Part 10: First Shakedown
Silverstone, New England. Grand Prix. Over three miles of open road for about an hour. The Scion FR-S. The first shakedown since the "accident". We were ready, and so was the 86's younger son.
After lunch we went ahead and stopped by the garage and worked on the car. We had put about eight or nine hours into it that day. We gutted the car and installed a bucket seat, removed some of the interior and body panels but left the navi system in just for looks, installed a lighter but stronger battery, and put on a carbon fiber trunk with inserts for fans. After a small break, we jacked the car up on the rear side and took off the wimpy 215's it had on and slapped on some 275's with some new rims, which Roja Motorsports had sent to us. They were the R2-5 model. The fronts only got one size upgrade to the 225's. Before we did that, we changed out the factory brakes for some carbon-ceramic ones that had the equivalent stopping power of the Roadrunner when he ran from Wile E. Coyote. The engine hadn't seen much work apart from the carbon fiber air filter that Naoki put in before he sold it to us. Something was going to be done about that soon. We just didn't have the funds at this moment, so we focused on other essential stuff. I took some before and after pictures of the interior and the rear tires.
After wiping my entire face with a towel and trying to catch my breath, I sat down for a bit.
"I think it's turning out to be a nice, fast little car, ain't it Jimmy?"
"Yeah man, blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this car, and we're not even a quarter of the way there."
"Damn right man. It'll be amazing when it's done. It's got so much potential STOCK, but now that we've done these upgrades to it without doing all that much to it, it should pretty much be illegal now."
We both laughed. Half an hour passed and I decided to take it out to the track. I drifted for the first few laps to get the tires to heat up quicker than normal.
The car had as much grip as a GT500 racecar. It made love to the asphalt and it wasn't stopping anytime soon. After 3 laps of drifting, I started the time trial. The first corner came up and I shifted down to third, let the brakes do their job and double clutched it right out, kissing the outside left apex. I zoomed my way onto the straight after a couple of corners and hit just over 130 MPH before having to brake for a left hand sweeper. I put it back in 3rd gear and cut the corner just a bit so I could compensate for the understeer it had. I timed it just right and the car cooperated. The hard S turn was coming up; I had to be careful here. This corner was the "make or break" corner. Both this corner and the very first corner would determine how the rest of my lap went. I braked too early and oversteered, while at the same time shifting down two gears too many and the car slid uncontrollably. The rev limiter was bouncing all over the place like a bunch of 6 year olds in a bouncy castle. I slowed down and went on to the next corner. After that, I had crossed the finish line. My time was a 2:20.568. I went on to the 2nd lap and felt that this one would be it. I tried to repeat the exact same lap minus the errors I had. No sliding around this time. I went faster by the time I got to the straight, estimating a speed of about 140 MPH before making the turn. A lap later, I checked my time. I had knocked just under seven seconds off of it. Seven seconds! For a car that only has 218 HP and weighs just over 2,300 LBS, that's not bad. At least that's what I was thinking. I executed the first corner even better than I did the first time, as well as getting the 2nd, 3rd, 4th corners like white on rice. I made a slight correction on the hard S turns, which made me lose a few tenths' time. On my 2nd lap, I got a 2:13.151. I didn't stop. Eventually I got to my fastest possible time before I was forced to put the car to rest for the day, a 2:12.334. In my eyes, that's pretty quick considering I didn't have an aftermarket transmission nor clutch in, the lack of power, and lack of anti-sway bars.
I got out of the car, popped the hood open, and yelled for Jim.
"WHOOOOOOO! That was fun! That got my blood going! Were you watching? Can you tell me how I did?"
"You did fine. You're no pro, but that was some damn good driving out there bro. With a little more practice, you could hang with Schumacher."
We both laughed.
"This car is a joy to throw around. You can abuse it as much as you want, this baby does not give up. You've driven it out on the roads and drifted it a little bit, so you have a slight feeling of how it handles. I just don't think we should abuse it at this exact level constantly because the motor isn't built up yet. I heard one of my friends got a tick in his because he pushed it too hard. He had to wait at least 3 weeks before he could do anything else to it because money was tight."
"You're right. The next thing we do is get a better exhaust. I want this thing sounding as mean as it looks. Then next, let's get these valves goin'. I can also order a stroker kit too. It's up to you."
"I'm good with that man, all we gotta do is take this build slow so everything is in order once the car is done."
"Agreed."
We checked the PSI on the tires; 34 on both ends. I closed the hood, turned the lights off, and home we went for the day. We were going to do some more testing tomorrow if we had time, so we'd have to be alert.
I got a call from my good friend in the land down under, and he gave me some awesome news.
"Hey man, your motor's almost done. It's a single turbo like you requested, but I'll need a couple more days brother."
"Yeah, no problem man. We're doing some shakedowns with the FR-S, so the Skyline should last a bit longer. I can't wait until I get that crappy, wrecked bodykit off of it. I can't stand to see my pride and joy all dirtied up."
"Alright, I'll call you with more details once I get closer to completion."