Kommon doing an HPDE at Road Atlanta - Honda Forum / Acura Forum

kommon_sense · 10-14-2005, 07:26 AM

Thought that some of the folks here may get a kick out of a few photos. I went down to www.roadatlanta.com (home of panoz racing, and holds le petit lemans) on Oct. 8-9, 2005. I had a great time, but saw a few things that nearly made me cry. One guy totaled a Porsche GT3, another porsche caught on fire, a few BMW's, ended up in the gravel trap at turn 12, and there were a few other mishaps. Thankfully the little civic and I made it there and back in one piece.

HPDE's are great. Anyone can do them. All you need is a helmet, some common sense, and a good attitude. If you are on the east coast, hit www.trackschedule.com .

This car is my daily driver and has a streetable suspension which consists of :

- 15x6.5" wheels w/Toyo Proxes T1-S tires (205/50/15)
- Stock 22mm front sway with poly sway bushings and endlinks
- Omnipower front upper camber kit (to get *more* negative camber)
- Koni Yellows + H&R Sport springs
- Skunk2 front upper strut brace
- Ingalls rear upper arm camber kit
- Comptech 22mm rear sway bar kit
- Carbotech Panther Plus brake pads w/ATE Type200 Gold fluid

Here is a pic at Turn 3 and yes, I know my car is dirty... it was a long drive (6hrs to get to the track) and it rained all of the way there.

This is coming through turn 4 which leads you into the esses.

You can see that I got caught in a train here... Freakin' M3 was holding me up

This is another shot of turn 5.

This is turn 5. This is an uphill left hand turn which is why the front driver's side wheel looks like it wants to let go.

This is coming through turn 12. You will notice some body roll, but I was scooting through at around 90mph

Photopost on SHO has been acting up a bit, so sometimes the pics work, and sometimes they don't...

commador · 10-14-2005, 07:45 AM

dammit, right now they arent, and I want to see this!

scottigee · 10-14-2005, 08:40 AM

eager to see the H&Rs...I'm thinking of picking up a set.
waiting.....

Mr GSR · 10-14-2005, 10:54 AM

SHO's owning your pics again....

.©a®ßØn. · 10-14-2005, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr GSR

SHO's owning your pics again....

yeah picky no worky

IISaiNtII · 10-14-2005, 02:31 PM

DAMN YOU PHOTOHOST!!!

i'll edit when i can finally see the pics

supapoopa · 10-15-2005, 09:07 AM

Can't see pics either.

WIll check back later.

kommon_sense · 10-15-2005, 10:49 PM

Here is one of the pics... Hopefully SHO's photopost will be back online soon so that the other pics are available.

This is turn 5, coming out of the esses. I was making a left turn and doing probably 80+mph... Unfortunately, I kept hitting redline coming through there, so I kept having to back off the throttle to keep the rpms happy.

KJMagnum · 10-16-2005, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kommon_sense

I was making a left turn and doing probably 80+mph... Unfortunately, I kept hitting redline coming through there, so I kept having to back off the throttle to keep the rpms happy.

3rd gear?

kommon_sense · 10-16-2005, 07:13 AM

Yup, in 3rd. I could have gone to 4th, but its a bad idea to shift when the car isn't fairly stable and turn 5 goes uphill and the little 1.6L just didn't have enough go to pull me up the hill in 4th. The elevation changes at road atlanta sometimes makes you pick a lower gear than you really want to be in.

KJMagnum · 10-16-2005, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kommon_sense

Yup, in 3rd. I could have gone to 4th, but its a bad idea to shift when the car isn't fairly stable and turn 5 goes uphill and the little 1.6L just didn't have enough go to pull me up the hill in 4th. The elevation changes at road atlanta sometimes makes you pick a lower gear than you really want to be in.

Oh ok, I wouldn't have used 4th either. I'm just used to having a few more rpms in 3rd when doing 80mph. The incline must have made the difference.

PS: The car is looking good. I'm glad to see a Civic running with the big boys. Is it normal for everyone to have a passenger?

Blazin Civic · 10-16-2005, 12:56 PM

Yeah it is the driving instructor.

KJMagnum · 10-16-2005, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blazin Civic

Yeah it is the driving instructor.

Whoa! Everyone gets a driving instructor? That's cool...I wish there was something like that here in SoCal.

kommon_sense · 10-16-2005, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KJMagnum

Oh ok, I wouldn't have used 4th either. I'm just used to having a few more rpms in 3rd when doing 80mph. The incline must have made the difference.

PS: The car is looking good. I'm glad to see a Civic running with the big boys. Is it normal for everyone to have a passenger?

I can get up to about 90mph with the d16y8 in 3rd. However I learned a very important lesson from one of the instructors. You should *NEVER* take a turn at redline. Reason being if the rear end breaks loose, you need to hit the throttle to get more weight on the rear to keep it stable. If you are already at redline then you have no more throttle to give it and you are screwed.

And yup, we have instructors. I got signed off to solo, but I kept my instructor because I had gotten used to having his weight in the car. Besides we got along great, so we were giggling our butts off half of the time. I need a video cam for the next time I go to the track. Then I would have vids of the m3's that I passed

phyek · 10-16-2005, 07:59 PM

That looks beautiful getting my set tomorrow