hey harper!

i was instructing with the Riesentoter PCA this last weekend; friday, saturday, and sunday. we were at Pocono North course; we ran counterclockwise on friday, and clockwise on sat and sun.....

it was supposed to rain all three days, and be cold, to boot (in the 40s-50s). instead of freezing my ass off in my probe or honda, i decided to take the my "nice" street car; a 2003 Mitsu EVO. my EVO has about 41k miles on it; stock everything, except for a used downpipe, a custom home made exhaust (no muffs or cat). a set of used HKS 264 cams, and a nice tune. no boost controller; running stock boost. i aligned the car myself, and put in as much camber up front as it would take. running Yokohama tires, and slapped a fresh set of "duralast gold" $40 guaranteed for life brakepads! i'm also running a ReidSpeed water injection system; not really for power (boost is stock) but for reliablity.

so, get there friday morning, and of course, it is dry. no rain!!!! cool, and windy, but dry dry dry. car is running really well; zero zero problems, with the exception of TONS of white smoke billowing out of the front wheels -- to the extent that i had folks rushing to me as i came off the track, to report that i had blown my engine! LOL! i had to manage the brakes; they would just get so hot, and overheat the pads; the fade became a bit less, after several rungroups (binding agents burning off), but they shuddered like a mofo when they got really hot. and there was not enough brake torque to get into ABS. a bit frustrating, when dealing with the Red group (Instructors and racers; the top dawg rungroup). i pretty much was the only real stock street car running in the Red group; stock tires, suspension, brakes, seats, belts, with very mild power enhancement. i timed a few laps in the clockwise direction; was running mid to high 1:00.xx laps. that equated to about midpack in the Red group.......

and then? on sunday? it Fing rained!!!!!!!! :rofl: and i mean it POURED. man, i couldn't get the car up on the grid fast enough!!!! LOL!!! and almost all those pussies stayed in the garage! and holy cow!!! even on worn down (maybe 4/32 left; way below wearbars) tires, i FLEW! i mean, the car just FLEW down the track! so so so easy to control, as compared to my Probe or Civic; amazingly easy to point, and adjust its attitude. i felt like superman! there was an H4 Integra there; and i lapped him 3 times in 20 minutes! the next fastest car to me was a WRX; i was just getting close to lapping him, near the end (and i had a passenger; a BIG dude; an instructor friend of mine (C6 Z06 driver). he was white as a sheet, most of the time. and didnt say much! LOL! the EVO was super fast, but was slipping and moving and drifting, very much. more than when i run the probe or civic hard. but it was so nice and easy to control!!!!! man, i wish i could throw a cage in that car and race it!!!! its too nice, though!!!!

after that rungroup, i came in and dropped dwight off; and picked up a fellow NASA racer (steve hoagland - drives a NASTY FAST SR20 turbo 240SX). he had asked for a ride, and how could i say "no"? lol! we had a blast, tearing up the track; i used up 2/3 a tank of gas!!! i'm telling you, the car freaking FLEW! i can't even imagine what it would be like with wet racing tires on it!!!!!!! holy shit!!!!

i was running so hard, that i overheated the brakes, in the rain!!!! LOL!!!!

we came in; i packed up (took like 10 mins! wow, what a diff from a normal race weekend with the truck and trailer!). hopped in the car, and drove home in comfort, smiling, 27 mpg, at 85 mph!!!!

that car made me so happy this weekend; it was worth every penny; times about 3!!! lol!!!

see you guys at h-fest!!!

todd
driver of the 'Stien (and sometimes a street EVO!)

Gotta give credit when it's due. Todd is amazing in the wet. I felt fortunate to have gone on the ride with him. I was on a few rides last weekend and on most of them I left feeling happy but not overly impressed. In most of the cases I can do what the drivers were doing and in many cases do it better. I would smoke most of my friends in their own cars.

Todd is in a different league. When I was in the car I was saying to myself, "I probably can't do this". Thanks for the ride Todd!! It was awesome!!

zero zero problems, with the exception of TONS of white smoke billowing out of the front wheels -- to the extent that i had folks rushing to me as i came off the track, to report that i had blown my engine! LOL! i had to manage the brakes; they would just get so hot, and overheat the pads;
Yeah, my friend ran his EVO at the Vegas track event I blew up at. He got the brakes so hot the red Brembo paint on the calipers turned a nasty brown. Nice. :D

lol! we had a blast, tearing up the track; i used up 2/3 a tank of gas!!!
So, you used about 2 gallons then? :D

Todd is in a different league. When I was in the car I was saying to myself, "I probably can't do this". Thanks for the ride Todd!! It was awesome!!

hey, thanks steve!!!!!!!!

you were happy, and talkative during the ridealong; dwight turned white as a sheet, and didnt say much!!!! LOL!!!

afterwards, he told me he was hoping that he would be alive to go to work on monday! super LOL!!!!

thanks for the compliments, and you are welcome anytime to go for a ridealong!!!

todd

PS your dad was super cool on his ridealong, too (in the 'drift or die' car). he seemed very cool, calm and collected! i had a good time, too!!!!!!!! see ya at hfest, real soon!