Track Day at Horse Thief Mile

First off, I had a blast! The whole experience was worth all of the driving, the time, and money. I was worried about the weather but fortunately it did not rain. The cool weather did help the car run smoothly...it was about 45-55 degrees. On to the good stuff...

I did a total of 3 runs; the first one by myself behind a lead car (one of the instructors) to show us the correct lines, the second run I asked for an instructor (the absolute best decision I made), and the third run I was by myself (the video is below taken with a GoPro Hero mounted on the front bumper).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4ExiySJuHc

As for mods I had done:

- 18" O.Z. Ultraleggeras w/Hankook Evo V12's
- High Temperature Brake Fluid
- Carbonio Stage 1 C.A.I.

- I was on stock suspension which turned out to be pretty good. The body roll was definitely there but, for my first track day, the stock suspension was more than enough for me. I will be putting on a H&R Touring Cup Kit when I figure out a way to get it installed for less than $680.

- As for the brakes...they got a little mushy on my last run but they still held up pretty well. I think the high temperature brake fluid helped, but seeing that I had not tracked the car with the stock brake fluid, I do not have anything to compare it to. I will end up putting better pads on when these ones are done, but I doubt if I will go any further (i.e. big brake kits, ss lines, etc.)

Overall, the car was great...it had more than enough power to suit my needs (which is why a tune is not that important to me). Having an instructor in the car telling me exactly when and where to brake, accelerate, etc. was a huge learning experience. This was by far more beneficial than any of the mods I had done to my car. While the instructor was in the car, I passed a new wrx and a bmw 330 :happyanim: . I was able to catch them in the corners because their lines were way off.

On to some pictures...

My car and PandaGTI's car



Another picture of our cars with the track in the background



A sad day for an s2k owner



Another picture of the s2k



Someone felt like taking a truck out on the track



Enjoy!

Nice! Great pictures, hope you have more! The problem is that it's very hard to take pictures of your own car when you are driving it. I'm jealous, as it is currently -2 Celsius in Vancouver and threatening to snow...

Instructors are the best mod ever, along with driver training. Should put that before any modifications to the car!

Wow looks like fun did that s2k crash on its own?

Glad you had fun out there

You where pretty fast for your first time... And the car looked fast chasing others through the esses.

iGTI... Hope you can make it out to the next one

Yeah the s2000 driver tried to save it after fish tailing through the esses... Shouldve just let it spin to a stop with little to no damage rather than attempt to save and go through wall

The bright side is that the chassis looked straight so he could always salvage it and turn it into a track dedicated car

Thanks Panda, I just have to work on my entry/exit into/out of the turns, that instructor helped a ton. I had a blast watching you catch all the other cars...it showed me what this car is capable of with the correct driving (and kO4 of course, haha).

It was also nice to hop into the gti and drive home with seat heaters on, listening to the radio, and getting 30 mpg. Most of the cars there couldn't do this, if any of them.

It would be great to see more of the guys on here out at the track, we were out numbered by all those rwd cars. It didn't mean we couldn't catch them, though!

And it was hard to look at that s2k, fortunately the driver walked away from the accident.

ahhh Can't wait to retrack my car, look like you both had a blast ! wish I could just drive to your country and try u both ! Always fun to compare different mod setup ! And 3 Gti on tracks would be awesome... bah, I can dream

U would be a big challenge PandaGTI, don't know if your K04 kit would be enough to walk on me.

Gti vs Gti is always a win !

FFAC40 said:

Thanks Panda, I just have to work on my entry/exit into/out of the turns, that instructor helped a ton. I had a blast watching you catch all the other cars...it showed me what this car is capable of with the correct driving (and kO4 of course, haha).

It was also nice to hop into the gti and drive home with seat heaters on, listening to the radio, and getting 30 mpg. Most of the cars there couldn't do this, if any of them.

It would be great to see more of the guys on here out at the track, we were out numbered by all those rwd cars. It didn't mean we couldn't catch them, though!

And it was hard to look at that s2k, fortunately the driver walked away from the accident.

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Yeah, supposedly they are gonna mail me a trophy for fastest fwd that day 1 min 6.85 sec that day... Also overall 3rd fastest behind a fully race prepped and caged cobra mustang with a supercharger driven by an instructor getting 1 min 6.5 sec and a caged subaru wrx getting 1 min 5.9 sec driven by a very experienced auto crosser.

Not bad for a comfy daily driver

Bruno2000 said:

ahhh Can't wait to retrack my car, look like you both had a blast ! wish I could just drive to your country and try u both ! Always fun to compare different mod setup ! And 3 Gti on tracks would be awesome... bah, I can dream

U would be a big challenge PandaGTI, don't know if your K04 kit would be enough to walk on me.

Gti vs Gti is always a win !

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That would be fun, looks like you have very similar mods except you have the APR stage 2 setup... Until then we could always just race similar cars on GT5 or forza online:thumbsup:

Glad to hear you had a good time and came home safe, unlike the s2K. Have you already purchased the H&R springs? How much do they drop the car?

jmk007 said:

Glad to hear you had a good time and came home safe, unlike the s2K. Have you already purchased the H&R springs? How much do they drop the car?

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Yes, I have purchased them already. I actually got the touring cup kit which comes with shocks and springs. The advertised drop is 1.2 inches.

PandaGTI said:

That would be fun, looks like you have very similar mods except you have the APR stage 2 setup... Until then we could always just race similar cars on GT5 or forza online:thumbsup:

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ahah, I have forza3 and tried to mod the mk6 as close as I could to my real GTI and waiting GT5 for VERY soon as u probably already know,I will give u my info to play togheter by private.

Btw, do u know if our awesome mk6 was made as premium car ? I think they made it for the gti mk5, probably not for the mk6 :S ...

No Mk6 on GT5. Not very happy with that!

Glad you had fun. I bet you're already planning your next track event! :thumbup:

FFAC40 said:

It was also nice to hop into the gti and drive home with seat heaters on, listening to the radio, and getting 30 mpg. Most of the cars there couldn't do this, if any of them.

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haha this just made my day. sweet pics and the video is pretty rad too!