I took the car for a one day high performance driving course at Proformance in Kent WA at Pacific Raceways. The morning consisted of a little bit of classroom talk with Don Kitch. The Art of driving in the rain was a book and a movie about him. Then we took the cars out for some drills in the morning, followed by course familiarization laps with instructors, and finally several sessions of track lapping with instructors. It was a great time and it felt amazing to really push the car in a controlled environment. That was the most fun I've had with the car over the 15 years that I've owned it and it kind of reinvigorated my love of the FD. I also learned a lot about what the car can do.The instructors and other drivers were all pretty happy to see an FD on track, and they were also pretty impressed with the swap. Some notes from the track sessions.
Engine: I had more than enough power all through the entire rev range. The car is very fast, and the mid-range torque coupled with the lightweight car made it effortless to get the car moving fast. I was shifting at 5k for most of the track, and I never felt the need to wind it up higher. Except for the long straight where I was redlining 4th gear. The EWP setup did fine and my coolant temps were controlled all day long. The oil was getting hot, and I was seeing 260+ throughout the sessions. I ordered another of the same oil cooler to add to the passenger side, and I'll do the ducting the same way. I had a lot of oil consumption throughout the day. My catch can caught several ounces, and I was down about a quart of oil by the time I got home. One of the track workers mentioned he was seeing a small puff of smoke when I was decelerating from the long straight going into the first sweeping corner. I'm wondering if I am burning oil because of PCV despite having a catch can, or if it is something else?
Suspension: I had the coilovers set pretty soft to start, but later stiffened them up a good amount to get more response and to control body roll. I have 8/6kg springs front and rear, and they seemed to work okay, but may be on the soft side for track usage. They are nice and comfortable on the street though. The car handled great with stiffer shocks settings, but I may have set them a little too stiff because I think I lost some compliance on some bumpy sections. Maybe in the future I'll look into stiffer sway bars to allow more response and less body roll so I can set the shocks a little softer. With the amount of torque that I have, I could definitely feel the weight transfer to the rear under acceleration and the rear squat under power. Would 10/8kg springs help to reduce the squat?
Tires/brakes: The Continental ECS 02 felt good on track for being a tire that is a compromise between street, track performance, and wet performance. They had lots of grip and I could feel the feedback through them when I was pushing them hard. I run a square 255/40/17 all around at the moment. I never felt any hint of understeer; I think I would like to run a wider tire in the rear on my next set to go faster. The RZ brakes that I have all around performed great. I repeatedly and consistently slowed the car adequately throughout the sessions without any degradation in braking performance. I am running stock Mazda pads, and I actually didn't have any brake fade. I thought I might need some more aggressive pads for track days, but I was surprised that the stock pads survived all of the abuse and maintained bite all day. Perhaps as I get to be a faster driver and my car gets more dialed in, I'll need better pads. Since my ABS is deleted, I now have an adjustable prop valve for the rear brakes. I have it set in the middle of it's range right now, so I guess that means 50% flow, and I'm not really sure if I need any adjustment. Part of the drills in the morning was ABS engagement, or in my case locked up the brakes, then recovering from it. The car seemed to do fine, so I guess I'll just leave it?
Interior: My 330mm Sparco steering wheel covers up my gauges pretty bad. On the street, it's not a huge deal as I can just move my head to see them, but at the track with all of my attention focused on driving, the steering wheel is really masking the tach and speedo. My shift light on my speedhut tach is still visible so that is nice and I didn't see a real need to look at my speedo, but it would still be nice to be able to see them if I wanted to. I ordered a Personal Grinta that is 350mm, so hopefully that allows me to see them. My metering hood is carbon fiber wrapped, but it causes some glare. I want to repair or replace the metering hood to stop it from rocking back and forth (broken tabs), and maybe do some flocking on it. The stock seats seemed to work okay, but I think a bucket seat would work even better. There was one corner in particular with elevation change that I was putting effort into staying planted in my seat. I think a bucket seat would give me a more planted seating position, hopefully lower in the car, and maybe provide more feedback from the car. My oil temp gauge currently maxes out at 260. Not that I want to go above that, but when I reached 260 during lapping, I was blind to what my actual temps were. I may upgrade to a 300 degree gauge at some point, but hopefully my additional oil cooler keeps me under 260. The Lizardskin coating that I did in the trans tunnel has been working great. It doesn't seem like much if any heat gets transmitted into the cabin. Before that, it used to feel like I was getting baked.
I have 2 more track days lined up this month at the Ridge in Shelton, WA which I am looking forward to. The car is going into storage after that for a few years while I live overseas again, but I'm glad I'm getting to enjoy the track days now while I can.
