George’s Praga R1: Faith Over Fear

Over the last twenty years, George Kibilov’s been able to sample a wide range of popular sports cars and master a few. From his old twin-turbo 300ZX, to Spec Miatas, to a Cayman GT4, and most recently, an ST4 E46 M3, he’s been able to experience most of all that the modern track-tuned production car can offer.

George getting acquainted with the car during his first test at Atlanta Motorsports Park.

There was still one big unchecked box, though: the single-purpose thoroughbred racing car. The sort of performance a car built only to turn laps offers a level of directness and a sense of occasion that production cars, no matter how well-tuned, will struggle to match. The thoroughbred experience, however, isn’t always a pleasant one.

The Praga R1 is an English racing prototype designed to be straightforward, easily maintained, and provide a level of downforce most track rats aren’t familiar with. It was that last trait which George warmed to over time.

“I did not fall in love with it until I drove it the third time, at Laguna, when I started to explore downforce and getting sub-1:30 times. After the second session was over, I realized I did not want to get out of the car. I was addicted.”

Downforce from a “downforce car” is an incredible thing, but it forces the driver to work fairly hard before they’re comfortable using it. Building that trust is not something that’s easy for someone used to heavier cars that are dependent primarily on their mechanical grip to stick.

The range of adjustability isn’t that wide in regards to the aero kit — just a couple rear wing settings to pick and that’s it.

With a car that’s been built around its aerodynamic package like the Praga, it challenges the driver’s trust at the absolute limit. Its diffuser, front tunnels, skirts, weight, tires, and carbon monocoque give it the sort of precision that forces a driver to recalibrate their mind and question their self-preservation instinct. The faster you go, the more grip it provides (to a point).

While that may sound encouraging, it presents a new challenges that are harder to truly enjoy — at least initially. Committing to the turn-in points, trusting the balance in fast corners, and driving up to a limit that increases exponentially are mentally draining processes which ramp up the pucker factor at a similar rate.

The motor is built by the specialist racing division at Alpine Renault, and honed with bespoke engineered Praga parts for increased driveability, power, and torque. In race trim, the 2.0-liter Renault four-cylinder with a moderately sized turbo produces between 290 and 365 horsepower, though a qualifying map will bump power to 395 for one hot lap. Crucially, its 302 lb-ft produced between 3,750 and 6,900 rpm make it much easier to stroke along than some of its bike-powered rivals.

That’s production-based motor fits one of the Praga’s main design aims: easy operation. As exotic as the car looks, it’s been designed to operate without the assistance of a team of engineers. Parts are easy to come by, and their US base in Atlanta is receptive, apparently.

The inboard pushrod suspension comes with Koni two-way adjustable coilovers.

The Hewland JFR six-speed transmission is not quite PDK-precise, but it does shift smoothly enough during downchanges — it does not lock the driven wheels under braking — though its upshifts are violent. It’s designed for easy ratio changes without having to remove the gearbox from underneath the car. A clutch pedal is provided to leave from a standstill and put the car into reverse, but once up to speed, all that’s needed to shift is a pull of the paddle.

Furthermore, this particular car, being the fifth iteration of the Praga R1, most of the major kinks have been ironed out. It’s no longer as sensitive to adjustments in ride height, the steering box has been revised, and the uprights as well as the swaybars have been lightened to provide more direct feedback.

The interior is cramped; pushing a driver with an acute sense of claustrophobia to get out as fast as they can get in. George was one of these drivers, though he found the feeling of being squeezed began to fade after a few laps. “The experience is so immersive it’s hard to not feel energized by the vibrations, the smells, and the sounds. You never forget the vibrations. I can’t even rest my head on the rear bulkhead because it blurs my vision. You get so immersed in it, after a session or two, you’re able to tune out some of that violence,” he explained.

“What’s more concerning is the way it feels like it’s going to break in half when you hit the compression at (Laguna Seca’s) Turn 6. I Had to be reassured by the rep there that day that all those noises there were normal.”

All that discomfort is for a reason. Sharp and surefooted, the car can’t be described as lazy, or as George likes to describe his M3, relaxed. Even so, he wanted more, and so he stiffened the Praga’s rear bar for a little more urgency. A car this sharp must be softened slightly from factory to keep it from rotating like a top at the smallest mistake. This minor tweak provided him with the pointiness he was after. Though thrilling, this presented him with another challenge; the pointier a car gets, the more it drains the driver. “Compared to a GT3 or something like that, the turn-in point arrives about 10% faster. It really provides a kart-like feeling,” he added.

At just 1,500 pounds, it’s very much a full-sized car, but it’s still only two-thirds of a Spec Miata. That fact is never as obvious when spinning, as a firm press of the brakes brings the Praga to an immediate halt. “If I’d spun my M3 in the same corner, I probably would’ve hit the wall.”

As is to be expected with such a sharp-nosed machine, there’s still some left on the table, which George’s happy to admit. When he gets more accustomed to the way the grip builds, he believes he’ll have the confidence to push. “I’ve acclimated to the direction change and it doesn’t feel as dramatic or spiky anymore; I’ve gotten to be able to anticipate it’s movements. If you listen, it does communicate.”

“After driving all kinds of cars from Spec Miata to Ferrari Challenge, nothing even comes close to the feeling of driving the R1. It really is a marvel of engineering.”

But the challenge of reaching the limit is still daunting, as a mistake at the speeds its capable of might well result in a big one. In the event of a major shunt, he’ll be well protected; the Praga’s crash safety is stellar; its bespoke honeycomb carbon fibre monocoque, carbon/Kevlar strengthened flooring, front and rear crash boxes, and side mounted crumple zones will surely keep him safe.

“Unlike my M3, it’s never calming to drive the Praga. The speeds are so high, it’s just a bit scary. You can get into a rhythm pretty fast, actually, but I’m still not 100% confident in it yet. It might need some faith on my part,” he laughed.

That’s fine. After just two weekends at Laguna Seca, he’s already lapped the track in 1:25. Without a doubt, the svelte sports racer hugely capable; even able to chase down a normally-aspirated Radical SR8 which has the legs on it in the straights, but the Praga’s torque makes up for whatever horsepower it lacks in the infield.

“I’m still exploring the limits. I know there is so much more to gain, but driving the car is anti-intuitive at the limit, meaning that you have to slow down much less for the fast corners than what I’ve been used to in 25 years of track driving. Learning to trust the brakes and not overslow the car is not easy. The more you give it, the more it gives you. That’s not something that’s easy to understand.”

Brandon’s Alfa 4C: Inconspicuous Exotic

Brandon Hitchman’s car collection runs the gamut. His affinity for motor vehicles and an innate ability to wrench prompted him to become a buyer and seller even before he got his license. In those formative years, his business dealings put him in touch with some folks who could help him realize some of his racing ambitions.

After linking up with a vintage racer in his hometown, Brandon began attending track days with said racer, who was kind enough to lend him the keys to their Shelby GT350 race car. The two went on to try vintage racing, and from there on, Brandon’s life revolved around racing and fixing cars of different genres, makes, and vintages.

“I always had a soft spot for Italian cars. My first car was an Alfa ‘74 Spyder, actually. I took a break from the Italian stuff to go through my muscle car phase and raise a family, and once the kids were out of the house, I was given a chance to reunite with my past — the 4C was released. The timing couldn’t have been better, really,” he recalled.

Thrilled at the idea of a mid-engine Italian exotic without the price or the attention, he had to start looking at buying one for himself. At the time he was racing Spec Miata, but Brandon was then in his late forties and unsure whether wheel to wheel held any allure for him anymore. “If I’m being honest, I wasn’t the type to ever red mist it. A lot of guys are willing to put it on the line, and I couldn’t see the sense in it any longer,” he admitted.

“I also enjoy the build process, and spec racing does not allow for much creativity. That’s when the idea of doing time trials came along. Let’s be honest: time trials in a Spec Miata aren't that exciting,” he declared. So, he considered his options. He’d already been through his Porsche phase and had grown to find them a little anodyne, and though the newest Supra was a performance bargain he couldn’t deny, he wanted to take a less-traveled path.

So he bought a 4C and was immediately delighted. The turbo response, the theater, the sense of occasion, the shape, and the interior were all wonderful. “It smelled exactly the same as my old Spyder inside — that took me back thirty years,” he said.

Soon after, he began tracking it. The stability of the suspension, the destabilizing shove of the turbo motor, and some of the ergonomics proved themselves less than track-worthy. A pretty performance car, sure, but not exactly one meant to turn fast laps consistently. “I loved its looks, but it comes with a small assortment of problems which keep it from being as functional as I wanted it to be.”

The factory seats are beautiful, gorgeous Sabelts, but they offer the support of a bench seat in a 1980s Bronco,” he began. In their place, he installed a set of seats typically used in another pint-sized machine, the Tillet B5s as used in the Lotus Elise.

Visibility is good, width is good, though for Brandon, whose ape index is quite high, the fore and aft are not great.

Though the aftermarket for this car is somewhat limited, there are a few dedicated advocates who’ve seen the shortcomings in the 4C and made the necessary improvements available for a premium price. Closer inspection reveals a tightly-packed MacPherson rear arrangement — one of the compromises made to make a carbon-tubbed car priced at $80,000.

“It didn’t have the stability to handle the change under load — the dynamic toe-out under braking was an issue,” he added.

Rudi Gale of Gale Motorsports is a Slovenian who dedicates himself to hill climbing and racing his 4C. Though his car doesn’t boast much in the way of power mods, its suspension issues have been addressed, and Brandon followed suit. “I’ve pretty much copied Rudi’s setup because it’s proven and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. I bought his rear control arms and then his front control arms, which both feature a spherical bearing setup and are much stronger. They also use the same factory attachment points.Now the quality of the rear is more aligned with the dual wishbone front suspension.

Then he installed a set of GMS swaybars specced to run with the Nitron coilovers and the arms, then corner balanced it. “I just started buying more and more suspension stuff — pretty soon it snowballed,” he recalled.

It was in dire need of an aggressive alignment. “The car has no power steering from the factory, but it also has no caster. I think probably Alfa’s engineers wanted it to be this raw sports car, but one of the marketing guys mentioned, “The average buyer of this car is in their fifties, and not many will be able to turn it.” The lack of caster didn’t help the steering self-center, toe-out made it wander.

With all those items addressed, he no longer had to constantly work the brake and the throttle to balance the car. “Everything was well integrated; the damping and the spring rates made it very driveable. It could handle curbs, has a pointy front and a stable rear to complement it.

Now comfortable with the car and pushing harder, Brandon found the 4C would snake slightly under hard braking. Fortunately, Rudi bought a carbon fiber decklid and a wing specifically for the 4C at just that moment — the timing couldn’t have been better.

Of course, this shifted the balance rearwards; forcing him to trail brake more. As luck would have it, Rudi had just released his own 3” splitter to even the aero balance.

The footwork sorted, he shifted his focus to the motor. The emphasis was not on bringing much more power into the picture, but making the stock powerplant more tractable and consistent. It had been heat soaking quite badly — even on the street. By installing a Scara 73 motorsports intercooler, he only experiences minor dropoff towards the end of a mid-summer session at Thunderhill Raceway Park.

“I’d like a little more aero in front with an open hood which the radiator could vent through. Currently, the hood is vented, but the factory radiator setup vents underneath the car,” he noted.

I started from the ground up trying to solve some of those issues. For such a low production car, I was amazed how much aftermarket support there is. Now, it’s not cheap, and I’m buying everything out of Europe — suspension parts from Slovenia and coilovers from England — but I was able to upgrade the car to solve the problems as I went. I tried to do it wisely; I didn’t just throw a bunch of upgrades at it hoping they’d solve my problems; I focused on one issue at a time.

Now, he’s mostly content learning to drive the car at its limits. It’s been rock-solid and repeatable, but traction is an issue, even with only 320 horsepower and 350 lb/ft of torque. “I’ve been struggling to put the power down, so I tried running a gear higher. I only use third and fourth at Thunderhill West, actually, and I short-shift a lot to keep it in the mid-range. I’m getting close to a 1:20 there but I’m still so late to throttle. I figure there has to be a second or so on the table just from that.

Looking back, I realize I could’ve bought a Supra, saved some time and money, and made it much faster than the 4C, but I wanted to do something a little different. No matter how many bits and bobs you throw at a regular car, they don’t make it special. I, for one, like improving a special car, one which nobody is doing much with, and taking it to the next level. Plus, it’s not a car that attracts the wrong kind of attention. I’ve owned Porsches and a Ferrari, and they tend to elicit a negative reaction. The Alfa doesn’t get much hate – no weird feelings at all.”

Sure, it’s got its quirks, but that’s what gives it its charm. The quirks and styling set it apart, and I did what I could to make it more functional. Most importantly, I’ve been able to make it mine and get something more out of it. I see a few good years ahead with this car.

Piers’ 240Z: From First Principles

Piers Hugh Smith recently took to mechanics through cafe racers — a consequence of lockdown boredom while living in London. Underneath his apartment complex, he began spending his spare hours rebuilding a classic motorcycle with the assistance of battery-powered lights and powertools as there were no outlets in the parking lot available to him.

“It was a 1970s Honda CB550 and it was a total wreck. I found it in a commercial waste site. I took the opportunity as a way to learn about rebuilding engines. It was just so simple and light — I could pick it up easily and install just about everything on my own.”

It also set the stage for his later projects by having a motor quite similar to a modern car’s. “Through some forum trawling and badgering a few friends over the phone, I learned my way around its carbureted inline-four and got it into a reasonable state. In fact, I commuted to work in London for about a year on it — a great bike for traffic that’s much smaller than modern bikes with similar displacement.”

Piers educated himself on the essentials of internal combustion and learn his way around an air-cooled four-stroke motor fairly quickly — thanks largely to his obsessive commitment to understanding the fundamentals, and the simple nature of a classic engine.

The smooth, swooping lines of a fastback had always spoken to him and his aesthetic tastes, which, after deciding to try his hand at restoring four-wheeled vehicles, made choosing the titular vehicle easy.

“I remember seeing a 240Z with the Pandem kit years ago while I was in school — it just blended the original curves of the car with something aggressive, but sympathetic to its basic shape. Plus, the fastback has great aftermarket support, so the combination of visual and practical appeal drove me towards modifying one myself.

This one came up for sale as an unfinished project. I was still in the UK at the time, where the car was, and the bodykit had been installed. The owner, a bodywork specialist, was asking a reasonable price since, mechanically speaking, it was a complete mess. The wiring was horrid, the interior was mostly MDF from the DIY store, and the mechanics were in poor state.

I got the car ambitiously; thinking it’d be a quick and easy finish, but it took a year and a half to get it sorted,” he admitted.

Over those eighteen months, he took to this car with the same fervor he had with his cafe racers. There was a plan, however — this was no flight of fancy.

Sympathetic Modernizing at a Reasonable Cost

“The whole idea was to learn how the chassis works and modernize it while preserving the original design intent and spending pragmatically on maximizing the driving experience. I thought about engine swapping the L24 with a BMW B58, but in the interest of preserving the soul of the car, I decided to keep the original engine and keep it carbureted, albeit with some modern updates to make it more usable.

It involved a full rebuild of the engine with partnership of Four Ways Engineering. It’s a basic performance setup with triple Weber DCOE40 carburetors, a bigger aluminum radiator, electric fans, a stainless straight-through exhaust, and a stainless intake. I haven’t yet dynoed it, but people with similar setups make around 180-190 to the wheels. I also converted it to electronic ignition and labored over the wiring by introducing common grounds and independent relays to ensure reliability, then I installed a newer and slightly taller diff from a later automatic 240SX to improve cruising manners and replace the tired original unit.”

The powerplant functional, Piers moved onto the chassis and its lengthy list of to-dos. “I wanted to modernize the handling, first by stiffening the body with some bracing, and then by welding BC BR coilovers to the original spindles and rear hubs.

“You buy a standard weld-in coilover that is the right size for the car, then you weld it to the original front spindle. It’s a generic fit,” he added.

Along with the new shocks, he turned to Silver Project, a Polish company specializing in 240Z suspension components builds, for their adjustable control arms and tension rods given the cost of securing US imported parts in the UK.

In keeping with the classic looks, he decided to updated the interior with some modest street buckets and an aluminum center console from Skillard, an Oregon-based aftermarket specialist, as well as a couple new powdercoated items to maintain a vintage period look inspired by aviation panels of the era.

The car has a weak point in its chassis stiffness; there is a lot to be gained by taking some load out of the original thin steel. Piers made up for this by introducing Apex Engineered triangulated strut braces in the front and rear.

Piers made the move across the Atlantic to San Francisco this January and brought his beloved Z with him, though it lagged behind by six months. Once he’d shipped and registered the car stateside, he made the next bolt move — to track the car. Last weekend’s event at Sonoma was a first for both him and the car he’d spent so long restoring.

A Day of Firsts

“While I didn’t build it for the track, I wanted it to be fun and capable. I drive it to work, to social events, and on backroads, too. I wanted versatility, mainly. That said, it was easy to see how testing the car on track could improve the product, ultimately.

The first day, it was flooding the cylinders with fuel at high revs on the main circuit, so I did a carb sync, changed the fuel ratio and jetting, and then went back out for the third session, where the car had much better power delivery and more predictable behavior. However, with the additional speed, I blew out the brake booster. In every other sense, the car performed really well considering its age as well as my experience as a builder.

Getting to run with my friends in modern cars demonstrated how these older cars are so much more analog; needing a thoughtful approach from the driver. I spent most of my time trying to preserve my momentum because there’s not much power, and it’s only available across a narrow powerband. I can’t just floor it; nothing happens. I need to listen to the car and plan ahead to make sure the car is ready for the next segment as it does not respond well to sudden changes in demand.

Now, through driving the car aggressively, I know that there’s an iterative list of improvements to make, particularly in the suspension and braking realm. It’s got too much dive, and it still has OEM brakes. There are cheap OEM disc-brake setups that bolt in fairly easily with some adapters. I might also add a five-speed box from the 240SX, another bolt-in item, then leave this car alone. It would sound good, stop well, and produce a reasonable amount of power. I think I would be very close to hitting my build objective of a stand out resto-mod which delivers a huge smile to the driver and passenger at a reasonable level of expense.

I’ve not yet spent much time on aero. Given the speed of the car, my goals for the build, and the marginal return of aero modifications, I do not think it offers the best bang for buck at this stage, but is undeniably important and something to consider later on.

The car’s sitting on much wider tires than standard: 9.5 in the front and 10.5 in the rear, and those might be slightly too wide for the power and stiffness. There need to be other changes in the package to support a footprint that size. This was a case of form getting in the way of function rather than sticking true to my original goal: for beauty in their harmony.

I can only say that I was really happy with the event. It was my first-ever track event. Having my friends there was great — to drive alongside them and to have their emotional support when I was spending time under the hood wondering why I didn’t just bring something fuel injected!”

This car, as beautiful and as expensive-looking as it is, was built primarily to teach Piers some of the intricacies of the chassis without costing him a fortune. “With this one, the obvious thing to do is to keep spending time on the setup; I made sure everything’s adjustable as there’s a lot to be learned through making the most of the car as it is before endless upgrades. As long as they worked well enough, I picked mid-tier parts to keep costs reasonable, too.

His second Z car, which he’s just started building, will be built to further his understanding of balancing performance, aesthetics, cost, and usability. “The chassis has already been seam welded and acid dipped with full length frame rails to make the thin monocoque frame a little bit stiffer. They’re not safe cars to begin with, and rather than engineer crumple zones, I will install a six-point cage with removable door braces. I believe that installing a cage is also the best way to stiffen the chassis. The next engine is still an original block, and the intention is to keep it naturally aspirated, but bored and stroked to get more modern levels of power.

There’s a company called Apex Engineering that does a very interesting double wishbone setup for the S30 Z cars in the front and rear. This would be an easy way to achieve more predictable suspension dynamics and a stiffer sub-frame style set up.

In the second car the goal is simple: to take a blank shell from first principles and combine it with what I learned in the first and use it to create a beautiful, analog, and enjoyable high performance sports car whilst staying true to the original design intent of the 240Z.

Now when I’m driving the car, I feel more confident given I understand the basics of how it works, and I think the education the car has given me has made me a more sympathetic driver. There remains a very long way to go, but understanding why the car behaves the way it does has really come from putting it together myself.

I spend most of my day behind a desk, so this is a great distraction from my normal day and focus on creating something immediately tangible — it has this incredibly different feeling to the rest of my time that it makes it easy to become hyper-meticulous. I keep lots of notes, so when I go down a rabbit hole on one dimension of the build, I don’t lose that learning when I actually come to implementation later on.

I remember my design teacher in high school giving me advice to sleep with a notebook on my bedside table for those wee-hour solutions — I’m glad I listened. I try to be pragmatic about what I do and don’t do, which is why I picked a readily available, well-developed car, and I try and focus on tackling areas of the build where I can be additive, rather than re-creating a solution just so I can say I did it from scratch. All of this I think maximizes learning rather than just bolting bits together.”

Bennet’s C8: Driver Mod Comes First

Bennet Kao learned quickly that the Tesla Model 3 was a capable track car with the right technique. By capitalizing on its strengths — surprisingly capable brakes and its torque and traction advantages — he could stop the car in a short distance, sacrifice the mid-corner, and prioritize a strong exit to lengthen any subsequent straight.

Good traction and a favorable weight distribution make the electric heavyweight a serious contender on the track, but it’s not without its issues. The problem is the Model 3 is only good for about two hot laps before it starts to limp. Since Bennet recognized that driving skill came before a long mod list, he prioritized seat time. Posting only eight to ten laps per track day didn’t exactly constitute time well spent, so he decided to make a change to a car which weighed less than two tons.

“I figured the gen-two BRZ was the perfect segue,” he recalled. “I wanted to learn to carry momentum and drive a manual, and since this was rear-drive, I wasn’t comfortable with having too much power at first.”

He sent his new toy to TDW Auto in San Jose for their advice and mechanical expertise; having them install a pair of Stoptech big brakes, Racecomp Tarmac 2 coilovers, and a set of Kumho V730s. With how playful the car was from factory, these were the only modifications they felt were necessary.

Transitioning into a lighter, nimbler, and less powerful car was not easy; after setting times at 2:02 at Buttonwillow 13CW and 1:27 at Thunderhill West, he had to ask himself what wasn’t working. Thankfully, he had a few friends with similar setups who offered him some help. Seigo Ma, another gen-two BRZ owner, offered Bennet his passenger seat and fielded a few questions.

“I tried to focus on the exit with the Tesla. I also braked pretty late and hard with the Tesla, but I couldn’t do that in the BRZ; it would just oversteer too much. I looked at Seigo’s data and realized he was braking a little softer and a little earlier, but released the brake earlier, carried more mid-corner speed, and got back to throttle earlier. His inputs were gentler. That way, he could keep the car settled more of the time.”

Following an adjustment period working at finding more rolling speed, he started feeling himself. “I never spun that car, and I spun everything else I’d owned. It is the most forgiving car I’ve owned — you could make coffee while you corrected the oversteer,” he joked.

He whittled his Buttonwillow 13CW time down to a 1:58 and felt pleased with himself. That glow lasted until, after two dozen track days in the BRZ, he lost fourth gear. That prompted him to start looking for a replacement. “I missed the mid-engine feeling of the Tesla, but I did not miss the weight.”

Browsing an auction site one Monday afternoon, he came across a C8 Corvette with a few enticing modifications. A Brembo BM6 big brake kit and a set of four–way KW V5 coilovers would make it possible to get back to track driving that much sooner. He placed a bid, crossed his fingers, then turned off his computer and picked up his kids from school.

The following morning, he learned he’d placed the winning bid.

At Buttonwillow a month later, he left his first DE in the C8 with mixed feelings. While the car had the directness that he’d been missing, it felt like it was going to kill him half the time. “There was so much weight in the rear and the spring rates were way too soft. I kinda hated it,” he admitted. Additionally, the power steering pump seemed to struggle in high-load corners. “Going into Riverside, the steering assistance would sometimes work intermittently. I guess the pump struggles with the forces there.” Lastly, the motor would pull some power once the intake temperatures reached 230 degrees. “I could get about five hot laps a session at full power that day, but it was pretty warm.

While it wasn’t a stellar shakedown, Bennet kept his head up by maintaining his driving-first approach to driving, he recognized that his technique, even more than his setup’s shortcomings, was to blame for his unsatisfying first track experience in the C8. “I studied a few YouTube videos from other mid or rear-engine drivers and made some changes. I began to understand that this layout was not as forgiving as an FR, which meant my steering rate had to be a lot slower, and I couldn’t trailbrake as assertively as I did with FR cars. It just needed to be balanced more delicately.”

Refining his inputs helped him dial in the turn in more consistently and, crucially, settle the rear end. After all, such an incisive front end was what he’d been longing for, and with the ability to put down power much earlier than the BRZ ever could, he began to love MR driving dynamics.

With his technique honed to his car’s liking, he looked to improve the suspension for track work while keeping the car streetable. The KW V5’s default spring rate was 7kg/7kg, and while that split’s higher than stock Z51’s 4kg/5kg, it was too soft for track usage; resulting in excessive nose dive under hard braking and a lazy rear end during transitions. While researching popular spring rates for track-oriented C8s, he found that C8 Z06/Z07 has a stiffer front relative to the rear, which would help him get a flatter, better stabilized platform.

With a 14kg/10kg arrangement, as well as a bit more rebound at the rear, the C8’s setup is now neutral with a touch of oversteer. That said, having almost 60% of the weight in the rear aids in traction zones, and he’s been able to apply the throttle very early. Even with the wheels spinning, it still generates good propulsion.

Even more impressive than his ability to jump from platform to platform and adapt rapidly, Bennet wisely avoided going down the modification rabbit hole. “There’s so much to gain from focusing on the driver mod. I don’t think I’m a naturally talented driver, but I like to do my research and I studied a lot of the fast guys from Speed SF. They coached me with their onboard videos.”

One such driver claimed that the 991.2 GT3 RS was worth three times the C8 Corvette. To challenge this claim, Bennet handed his keys to the man. That was Joe McGuigan.

After returning from setting a 1:34 lap, Joe changed his tune a little.

“With the way you have it set up, it’s one of the best mid engine cars I’ve driven,” he began, “except for the brake pads — they don’t bite or modulate well,” he said. Bennet has since replaced those XP8 pads with Endless ME20.

For the foreseeable future, Bennet hopes to get as much seat time as possible — and as a father of three, all under five years of age, it’ll be hard to find the time. He’s got his work cut out for him, but his technique-forward approach should serve him well in the medium term. Maybe, once his schedule frees up and he’s learned all there is to learn from his C8’s current configuration, he’ll spring for aero, or level up and grab the Z06.

Protect Ya Neck With NecksGen

There’s a problem with the typical HANS device: its chassis, or the body of the device, sits quite high up between the scapula and on top of the sensitive part of the clavicle right beside the shoulder. With little natural padding here, the HANS device can pinch, snag, and interfere with the seat and the helmet when the driver’s seated in the driving position.

Due to the placement and angle of the lower tether mount, the REV unit offers unsurpassed angular impact protection.

NecksGen’s cost-conscious products have made preserving one’s well-being a more comfortable experience than using the better established products might. “The ‘chassis’ of the REV2 is much smaller than certain similar devices,” began NecksGen’s Jeff VanStone, “which makes it more comfortable due to its smaller footprint and the fact that it only sits on the soft tissue of the shoulders — it doesn’t sit on any bones.”

The REV2 Lite uses injection-molded carbon, whereas the REV2 Carbon uses hand-laid carbon for reduced weight.  

The REV2 is their most user-friendly of the lineup. However, those looking to spend less can try their simpler REV1. Cost has been reduced by paring the device down; meaning it does not come with the REV2’s adjustable helmet tethers. These come at a fixed length which, because of the varying anatomies of different drivers, might not always be appropriate.

“Because our devices attach to the helmet from down low on the shoulders, the driver’s neck length and helmet type will be more influential on the length needed for the tether attachments compared to a typical yoke style device, which will connect to the helmet directly behind the driver’s head.”

Therefore, in about 20% of user cases, the REV1 requires a second step of ordering a better suited set of tethers. “Because head, neck, and torso sizes and shapes vary widely, about one out of five customers needs to change to a different length of tether that fits their dimensions,” Jeff added.

Their Rally Pad (pictured) helps locate the device during ingress and egress; making life a little easier in the race car. 

A proper head and neck restraint system should sit somewhere at the top of any track rat’s to-do list. Any person who’s spent a good deal of money on go-fast modifications can put $500 towards their well-being. Besides, it’s easier to put in that push lap with the knowledge that having the right safety equipment will vastly improve the chances of walking away from a crash unscathed. Some people will pay good money to silence those nagging voices.

NecksGen also offers a wide range of harnesses, helmets, seats, and accessories to ensure safety and comfort at a reasonable cost.

Fan’s NC Miata: Truncating Ten Years

Pursuing a PHD prevents a serious student from doing much else, both for temporal and financial reasons. Fan You recognized the limitations he was under while going for another degree, but had already committed to finding a way realizing his newly-realized ambition of running track days. 

“I had no idea they existed before I moved to San Francisco in 2021,” he said. 

In his typical investigative fashion, he began researching what paths people took to getting acquainted with track driving techniques and how to best practice. For the amount of money he had available at the time, the simulator made the most sense. 

“I read and asked around, and realized the fidelity of modern simulator equipment is very good and would help me learn the techniques of driving.

After driving the simulator, I enjoyed it as a standalone and, even if I never actually raced on a track, I saw it as a good investment. My friends and I started a team, Drag-On Racing, and I dedicated nearly 1,000 hours to the simulator in the first 18 months of ownership.”

That analytical approach shaped his four-step process designed to sharpen his sword in the shortest time possible. 

All his sim preparation was put to the test on his first day of real-world track driving. This, the second step in his plan, depended on two changes: an acceptance of his limitations and disposable income.

A new job allowed him to buy his first track car: a Hyundai Veloster N, a “perfect beginner’s car” which he left untouched. “I was impressed with the suspension, the brakes, and the balance. The transmission was also quite responsive — some call it the ‘Korean PDK.’”

“Based on the research I did, I thought that starting track driving in an automatic front wheel-drive car would be safest to begin track driving; I was not sure I could deal with a RWD’s tendency towards oversteer.”

After a few DEs with his new acquisition, Fan started to probe. “I played with tire pressures and the rear sway bar to make the car a little more playful.”

That calculated sort of curiosity turned out to bolster his confidence in a way he hadn’t anticipated. “Turned out correcting oversteer is easier in real life. When you have the sensations from the car telling you before it begins to slide; you don’t have to rely completely on your vision.”

That was his first impression. As it happened, the tendency to oversteer caused by these setup changes, combined with his growing confidence, nearly cost him big. “It got away from me in Sonoma’s Turn 10, but I just barely saved it. Without my simulator preparation, I would’ve totaled the car,” he admitted. 

The third step in his process was again facilitated by a bump in income. As part of acquiring a rear-drive car with a manual transmission, a platform he felt comfortable with only after his front-drive introduction, he had to wait for a reasonable time to make a purchase. 

As all his prudence would’ve guaranteed, a big win in a poker game helped him secure the funds to pick up a cheap track toy. His deep-pocketed indifference even kept him from looking underneath the car before buying, but, fortunately, he found a mint example of a 2014 Mazda MX-5 Club package. As he would learn, the car was not stock. 

“It’s a shame more people don’t seriously track the NC. It is the redheaded stepchild in the Miata family but for me, it’s a cheap, reliable, and fun platform,” he said. 

Before he could have it inspected, he had to admit to his own shortcomings: he couldn’t drive a stick well enough to bring it home from the dealership. They transported it to him the next day. 

Over the following month, he found slow streets and cul de sacs to practice all he’d learned from his YouTube research. His shifting skills weren’t world class, but by the end of two weeks, he’d been able to coordinate his inputs well enough to make it from stoplight to stoplight. 

Then Gary Yeung at Elite Performance looked underneath and relayed tale of buried treasure. “It actually came with Ohlins DFVs and Whiteline Swaybars. “A nice bonus,” he said. “I’d watched Gary drive his Mango S2000 before and realized he was a very good driver as well as a very good mechanic, so I left all future work on my car in his and Melody’s hands after that. Elite Performance is a great shop and deserves more recognition.”

Following its post-purchase inspection, Fan ordered a Hard Dog rollbar and a set of Hawk DTC-60 pads, as well as a set of 225-section Nankang CR-S tires. During his first event in the Miata, a damp day at Laguna Seca, he remained cautious due to the way a shower the night before left a few rivers running across the track. 

The conditions and Fan’s unfamiliarity with an h-pattern gearbox were his greatest hindrances that day, but despite running the full track in fourth gear alone, he snagged an impressive 1:51.2. Relative to some of the full-out benchmark laps, Fan felt he wasn’t far off his potential performance. “That made me recognize the car’s potential,” he said. 

At Gary’s recommendation, he went ahead and prepped it for pushing harder with a small selection of modifications. With a better Hawk DTC 70/60 split, 17x10” Apex VS5-RS wheels wrapped in 255-section RE71RS tires, a Goodwin Racing radiator, and a camber kit, the MX-5 was ready for Fan’s second attempt at the famous Monterey circuit.

Favorable conditions and improved contact patch helped him snag a 1:48.2 at Laguna — with his AIM goading him on with an optimal time of a 1:47.0 — a time that put the S5 record in his sights. 

After an encouraging demonstration at Sonoma, he returned to Laguna Seca to log his current best of a 1:45.29, even with a silly mistake in T2 that robbed him of half a second. 

If he can find a cool morning free from traffic and commit more to Turns 6 and 8, he’s confident he’ll claim something in the high-44s. “It’s a matter of bravery; the car is more than capable at this stage.”

When he reaches the limits of current setup, he’ll start his fourth step: increasing power, improving aerodynamics, and reducing weight. “With these modifications, a sub 1:40 lap might be possible, but it’s too early to say conclusively.”

The rapid progression from novice to aspiring record-breaker can’t be attributed to anything other than two things: his two-thousand hours of sim driving accrued over the last few years and, of course, his need to realize his current setup’s potential. The main motivation behind my four-step plan was to train myself to be a well-rounded driver, capable of both manual and automatic, both FWD and RWD, with and without power, with and without aero. Actually, the reason for more power isn't to go faster, but to improve my throttle control.”

It was Fan’s analytical powers and prudent planning that helped him acquire the experience that would typically take ten years in just three. “From my research, I could tell that the important thing was seat time. If you want to be good at driving, you need to drive more than twenty events a year, which is already a lot for me — this is the main advantage of the simulator.”

If Fan’s been able to prove anything by truncating ten years, it’s the value of simulated seat time. Go get a rig – it’s one of the few ways you might make a return on your racing investment. 

Abdul’s E46 M3: Checking All Boxes

A competitive driver, totally dedicated to improving his skillset in the shortest time possible benefits from two distinct things: a dependable car and guidance from experienced mechanics.

“I wanted to be able to adapt to different cars quickly, so I tried most of the usual suspects that first year,” he recalled.

Abdul Osmani recognized that there were about a half-dozen well-trodden paths into high-performance driving after sampling the vehicles during his track day foray. Some platforms aren’t as well supported, as as a brief fling with a GT350 taught him, and there’s a good reason for this. “The Mustang taught me a lot about the problems with modern cars: they’re heavy, they chew up tires, and sometimes parts are hard to come by. I realized quickly that lightweight was the way to go.”

In order to advance at his desried rate, he had to conform and buy a proven platform. This realization pushed him towards an S2000, and it also helped him recognize the one other impediment to his success: his limitations as a mechanic.

So, in the name of expedience, he decided to turn to RCrew for their help. They provided him with a prepped track car and allowed him to apply himself to his new craft without distractions. The S2000’s sharp responses would help him improve, but RCrew’s support ensured his ass was glued to that Recaro seat — and nothing would do more for his advancement than practice.

COVID was starting to dwindle by this point, and now with a largely sorted car that could take the track abuse, he logged as many laps as some professional drivers do in a similar timespan. “I had the means to dedicate myself then, so between 2021 and 2022, I completed 41 track days.”

He’d made the major strides towards his ten-thousand hours and built the muscle memory needed to move into competitive motorsport, and setting fast laps began to lose a little bit of its luster. He decided that the next step was endurance racing, for which the Honda was not as well suited to as were some other popular platforms, he realized.

As the popular HPDE options go, there aren’t many cars with the peak grip and pointiness of the S2000, which makes it a serious contender when pursuing PBs. However, due to its low torque, he had to consider an alternative of a similar vintage.

“As fun as it was to set my fast laps, the chess match of enduros was a new challenge I needed; honing my racecraft would be more rewarding, I believed.”

The E46 M3 was the versatile, if slightly compromised, vehicle that would make a successful and similarly streamlined transition into longer races probably. “There were a few reasons why I thought that. For one, the M3’s easier to drive thanks to more torque and better ABS, and the parts are widely available. Plus, it’s eligible for a few different classes with just a tune. I knew this platform would make it easier to accrue the race laps I was after.”

Once he could commit to a plan, he discussed his options with RCrew, who took his provided chassis and whipped it into racing shape in four months. Part of the reason they could proceed so quickly was because, like with Jacek’s rock-solid E46, they used their tested and proven track car package, albeit with a few extras.

“We went with MCS two-way remotes, AP 5000R Pro brakes at both ends, a TC Design cage, RCrew headers and exhaust, a Bimmerworld rear wing, an RCrew splitter, Volk TE37 wheels: the off-the-shelf RCrew starter pack,” he laughed. “On top of the usual parts, we jumped straight into sphericals, a carbon roof, fiberglass doors, and an AIM dash.”

Weighing in at 2,750 pounds with half a tank of fuel and producing 310 horsepower makes the M3 the perfect middleweight that, as mentioned earlier, can run in a number of classes with as little as a change in engine calibration. It might not have the same degree of mid-corner grip or the turn-in immediacy as the car which it replaced, but the package is better suited to long-distance speed, net-net.

But in full time trials trim, the package still puts down sensational single laps. On a set of Hoosier R7s, Abdul’s 1:34.57 at Laguna Seca is remarkable — especially since he acknowledges that he made a few mistakes that lap. The mid-corner understeer in Turns 3, 4, and 9 “might’ve been caused by being a little impatient on the throttle.”

Furthermore, he’s convinced the slicks might benefit from a little more than the 3.8 and 3.0 degrees of negative camber he’s running at the front and rear axle, respectively. Along with a slightly torquier brake compound — he’s been running enduro pads — the turn-in phase might be shortened, which in combination with more mid-corner grip, might help him find another second.

“I didn’t think 1:33s were possible before this lap, but now, if my stars align…” he hinted.

The salient point is that the car is almost completely sorted, and its dependability has helped him get to the point where he’s able to isolate the smallest setup problems and focus completely on his driving.

This stoutness, plus its kindness to its consumables, has made him convinced that there isn’t another option for someone in his position. “It’s funny that this twenty-year-old car is one of the most sensible options nowadays,” he declared.

His performance in Speed SF’s inaugural enduro endorses this statement. After finishing third, he’s committed to the entirety of next year’s season. “I found the 2.5 hour-length perfect. In comparison to my experiences with longer enduros, the 2.5-hour format makes logistics and planning simple and cost effective. It’s almost like a really long advanced DE session,” he said.

Abdul’s had a few things helping him move efficiently and expediently towards his racing goals over the last four years. Not only has he had the good sense to recognize where his strengths lie — identifying a motivating objective, making the necessary lateral moves, and dedicating himself to the cause, while having the means and the connections to get the sort of help that saves him from headaches. Since advancement has been the aim, and the specific outcome has changed slightly with time, he’s had to think about his approach constantly. Not having to worry about picking the right parts or leaving stones unturned has freed up the bandwidth needed to keep adapting to an ever-changing environment.

Maxxis’ VR2: A New Option for PB Hunters

Those with their ears to the ground have heard about Maxxis’ new Victra Sport VR2, an ultra high-performance summer tire for DE dudes, weekend warriors, canyon carvers, and long-time racers like Justin Ross of Magic Developed.

Built upon the VR1, a famously consistent tire, the VR2 inherits all of its predecessor’s strengths, and takes a step forward in one crucial area: peak grip. This combination of durability and sharp-end grip potentially puts it among the fastest of the current crop of Super-200 tires.

At last weekend’s Gridlife Super Touring Cup race held at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, Justin Ross set his fastest lap on his VR2’s seventh heat cycle: a 1:37.8 in a 2,770-pound (with driver) E36 M3 making 212 at the tires. “We put eight heat cycles in the tires that weekend and we saw little to no dropoff,” he began, “and I know they have another dozen left in them.”

The VR2 has that cross-session consistency and repeatability, and it switches on immediately. Peak grip is available from the second hot lap, and grip does not diminish much at all over the course of a session, making it a versatile tire for logging laps as well as setting the quick one.

“The first hot lap is fast, the second hot lap is the fastest. After that, the drop off is very marginal compared to other tires. If it’s 60 to 90 degrees, you can put about four to five laps, super fast, and drop off is marginal — like tenths of a second,” said Elie Mansour, E46 expert.

“The tires have between twelve to fifteen heat cycles. Like I said, before it ran a 1:20 [at Streets of Willow]. We went two weeks ago, 90 degrees in the same configuration, after five track days — it was the sixth track day, I believe, it ran a 1:21 in the scorching heat!”

Justin and his E36 was the standout this past Gridlife event. 

“Our cars are famous for going into ice mode [under braking], so I noticed [the VR2] kinda minimizes it. Even if you have to swing it or adjust it, it’s very predictable and it gives you feedback under braking,” Elie added.

The design uses a wide outer shoulder, a reinforced bead area, a super-high turnup sidewall ply improves lateral stiffness over the VR1, giving the car great grip and predictability from turn-in through the mid-corner phase.

“At the exit, if i’m completely transparent, the lateral grip on that tire stands above every Super 200 tire that I’ve driven before,” he adds. “Once you punch it, it does get loose a little bit,but I’ve noticed it’s more of a powerslide than a drift; it keeps pushing the car forward,” he explained.

All of Ross' Magic Designed cars relied on the VR2 that weekend. 

Engineers at Maxxis developed a new reinforced Carbon Black compound that reaches operating temperatures quickly. “The RE-71RS is good for about four laps, then it falls off. In our BMWs, the VR2 is as good at the end of the session as it is at the beginning,” Justin added.

“They communicate, too. They’re not noisy, but you do get a lot of feedback through the wheel. They tell you what they’re doing,” he added.

“It’s super easy to control. So even if it slides a little bit, it gives you warning at the edge, and you can control it and keep going. So it comes in handy for, either like a beginner driver –it’s forgiving, or an experienced driver who knows how to modulate it to go faster,” he continued.

The compounds retain silica fillers to maintain solid performance in wet weather, but if that peak grip comes at a price, it might be wet weather-ability. “The VR1 had the tread blocks to move standing water. The VR2 is fine in damp and drying conditions, but it is too focused to be as capable in a downpour. You won’t be caught out if it starts to rain, but there are better options for heavy rain. Put it this way — we went out in a storm and we kept it on track,” Justin said, adding a little laughter at the end.

The same set Justin used at Gridlife Laguna will be used again at November’s Gridlife event at Thunderhill Raceway Park. As he’s seen no diminishment in performance yet, and since he’s tested the sister car on another set which performed over twenty cycles, he’s confident they’ll be able to carry him over another race weekend. That bodes well for any track junkie looking for a stable tire to give them the chance to log laps and set the one they can brag about.

Speed SF’s First Enduro Goes Off Without a Hitch

Endurance racing is the next step for many HPDE drivers who want to try their hand at wheel-to-wheel racing. The long sessions, the greater emphasis on strategy, and the ability to share a car make it easier to find a seat, generally speaking. We recognized that some of our talented HPDE drivers, some of whom already have been racing in other long-distance series, might be willing to take the leap into a new style of enduro if we helped them stick the landing.

So we brought our most experienced drivers together to brainstorm. After several months of revisiting various rulebooks and taking a look at the greater range of driving experience we had among our regulars, we devised a plan for an accommodating, competitive endurance format that would not break the bank. Endurance racing can be very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.

Our loose rules are meant to be easily understood, keep barriers to entry low, and welcome a wide range of driving talent and vehicle performance. Tire choices, horsepower, and weight are all left open. Tires are open as well, as long as they’ll last a 2.5-hour race. There isn’t a restriction on driver count, either — some brave souls can run solo if they choose to.

The one mandatory pit stop is timed at seven minutes. We want to make sure the teams have plenty of time to safely refuel and remain hydrated. It also evens out the playing field; the high budget teams can’t take advantage of a fast refilling system and the low budget teams behind.

As for the regulations, we allow vehicles that pass the safety standards of NASA, SCCA, Lucky Dog, and other major endurance racing series. The vehicle will need to pass our safety tech inspection.

Drivers are required to hold a race license from another approved organization, though we can make exceptions. For drivers without a racing license, as with LeMons, Lucky Dog, and Chump Car drivers; we require they have experience in wheel-to-wheel racing or advanced open-passing run groups with Speed SF track day events. Essentially, they must have a long-standing record showing they are capable of racing in close proximity to others.

The classing is easy and straightforward. It’s based only on the car’s capabilities and the drivers’ performance during the event.

Whatever the time set in qualifying must be adhered to in the race. Essentially, that time cannot be beaten by an established delta or a penalty will be issued. The first infraction will incur a drive-through penalty; the second, a two-minute hold in the pits; the third, a five-minute hold; and the fourth, disqualification. We can also force the team to change class, depending on how much faster their race pace is. Sandbagging is something we hope to avoid.

Last weekend, we put these plans to the test at Thunderhill Raceway Park.After collecting the qualifying lap times from our 21 different cars that day, we established the parameters that would determine which team would run in which class.

Class A: 1:55 - 1:59

Class B: 2:00 - 2:05

Class C: 2:06+

The drivers on the cusp then decided whether to push their car to race in the faster class or dial back to race in the slower group — to push for total dominance or take the conservative approach. Strategy (as well as reliability and consistency) is what decides an endurance race, and our drivers were forced to make a choice that morning.

We started our race at 8 AM, the coolest time of the day, as we wanted to reduce the effects of heat on both drivers and vehicles. Many drivers appreciated that.

Class A and overall winner Daniel Rose had competed in many sprint races in NASA before this, but only a few endurance races. He had his worries about running an enduro, since they aren’t always the best organized, but that wasn’t the case here.

“Speed SF has always been a good host for the track day events, and I’m happy I did it because the enduro was really well organized; everyone knew what they needed to do. Sometimes things can get a little hectic with these kinds of races, but everything was well explained to the drivers that morning.

The classes were split just right — the competition at the front was intense and I had to stay sharp since I was running solo. Thankfully, my car ran well the whole race and went without a single hiccup, but I made one mistake — I drove over some oil in T3 and went into the dirt, but nothing major. Still, with how close it was until the end, I had no idea where that mistake put me. We pitted at the right time, I kept consistent with my lap times, I put my head down, and we came out on top. Group A win and first overall!”

“As far as I heard from everyone else in the paddock, everyone was happy with the class sorting,” Rose added.

Coming in second in Class A were Maxwell Lisovsky and Nate Hackman, who put the plan together at the very last minute. “Maxwell called me on his way down from The Ridge. He needed a co-driver. I’d never driven the car before,” Nate said. He wasn’t filled with confidence, but he took the opportunity.

The two met at Thunderhill and crossed their fingers. Max’s TT2-spec E36 wasn’t built to endurance specs, so he had to sort out a few things during qualifying.

Nate, with fifteen minutes to get a feel for a car he’d never driven before, jumped in and put the car on pole with a time of 1:54. With such a strong start, he decided to start the race and battled door-to-door through four consecutive corners over the first lap to take the lead.

“I really didn’t want to blow the motor in the first stint, so I short-shifted the whole time,” Nate admitted — a sensible approach to getting a time attack car to last 2.5 hours. Even leaving the car in fifth gear for half of the lap, he could set consecutive lap times in the 1:55s.

With a healthy lead, Nate made the mistake of beating his qualifying pace in the race — excusable considering his inexperience with the car — and had to serve a five-second penalty. While in the pits, Daniel snuck by and held onto the lead.

Considering the fact Maxwell and Nate had “no real plans, no communication, and no execution,” as the latter put it, their performance deserves a tip of the hat. Turns out the “send it and pray” approach, even with a time attack car, can yield impressive results in a medium-length race.

Abdul Osmani, a regular Lucky Dog endurance racer and the only solo driver on the Class A podium, also challenged Daniel through much of the race. “I found the 2.5 hour-length perfect. In comparison to my experiences with longer enduros, the 2.5-hour format makes logistics and planning simple and cost effective. It’s almost like a really long advanced DE session,” he said.

Joe McGuigan, regular endurance racer and Speed SF Challenge winner, used the enduro to shake down his newly acquired E46 M3 and get an idea of its fuel burn rate. As his co-driver Don signed on for twenty laps tops, Joe felt he’d leave some on the table, run in Class B, and use the track time to identify any possible problems with his new car.

The M3 had pace, though, and Joe beat Speed SF favorites Gary Yeung and Yunni Zhai to the win by a lap. The M3 proved more economical than he’d planned, so he finished his two hour-long stints with a few gallons left in the tank. The fact that he was able to run an endurance race without having to spend more money to buy a high-capacity fuel cell is just another way this medium-length race lowers the barriers to entry; a fully-built endurance car isn’t necessary for a race of this length.

At 10:30 that morning, the checkered flag flew and we could breathe a sigh of relief — our first endurance race was a success. A total of 21 cars entered and 19 finished. Considering the heat that weekend, not to mention the added strain of a medium-length race, that finishing rate speaks highly of our drivers and their level of preparation.

We’re in the middle of planning next year’s season of endurance racing. but waiting on confirmation from our regular tracks before we publish what we hope will be a very busy 2025 calendar. In the meantime, we’ll be using the race data from this event to create better classing rules that will accommodate an even wider range of drivers and vehicles.

Seeing our dedicated drivers take the next step into racing and proving themselves in a new environment makes planning these events worth the extra effort.

Class A Winners:

1st Daniel Rose BMW E46

2nd Maxwell Lisovsky / Nate Hackman BMW E46

3rd Abdul Osmani BMW E46

Class B Winners:

1st Joe McGuigan / Don BMW E46

2nd Gary Yeung / Yunni Zhai Nissan 350z

3rd Nicolas Voordeckers Funduro Speedster

Class C Winners:

1st Michael McColligan Honda Civic

2nd David Vodden Honda Civic

3rd Becky / Niki Arsham Honda Civic

Results

Joe’s RX-7: Long Time Coming

Joe didn’t let fear keep him from starting his love affair with the rotary engine quite young. After a fling with a CRX, he picked up his first RX-7 at 17. This Turbo II, the first of eleven second-gen RX-7s he would go on to own, was a surprisingly swift car that earned him street cred he never asked for. “I once beat this girl’s boyrfiend in a drag race. He had a new Mustang Cobra and I’d just turned the boost up. She came to school the next day telling me about how her brother wanted to kill me. I didn’t get it — it was just a street race.”

He came a long way from teenage antics just as quickly as he got started in cars. The second-gen RX-7 would carry him first into drifting with Nor Cal Drift Academy back in 2004, where he was able to start getting his speed fix in a pro-social manner. Four years later, he picked up a third-gen RX-7 and jumped into track days with the intent of building a dedicated race car, but life intervened.

When his financial predicament forced Joe to take a break, he considered a more cost-effective hobby, but his love for racing won out and pushed him to find a better-paying job. Shortly after selling a lot of Gamestop stock, he put together enough money to purchase a mint third-gen. The only modifications were a set of coilovers, an exhaust, and a v-mount intercooler.

After flying to San Diego to inspect the car, he had to roll the dice. “I knew it was a gamble, but I decided to drive it back to the Bay Area. Not something anyone would do with a thirty-year-old rotary car, but this one was nice enough to convince me it’d probably make it. As soon as I got home, I replaced the OEM suspension — I mean every piece — with adjustable or track-focused parts.”

Along with a set of Tein Flex-Z coilovers, Enkei RPF1s wrapped in 275-section NT01s, and Hawk Blue brake pads, he had made his first step towards making this pristine car into a full-on race car.

Sadly, he’d have to wait longer than he anticipated to experience the RX-7s potential on track, since, after a year of enjoyable, issue-free canyon driving, it failed his first time out on track. “First time to Thunderhill in this thing, and it gave me one full session before it went bang,” he laughed.

With the car back on the track without an engine in its bay, Joe pondered his predicament for a while. As he’d rebuild the motor for more reliability and leave no stone unturned in the process, he figured he’d go ahead and make the cosmetic and aerodynamic changes he’d initially planned for a step much further down the road. Along with a Racebred splitter, he added a Battle Aero wing and both a diffuser and a widebody kit from Shine Auto, as well as their carbon hood.

As he knew what the odds of an engine failure were, he’d planned for the worst and had already picked up a Mazda crate motor, complete with an old-school Turbonetics single kit.

To spare himself any frustration, he had to adopt modern ways. “I went from having a hot rodder’s mentality to a twenty-first-century tuner’s,” he added. After picking a Haltech 1500 ECU, largely for the failsafes it offered him, he had it tuned conservatively by DK at a modest twelve pounds of boost. With a rich mixture and a healthy 300 horsepower at his disposal, he’d have adequate power and some peace of mind the next time he took the car to the track.

“I rely on a heavy premix ratio: two-stroke oil and 101 octane fuel. That’s one of the best precautions you can take.”

All the preparation paid off. During his shakedown at Thunderhill, the water never got above 180 degrees — the v-mount setup and large Fluidyne radiator doing their jobs. The oil, however, was hovering around the 215-mark most of the day. To remedy that issue, he installed a set of thirty-row oil coolers. He’s confident that the car in its current state can handle the next few track days without issue, so he’s moved from focusing on the car and addressed the loose nut behind the wheel.

“The plan for ’25 is to visit all the NorCal tracks, work on my driving, and start competing in Speed SF Challenge. There are other things I’d like to do to the car: a wider widebody, 315s at all four corners, Bosch ABS, and traction control through the Haltech. The plan is to get the car running at its best before I can dump any more money into it.

Wisely, Joe decided to throttle the power output until he’s grown accustomed to big turbo power. Once the next round of modifications is installed and operational, he’ll turn the boost up a bit, but he won’t go crazy. As much power as a tuned 13B-REW can provide, is known first for its handling, and that’s what Joe’s prioritizing alongside reliability. 

His thirteenth-ever RX-7 has been an emotional investment as well as a financial one, but it seems that twenty-odd years of working with rotaries has taught him what the platform can do when all the proper precautions are taken, including the necessary TLC, fueling, and oiling to keep things copasetic.

CSG Brake Pads: Details Make the Difference

Much like tire technology has evolved rapidly in the last several decades, so has brake technology. There are hundreds of brake compounds produced all over the world, and the majority of off-the-shelf brake compounds offered decades ago still exist today. These compounds that may have been great in the past may not be ideal for today’s performance requirements.

CounterSpace Garage have tried to make their mark by putting together a detailed, comprehensive understanding of the entire braking system (across numerous makes and models) as well as the general demands of the entire racing landscape. After spending years testing hundreds of discs, fluids, compounds, and calipers to identify their respective limitations, they’ve been able to satisfy a wide array of performance cars, tracks, and tire compounds.

Contrary to popular opinion, outright braking performance is only one part of the puzzle. Not only are CSG concerned with improving the pad’s outright performance, but they also think about pad control and the context in which the pad will be used. If a pad isn’t suited to the driver’s preferences or the car’s limitations, it will never be used to its full.

To improve control, maintaining consistency is paramount. If the brake pad breaks down, then it snowballs into fluid failure, excessive caliper flex, and excessive disc wear. Consistency also means friction characteristics at different pressure applications, pad modulus through the temperature range, and performance from fresh to the backing plate.

Expending Energy Efficiently

Aiming for a consistent friction material often yields higher pad stiffness, which allows for a more responsive braking feel or “bite.” This doesn’t mean the brake torque is delivered in spikes, which can cause early ABS intervention, but rather with smoother engagement and smoother release. Primarily, the driver feels a more intuitive relationship between his brake application and the way his car decelerates.

Thanks to CSG's custom setup, Gary Wong enjoys reliable, reassuring braking performance in his high-horsepower heavyweight Supra.

Stiffness has secondary benefits including: better pad wear, lower overall heat generation and less heat transfer into critical components like the caliper and hydraulic fluid compared to the existing compounds on the market. A stiffer pad is usually a denser pad, and more material means more thermal capacity.

In order to understand how stiffness plays a role in response, we should use a simple physics equation with the assumption of infinitely rigid structures:

Friction Force (Ff) = Coefficient of friction (mu) x Normal Force (Fn)

This equation helps us visualize the effect of using two different sanding blocks to hold a piece of sandpaper against a sanded surface. A sponge requires more vertical force to generate the same level of friction force at the sanded surface compared to using a piece of hardwood. Now it’s obvious why having a good pad compound can result in better pedal communication and improved control over braking events — it maximizes tire adhesion and improves peak deceleration characteristics more consistently and with less force.

Tailor Made

When we’re trying to assess the level of control their particular pad offers, we consider things like: whether or not they need to build up the threshold pressure, whether they need to reduce their brake pressure carefully like with an aero car. This helps us establish the control objectives,” CSG’s David Leung notes.

“If a driver is dealing with a lot of ABS intervention, a digressive pad can help. As it limits some of that power at higher pressures, it makes it less likely to activate ABS.

Part of Gary Yeung's remarkable speed in his normally-aspirated S2000 comes down to its ability to decelerate, courtesy of CSG.

For cars with aero, a progressive pad might be best. As temperature and pressure increase, breaking power increases at an exponential rate. However, when the aero bleeds off (often very rapidly), this compound makes it easier to reduce pedal pressure quickly enough to avoid lock-up.

All of these profiles are taken into consideration to deliver what is ultimately an intuitive braking experience that allows the driver to focus on other aspects of driving and racing.

To demonstrate the ways in which driver preference factors into the equation, consider just the well-known users of the Supra A90 who’ve partnered with CSG: Jonathan Wong, Jackie Ding, Gary Wong, Allen Patten, Dave Kramer, Drew Turner, and even Toyota Engineering have turned to CSG for their own bespoke setup.”

Thermal Constraints for Different Applications

To get the most from a particular set of pads, some turn to ducting, which helps keep a brake system in its operating window. Some pads need to operate at a much lower temp to generate the performance and better wear (especially pads that generate excessive heat). High levels of heat generation also transfers into the caliper, causing them to get soft, and also transfers into the fluid.

Some pads need heat to perform, which is where ducting can be a detriment, since heat may be required for some friction materials to improve wear consistency in racing situations. Ducting also subjects a brake system to a wider spread of temperatures, which can shorten the lifespan of various components.

Viz paint is used to establish the exact thermal parameters their brakes must operate within.

Ducting does have some benefits especially when you’re operating a spec/homologated brake system that may have undersized calipers/discs (they usually get replaced after each race) and require the brakes to be regulated in a more consistent temperature range.

At the end of the day, ducting should really be a fine tuning tool, not a complete solution to resolve brake issues. It all comes down to designing for the appropriate application and optimizing the performance zone.

Maximizing Both Ends

“We also assess the rear brakes’ utilization. Regardless of whether they’re optimizing their rears to work with the factory bias or they’ve added a proportioning valve, we want the brakes to aid in slowing the car and assisting in rotation.

Jackie Ding's able to make his Supra turn like a much smaller car thanks in part to the well-chosen pads at the rear axle that facilitate usable rotation. 

By maximizing the rear brakes, we can utilize the tire grip from all four corners of the car. Using tire grip from all four tires means better distribution of brake load, maximum deceleration, better wear, and better temperature management to keep the brakes in the optimal operating zone.

A Compendium for All Invested

To take every conceivable factor into consideration is how CSG has been able to develop a wide range of pad solutions. It’s also due to driver feedback and motorsport data, as shared with them by their loyal customers. This information is then filtered down into a range of solutions that meet spirited driving activities to racing at every single level between HPDE and professional racing applications.

"All relevant areas of braking performance must be understood to provide a truly premium product," David adds.

CSG have made countless strides towards finding the right products for most of today’s platforms, They’ve built a compendium of braking data over years through internal development goals, brake dyno work, interacting with their customers, and using their feedback to tailor their products to the customer’s demands. They offer a huge array for different conditions, setups, and for different driving styles.

“CSG is a premium product and the costs reflect that. With that cost, we offer free consultation since we want to meet our customer’s needs and optimize results. All we ask is that they provide data. Ideally, this comes in the form of telemetry, but onboard video, photos, and anything else that can contribute to a clearer picture of what’s happening at the track,” David adds.

The brake system is an ecosystem in itself, which is better understood through constant communication between customer and manufacturer. This interaction is the backbone of CSG’s feedback loop, and only through this and the high-quality data it relies on has high-grade deceleration been made available to drivers of all stripes.

Brian’s Mustang: Keep It in the Family

Brian Navarra comes from good stock. His dad is a vintage racer with a penchant for Mustangs and he’s also the kind, trusting type, which is why he handed Brian the keys to his 67’ GT350 race car one seminal afternoon at Sonoma Raceway many years ago — back when it was known as Infineon.

“I probably wouldn’t have let my kid drive that car,” Brian said, laughing.

Fast forward a few years, and Brian had built his own ’66 Coupe into a no-frills track car. He quickly learned that his single-purpose car was on par with a few nicely sorted modern machines — so why build something so uncompromising and harsh if there wasn’t any speed to be gained from it? That was the thinking then, anyways.

Rather than spend months undoing all the unpleasant track-oriented modifications that worsened it as a street car, he decided to buy another ’66 and build a dual-duty track toy. Again, that was the plan, but having made a few more friends in the business and eager to try some new ideas, he ended up building another single-purpose machine without air conditioning.

However, he took this one much further in several key areas.

“It’s just on from 4,500 to 8,500,” Brian exclaimed.

At first, he aimed to race the car in a wheel-to-wheel setting, probably NASA American Iron Extreme. But as that class has fizzled into nothing over the last ten years, time trials caught his attention as it would be the most accommodating for an all-out build of this nature.

Taking his cue from the old IMSA GT Mustangs from the 1980s, he tubed the front end and added about as much structural support he could manage. “The number and size of the subframe reinforcements make the whole thing a lot like a box frame.”

It wasn’t just the IMSA cars’ rigidity which he tried to copy, but the motor as well. Back further in the body than the factory motor ever sat, Brian stuck an ex-NASCAR motor. Pieced together a Yates 358 with 13:1 compression.

Although the bottom end is basic small block architecture, it has race heads, port injection, and an Emtron KV8 ECU tuned by Nick Pavloski of Cohesion Motorsport to make a tick under 600 horsepower over a broad powerband.

To keep the powerplant lubricated once the anticipated suspension and tire upgrades were in place, he installed a five-stage Raceline dry sump system with an enormous NASCAR-grade Peterson tank.

It puts that power to the pavement via an HGT six-speed sequential and 335-section Hoosier A7s. Power application is impressive — in no small part improved by the three-link rear end. The full floater Ford 9” housing and DPI Platinum Torsen with 4.22 gears aid in turning traction into propulsion, too, provided Navarra rolls on the throttle out of slower corners somewhat cautiously.

Custom in-house 304 stainless stepped piping incorporates an oval x-pipe underneath the car and Borla XR1 mufflers.

The solid rear axle’s disappointing performance over curbs can be overlooked easily since its straightline performance is so strong. Plus, with the additions he’s made to the rear, he can adjust the rear over a fairly wide range to get the car to suit most settings well. “I added a Watts Link because it’s very tunable for longitudinal and lateral grip. If you’re able to make enough changes at the track, it’s easy enough to work around the solid axle’s shortcomings.”

To fit the 18x12.5” Signature wheels, Brian’s had to stretch the rear fenders to comfortably fit massive tire and wheel package. He ended up building his own front fenders with Eddie Venancio and an English wheel, which was wide enough to drape over his custom double wishbone front suspension.

Brian styled his suspension setup after a variety of race cars he’d studied over the years. “I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. I still spent some time plotting the mounting points, but fabbing the arms and the uprights was easy enough."

Some things he decided to rely on a bigger company for. “I decided to go with a pre-made spindle from CorteX Racing because it was proven.”

AJ Hartman aero helps its high-speed stability.

For steering, he opted for Sweet Manufacturing’s power steering rack, then added double-adjustable JRi shocks at all four corners with weight jacker perches. Getting the balance right, despite having a hair too much heft over the front axle, was a priority. In fact, he moved the motor back towards the firewall by several inches. Now, his footwell’s noticeably hot by the third lap.

A MoTeC C125 dash and PDM keyboard conveys all necessary info.

Weighing just 3,150 pounds with driver, it has the legs on many cars at faster flowing tracks with (mostly) clean surfaces, but it still struggles administering power at Buttonwillow, say. The aero is admittedly a work in progress, with the completely unsealed front end, homemade splitter and airdam generating little downforce. AJ Hartman rear wing.

He plans for another engine with newer generation Yates parts and a promised 800 horsepower. It’s also somewhat lighter than the motor which currently sits in the Mustang by a notable eighty-five pounds, which should help him with his weight distribution aims. It’s sitting fifty-fifty at the moment, but if shifting the center of mass rearwards like a touring car’s might make all the difference with 33% more power. The more power you make, the more advantageous it is to have additional weight over the driven axle.

The short-term goals are refining the aero package, reducing weight, and continuing to tune the car to suit the driver. Long-term goals are bringing this rough but remarkably advanced Mustang up to carshow-standard levels polish and presentation. “I was kinda shocked when I brought it to Gridlife and realized how ratty it looks.”

No matter. He’s been focused on the right stuff for now. Paint and air conditioning can come later.

Forced Induction For Track Work: Supercharging Two Popular Platforms

Among E46 M3 and S2000 owners, power is almost considered a four-letter word. The majority of those who regularly lap these cars, for reasons of simplicity and cost, prefer to optimize their car’s handling and braking performance in pursuit of impressive lap times. Also, they typically pride themselves, though usually tacitly, on their ability to lap quickly without a big motor to lean on. However, the ratio of grip to power usually falls in favor of the former with most of these builds, which forces the builder to consider whether a significant bump in grunt is worth the time, expense, and possible hassle.

Two of our fastest drivers decided the relatively cost-effective path of forced induction to determine if more power makes a worthwhile difference with these two popular HPDE platforms.

Seigo Ma had been swooning over the videos of the Arvou S2000, a lightweight AP1 using an HKS supercharger to make a touch more than 400 horsepower. The already capable package could exploit that power bump well enough to lap the technical Tsukuba circuit in a remarkable 53.887 seconds.

Seigo wanted to double his engine’s output, but worried that the famously fragile platform wouldn’t be able to handle it. So, in an attempt to get some much-needed encouragement (and see F1 in person), Seigo took a trip to Tokyo. Three days in, he visited Arvou to consult with Mr. Shibata, who encouraged him to take the plunge.

Back in San Francisco, Seigo started speccing his own HKS kit. He did his homework and chose the option of the smaller pulley needed to make 400+ horsepower. After he installed the kit, he sent his car to Blacktrax for the first pass at tuning his Hondata Pro ECU. They were able to make a knock-limited 350 horsepower at the wheels available over a very narrow powerband. “It only revved to 7,000 safely. That lowered redline, the shorter AP2 gearing, and 4.3 final drive made it a challenge to drive; it required constant shifting.”

To make the most of his new kit, Seigo ordered a higher flow fuel pump, 1050cc injectors, colder spark plugs, and a surge tank with an integrated fuel pressure regulator — all the items needed to run E85 safely. A retune of the Hondata brought power up to a knock-free 420 horsepower available at 8,500 rpm. “Power delivery was like a stock F22, but with a lot more at the top end,” Seigo said.

Even with 285-section rear tires and an OS Giken differential to help meter out that power, the bump in grunt was challenging to manage. “Second gear was pretty much useless,” he added. It also proved too much for the factory gearbox; breaking fifth gear broke on his second track day at that power level. To get himself back on track, he picked up a used AP1 box and a larger supercharger pulley to drop boost and lower the power output.

Relocating the oil cooler made lowered temps enough to run full sessions on moderately warm days.

The AP1 box’s longer gearing combined with the lowered output — about 360 horsepower — helped Seigo get to grips with the car at his next outing. Usable power, strong traction, and drastically improved top speeds has helped him keep up with higher horsepower cars that previously left him in the dust. Before braking for Thunderhill East’s Turn 1, he was traveling at 133 miles per hour — roughly 15 miles an hour faster than he ever had before.

The only notable issue with the car were creeping supercharger oil temps, which he resolved by relocating the supercharger’s oil cooler under the right headlight. With that upgrade, the car has been mostly reliable.

On moderately warm days, the car can run full sessions without issue. Only on the hottest days does it begin to falter, but it still works well enough to run three consecutive laps before engine oil temperatures get too high.

A drawback of running E85 is that combined with the new powerplant, it gets quite thirsty. “I burn half a tank per session, so I’ve gotta bring a few jugs of e85 with me every day. It’s still cheaper than running 91 octane and is much safer for the engine though.”

For Christian Fernandez, power was the last box to be ticked after aero, weight reduction, and a solid suspension setup. He’d already set impressive times with his E85-fed E46 M3, but he wondered if there might be an easy solution to extract a little more from his S54.

Dan from RCrew, Christian’s dependable mechanic, made him an offer on an ESS supercharger kit which promised easy power and little-to-no hassle.

As Christian had already installed a larger pump and 550cc injectors in preparation for corn juice, there wouldn’t be much more he’d need for a successful install.

“Multiple YouTubers who’d used the same kit complained of overheating issues, though. The front-mounted intercooler wasn’t necessary with this entry-level kit, so I decided to take the band-aid solution and install a water injection kit to keep intake temps low.”

On a Dynojet, HTE Performance tuned the stock ECU to handle six pounds of boost from the the supercharged S54 put down 487 horsepower — 157 more than what the atmospheric, E85-fed motor had made on the same dyno.

The bump in power is felt largely at the top of the rev range; making the motor feel similarly linear in its delivery, but notably faster at the end of straights. “It’s pretty easy to put the power down, but the extra 3-4 miles an hour it nets at the end of the straights forces me to reconsider my braking points.”

This bump in straightline speed doesn’t overwhelm the current cooling system, which consists of a larger radiator, an oil cooler, and the water injector. “Even on 80° days, the needle never moves past the ¾ mark!

That said, I’m not sure I’m getting all that peak power over a whole session. It probably needs an intercooler.”

The blower hasn’t made maintenance a nightmare, but it has exposed a few leaks that weren’t an issue before. Running a leakdown test revealed a leak from the valve cover seal and around the aftermarket injectors, which never seat properly and require a washer for passable fitment.

Both drivers are content with their new engine setups, which have proven to be reliable after the little issues were addressed. Seigo bought a usable 150 horsepower and 2.5 seconds at his regular tracks. “So far, it’s been money well spent,” he said.

Christian is content with the improvement, though the M3 was never lacking power in the way the S2000 was. To be fair, the former has gone a step further in addressing all their supercharger’s shortcomings, while the latter has taken a more relaxed approach.

There’s still more to be done before the bare-basic ESS kit offers track-worthy performance, but once it’s sorted, there’s no reason it shouldn’t have that funny effect of shortening straightaways — so much so that Christian will have to start thinking of braking point right after he starts to accelerate.

Pauline’s Challenger: Part Car, Part Canvas

To earn her racing spurs, Pauline Yruretagoyena’s picked a car which mightn’t have had the greatest following among the track day crowd, but it pulled at her heartstrings the hardest. More than just emotive, her 2019 Challenger R/T was reassuring, stable, and safe, and having a 5.7-liter engine mated to an eight-speed automatic allowed Pauline to leave a little on the table and still get her kicks.

Which isn’t to say she was taking it easy. Pauline pushed herself to explore new and uncomfortable situations in which Her driving talent would be shaped for the better. For instance, her willingness to drive in wet conditions helped teach her how to drive smoothly and precisely. After she saw the benefit some of the arduous challenges offered her, she decided to take a two-day high performance course at the Radford Racing School. Among other skills, this school taught her how to trail-brake well enough to get the big Challenger pointed in the intended direction sooner.

Her ardent supporter and personal mechanic Adrian then equipped her Challenger with wider 285-section front tires, BMR linear springs, an Eibach hollow swaybar, Mopar strut bars, and the Brembos from a higher trim Challenger. These all contributed to an encouraging surefootedness and crisper responses when pushing the car harder than before. Most importantly, they’d get the big barge pointed in the right direction earlier so she could take full advantage of its impressive powerplant.

And as much fun as she had with the R/T, when 2022 rolled around, she had to consider the circumstances that made getting a perfect upgrade possible. Dodge had then announced the Last Call for the Challengers with their legendary HEMI engine. They also brought back the Plum Crazy paint option for the 2023 model year that had been discontinued in 2019. After two years of competing with the old automatic car, she was hankering for a manual.

So she ordered a 2023 Dodge Challenger Scatpack R/T Widebody with the T/A package — meant to commemorate Dodge’s success in Trans Am. It came with a wider footprint than her previous car, the most powerful normally-aspirated V8 in the Dodge lineup, adaptive Bilstein dampers, a limited-slip differential, and a manual transmission.

“I knew it was for me when I saw the color and the fender flares in person,” she gushed.

There’s not much more the car needs from factory. Underneath the blistered fenders is a square set of 305-section tires, and the 6.4-liter up front comes with 485 horsepower and none of the heat issues the supercharged Hellcat endures on the track. As it was already suited for track work — far better than any other variant of the Challenger — Pauline didn’t have to consider a list of modifications to make it track worthy. Instead, she could spend the first four months of ownership getting her head around its one novel (for her) features: a TR6060 six-speed transmission.

Long before she took this new car to the track, she put nearly 1,500 miles on the car — many of which in an empty parking lot or a deserted graveyard road. Without having to worry about traffic, she could practice the basics of driving a three-pedal car, as well as some of the track day techniques like heel-toe.

There was no way she could sensibly practice downshifting under heavy braking while on the street, but her time spent studying videos online helped prepare her for a Speed SF event at Laguna last June.

There, Joe McGuigan helped her fine-tune her blipping and clutch release so that she could coordinate her gearchanges crisply and keep the motor in the right rev range. Though the challenge was made somewhat more challenging by the T/A’s straightline performance — seriously greater than her R/T’s, with Hawk DTC-60s at all four corners, she never felt the new car lacked any braking performance during her first day. After a few sessions of bucking on the brakes and dragging the motor, it all began to click. By the end of the third session, she set a lap time ten seconds better than she ever had with the old car. Considering the T/A still needs a new alignment and a few other additions to make it truly track-oriented, that’s a remarkable improvement.

Her clean, level-headed driving impressed Joe enough to recommend she try the Speed SF Challenge series. “He insisted I join, but I’m still waiting to feel comfortable in the car before I begin competing with the guys here. They’re all too fast!” she admitted.

Perhaps she undersells herself, but maybe she’s just being prudent. Either way, it won’t be long before her lap times convince her she’s ready. In the leadup to the her moment of unshakable confidence, she plans to widen the footprint with a set of Apex VS5-RS wheels wrapped in 305-section Nankang AR-1s, protect her paint with a full PPF, and make a few aero additions.

Given her studious approach, she’ll be on top of her new T/A in short order. Not that she needs to, since, for Pauline, it’s always been about enjoying all the various experiences a sentimentally motivating machine can offer: customizing its appearance, learning its different features, a finding time to savor the time spent cruising at moderate speeds in scenic settings. Spyro, as she’s named the car after her favorite video game character, is less a tool than it is a personal statement and a means of finding satisfaction on a daily basis.

Between her insistence on seat time over primo parts, as well as the importance she places on feeling something sentimental for her vehicle, she could teach a new generation of spirited drivers that a successful track day has little to do with having the fastest car in the paddock.

Tom’s Miata: Frankenstein Fun

Tom’s story began with his Mini Cooper in the fall of 2018. Then in high school, he cobbled together parts from forums and Craigslist Marketplace postings and ended up pushing a little 230 horsepower and 270 lb-ft from the 1.6-liter. It carried him through his track day foray, but the more he drove it, the more it faltered. He couldn’t keep up with the costs, the fuel, and the track day entries.

His friends suggested a simpler car to try and earn his driving spurs with. By parting out the Mini, he could put together the few thousand he needed to pick up an NC Miata with nearly 200,000 miles on the clock. The NC had lived an unloved orphan’s life; moving through seven households before ending up in Tom’s driveway. Somehow, it was still stock when he bought it. This basic package promised regular attendance at local lapping events, even with his college schedule limiting his time and his finances.

Tom didn’t have the means or the interest in going ga-ga with the mod list. The basic package of Feal 441+ Road Race coilovers, RX-8 sway bars, and Cobra Suzuka buckets did him just fine as he was making his way from novice to intermediate. The objective was to get good enough to feel comfortable at the limit and fix what broke.

Fortunately, little did. The only issue in that busy twelve months was the OEM radiator bursting. In the first year of racing, Tom and a few trusted friends logged over thirty DEs on the dependable little Miata. It actually helped him earn a few bucks, too, after reading Engine Management: Advanced Tuning by Greg Banish, he picked up enough to start tuning the factory ECU and starting a side hustle. That money went to his track fees, and it seemed like he’d found a self-sustaining system for himself. All was well with the world until it wasn’t.

After the engine blew, he borrowed his friend’s daily to finish out the final three weeks of his final semester at school, then bought the remainder of a friend’s parted-out NC track car, which fortunately still had its motor. It wasn’t an ordinary two-liter. His friend had swapped in a 2.5 from a Ford Fusion, a budget upgrade with minor architectural differences to the 2.0 it replaced. Swapping it into his car took less than three days.

Unfortunately, the stock 2.5 fell flat on its face at 5,500. With a set of OEM Mazdaspeed 3 valve springs and a set of Xero Limit “Boost” camshafts, Tom was able to raise the 2.5’s rev limit without any thinning of the functional powerband. The 170 lb-ft on tap starts around 3,000 and carries through 5,000, and the power keeps building to the 7,100-rpm redline, where it makes 197 at the wheels.

A comparison of the 2.5 on E70 (red) versus the 2.0 on 91 (blue).

“The objective has been to see how fast I can go without cutting corners or spending much money,” he elaborated. This is Tom’s main reason to try and use as many OEM components as possible. To avoid dealing with the factory rear hubs shearing, he upgraded to a set of hubs from its stouter older brother, the RX-8.

Though it required a bit of custom work to make it fit, the in-the-family RX-8 differential helped tremendously. Better, more progressive breakaway and improved acceleration from a 4.1 final drive originally suited to a torque-free rotary. After this upgrade, the car no longer lost speed going uphill between Turns 8 and 9 at Thunderhill East.

Because the RX-8 differential is taller, in order to sit in the same spot, Tom had to move the alignment area for the studs to sit in the same spot, which meant losing the alignment dowels. Without these, the powerplant frame eventually started sagging after a few months of hard driving. Eventually, this led to the powerplant frame contacting the midpipe under heavy braking and curb hopping. His attempt at notching the powerplant frame was one piece of trial-and-error that didn’t go his way, but he plans to put a set of custom locator plates to avoid this problem permanently.

Currently, he’s fighting the smaller issues like the one above which make the car hard to drive as regularly as he’d like. “Mostly just little gremlins from the engine swap,” he added. Other than that, it's the wallow from the original bushings which make the Miata a bit unpredictable at times. That’ll be relatively straightforward though time consuming.

If his first year out of school is as lucrative as he hopes, he might assemble a new motor to make the MX-5 a real S2000 rival with the following parts: a Fusion’s 2.5-liter Duratec block and pistons, and a Mustang’s 2.3-liter Ecoboost connecting rods and crankshaft, 12:1 compression and an 8,200 rpm redline, he’s hoping for 270 horsepower at the wheels. “It’s going to take a lot of development on my end, but I’ve got a small group guiding me. I’m in good hands.”

Along with the added speed comes a need for better deceleration, so in addition to a set of four-piston Wilwood calipers and RX-8 Sport rotors (which are only $30 per corner), he’s gone and picked another part within the Mazda lineup that takes a little innovation and forum-digging to swap. The RX-8’s ABS system is less prone to engage ice mode. Though this will be another trek down an unpaved path, he’s been given the schematics from others and feels confident the swap will be successful.

“It’s been fun to Frankenstein because I like doing things that not many have done, but I’m more interested in retaining a lot of OEM equipment since I don’t think it will have many issues in the long run. Hopefully, these parts will make it easier to go out and drive more miles. I still need seat time more than anything. Seat time, saving money, and keeping it reasonably streetable have been my objectives. I think I’ve achieved most of them."

Now, I’m considering making it more of a race car since I’ve got a daily now. But until I can afford a truck, there’s no point in making it a total pain to drive. The added torque is definitely enjoyable in the canyons, where I can keep it in third most of the time.”

How many Miata owners can say that?

Cory’s C6 Grand Sport: Safe Not Sorry

He’d spent several years finding his feet in a Mustang, but after his friend was kind enough to let him try their Corvette Z06 at a track day, Cory Smetzler knew he had reached a junction, and although it would cost more, the prudent thing to do was to take a left turn.

The C6’s shape stimulated his imagination, and the performance was already so much more than what he’d been accustomed to; the Z06 in near-stock trim could already outperform his highly-modded Mustang. It was clear that it was time for a major change.

But Cory is a practical person, and making an expensive shift could not be justified by the C6’s soft, curving lines and wide arches alone. Pretty as it was, it was the performance package which convinced him to shell out some more coin, since its improved weight distribution, roomier wheel wells, and dead-reliable engine package promised much more fun and fewer headaches.

A set of American Racing headers bumps output to 470 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque at the wheels.

And pragmatism kept him from buying the same model, too. Instead of taking a chance with the Z06’s LS7 motor and its propensity to swallow a valve, he instead opted for the mid-tier Grand Sport, which loses the special motor and the aluminum frame. In their place, the Grand Sport comes with a more pedestrian LS3 and a steel frame, but for the price of less power and more weight, Cory purchased peace of mind.

Though the LS3 isn’t quite the motorsports-grade product the LS7 is, the improvements already made to this particular motor helped Cory forget about lost potential. The previous owner had installed a Dewitts radiator, a FAST 102 mm intake, a Nick Williams throttle body, as well as Doug Rippie Motorsports differential and transmission coolers.

The powerplant ran smoothly in the sweltering summer heat, though the engine lacked that zing and top-end that the other Corvette had, the mid-range torque of the mildly tuned LS3 was plenty exciting.

Mated to a TR6060 six-speed transaxle, the torquey LS3 and its 400-odd horsepower could get the car to GT3RS-speeds surprisingly quickly, so Cory wasted no time giving his new track car the stopping power and safety modifications that it warranted. He doled out the big bucks for an AP Racing Essex front brakes with 372mm rotors and inch-thick pads which guaranteed stopping power, consistency, and long pad life. No sense in taking shortcuts when stopping a heavy, powerful car.

Its accessible mid-range torque is exploitable on shorter courses and still strong enough to reach similar top speeds on faster ones. Surprisingly, the wonderful spread with the right combination of wheel size and final drive make it effortless to keep the engine humming along without the need for many shifts. This is a large part of what makes it so effective at tight tracks.

A 3,300-pound Corvette shows its shortcomings on tighter tracks. The poor motion ratio of the rear leaf springs pushed Cory to double the rear spring rate, which allows for the car to break away more progressively, and the resulting confidence from this predictable sliding helps Cory drive the car with more slip angle than he has with any other car.

The willingness to push a tail-happy car hard in the butt-clenching corners takes more than just progressive breakaway. Cory added a Nine Lives Racing single-element rear wing, mounts, endplates, front tunnels, and a homemade birch splitter added the stability he needed to trust the Corvette in fourth-gear sections at faster tracks like Sonoma.

The current setup isn’t perfect, but it’s nearly there. There’s the matter of weight to deal with, and he’d still like the rear to be better settled, but it is reliable and relatively kind to its tires, and so he’s been able to put in plenty of hassle-free track miles without going through too much rubber. Low maintenance and lots of seat time has been his credo since the start, and he’s hired Joe McGuigan to help put his philosophy to good use. With a little coaching, he’s been putting down impressive times after just a couple visits to Sonoma.

Since his recent move from the Pacific Northwest to Southern Oregon, Cory’s been able to enjoy the temperate weather and make it to track days with more energy and regularity. Seeing as how he’s been able to set impressive laps at circuits that are new to him, it’s certain he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in our Challenge series very soon. We’re happy to have him.

Alex’s FL5 Type R: Best of Both Worlds

For Alex Peysakhovich, living in NYC had its perks, but easy access to track days was not one of them. When he relocated to Los Altos and found himself with a backyard and a garage, he decided it might be time to purchase that car he’d always wanted and take advantage of California’s temperate weather and multiple tracks within a few hours’ driving distance.

His heart was always with Honda, but the then-current FK8 Type R was too boy-racer for his liking. “I really loved the car, but thought about some things you have to do with your only car, like go to a business meeting or drive in a funeral procession, and I couldn’t really imagine doing those in an FK8.”

So instead he began tracking with an ND Miata. Heavy modification made it a capable cornering machine, but its impracticality became a constant pain; it needed a trailer for long drives and couldn’t be used to take his dog and his girlfriend on weekend trips. He thought about getting an electric daily that he wouldn't track or modify, but that idea didn't last long. “What’s the point of buying a car you’re never going to take to the race track?” he asked himself.

Enter the FL5 Civic Type R, which debuted after a couple years of tracking the Mazda. The new Civic traded its predecessor’s divisive looks for more subdued styling, so Alex had to check it out for himself.

“I used to think Type Rs were a little overhyped, but after seeing it in person, I recognized why the car has a cult following,” he said.

He appreciated the way Honda’s engineers made this fifty-grand Civic feel unmistakably upmarket. But more than presence or build quality, it had real-world usability going for it. On longer trips, the comfortable seats were a welcome upgrade from his Miata’s race buckets. The interior space, the fit and finish, and the performance made the FL5 a great candidate for a daily driver-come-sleeper, and once the premiums started to shrink, Alex pulled the trigger and brought one home.

Before his first track outing, he made a few adjustments. He’d learned enough to know that a ~3,200 pound front-driver would wreck its Pilot Sports fairly fast, so he ditched those for a set of 265-section Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS tires wrapped around Apex VS5-RS wheels. Along with a set of eccentric lower ball joints to increase negative camber at the front axle, he replaced the stock pads with a set of Ferodo DS3.12s to help clamp the factory two-piece rotors.

He broke it in over 600 miles then took it to Thunderhill West for its shakedown, where he was pleasantly surprised. The steering was quick, despite a dead spot at twelve o’clock, and the gearbox was, well, Honda. If the interfaces were lacking in any way, it was the position of the throttle — as he put it, “in another zip code.” Thankfully, the auto-blip function facilitated heel-toe shifts despite the awkward pedal placement.

Being a front-drive car, he had expectations for how it might handle on a damp morning. Those were dashed on his first fast lap after mounting the dorito at Turn 3, when it hung the rear out in a big way.

“As far as a car that can pack a weekend of camping gear and do great times around Laguna, it’s a hard car to beat.”

The FL5’s mechanical LSD and brake-based stability control system do a commendable job getting the middleweight to rotate. What was less than impressive were the thermal problems which have been associated with the turbocharged Type Rs. Though not catastrophic, the heat causes the motor to pull timing by the end of a long session, but never puts it into limp mode. “I think there’s only so much you can expect from a turbocharged two-liter making over 300 horsepower,” Alex added.

Fortunately, these issues are not new to the Type R lineup and the FL5 was designed to make them easier to address than its predecessor ever allowed. The ducting routes have been established from the factory, along with a functional hood vent. Honda laid the groundwork, but more needs to be done for hot summer days. “It isn’t imperative, but it could use a bigger radiator and an oil cooler. I’ve got those sitting in my garage in anticipation for the summer.”

“The designers cared about the experience of the car; they wanted it to feel special, even when parked.” Alex added. Credit: Tokumeigakarinoaoshima CCA-SA 4.0.

Beyond that, any remaining mods are far from necessary. The FL5 is well-balanced out of the box and does not need much more power. “The engine is certainly strong. If it could use something to make it feel a little sportier, it would be an exhaust — it’s too quiet.”

That subdued exhaust note is part of what makes the car so versatile, and its wide repertoire comes at a premium. Besides requiring pricier fuel, the turbocharged front-driver is hard on its front brakes and tires, and it goes through consumables far faster than a lighter, better balanced car like a Miata.

There’s no denying the running costs are too high to track a Type R regularly — multiple track days per month will continue to be the Miata’s job — but the Civic will be doing daily driving, mountains, longer trips, and rear its head at Laguna and Thunderhill East a few times a year.

Four years ago, Alex thought fifty thousand for a Civic was steep, but he’s changed his tune as of late. “I know that sort of money for a Civic sounds crazy, but you really need to try it. It’s tough to think of something similarly priced that handles so many different tasks as well as the Type R. If I could only have one car, this would be it.”

Richard’s MR2 Turbo: Not Too Pretty To Pirouette

It began all the way back in grade school with Gran Turismo. A few years later, Richard Tran graduated from video games and started moving through the worlds of hard-parking BMWs and drag racing until his expanding network brought a few road racers into his life.

When they invited him to a track day with Speed SF in 2019, he accepted — but not before considering the consequences. Richard was opposed to taking big risks; he’d seriously hurt himself in a car crash a few years before, and he certainly didn’t want to damage his then-new M3, but they persisted — they told him he’d leave the the track feeling something extraordinary.

The feelings of euphoria following that first session helped him forget about the potential costs of thrill seeking. In fact, he’d been bitten badly enough to sign up then and there for another twelve track days. Quickly, he put the dependable M3 on the back burner; he had a cheaper, lighter, more maneuverable mid-engined car he believed would take more to master.

To the trained eye, his 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo (SW20) didn’t look like the ideal track toy candidate. Actually, it looked more like a museum piece. Three-stage paint, fresh interior panels, and completely new suspension components were all parts of a three-year restoration that culminated in a show-grade vehicle. Richard was so proud of it, he displayed it at SEMA.

Work Meisters and the OEM kouki aero was all that was needed to make the SW20 pop — it truly is a svelte, sexy car.

Despite its immaculate condition, he felt it wasn’t too good to be used in the way he’d (ab)used his M3. In fact, Richard felt that he’d be missing out on something vital if he didn’t track it. There was a directness and a demanding quality about it that made him feel giddy at 5/10ths.

The second outing proved he had his head screwed on straight, but didn’t quite have the quick hands needed to manage the MR2. The factory components just wouldn’t cut it, especially on all-seasons, so he replaced the rotors with slotted Stoptechs and slapped on a set of EBC Yellows. Along with those, he installed a set of Tein Super Street coilovers, a pair of GReddy side skirts, and a 1998-spec spoiler with lifted risers for a little flash.

The basic package was fun, but far from friendly. “I made the mistake of trying to drive it like the M3,” he began, “and that just wouldn’t work. I learned pretty quickly that I couldn’t throw it around or brake as late as I could in the BMW.”

The odd agricultural excursion didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for his demanding new car.

After many red flags and several stern conversations with the track workers, Richard learned he had to soften his inputs a little and improve the chassis a lot. The second-generation MR2 is known as a nervous car prone to rotate without much provocation, but it can be tamed with some suspension work, a little maintenance throttle, and the right sort of staggered tire setup.

Giving precedence to the rear axle began by fitting the rear wheels with 245/40R17 Federal RS-RR Pros — somewhat wider than the 215/40R17 fronts. Then, Richard turned to Elite Performance’s Melody Cannizzaro to soften the sensitive midship’s edges. A little more front camber relative to the rear helped settle the rear end while cornering, and more toe-in at the rear kept it planted under braking and acceleration. Then, as advised by his friends, Richard tried stiffening the front to minimize the nose dive under heavy braking, which could encourage the lightened rear to spin.

Minimizing some of that see-sawing gave him much more confidence in the car, and the resulting improvements in cornering speeds helped Richard notice a few more of its shortcomings.

It wasn’t the tight, direct thing he thought a lightweight MR car would be, but, after all, it was nearing a half-million miles. Sunshine Auto overhauled the entire suspension, adding new control arms, bigger sway bars, inner and outer tie rods, additional chassis bracing, and a set of 808 Racespec coilovers from Bob Pham. “The new setup made the car feel like a go-kart. Actually, the first day back at the track with these mods, I went six seconds faster than I’d ever gone before,” he exclaimed.

Richard’s love for the Sailor Moon series gave this car its eponymous nickname.

“Those modifications transformed it from a decent daily driver to an uncomfortable track car, but I still trust it enough to drive it to the track — it hasn’t left me stranded once,” he said. Pretty impressive for a car that just passed the 500,000 miles on the odometer. Chalk a bit of that up to build quality from the late-eighties Japanese boom, some of that to Richard’s obsessive maintenance habits, and a little bit to the near-stock configuration of the power train.

Aside from a Mishimoto radiator an HKS SSQV BOV, and a Berk 3” exhaust, the original 3SGTE motor remains stock.

Aside from a splitter and a pair of canards, Richard doesn’t plan on adding much more. Actually, he’s confident enough to admit he’s the limiting factor at this stage. “My friends will get in and go six seconds faster than I can, so I know I need seat time more than anything. Well, I could use a set of Sparco Circuits because I’m getting thrown around on the stock seats, but that’s about it.

For me, it’s the perfect track car — dependable, fun, and constantly challenging. I don’t really care about making it the fastest car here. I’ve got a ways to go as a driver, anyways. I’m not here to be the best — I just want to have fun, and in that department, the MR2 always delivers.

My track friends’ words of encouragement and support have been a driving force behind my journey; pushing me to overcome obstacles and strive for greatness. I rolled my car once many years ago and I was in the hospital for months. I thought I wouldn’t walk again.

My wife did not want to see me in another accident ever again. Actually, she wanted me to retire, but she saw how happy I was attending track days with friends, so she now watches me track. I promised her I’ll never go completely flat-out ever again and I’m fine with that — as long as I get to see her smile.”

Special thanks to Elite Performance, The Driveway, and Sunshine Auto.

Joe’s AP1 S2000: Continuing Education

It wasn’t until Joe Drane moved out to California at the ripe age of 38 that he was able to try track driving for himself. Being a natural tinkerer and a bit of a hot rodder growing up, track driving had been a lifelong dream, but the opportunities for that sort of thing in rural Florida were few and far between.

After teaching him the ins and outs of network engineering, Joe started learning the cloud and found a few roles with startups in Texas. This created a focus on execution and continuous learning while also placing high value in data helped him put together a stellar resume in short time. This almost obsessive approach would later help Joe learn at a ridiculously rapid rate when learning the racing ropes.

The Land of Milk and Honey

After relocating to San Francisco to start a new role with Facebook, the assortment of beautiful sports cars lining the streets suggested he might be in the right place to learn to drive on track. He searched for ins on the pages of the local sanctioning bodies until he found an easier, more cost-effective way to dip his toe in the water.

Meanwhile, the need for a new outlet was getting harder to ignore. COVID weighed heavily on him, and while he loved his new job, it didn’t offer the distraction he needed mid-pandemic.

When he proposed running a few lapping days one weekend, his wife not only supported him in his decision, she helped him find an appropriate track car. Incidentally, the two had met at work after Joe spotted her leaving her S2000 in the parking lot. It only seemed right that such a car, the conversation starter, would help him start another love affair.

And so he picked out the cheapest first-gen S2000 he could find. This was several years ago, but even by the standards of the time, this car was affordable — and for good reason. “It was just a mess. It had no rear glass, the check engine light was on, the wiring was a rat’s nest, and the motor was ticking. I spent the winter restoring it, but I didn’t realize just how bad things were until I started working on it.”

Growing Pains

“I ran into some issues installing the aftermarket parts. The radiator wasn’t sitting low enough for the hood to close. I took it into the shop at BlackTrax to have it inspected, and there the mess continued to unfold. The radiator supports were bent, and I couldn’t purchase new ones anymore. I had to source the brackets from two fender cutouts from eBay.

Then we pulled the cylinder head and saw the valve retainers were cracked, there was a ton of carbon on the valves, and two of the cylinder walls were scarred. After ten track days, the transmission blew third gear. Oh man, what a nightmare it was.”

To mend the ailing engine and fortify it for track use, he replaced the block with rebuilt F22’s, then fitted a Radium catch can as well as Mishimoto’s radiator and oil cooler. Not eager to deal with another blown F-series, he wisely spent a few thousand more on a Link G4+ ECU to employ several failsafes and extract everything from the motor — mainly more mid-range torque and a peak of 227 horsepower at the wheels.The Link was then paired to an AiM MXG dash which to give him alerts and relay lap data.

Despite the early hurdles he had to cover, he remained willing and able to push on. The obsessive drive which fueled Joe’s career now had a second outlet; allowing him to research the engineering involved, pick parts, test them on track, and build a more supportive social network than the one which work provided him.

As it gave him a new lease on life, he didn’t hesitate to spend whatever was needed to turn this rough example of an S2000 into something exceptional. Within a few months, he’d added a long list of modifications to try and breathe some new life into this aging chassis.

After investing so much in the performance side of things, it made sense to apply an Inozetek wrap to help the car pop.

Among those additions were an APR splitter, a Voltex Type II wing, Rockstar Garage’s Feal two-way coilovers, and Stoptech C43 (F) and C42 big (R) brakes. Studying hours of onboard footage — namely Nate Hackman’s banzai laps — helped him understand just how much harder he could apply the brakes and how severely late he was getting to throttle.

In the interest of getting up to speed quickly, he skipped the cheap tires and went straight to a set of Yokohama Advan A052s, then wrapped them around a set of 18 x 9.5” Advan Gram Lights.

Though he’d already spent a small fortune on parts, never once did Joe agonize over expense during this introductory period. “I decided to pay for an education in racing since I feel it usually pays dividends,” he said. When his engine tuner Jei from BlackTrax offered to tag along to one HPDE at Thunderhill and teach Joe to study data, he jumped at the opportunity. “The telemetry revealed I was shifting a little too much, so we figured out the right shift points and instantly cut a couple seconds off my PB.”

The car was capable and reassuring enough for Joe to continue pushing, but asking more the car led to the standard Torsen differential failing. In its place, Joe put a Puddymod 1.5-way OSG and found the incremental improvement in power-down and stability motivating enough to invest in one other area that wasn’t quite up to snuff: dampers.

Joe knew the top-shelf option would make the car more quicker, more predictable, and less taxing to drive, so he splurged on a set of Blacktrax-built Penske 8300s. Even without much knob turning, the new dampers revitalized the car and helped Joe find the confidence to commit to the quick corners. “My favorite mod, without question. I dropped six seconds off my previous best the first time out on the Penskes. Worth every penny.”

Continuing Education

Learning to wrench and approach the track from a theoretical perspective helped him progress, but never having attended a racing school, he started to wonder if there were ways to improve his technique post-haste. He enrolled in a few drift courses to study the art of oversteering, and soon felt at ease asking the S2000 to rotate a little more than before.

Both his approach and the S2000’s setup are far from perfect, and Joe’s wise enough to admit that. “I haven’t thought much about adjusting the dampers — most of the time I just leave them in a neutral position and try to drive as best as I can.”

But the results from a relatively short time spent on track speak for themselves. He’s learned at a remarkable rate and, with a little more guidance from the knowledgeable group of friends he’s made recently, he’s bound to be fighting for podiums at the front of the S3 class sometime soon. He still has a few points to play with — and they’ll go towards a Zebulon rear wing, a larger Alumalite splitter, and Professional Awesome tunnels.

Joe’s studious nature has also helped him better understand the endless tradeoffs that building a track car requires. While the major cost associated with getting a rough car off the ground can eat into an aspiring driver’s budget, the peace of mind that comes from driving a flawed, imperfect car can help a driver push hard — harder than they likely would in a pristine example. That’s why he has no regrets taking the rocky but fruitful and informative path he took.

Michael’s 350Z: Take A Chance, Prove a Point

Twelve years with an unloved chassis has given Michael “Stubz” Hillo a unique perspective on taking the underdog route. There are other established, well-paved paths with minimal maintenance and certain outcomes, but they don’t offer a maverick a chance to prove a point.

Stubz took it upon himself to take the unloved 350Z and make it into a NASA ST4 race-winner because, well, he hated the idea of conforming. However, before he started his mission, he was after an affordable way to begin drifting. Nowadays, the 350Z is one of the few Japanese sports coupes that offers the sort of value the budget drifters offered back in drifting’s heyday. Even then, it was pretty cheap.

It was more than just an option for the cost-conscious drifter, as Stubz realized. Beyond low overhead, a torquey motor, and a rear-drive layout, the Z has a lot going for it. It’s reasonably stiff, the aerodynamics aren’t terrible, and the aftermarket is decently sized. It might not be as well supported as the E46 M3, but it offers similar power-to-weight figures and the potential to run respectable lap times at a fraction of the price.

The zeal and the commitment to proving the platform came later — at first, it was cheap fun. Beating up on pricier cars was only part of the pleasure; the steering was full of feel and responsive, the motor responded well to modifications, and the rear end put the power down decently.

Some of that luster began to fade when he tried to turn the Z into something more than a midfield car. The budget modifications no longer seemed to be enough, and so he tried experimenting with the high-end brands which only offered limited support for the Z.

After testing Penske and Godspeed coilovers, he settled on MCS two-ways with 18K springs up front and 9K in the rear. The car still lacks some of the compliance he’d like in slower corners, but it works well enough in the fast sections, thanks in part to Epsilon+ aero, that the compromise is acceptable.

The most irritation has stemmed from the car’s flawed braking system. Persistent knockback issues and lousy OEM ABS pushed Stubz into spending hundreds of hours diagnosing and attempting to find a package that would work.

Plenty of thrown wrenches and a thousand curse words later, he found a set of Stoptech Trophy big brakes that did a reasonable job. Because they moved the brake calipers closer to three o’clock, they mitigated some of the knockback resulting from the steering knuckle flexing. The remaining bugbear was the ABS system, which needed to be retrofitted with the Bosch Mk60 kit from Race Harness Technologies.

Though the braking system works decently these days, Stubz isn’t completely satisfied. Trailbraking has improved, but the outright braking performance hasn’t gotten much better. However, some of that has to do with the weight of the vehicle, which has been hard to lose with conventional stripping methods. “You’ve gotta get pretty creative when it comes to putting the car on a diet. I didn’t want to, but I had to buy carbon. Hatch, hood, front bumper, and headlight blanks from Spinnaker Composites have helped, but the car is still heavy.” he explains.

It’s transformed into a reasonably swift car in recent years, even with the diminishing returns from spending big bucks on primo parts. The 3,200-pound Z has an average of 257 horsepower which is pretty well administered thanks to 275-section Toyo RRs and the aforementioned aero. A broad powerband helps make the car less track-sensitive than some, and, anyways, Stubz no longer agonizes over finding the perfect setup. After several years of head scratching, he sees the Z as a dependable, safe, and sturdy car which is easy to run and satisfying to drive. Going for the gold isn’t his aim any longer — he’s happy with what the 350Z’s speed. Any car that can lap Buttonwillow W13CW in 1:54 is more than just fun — it’s seriously fast.

Striving to perfect the car sapped some of his ambition, but it’s also given him a few notable wins, wisdom, and a pragmatic approach that provides him with peace of mind. His lack of zeal might not motivate newcomers to try and beat the odds, but if they read between the lines, they should realize that there’s nothing with the Z as an entry/mid-level car. It might not carry an ambitious driver to the top of the podium, but its golden era-pricing lowers the barrier to entry. It’ll help them get involved faster — and in Stubz’s view, that’s better than sitting on the sidelines and dreaming of victory.