Well Saturday I took the Pokey ,which is what we call the 1200 , to a joint SCCA Porsche Club track day. I was both driver and instructor. Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch is our local club track , it is a 3+ mile 18 turn road course. The track has a website so maybe one of you computer savy types could post a picture of the layout
Well first off I made a minor adjustment to the tire pressures , previously the car just didn't rotate into the second apex of 5A/B Dbl apex section as well as I liked. I drive with the pedals more than the wheel (read trail brake &throttle steer). I was having to turn the wheel in a hair more to get to the second apex.
Running 27 psi front and 28 psi rear seems to balance the car perfectly (I use Yokohama A008 spec racer tires). Going through turn 2 , a big dbl apex right hand sweep , rolling back the throttle for a split second got the car rotating back into the second apex nicely while still keeping the car planted over the washboard surface on the exit. Same deal in the esses , in the last corner of the esses you need to roll back to 7/8ths throttle for a spilt second to get it to turn onto the apex..............well the back end would gently rotate and if I got cheeky feeding in throttle all 4 wheels would break loose................mmmmm tasty 4 wheel drifts.
The smokin 85HP A12 ran flawless as always pulling 8K all day , although with the temp at 100 degrees or so I was short shifting to 7500 in the afternoon. The speedo even managed to indicate 100 mph (yeah yeah so thats probably only 90 but the long straight is uphill)
Well I did manage to keep a Mustang behind me for a good long while and I even passed a Lotus Elise (yeah yeah he was an intermediate driver and it's cherry picking). Lots of folks commented on how well the car went so I was happy.
The other fun was I got to try a 06 M3 with paddle shifts....fun car but man that much money would buy a lot of Datto parts. Also since I have a PCA national instructor card I was asked to do a ride along with a Porsche Carrera driver who wanted to step up to the advanced group. (you know whre this is going) I told the guy "look just drive 85% do 4 laps and I'll sign you off" Well as soon as we get in the car I can already tell the rear shocks are not adjusted correctly........the car would ever so gently oversteer on constant throttle. The poor guy was sawing at the wheel constanly and I even commented he was working awful hard for the speed we were going. Well on lap 4 of course he comes off 9 into 10 ( 180 left into 45 right) with the car reeeeally lose and attempts to still maintain speed. Naturaly with the right side suspension loaded up and him steering right into the slide when the car started back to the right it flung the car around so fast it was game over.........I was laughing while we 360ed into the gravel. So back to the pits we go and sure enough the tires are off 4 psi front to rear and the shocks were way off front to rear..............and the lesson is , even a Porsche poorly set-up handles like poo. Thankfully he did better so I signed him off.
Now of course with the A15 in my car I won't be the least bit surprised if the set up has to be changed. A lot of guys had to tend to their car whilst all I did was throw a couple of gallons of fuel in the cell. Finally my Rally buddy was flagging in 2 , I come round on one lap and he's holding up a giant day-glo sign that says "what a Tosser" , such respect............I was pissing myself laughing so hard that I ended up screwing the whole corner.

Tom

Any day at the track is glorious, I miss it terribly! I was crew chief on a "vintage" race team, rookie of the year 1st season, then back 2 back championships for HSR west.
Only raced Vegas a couple of times, except for the heat, it is a GREAT track!!!

heat , what heat , it was only 100. 3 layers of nomex on inside a car that is probaly 130 inside makes the 100 dergree heat seem very very mild. I had the windows down riding home in the RV and I didn't even miss having the AC on. Ok so I did drink 7-8 16oz bottles of water.

Tom

Yeah, you are right, it really isn't as hot as excersizing with a full parka on, but damn close!!! "nakki" ducts help more than they cost, we had 4 to "ventilate" the driver!!!
LOL!!!

Wow, sounds like you had a great day. I haven't done a track day for a year and a half and miss it bad! No greater fun than showing up modern machinery in a Datsun, especially here as nobody has a clue about them and the name is largely forgotton My local track would be absolutely perfect for a well sorted 1200 as it's narrow and twisty. I wish I had a track ready 1200 but I can't really afford to make two track cars as i already have my 510 for circuit use.




-Ed

what is your local track?? Cadwell , Thruxton , Mallory???????

Datsun 1200's suddenly became a respected here in the USA. When we got it 20 years ago it was just a cheap little car. Now people constantly say how cool they are............and this is at the Porsche and VW/Audi track day groups I instruct with.

Tom

Ratdat's park is Cadwell. Plenty of runoff if you count the soft grass

Here's a view of Spring Mountain:

looks like a great track!

Yeah, Cadwell... I live 8 miles from the track. Great fun circuit and pretty picturesque too The only bit where's there's limited run off is through the woods (Hall bends, Hairpin and Barn) althopugh they've improved it since i last ran there. The barrier at the hairpin used to be right on the edge of the track before. You can take a look at Cadwell on their website. I'd like to get my 510 back there before the end of the year with SR power and see how it fares then. Before it was running a KA24DE.

Spring Mountain looks interesting. I bet those constant radius turns through 1 and 2 are a fun way to see how much lateral G you can pull Looks like that track could be pretty testing on brakes too when running just upper or lower courses, with those sharp turns. Don't think my 510's brakes would be up to that for many laps

-Ed

Turn 2 is indeed a great place to pull some G's. The motorcycle powered sports race pulled 2G's through there. Good brakes help there but not for the reason's people think. The sports racer pulled 3G's on the brakes going into 3 but you generate more heat there just because you're rotating the car with the brakes. Our 1200 has 280ZX calipers and rotors so brake fade is never an issue.
The track was designed as a school track so it is extremely technical. Most of the weekend use is track days but races there are very interesting. Because it is so technical you can keep up with guys who at horsepower tracks would leave you behind. Passing is also easy "if" you know how to set someone up.
Ratdat good for you for being so close to the track. Spring Mtn is 60 miles from my house , meanwhile the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is only 6 miles away but the rent is to high for most clubs. LVMS makes somehting like 28 Million off NASCAR so it is kind of silly to expect them to cater to club racers. No matter though, because SMMR is such a blast that I would probably choose to drive there anyway.

Tom