So this past weekend was the PCA event out at Heartland Park. There were about 80 cars there ranging from Mustangs to GT3s...
Like many Club DE's, you get some quality instructor time and plenty of solo time. I always look forward to my instructor time as I get broken of some bad habbits. The field was broken into groups 1-4, with group 4 advanced and instructors running together part of the time.
I signed up for Group 3 Intermediate (I usually run advanced), as I hadn't driven with the PCA guys before and didn't want to hold up the big horsepower race prepped 944s and GT3s. As it turns out, I either over estimated them or underestimated my car, as they bumped me to group/instructor for Sunday since I was lapping traffic fairly quickly in group 3. So that was all fine and dandy, but the fun came in Group 4 on Sunday. There was a lot talk about what I must have had done to my elise to keep pace with the others in "superior" cars in group 4. My instructor (a great guy and excellent driver) from Saturday, was driving both a C6 Z06 and a 997 GT3. He just _had_ to take my car for a spin and figure out what the deal was...
He drove my car at maybe 6-7 10ths (he didn't want to wreck it, which was fine with me
...my last instructor did put it in a ditch
). Even at 6-7 10ths, he just couldn't believe the ride. He thought the power and crispness of the car were awesome and the connection to the road was flawless. After his drive, he was grinning ear-to-ear. He said the GT3 doesn't hold a candle to the car and that the GT3 is simply a big boat by comparison. He further said that driving the little Elise was the highlight to the weekend and he was going to seriously reconsider the GT3 for an Elise. As ramped up as he was, I even believe that he might just do that and become a Lotus owner in the near future. I mean he was really down on the GT3 after the drive!
I just thought I would share the story... It's aways nice to have someone so excited about the car and then dog the mighty GT3 in comparison
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In total, Darksol and I did a pretty good job of showing the mighty Porsche just what the little Lotus can do, and we surprised a lot of people for sure
Best,
Phil
PS- For quick reference, my most significant mods are the blower & EFI along with aero dynamics. The shocks are stock LSS (Lowered, which helps aero and handling, I feel), the stock swaybar is drilled for stiffer mounting points, and the traction was provided with RA1 with "heavy" TD wheels... not exactly a Lotus GT3 clone, just good engineering that's largely from the factory
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