08/20/03 BMW track day at PIR. Decided to run the Elise this time. Weather was perfect for it, and just felt like the right car for the occasion. The Elise did get a brief outing at the last track day to stretch its legs, but needed a full day before the track season is over. And that it got - full 120 miles at speed. For the most part I treated this day as instructor duty and gave rides to a few people to give them an idea of what the car is like. The tires are going away and will need to be replaced this winter. A few slightly-sideways moments due to that but nothing to alter the heart rate. Quite predictable and benign - and entertaining for the passengers :) I either failed to charge my camcorder battery or something is wrong with it - but either way I got no video today and no lap times. My eyeball timer tells me I was running low 1:30's but nothing too spectacular. Ah well, it was fun just the same (thanks to Michele for the photo).

The high performance group consisted almost entirely of Porsches, both old and new, save for a lone Z06 Corvette (which I passed even with a passenger onboard) and myself.

The vintage guys, while cool to see, did cause some issues with a spin in one of the sessions bringing it to a halt and a 55 mph parade for one of them in the novice sessions (where I was instructing). The same car car with a different driver was moving a lot faster (though not fast) in HP session, so it wasn't the car's fault. I can understand being careful and all, but that pace was pretty ridiculous. In later sessions they even allowed passing on the back straight for novices due to that car.

In the last session of the day I got to follow a Ford RS200 Group B car for a while - until we both got black-flagged for passing 3 abreast :) I guess we were having too much fun. On pavement the Elise is a faster car but the RS driver is better than I am so we ended up being reasonably well matched. The RS seems to be quite a handful on the track - I could see him counter-steering in nearly every turn.

All in all, a very rewarding day. The Elise really could benefit from a suspension upgrade, of course (the tires scrape on bodywork in turns with a passenger onboard), and will need new tires. Also I had to put in 1.5 quarts of oil after just 600 track miles since last oil change. Something there is not quite right... Time to start making a winter maintenance list.

09/22/03 Drove the Elise a bit yesterday, cleaned it up a little, then today drove it out to drop by at the Viper track day. They don't let non-Viper guys run but I know a few of the people who have them. Also, I was told the Enzo would be there and I wanted to see it run and maybe bum a ride. Sure enough, it was there...

And yes, I did get a ride (6M video). FUN :) The car is extremely powerful and surprisingly civilized. The F40 is very raw in comparison, and the F50 is somewhere in between (I've also ridden in both of those on the track). On the track the Enzo is somewhat hampered by its street tires, and in the video you can see he gets it a bit sideways in a couple of corners (no, I don't mean the bit of fun at the start ;). Also, understandably, he didn't push it TOO hard. A very cool experience. But somehow on the way home in the Elise I didn't feel jealous at all... Yes, the 'lis is nowhere near as refined and impressive, but it is very fun nevertheless and on the track is basically just as fast in the real world (which has to do with willingness to push the limits).

02/18/04 Finally got the new Yoko 048 tires out of my livingroom and onto the Elise. Last week I took the 'Lis out to stretch her legs when the weather was nice and was reminded that the old 038 tires had become rock-hard after two years and ten track days. So my original plan of running one more track day on those was scrapped and I decided to put the new rubber on now.

A couple of days ago I had put the 'street' wheels on the car and swapped the 038s for 048s. Today, seeing a break in the rain I decided to put the new 'race' set on. Of course just as I rolled the car out of the garage to change the wheels it started to rain again. Oh well, it needed a wash anyway. So the new rubber is now on, the Elise is clean and shiny and the Alfa track day is less than three weeks away. Hope the weather cooperates - otherwise the Mini will get to run that one. I'm eager to see how the 048s perform. They are not really available in S1 Elise sizes yet, this is a somewhat 'experimental' set - it helps to have connections ;)

03/02/04 Took the Elise out today for a quick warm-up and to get an initial impression of the new 048 tires. The new rubber is pretty cool. First thing I noticed is that the steering is a LOT lighter than with 038s. This is mostly due to the really rounded profile, which combined with the massive camber I'm running puts only a portion of the tread on the road. Even with that on my favorite twisty road they stuck really well. Being brand new Ididn't push the tires too hard but soon found myself going at speeds higher than what would have had the old heat-hardened 038s stepping out. This didn't even stress the new tires enough to scrub the rounded shoulders in, leaving about 2" of virgin rubber on the sides. I used 24 psi all around.

It will be interesting to see how they do on the track and I hope to find out on the 13th if it doesn't rain. Also depending on how the tires work once pushed I may back off the camber a bit. Next on the agenda are new sparkplugs, new oil/filter, cleaning of air filter and a no-rain dance directed at PIR weather gods.

With the Elise sitting next to the Mini I couldn't resist some gratuitous pics...

03/13/04 Alfa track day at PIR, the first of the new season. The weather thankfully cooperated and so the Elise got to break in its new shoes. In the first session the 048s were a bit iffy because it was cold and the tires never came up to temperature. The second one went a lot better once the rubber warmed up. I really like these tires. A definite improvement over the old 038s. One thing I might do is take out some of the negative camber that the old tires needed. The new ones don't seem to want it. I didn't get any lap times but the car is noticeably more fun now.

As always, a bunch of neat machinery was in attendance, from Alfas to FIATs...

The Elise ran great in the three morning sessions but in the last one I noticed the battery warning light flickering on at high RPM. It would be off below 3,500 then start to flicker above that, becoming nearly solid towards redline. So choosing to err on the safe side I took the Elise home over lunch and got the Westie for the rest of the day. Just as well. All in all it turned out to be a very enjoyable day. Now I need to diagnose and fix the electron plumbing....