Cliffs: Wow.

Long story: A friend and I joined the Z guys in their second annual Z Party at MSR Houston. First off, those Z's were just beautiful, most were certainly modded and tastefully at that. Kudos to the Z guys.

So, to the chase. I'm pretty much stock, my only mods are BB's kit and an Injen SRI. Well, sort of. On my "mods list" for the car show part of the meet i placed "Two LATCH attached child seats". Yes, i had them and they were installed so i could take the family around the track for the parade lap.

The G handled, braked and accelerated wonderfully. Even DRM's (downshift rev matches) were right on. Going in i had the usual concerns:

- Will my brakes keep up?
- Will the tires keep up?
- Tranny?
- etc. etc...

It was 98 degrees out there and i had no problems with anything whatsoever. The stock Sport brakes never faded and nothing overheated even after multiple high speed stomps. In fact i was rather surprised that it stopped faster than i thought it would - ABS never activated on any stops. The brakes are certainly not a weak spot with this vehicle on this track. Fastest straights were in the 110s.

My tires, Falken FK-452's, started squealing like pigs but never gave up. At first i thought they were sliding because of the squealing sound, but later on realized that it really wasn't. They also didn't chunk up/shear off like some tires after a few sessions.

Love the sound of the intake, and the G in general once you get on the straights, and it turns admirably. I just drool at the idea of getting some suspension upgrades.

My only gripe, if anything, was joining the "newbie" group. I was stuck behind slower cars in my group a bit too often (everyone was still learning the ropes, i guess, and some forgot the "point" rule for allowing passes). In fact on other laps, the only time i was able to pass was when the cars in front of me wiped out. So, in these instances i had to baby the car... so much so that it confused the transmission in DS mode. Yes, i drive an auto

I had an in-car video set-up, but alas my video cam went into protection mode the moment i went over a few g's. So, no video's guys. Sorry.

Y'all should really try some type of HPDE someday, the G is more than capable in stock form. If anything, the driver would be holding back the cars capabilities, not the other way around.

And oh, i think i surprised quite a few guys out there... in the midst of all the Z Coupe's of various years, A couple of G Coupes, some Miata's, a Corvette and a couple of S2000's, i was the only sedan... and again, with child seats.

 

I was looking forward to video, but oh well... glad you had a good time and stayed safe.

 

the brakes will fade.

I would add a transmission cooler.

 

+1 ^^

the G is a great car and even better with suspension mods. lighten it up as much as possible (take out extra stuff, spare, etc.) and you should notice a difference. any pics of the track you raced at?

 

Thanks guys. Really sorry about the video, i have a little bit, but the moment i went on that first turn, the cam turned off.

The brakes will probably eventually fade, but not on this track - it was fairly light on braking except on the straights, so there's lots of time to cool them down.

Here's the track's site, link goes directly to the track layout page:
http://www.msrhouston.com/msrhouston/trackmap.asp (the smaller track inset is for the Go Karts)

 

Ah .. but that means you could have gone into the turns hotter or braked later for better times

Thanks for the write up!

 

if your G sedan didnt lean in the corner and you didnt break loose alil once in awhile, maybe you coulda gone faster

yeah i hear u about getting stuck behind slow guys; your too fast for newbie group and too inexperienced for intermediate. used to love HPDE's in my evo back in the days but quit cuz too much $$$

 

Even my Akebonos faded after 6 consecutive hard corners.

 

Wow good for you SoundMike!! I have a friend that in an instructor in the local Porsche group that does track days at Watkins Glen. He keeps trying to get me to go out there, but I usually hesitate, thinking my car wouldn't be worth taking this tank out, but I'm reconsidering after your review. Hmmm... and I really wanna get rid of these A/S tires, that would do it..... lol

 

When given a chance (i.e, not stuck behind someone else) i did brake later - sometimes shortly after where the cones that marked the areas were. I may not have pushed the car enough, then again, i was certainly pushing it more than some. My only experience with the track are in Go Karts, and i'm always reminded of what happens when i get too hot... didn't want to do that with the G, but it's tempting.

Akebono's suck. J/k! I actually have a set that hasn't been installed yet. I wanted to see what the stock system does first. Before i do install them, i want to see what this baby can do with some Carbotech's.

Too fast and too inexperienced. LOL! That is quite a bit of a dilemma. I'm now seriously considering the classes, or maybe even a membership if i can get one. The car did lean in some of those turns, i was just balancing out how much i could get out of those tires. I almost lost it in some but thankfully still kept it in line.

 

You should go! The instructor at MSR was commenting on how great the Porsche group instructors were, and how relatively affordable most of their sessions are. Locally, the group tends to have at least a dozen instructors ready for a one-on-one with members while out on the track.

Yeah, get rid of the A/S, or get a spare set of summers

 

Good write up. Congratulations on tracking your G. I've done it a couple of times and had a blast each time, adrenaline is addictive. Sorry to hear you got stuck behind some slower traffic. Keep going and get moved into a group that fits your abilities. I found that the stock brakes held up pretty well considering the abuse they were getting. However, the last session of the second day I did experience some vibration. I ended up with about 2mm of front OEM pad remaining. I also kept the car in auto DS mode for most my sessions, with VDC on. I wasn't out to set any records, plus I had to drive to work on Monday. Regardless, It was very fun.

I've heard that MSR is a very nice track, did you and the Z guys get a group discount? I ran at TWS (College Station), a 2 day HPDE, pretty reasonable priced ~150/day.

You've got to get some in car video. Here's a couple of videos from when I tracked the G at TWS.

 

No kidding about the adrenaline, i've had some allergy issues before heading out, but it all went away after the first session out.

I just checked my pads and they wore pretty good (i replaced them prior to the event). My front wheels are covered in dust, however. Yep, DS and VDC on mine. The VDC was surprising as well, it flickered a couple of times and i assumed the car would just bog but it never did.

The 3 day event (1 on the track) was $150, which for MSR is rather affordable. I'll try to make it out to TWS one of these days.

Nice vids! Gotta hate that wind noise though, i ran a couple of laps with the windows closed and hit higher speeds on those straights.

Good news, i had one complete lap on the video cam (oddly, it saved under a different folder altogether). Sound is absymal though, all you can hear is wind noise

 

Not much, but if anyone's interested...

http://gshack.org/g/index.php?album=...arty-Track.mp4

This was the first lap of the second session, right after the instructor-led laps. I couldn't go very fast, as you'll see from the guy in front of me he was hitting the brakes at odd times.

 

Nice vids. I was suprised to see a supercoupe out there. They are pretty rare now.