Well, I took the Lotus to the track on Sunday, and had a bucketload of fun. I was there at 8:30 or so, and the Autocross track had just opened:
There were a couple of young guys there with a Mazda Miata they had been prepping for Autocross, and they were fast. One of them took me around in about 43s. I was impressed.
I ended up doing 6 runs in the morning, and 4 more in the afternoon with Mary, Todd and Charles as passengers. I drove as hard as I could, and that was pretty hard! My best time, a decent, but still very unimpressive 49s... I really have to work on the driving: the placement of the car in each curve (entrance and Apex), the smoothness, avoiding drifting too much, etc...
Anyway, I loved it, and want to do it again.
At the end of the day, we got to do a few "parade laps" on the main track. I was actually surprised at how fast they let us go, but since we were not allowed to pass, there were numerous slowdowns, especially before the hairpin curve.
Unfortunately, the car stated heating...
I added water at the service station after letting it cool, but it was spewing coolant on the way back, and hot again when we got back home. I added water again in the morning, but it started heating again after a while, so I took it to Hesco.
Turns out there is water in two cylinders, which means a blown head gasket, or worse possibly a cracked head. Bummer. And I am not sure exactly how it happened. I did push the car, but not all that hard, and am wondering if there was an existing problem with the cooling system that became suddenly critical on the track...
There were a couple of young guys there with a Mazda Miata they had been prepping for Autocross, and they were fast. One of them took me around in about 43s. I was impressed.
I ended up doing 6 runs in the morning, and 4 more in the afternoon with Mary, Todd and Charles as passengers. I drove as hard as I could, and that was pretty hard! My best time, a decent, but still very unimpressive 49s... I really have to work on the driving: the placement of the car in each curve (entrance and Apex), the smoothness, avoiding drifting too much, etc...
Anyway, I loved it, and want to do it again.
At the end of the day, we got to do a few "parade laps" on the main track. I was actually surprised at how fast they let us go, but since we were not allowed to pass, there were numerous slowdowns, especially before the hairpin curve.
Unfortunately, the car stated heating...
I added water at the service station after letting it cool, but it was spewing coolant on the way back, and hot again when we got back home. I added water again in the morning, but it started heating again after a while, so I took it to Hesco.
Turns out there is water in two cylinders, which means a blown head gasket, or worse possibly a cracked head. Bummer. And I am not sure exactly how it happened. I did push the car, but not all that hard, and am wondering if there was an existing problem with the cooling system that became suddenly critical on the track...
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