30 seconds or so that they were in my sight, LOL.
The weekend was eventful, including an S2000 that spun right in front of a new Audi TT RS. They crashed hard and came off the track on tow trucks. Luckily no one was hurt. The Audi owner had purchased track day insurance, thank goodness. Something I plan on looking into as well.
If you look at the first picture, you can see that I'm bracing myself in the corners with my arm because the stock seats are not up to the task of hard cornering. My friend was giving me a hard time, because I was often driving 1-handed due to this. I didn't even realize it. The stock seats are very comfortable around town, but I think Chevy was wise by offering Recaros in 2014 models for such a track-focused model. I will be upgrading my seats soon.
Although it's stout and nicely geared with the 3.91 rear end, many of the cars I ran with were modified and would pull away from me in the straights. I think I'd like to give it a HP bump. Other than that, this thing is just a beast on the track. The 1LE is the bargain of the century, I still cannot believe that you can have this much fun and get slot-car performance for a $3500 adder. I will be tracking it 4 more times before I return to Ron Fellows school for Level 2 in October.
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