I have always heard of the differences between tracks and I've always heard how slow and bad NTR is, so I finally got a chance to see the difference for myself. The best track around here from what I've heard is Norwalk. This past weekend my friend with an '02 WRX and I went up to Norwalk for the NOPI drag finals to make a few passes to see the difference for ourselves, as we have already been down NTR. My friends stock WRX ran 15.8's as did every other stock WRX we watched at NTR. He improved his time after I iced his intercooler, but he was still way off what it should run (stock WRX's run 14.5-14.6 in the 1/4 mile). At NTR I couldn't get out of the low 14's to save my life. For his run at Norwalk it was right after we arrived just like his first run at NTR. He has done one mod since NTR, he has a 3" turbo back exhaust on it now which should be good for about 1-2 tenths at most. He ran a 14.7!!!!! That's a 1.1 second improvement overall. As I had figured, there is a huge difference between tracks, especially when it comes to turbocharged cars. That's roughly a full second difference for our cars from one track to another. I have no clue as to how this is even possible, but it is and I've seen it for myself. I unfortunately got screwed out of being able to run at all, I was cleaning my car up when he ran and I planned on running during one of their two other open session, but they cut the last hour of the first one and completely eliminated the second because they were behind with running the pros.[sm=icon_flaming.gif][sm=noooo.gif][sm=wtf.gif] So I went hundreds of miles and spent more than a hundred bucks while wasting 14 hours of my time just to get f**ked out of my 1 second quicker run.[sm=bomb.gif][sm=badbadbad.gif][sm=boohoo.gif]

We did at least find out that there is a huge difference between tracks, especially for turbocharged cars, and the sh*ttiest one in the country is the closest to us while one of the best is over 100 miles away.

 

what class were you in mitch? were you pitted with a blue WRX and a blue SRT4? I was there all weekend, and remembered you saying that you were gonna be there, but since i wasnt racing, i was fairly drunk the entire weekend...

 

I was in the open session. That would indeed be me between the blue WRX and the blue SRT-4 along the fence down towards the end. Later on there was another black SRT-4 where the blue SRT-4 was and the blue SRT-4 was on the other side of my friends WRX. I am going to be checking for a test and tune or something there so I can get another chance at running there and another friend of ours had to bail out of going due to being sick, so we're looking to go so he can run his '03 Tiburon GT as well (it runs a best of 15.3 at NTR, but being N/A I expect it to only improve a couple tenths). I'm still floored at how big of a difference there is between tracks for turbocharged cars and I sooooo wanted to get the accurate run that reflects my SRT-4's potential. Norwalk is also where I watched the manufacturer SRT-4's run 13.7-13.9's stock and 13.1's with just Stage 1 two years ago.
I never got around to looking at the cars much, did you have your R/T there? Here are a few cell phone pics I took of the SRT-4 there:


[IMG]local://upfiles/193/5D8F260BCFD343B388FEF86D5BAA29BD.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/193/8FB2A5167F64472FB6D390EAEC30CFD9.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/193/9FF611FBB5764421A501126D2295C4C8.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/193/29C20206F7364A929A5BD1C7E7789834.jpg[/IMG]

 

i didnt have the RT...i planned on doing ALOT of drinking, and i didnt want the RT around...so i pimped this:


[IMG]local://upfiles/2745/5B07F52462AD43D2BC1E54F4D7866603.jpg[/IMG]

after seeing how AWFUL the entire sportsman class was, i considered entering, but i just wanted to relax and check out the cars. the RT is so consistant, that it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel, but i had fun anyway. also, i didnt want to be there racing a dodge when i was listed as a sponsor under a non-dodge forum name...

 

I see. That makes sense, conflict of intrest and all.