This is for those of you who have ACTUALLY raced a stock, or nearly stock WRX on a track (not drag racing, and not autocross).

How does a stock, or nearly stock (wheels/tire upgrade) WRX do on a real moderate to highspeed race track? What kind of handling characteristics does the stock WRX exhibit?

does great, a little understeer but nothing throttle manipulation cant fix.

stock tires are great learning tools for the track. Sure they dont grip too good but they communicate well, and the limits are low which means you can learn to reach and recognize the limit much easier.

only necessity for the track IMO is some upgraded pads. Stock pads simply cannot take the heat from even a few laps on track.
Talk to Andie over at Cobalt Friction www.cobaltfriction.com and he should be able to get you a good pad perfect for your needs.
if you do talk to him tell him Evan sent you :)

Lightsped, huh? I bet you got an 'A' in spelling when you were in elementary school. ;)

I don't think many (any?) of us have actually raced a nearly stock WRX on a road course. There are plenty of us who have done open track events, but that's not racing. Of course the handling characteristics of the car won't change, but it's always good to use the right terminology so you don't confuse people. I'm guessing that you want to do open track events, not ACTUAL racing, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, a stock WRX is pretty capable on track. I've run my sister's WRX wagon at two open track events, one with my Toyo Proxes T1-S's on the car and one on her stock RE92s. The only modifications to the car were good brake fluid, aftermarket brake pads, and a sedan rear sway bar.

Originally posted by Lightsped
What kind of handling characteristics does the stock WRX exhibit?
If you've actually driven the '02 WRX listed under your name then I'm sure you already know it understeers. A larger rear swaybar is pretty much a must-have IMHO - even with the bigger sedan bar on my sister's wagon it still had pretty heavy understeer. If you know how to trail-brake you can counter the understeer, but that's not something I'm very good at yet.

I had trouble with the brakes at both events, even with good fluid and decent pads. I think stainless steel lines would probably help the pedal feel, and I could have used some better pads. Then again, there are guys who run on utterly stock brakes and don't have big problems, so maybe I'm just hard on brakes. :)

Even with the understeering, the over-cooked brakes, and the RE92s, the WRX is a very potent car on track. My lap times at Summit Point and VIR (timed by friends watching my sessions) were equal to or faster than the times I had run with my Legacy on Kumho V700s and coil-overs. :eek:

Pat Olsen
'97 Legacy 2.5GT sedan

Pat Olsen's got it right.

I haven't raced, but I have time trialed on big tracks. The car is pretty good stock. It has a tendency to understeer.

If you want improvements on a budget...pads and fluids need to be changed and some kind of upgraded rubber would be a good idea. Other than that, it is ready to go.

I've taken mine to a tight course a couple of times. THe one thing I recommend is to raise your tire pressure for tight tracks as the side walls are soft and will flex and wear a lot. My brakes and rotors were fried in one day. Also, never go around a track with less than a 1/2 of tank of gas as this can cause air entrainment in the fuel system.

Overall it's a hell of a lot of fun and very very forgiving car to beat the crap out of.

mark

Originally posted by Sir_Xenon
I've taken mine to a tight course a couple of times. THe one thing I recommend is to raise your tire pressure for tight tracks as the side walls are soft and will flex and wear a lot.
Yeah, I didn't think to mention that but it's definitely true. I can't remember exactly, but I think with both the Toyos and the RE92s I was running around 42# cold in front and a few pounds higher in the rear (to try and make the tail come around more).

Originally posted by Sir_Xenon
My brakes and rotors were fried in one day.
Wow, you're even harder on brakes than I am. :) I did a total of four days on track - the rotors are still fine. I did abuse a set of pads pretty bad at the first event, glazed the hell out of them, but once I had some "normal" street miles on them they were fine.

Originally posted by Sir_Xenon
Also, never go around a track with less than a 1/2 of tank of gas as this can cause air entrainment in the fuel system.
Are you referring to fuel starvation coming out of certain corners, or something else? I got down nearly to E on my sister's car without any problems, although I did cut a session short because I figured I'd get fuel starvation soon. It seems to vary from car to car - my first 2.5GT would get starvation at nearly 1/2 tank during auto-x events, but my current 2.5GT will run down to E without problems. :confused:

Originally posted by Sir_Xenon
Overall it's a hell of a lot of fun and very very forgiving car to beat the crap out of.
Amen to that! :D

Pat

Lightsped
This past year we raced 6 "one hour" races on a 1,8 mile road course, in a '02 WRX wagon.
Except for STI shocks, bigger rear sway, 17" OZ, Hoosiers,stock boost, TurboXS exhaust, basically is street car.
It handles very good, we won the category against, 911's,
S2000, type R's, 968.
The only recomendation is good brake pads with good cooling ducts. We use Cabon Tech Pads, Hawk Blues or Panther XP.



Miguel
WRX#00
Auto Plaza Racing

Patrick is perhaps assuming the same thing that I would from your question. If you have not yet been on the track at all, then you'll be just fine with the WRX completely stock. The car is neutral enough to throttle steer in long, sweeping corners, has some understeer at the limit but also has the big advantage of AWD coming out of very sharp corners (turn 3 at NHIS....weeeeee). It's easy to heel and toe in with, has smooth, progressive power (for a turbo) and exhibits no torque steer that I've been able to feel.

If you're actually more advance than we're assuming (meaning you can no longer count your track days....and they are in the tripple digits) then I'd think you'd be able to drive a couple of laps with someone's car at the track to see how it feels.

I will also admit that I have not done wheel to wheel racing with a WRX, but have done numerous track events....with other peoples WRX's.

jack

Originally posted by Lightsped
This is for those of you who have ACTUALLY raced a stock, or nearly stock WRX on a track (not drag racing, and not autocross).

How does a stock, or nearly stock (wheels/tire upgrade) WRX do on a real moderate to highspeed race track? What kind of handling characteristics does the stock WRX exhibit?

My 2 cents = moderate understeer. Definitely get some better pads/lines/fluid as well. I crumbled the stock pads at Road Atlanta in one day, although the rotors were fine.

PM 'bobg', he tracked his bone stock RE-92'd WRX at Road Atlanta with me like 4 days this past summer. He'd be a wealth of direct information, I think. Tell him I said 'howdy'. :D

Scott