The only flaw it had was that it was difficult to modulate the rear wheel speed exiting the corners. I wanted to roll onto the gas earlier to power down the straights. But with 560bhp, the slightest bump would break the tires loose. A racing traction control system similar to that on the new Exige S 240 (see page 30) would buy Mitchell's Z another second, maybe two. As odd as it sounds, I expect traction control to be the next big thing to hit the aftermarket scene.
I stepped out of the Z and glanced over apologetically at Block, but he wasn't looking. With game face on, he was strapped in and ready to go. The STi tore onto the track, making that loud angry pirate growl only a juiced-up Subie can do.
Block was up to speed at an amazing rate. We clocked him with a stopwatch at a high 25. My first thought was: "Cheater. Nobody learns this track that fast. He must have practiced." Then, before finishing his run, Block pulled into the pits. Our data acquisition had failed. We sent him out several more times, but between the car not having a cigarette lighter to power the unit and the roof not having any metal for the GPS antenna's magnet to stick to, we only managed to record a couple of hot laps.
As a driver, it's really frustrating. Get pumped up, go balls-out, then sit around in the car while people scramble, and repeat. Even worse, Block's brakes were going away. His rally background had taught him to use the brakes to turn the car. I'm sure it works great in the snow, but on the track with R-comps, this puts a lot of heat into the system. The Brembo calipers that started out as gold switched to orange then brown as the day went on.
The best lap we recorded is displayed on the charts, but it isn't necessarily Block's fastest. Still, there's a lot to see in there. On the map, our lines are almost identical. The most notable differences are in the tight turns 2, 10, and 11 where Block ran a wider line. In 2 and 10, he doesn't hit the apexes. I would chalk these up to the brakes going away, since they are at the ends of the two heaviest braking zones. In 11, we could see him pitching the car sideways, lighting up all four tires and using his all-wheel-drive grip to slingshot out onto the straight. Although the charts show he carried a higher average speed through the corner, he lost half a second there. Given his consistency, I bet he chose the smoky drifting line because it was more fun.
On the MPH chart, there's a clear trend. The yellow line is almost always leading the red during low-speed acceleration. Block was clearly getting out of the corners better. However, the Z was able to carry more speed through the sweepers of sections 1 and 3. I'd like to claim that my familiarity with the track bought this time, but it could just as easily be attributed to aerodynamic stability. Section 8 supports the aerodynamic theory as the Z seriously pulled on the STI above 100mph. While the loss of telemetry creates a pretty big hole in our proclamation of victory on the road course, winning is winning, sucka.
While we were frying our circuit boards with the telemetry system, Aono was up at the balcony setting up our gymkhana course. His only instructions were to keep it fair. Unfortunately, Aono, having far more honor than the rest of us, designed a course that really was fair. He knew the Subaru-with twice the power and twice the drive wheels-would murder him on the straights. But with the nimble little Corolla, he could get through the tight stuff much quicker. At some gymkhana courses, the turns are so tight that the bigger cars are forced to make three-point turns. Like the rest of us, Aono vastly underestimated Block and his STI. The course only had one spin cone and the figure eight was set up extra wide to make sure the Subaru could squeeze through.
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