[fishtail]

spent the day at Shannonwille Raceway today and tracked my completely stock IS300 on the FABI course - it was my first track experience and it was awesome... totally dead now, but will provide more info to those who are interested....

Fabi track = 2.25km - (all speeds refer to my IS300 speeds) - top speed in the main straight was about 150-160km/hr(95-100mph?)... main straight leads to a high speed sweeping right (80-90km/h) with ends rather abruptly in a very tight hairpin right (30-40km/h) then to sweeping left (80km/h) which if done properly leads beautifully into a double apex left (70km/h) then to slight bend right to a fast sweeping right (70-80km/h) then a hard left (40-50km/h) which ends with the second hairpin which leads into the main straight - (note times are approximations as i've was too busy watching the road most of the time and spent little time on the speedo)....

anyhow, if you have any questions ask away.. and i'll respond asap...(sometime tomorrow...)

if anyone has the opp. to track their car, do not hesitate... it is indescribably fun!

 

[TRD 300]

Hey I was trying to go yesterday too, but i struggled for the long two hours trip to get to the track, so finally i did not go...

What is your impression of your car on the track, what is your best lap time?

I was in the Full track like two weeks b4, but i can't get used to my new FR, oversteer a lot, esaecially at the last hari pin before the main straight. So i did not do really well on that day, for suspension mod, i've got TEIN HA and the TRD sway, with stock tires, how about u?? Are yours IS in grey colour??

 

[fishtail]

after driving the IS300 on the track i've come to realize that the car has more power then I know how to handle smoothly...

about Shannonville... the brakes held up great... very little fade - (started to feel a bit of fade after about 10 straight laps... but i didn't replace the brake fluid for hi temp stuff because the Fabi track
doesn't need alot of HARD braking if you're decently smooth - transitions between corners are not brake intensive)...the tires didn't hold up as well as the stock suspension allows for much too much body roll resulting in high levels of lateral stress on the tires which resulted in excessive wear on the outer edge of the tires (when cornering really hard)... having
said that i didn't destroy my tires...(probably took 2-3 months of wear
off of them in a day)...

the IS300 is not a good track car - the stock suspension is way way too
soft... I think that a IS300 with the Tein HA should be much better... but the car is still on the heavy side... having said that the brakes make up for alot... i found that I was able to brake much later then most of the other cars (even-though they were considerably lighter - 2600-3000lbs vs. 34-3500lbs)... i drove with traction control
off most of the day (turned it on when it started to rain - it works really well, but kicks in too early!!!)... i think it is worthwhile for everyone to take their cars to the track and learn where the limits of
their cars are... however, be careful who you go with and who you drive
with...

 

[Young]

Realize that with the automatic transmission you can brake much later than almost anyone in a manual transmission car. The guys with stick have to worry about braking AND downshifting.

They say automatic is a disadvantage at the track, but for a beginner it's actually a good advantage. It's one less thing to worry about, and you'll outbrake everyone with a stick.

By the way, unless it's raining, you should turn traction control off. Otherwise, you really can't learn how to control a car at the limit yourself.

[ May 15, 2001: Message edited by: Young ]