azapa
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- Messages
- 1,300
When I bought this thing I promised myself that it would not be (too much of) a garage queen. I also hate racing on public streets, and find everyone else doing it completely mad. Only one option then: go racing on a real track.
Thankfully, my local Ferrari/Maserati main dealer put me in touch with a great bunch of chaps. These types of cars are not too frequently seen here in Chile, so it was quite a breakthrough: all car nuts with nice machines. Even then, few of them raced. A sub-set does though, and I was lucky enough to get an invitation to one of the best tracks in these parts, private pits, relaxed atmosphere, really couldn't have been a better first day out bashing the stradale.
And here we come to the point: how she performed.
I had a feeling she was fast, but the experience really exceeded my expectations. The event started with "drag" races: one on one, over a about a 600m track. The start had traditional drag type Christmas tree lights. Once the drag part was finished the two cars went back around to the start using half of the track, and quite tight cones. This last part was essentially one on one again. Perfect for me, as I really wanted to get a feel without bashing anyone expensive! Many lovely sideways moments, easily caught in the big maser.
I had 6 races in this order, and result:
Two races with a Subaru STI - an older model but with turbos and wastegates all over the place - strad won both times buy about 10 car lengths
Mustang 5.0 - strad won buy about 5 car lengths
2016 Porsche boxter GTS (that had just finished off a brand new BMW M4 - with a very smug driver as a result) - strad won by about 4 car lengths
997.1 GT3 heavily tuned with arkapovic (sp?) exhaust: won first race and lost last, both by about a car length or less, very close.
This result really was pleasing. I used no launch technique, (the GT3 did on the last race) and the car just dug in and drove beautifully. Very little wheel spin. I also hit the limiter a few times, which was not ideal, but she stomped through anyway. The car was doing 1/4 mile times <12.5 seconds, which really surprised me as I really was not leaving the Xmas lights that well, I had guessed about 13.5. I did consider to use the Ferrari 599 launch control option (hidden) but the gearbox effort would have bothered me.
Here are some pix, and a nice (long) video at the end. In the vid about 3:42 you can see the Strad up against the GT3 and hear those lovely 60ms shifts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YKoJJNiEok
I would love to hear stories or comparisons of other Maserati's in actual racing scenarios.
Thankfully, my local Ferrari/Maserati main dealer put me in touch with a great bunch of chaps. These types of cars are not too frequently seen here in Chile, so it was quite a breakthrough: all car nuts with nice machines. Even then, few of them raced. A sub-set does though, and I was lucky enough to get an invitation to one of the best tracks in these parts, private pits, relaxed atmosphere, really couldn't have been a better first day out bashing the stradale.
And here we come to the point: how she performed.
I had a feeling she was fast, but the experience really exceeded my expectations. The event started with "drag" races: one on one, over a about a 600m track. The start had traditional drag type Christmas tree lights. Once the drag part was finished the two cars went back around to the start using half of the track, and quite tight cones. This last part was essentially one on one again. Perfect for me, as I really wanted to get a feel without bashing anyone expensive! Many lovely sideways moments, easily caught in the big maser.
I had 6 races in this order, and result:
Two races with a Subaru STI - an older model but with turbos and wastegates all over the place - strad won both times buy about 10 car lengths
Mustang 5.0 - strad won buy about 5 car lengths
2016 Porsche boxter GTS (that had just finished off a brand new BMW M4 - with a very smug driver as a result) - strad won by about 4 car lengths
997.1 GT3 heavily tuned with arkapovic (sp?) exhaust: won first race and lost last, both by about a car length or less, very close.
This result really was pleasing. I used no launch technique, (the GT3 did on the last race) and the car just dug in and drove beautifully. Very little wheel spin. I also hit the limiter a few times, which was not ideal, but she stomped through anyway. The car was doing 1/4 mile times <12.5 seconds, which really surprised me as I really was not leaving the Xmas lights that well, I had guessed about 13.5. I did consider to use the Ferrari 599 launch control option (hidden) but the gearbox effort would have bothered me.
Here are some pix, and a nice (long) video at the end. In the vid about 3:42 you can see the Strad up against the GT3 and hear those lovely 60ms shifts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YKoJJNiEok
I would love to hear stories or comparisons of other Maserati's in actual racing scenarios.
