Michael Knight
Totally Hooked
Thought of opening a new topic on GR Yaris experiences on racetrack.
I know we have GR Zoo generic topic but felt we have enough model spesific track related talks.
Move to correct slot if this is not the right one admins!
Had my 3rd visit to racetrack 2 days ago.
This time at Alastaro Racing Circuit at Virttaa.
My previous experience was from last summer at more "ballsy" Ahvenisto track.
There the car felt too soft and difficult to be pushed. At Alastaro it felt much better.
The few takeaways from 2hrs visit are following
1) car has plenty of grip, it just needs to be requested. This applies to both mid corner and corner exit.
Stock suspension is tad soft but it works if you just take it to the limit. Respect the driving line and throttle input and car will turn nicely.
In corner exit I was almost always too late with throttle. With these LSD's and great driveline you can in practice jump on the throttle in apex and car will dig itself into exit nicely. Feels proper "animal" in that section, really different to anything else I've ever driven.
Last summer I wasn't that experienced with the car so I drove it too softly on track. this left the feeling that car is not that responsive or fun to drive. It is, you just need to challenge and master it.
2) Stock Brakes are seriously effective
Was braking way too early everywhere. Stock tires maybe caused this as it was difficult to sense if they were gripping or not, so needed to leave some marigin there, but overall very impressed on how it performed. Best lateral G's i got was 1.37g that is pretty impressive for a car with stock suspension and tires. With Semislicks and proper suspension it will be much higher so no wonder there can be oil feeding issues if G -forces go north of 1.5g and above..
3) My next uprgade to the racetrack would be..
Racing seat 100%
With stock seat is is really difficult to have a solid and exact steering input into corner, especially if driven hard.
With bucket seat you eliminate any movement you have and can concentrate on driving. So this would be my first handling improvement, prio any changes to suspensions or whatever.
Oil cooler.. ?
Noticed that oil temps rose to 120-130'C after one fast lap so didnt' push it any more that one fast at the time. If more track fun would be requested, I'd go easily with oil cooler as then temps would be more closer to normal temps. Water temp didn' t seem to rise that high (based on temp gauge in cluster) so maybe car was still in its operating window but didn't like to push any boundaries as it was a hot day (air temp 25'C, track temp maybe closer to 35-40'C).
Intake temps were between 32-43'C so Wagner IC had though job to manage - felt that some power was missing but no wonder as temps were that high.
With stockish snorkel WOT IAT gets easy 10'C above ambient. CACT not able to log for the time being.
All in all fun day.
Front camber worked well and car was quite responsive to drive.
Best time was 1:35.5 but felt that there is at least 2-3sec to be shaved with more solid corner entry speeds and driving lines. Then again, taking into account of the points given above didn't want to take it too close to its limit as the feeling is to be improved when in limit. Still behind friends best time by 10s but then again it is GT4 with semi slicks so kind of different game there. I believe Sub 1:30 would be doable with proper track setup.
ps. before us there was nice Lamborghini Huracan (?) Evo and Ferrari SF90 stretching their legs - really cool sounds!
I know we have GR Zoo generic topic but felt we have enough model spesific track related talks.
Move to correct slot if this is not the right one admins!
Had my 3rd visit to racetrack 2 days ago.
This time at Alastaro Racing Circuit at Virttaa.
My previous experience was from last summer at more "ballsy" Ahvenisto track.
There the car felt too soft and difficult to be pushed. At Alastaro it felt much better.
The few takeaways from 2hrs visit are following
1) car has plenty of grip, it just needs to be requested. This applies to both mid corner and corner exit.
Stock suspension is tad soft but it works if you just take it to the limit. Respect the driving line and throttle input and car will turn nicely.
In corner exit I was almost always too late with throttle. With these LSD's and great driveline you can in practice jump on the throttle in apex and car will dig itself into exit nicely. Feels proper "animal" in that section, really different to anything else I've ever driven.
Last summer I wasn't that experienced with the car so I drove it too softly on track. this left the feeling that car is not that responsive or fun to drive. It is, you just need to challenge and master it.
2) Stock Brakes are seriously effective
Was braking way too early everywhere. Stock tires maybe caused this as it was difficult to sense if they were gripping or not, so needed to leave some marigin there, but overall very impressed on how it performed. Best lateral G's i got was 1.37g that is pretty impressive for a car with stock suspension and tires. With Semislicks and proper suspension it will be much higher so no wonder there can be oil feeding issues if G -forces go north of 1.5g and above..
3) My next uprgade to the racetrack would be..
Racing seat 100%
With stock seat is is really difficult to have a solid and exact steering input into corner, especially if driven hard.
With bucket seat you eliminate any movement you have and can concentrate on driving. So this would be my first handling improvement, prio any changes to suspensions or whatever.
Oil cooler.. ?
Noticed that oil temps rose to 120-130'C after one fast lap so didnt' push it any more that one fast at the time. If more track fun would be requested, I'd go easily with oil cooler as then temps would be more closer to normal temps. Water temp didn' t seem to rise that high (based on temp gauge in cluster) so maybe car was still in its operating window but didn't like to push any boundaries as it was a hot day (air temp 25'C, track temp maybe closer to 35-40'C).
Intake temps were between 32-43'C so Wagner IC had though job to manage - felt that some power was missing but no wonder as temps were that high.
With stockish snorkel WOT IAT gets easy 10'C above ambient. CACT not able to log for the time being.
All in all fun day.
Front camber worked well and car was quite responsive to drive.
Best time was 1:35.5 but felt that there is at least 2-3sec to be shaved with more solid corner entry speeds and driving lines. Then again, taking into account of the points given above didn't want to take it too close to its limit as the feeling is to be improved when in limit. Still behind friends best time by 10s but then again it is GT4 with semi slicks so kind of different game there. I believe Sub 1:30 would be doable with proper track setup.
ps. before us there was nice Lamborghini Huracan (?) Evo and Ferrari SF90 stretching their legs - really cool sounds!
Last edited:
