Well Silvy, you missed one HELL of a day! (REPOST) (archive)

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IF ONLY I hadn't procrastinated so long, that I HAD to stay up without sleep Saturday night to GET to this event early enough (6AM) to make sure I got in! Otherwise, if more alert, I might have gotten into the 1:23's! That and if I hadn't blew my official timed runs in that damn pyloned skid pad area! All day long, I took it nicely, but on the official runs, PLOW! I also have to say, in my defense, that I had never been on SOW till today, so I didn't even know the course layout.

But OH WHAT A DAY IT WAS!!!!!!!!!! Hot, and dusty, but PLENTY of track time. And the POC uses transponders, so ALL your laps are timed. But the trouble was, there were some laps where you had to slow down untill you could pass, and my first runs were in the 2nd fastest group, where it was I in a lowly Z that had to let ALL of them (race prepped 911's) pass :) But after that, I asked to be dropped one group, and from then on it was A BLAST!!!!

For near 15 minutes I was in a nose to tail duel with two 911's and one of the S2000's! And together, all FOUR of us passed a number of other 911's! On the straights the two 911's had me, so I let them pass, but in the turns I was RIGHT ON THEIR ASS! Suddenly, they let the S2000 on the track right in front of us, and away we went! The S2000 had just enough grunt on the straight to pull me ONLY A TINY BIT(!!!!) so I could not pass him, but again in the turns I was right on him! But the setup of the track with a ton of pylons in the kidpad area was VERY dangerous for what we were doing (decreasing radius that nobody ever seemed to get just right) - all it would have taken was one of the leaders to loose it (and some in other groups DID there), and all 4 of us would have been taken out. So I let off and gave them room. but then that was too much room that I could not gain back as we all seemd to be about even. But when I got off the track after that one, I had the biggest shit eating grin EVER!

But a number of things did happen to my Z! The ABS system went bonkers on one lap, then the DSC SEEMED to kickin, even though it was off! But the WORST thing was that a NUMBER of times, my tranny went to MUSH! I could absolutely NOT find any gear! It was like the gates just plain disappeared! I really want to look into getting some different bushings for that! Cause that caused me a number of problems, specially when a 911 was on MY tail and I could NOT shift for the life of me!

As for the track, it was AWESOME, but just like Pahrump, its a TIRE and BRAKE EATER! And it shure as hell wears out the driver in the heat as well! but it is also one hell of a challenging course! The BFG KD's held up pretty good, and boy did they STICK! Even had gumballs on them like an "R" tire when I got off the course, and my fingers damn near stuck to the tread!

And the handling of my Z???? Absolutely AWESOME! With te front bar at medium, the front shocks at full firm, the rears still at 3/4's firm, the front tires at 50 and the rears at 40, the car just went where I pointed it! And in some of the tight turns, specially this one hairpin near the skidpad area, the back end came around PERFECTLY and helped me get pointed in the right line for the next turn! I just can' put into words how that felt, but it was just amazing!

Now as for Robert and his AMAZING Boxster S - EAT YOUR WORDS XXXXX about ANY Boxster!!!!!! These cars ARE KILLER! The regular ones did very well, but Robert (and his COOL BioHazzard tape on his headlights - perhaps that FRIGHTENED all the competitors out of his way???) in his S was FAST! Just look at his times! He was doing 1:19 laps, and FULL RACE 911's were doing around 1:16!

And GET THIS! Robert says that my Z3 Coupe 2.8 is comparable to the JS class cars in POC. The LAP RECORD in JS is 1:24.08! And I got a 1:24.8 and a 1:24.9 as my best runs, and my FIRST TIME EVER at this track! Now if I had enough sleep and could have gotten a high 1:23 - WOW!

Now, the FUN I had at this event with Robert and the other Boxster, as WELL as the 911/914/924/944 guys PROVES that P and B folks CAN get along quite well! These folks were some of the best I have met, and are open and friendly in all ways, and go out of their way to help even an outsider! I now have a NEW family added!

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