Finished my first track day with the 4.2. Really a lot of fun. I ended up running 1 minute 51 seconds with my girlfriend in the car. The fluid never boiled, but the rotors took a good beating. I was running Motorcraft High Performance fluid (the old Ford Heavy Duty stuff) with EBC green pads. I will need to turn the rotors to get rid of the pad deposits.

My old roommate from Chicago (91 C4 Vette) and I were the fastest of the beginners. The well driven S2000s were faster but I never got passed buy any of the WRXs or anything else. One spun off track following me through turns 5 and 6.

The only complaint I have about the car is the transmission. Using the tiptronic was totally useless so I ended up just leaving it in drive and getting on the throttle a little early to get it to downshift. I did loose a car length coming out of the turns because I couldn't get on the power fast enough. The car was very predictable. Trail braking and lift throttle didn't produce much oversteer and the car would always push leaving turns while accelerating. The stock (non sport) suspension was very well behaved too. Looking at pictures of the car on track, there wasn't excessive body roll and it only felt twitchy under hard transitions.

Other interesting facts. Used half a tank of gas in 1 hour. Averaged 8 mpg. Coolant temp was 1 mark past center. Oil temperature was a steady 250F.

Cars in attendance: several S2000s, several C5 Vettes, several newer Mustangs, Acura NSX, Mazda RX-7, well prepared Viper, several WRXs, one Evo VII, E30 M3, Lotus Elise, and a couple Alfas. I was the lone Audi.

John
'00 A6 4.2
'91 V8q
'90 Range Rover
'73 MGB