Wow.... do I suck!
I thought I knew how to drive
This was a school.... not an actual competition. Good thing, 'cause I needed schoolin'.
Learned some great things about the car today. The 205/60-13 Sumitomo HTRs are trustworthy. I really let them have it, today.
Aired the fronts up to between 40-45 psi.
The rears got 40.
I wasn't sure about the gearing of the T-50 tranny and the rear gear so I was unsure about what gear I should have been in. Decided to run it in first for the first three runs. The first run was sort of an exploritory run just to see what the car would do. Hardly used the brakes at all while in 1st.
First
uninstructed run was 58.xxx seconds.
Second was 52.xxx seconds.
Third was 49.xxx seconds.
During the instruction runs... I decided to use 2nd gear..... the instructors gave advice and pointers that helped in some areas but hurt in others...... I guess you gotta learn it in steps. The average
instructed runs were somewhere around 49 seconds.
A second instructor was used for the other set of intructed runs. These runs netted a best of high 47 seconds.
The last
uninstructed runs netted a best of mid 45 seconds..... the very last run of the day.
I dropped 4 seconds off my first average. I'm hooked.
The best time I saw was low 38 seconds. Lotus Elise and a Subaru STI and a turboed Miata. Man, do I suck!
OK.... enough about that crap.
The VEGA:
Basically stock 140 with 5-speed... I think the rear is a 2.9x ... definitely open diff.
The hardest part for me was steering.... the manual box required a LOT of steering. Very hard to shuffle steer at speed. Aggravated my old shoulder/elbow/arm injury. I eventually got it down, but it needs a quicker ratio box (my parts car has power steering).
The handling really surprised me........ very balanced. I never spun out.... not once. I did push wide a few times due to the novice braking and poor positioning but the car handled very well. Definitely needs better seating and restraints.
The braking was adequate for this course.... not used very aggressively..... just a little to set up for the sharpest turns by kicking the rear out a touch and powering through.... and then to stop.
The power... wow... the 140 works so much better in front of the manual than the power glide. I was able to get some wheel spin when cornering heavily... which resulted in wheel hop if I didn't let out of it or get straight. This helped to negate the cases when I overshot my apex and pushed wide. I actually could power the nose back around in most cases.... most.
Here's my take on the event:
-Look ahead. Don't concentrate on the turn at hand... look at the next set of cones... get set up for them now (this really helped my times).
-Brake early, power through.
-Brakes are used for more than stopping.
-Try to run the rear wheel over the base of the cone.... (hard to comprehend at first but it works).
-Slaloms are fun when you don't fight them.
I ate more cones during the slalom than anything.
I am hooked. I want to do this again and again and again.