LAGUNA SECA RACEWAY, FINALLY!

For those who have driven Laguna Seca Raceway before, and have forgotten how cool a track it is, indulge me for a minute. This track is TOTALLY AWESOME!  I’ve been dreamin’ about driving the infamous Corkscrew for decades, and can finally say that I’m no longer a Corkscrew virgin!  TV coverage and in-car footage just do not give that corner justice. A quick left turn at the top, then the world just drops away. The descent is so steep that you lose total sight of the track for a couple of heartbeats. You just point your car at a tree out in the woods and hope you land on the track. And the high speed, downhill braking zone into the double apex Andretti corner at the end of the blind hill front straight-away, well, I just can’t wait to go back!

I attended a very well run open-track day with Greenflag Driving Association. The weather was a welcome sunny day squeezed between two wet, winter storm systems transiting Central and Northern California. We were warned at the Drivers Meeting that any off-track excursions would turn into axle-deep, car-flipping, clean up sessions, and thankfully no tow-truck delays were incurred. Attendance was unusually small at 50 cars, so two 25 car groups rotated on and off the track, on the hour and half-hour, all day long. Mostly high performance, track prepped street cars, with a few race cars mixed in as well. We all got as much track time as you could want in one day!

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During the winter, I replaced my old race “muffler” with a small MagnaFlow street muffler. It quieted things down a little bit, but still way too loud for Laguna Seca’s tough 92db noise restriction. Since I knew my first session would be far from full throttle, I just ran a turn down tip on my muffler pointed away from the turn 5 noise monitors. No black flag for noise, cool. As I picked up the pace, I added my 12 disc SuperTrapp setup. I definitely felt the change in throttle response from the restriction, and the AFM showed rich. I leaned out the Mikunis, and got some better response. I still was short-shifting past the monitor as it didn’t sound all that much quieter, maybe 2-3 dbs less. I had problems with my new airbox, removed its lid, and definitely noticed a db increase at full throttle. So instead of ruining a great day at the track, I just continued to play nice by the monitor for the rest of the day. During my last session, I asked for a sound reading from the officials. Two (full throttle, MagnaFlow plus SuperTrapp, no airbox lid) passes confirmed my thoughts – 98.5db.  I’ll have to figure something out for race weekends. Maybe less discs in the SuperTrapp, maybe two full mufflers, I’ll let ya know…

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