Hello...
Well, I finally had a successful day at the track! Its been about two years
since I had a trouble free day racing my 67.5 2000. Most of you will
remember my off road excursion at Thunderhill Raceway which broke a wheel,
ripped an exhaust system out, trashed a steering box... etc. Then there was
the loss of brakes at Laguna Seca. And last but not least the loss of
compression in #1 cylinder which turned out to be a back valve seat.
Well, a new set of wheels and tires, suspension pieces, a brake master
cylinder, slave cylinders, pistons and calipers and a rebuilt cylinder
head... My Roadster kicked some serious "dust" at Sears Point Raceway.
Early in the day the track was slicker then ice. No exaggeration. I was on
the front straight in 3rd gear revving at 3400rpm and the rear wheels were
spinning. Thanks to the very foggy conditions of the Wine Country the track
stayed slick until about 10am. But by time my second run session started the
track was dry and the weather was a beautiful sunny 65 degrees. Awesome
dude...!
The car ran wonderful with power all the way up to 7000rpm in 3rd gear. That
was good for about 95mph. A shift into fourth gave me about 110 before I had
to brake and dump it into 2nd gear. Sears Point is a great track that isn't
an all-out high horsepower course like Laguna Seca. S.P. has lots of esses
and medium long straights. (Was able to take advantage of the new 3.90
rearend) Brake fade was predicable but the Roadster was always very
stoppable. The tires were awesome! As Dan Rather might say, "... they stuck
to the track like chewing gum to a hot N.Y.City sidewalk". I highly
recommend the Yoko A032R's.
The best part of the day was of course the other cars. Oh... let correct
that statement. Passing the other cars. Forget about the hi-po Mini Cooper.
He was in my dust easily. I rode the bumpers of late model Porsches, BMW's,
Integras, Vipors... and even a Ferrari 960. All of which I evenually caught
up to and passed. Yes, even the Year 2000 960! They were all not to pleased
to see a Fairlady riding their bumper from turn to turn only to pull away for
alittle while when they had a straight. Eventually they were flagged to let
me pass and once I did I waved, "Thanks", (actually it was more of a
sarcastic thanks) and pulled away. They got to see the rear of my car and
video camera disappear at the next set of curves! Yes! It is all on video!
Of course there were the cars that did show me a thing about modern
equipment. I think the fastest cars were the well driven Miatas. Yeah...
they are great cars when prepped correctly. In stock form...? See ya!
Of course all of those high power cars would easily blow me away with a good
driver. But it is sure fun to smash their "high dollar" ego into the
asphalt. But for that particular day my Fairlady had bigger "rocks" then
those exotic racers.
Thanks again to Dave Pina and son of the Roadster List for coming along to
check out the racing and photgraph me at speed. Also thanks to Sony for the
great video footage! ;>) I hope that others will be able to join me in 2001.
Michael "Calspeed" Carion
67.5 SRL311-000248 Solex
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