zbuddah
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2002
- Posts
- 502
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I just got back from a cool experience. I signed up for a contest and won tickets to the Infineon Raceway AMA Super Bike Challenge and a chance to win the car. Well after getting lost and taking some detours me and a buddy finally go there in time to register. After they gave us some basic racing techniques (like threshold braking, high low high?), and then I got to take the srt-4 out on the track they made.
Let me tell you this car burns tires like hell; hit the gas on a turn, boom smoke. Its got more power then I could see myself using, I'll always want more but using?. Taking corners you can expect some over steer (they say loose) but hey you learn to use it. The track was setup with some really sharp turns, and the car handled it nicely, could be better but hey what do you expect for 20k. The power was great it felt a little laggy at the start but when it starts to pick up it really REALLY picks up. Another plus was that I was expecting a heavy laggy feeling with the car, the same feeling associated with a heavy car, but nope I didn't really feel anything of that sort, but it also didn't feel sporty light either. The stick shift, wow talk about a short throw, its short. The exhaust note was just fine, my buddy didn't like but I loved it, the sound had no resemblance to a coffee can exhaust you hear from ricers, but it had that throaty sound it, similar to the American v8 muscles but now where as loud as say a flow master. I loved the sound; I guess you can say it sounds loud when it is actually doing something. Some people complained about the seats, but I found just fine, and that it had nice grip to it, now on the other hand the back seats, um lets just say slip and slide, especailly during my buddy’s run. Nice touches was the temperature gauge (you'll know it when you see it in action) and the boost gauge. I was pretty impressed overall with the car.
I guess my only complaint was that I couldn't feel any feedback through the car really, where's the fun in that? In my car I could feel the feedback through the pedals, in my buddy's S4 I could feel the feedback through his stick, but with the srt-4 everything was smooth. The view from the car could be better, most of the cars I’ve been in have had a horrible view, the dash was too high and too obtrusive or ride height was a little high for a car, or the rearview was too small. Only view I've really liked was from a 3rd gen prelude, a very broad view at that. Also another thing I noticed was that car dives a bit coming into corners. Other than that the car could use stickier tires, since everyone was pretty much pulling smoke or squealing, maybe they have lead feet in 1st gear.
Fastest time I’ve seen from normal people was 35.5xx seconds. The times ranged around 40 seconds. The rules go as if you hit a cone you get a 2 second penalty, I hit 39 seconds and my buddy hit 41 seconds, I suck
. The last run was done by some volunteers from Wisconsin for Buell, the guy zoomed through the track at 32 seconds short.
I guess my only regret was being to afraid to push the beast through the tight track! but other that that I had a great time and something that in my circle don’t get to do at all.
Uh yeah and I didn’t win the car but still today was a good day (think tomahawk, bikes, bikini contest, autofest, and track time).
Let me tell you this car burns tires like hell; hit the gas on a turn, boom smoke. Its got more power then I could see myself using, I'll always want more but using?. Taking corners you can expect some over steer (they say loose) but hey you learn to use it. The track was setup with some really sharp turns, and the car handled it nicely, could be better but hey what do you expect for 20k. The power was great it felt a little laggy at the start but when it starts to pick up it really REALLY picks up. Another plus was that I was expecting a heavy laggy feeling with the car, the same feeling associated with a heavy car, but nope I didn't really feel anything of that sort, but it also didn't feel sporty light either. The stick shift, wow talk about a short throw, its short. The exhaust note was just fine, my buddy didn't like but I loved it, the sound had no resemblance to a coffee can exhaust you hear from ricers, but it had that throaty sound it, similar to the American v8 muscles but now where as loud as say a flow master. I loved the sound; I guess you can say it sounds loud when it is actually doing something. Some people complained about the seats, but I found just fine, and that it had nice grip to it, now on the other hand the back seats, um lets just say slip and slide, especailly during my buddy’s run. Nice touches was the temperature gauge (you'll know it when you see it in action) and the boost gauge. I was pretty impressed overall with the car.
I guess my only complaint was that I couldn't feel any feedback through the car really, where's the fun in that? In my car I could feel the feedback through the pedals, in my buddy's S4 I could feel the feedback through his stick, but with the srt-4 everything was smooth. The view from the car could be better, most of the cars I’ve been in have had a horrible view, the dash was too high and too obtrusive or ride height was a little high for a car, or the rearview was too small. Only view I've really liked was from a 3rd gen prelude, a very broad view at that. Also another thing I noticed was that car dives a bit coming into corners. Other than that the car could use stickier tires, since everyone was pretty much pulling smoke or squealing, maybe they have lead feet in 1st gear.
Fastest time I’ve seen from normal people was 35.5xx seconds. The times ranged around 40 seconds. The rules go as if you hit a cone you get a 2 second penalty, I hit 39 seconds and my buddy hit 41 seconds, I suck
. The last run was done by some volunteers from Wisconsin for Buell, the guy zoomed through the track at 32 seconds short. I guess my only regret was being to afraid to push the beast through the tight track! but other that that I had a great time and something that in my circle don’t get to do at all.
Uh yeah and I didn’t win the car but still today was a good day (think tomahawk, bikes, bikini contest, autofest, and track time).
