2.5 N/A on a track day...

[HyRax]

A good driver in a slower car will always beat a poor driver in a faster car. I've seen that countless times on the track.

Back in my WRX days, I bumped into some members from the Victorian WRX Club who were visiting Wakefield Park in NSW. We struck up some friendly chat as the day progressed and during that they kept referring to my car as an STi, which it wasn't (it was a stock MY02 WRX at the time which has less power than today's tuned H6 Liberty's). When I pointed this out to them, they were surprised because they said they were not able to keep up with me and just assumed I had more power under the bonnet than them. Further chat revealed that this was their first ever track day so they were simply applying their normal road-driving style to the track.

I took them out on the track again with their own cars and showed them the correct driving lines, commitment, acceleration and braking points. In less than 4 hours, they had improved their lap times by a staggering 7 seconds (which is a lot for any track, but Wakefield especially).

On the same day there was also another guy who actually did have an MY02 STi and he was simply burning up tyres with absolutely no idea how to take the corners - he would literally enter the corner very hot, turn, and expected the car to do everything for him, while the fronts squealed and smoked as he planted it through. He was only able to rip up the straights. Rather than analyse his own driving style or take tips from others, he kept blaming the tyres for being rubbish (semi-slick Azenis) everytime he came back into the pits. He eventually left early when he saw all the WRX's (including these novice VIC guys) were getting better laptimes than he was. It's rare that you come across such an extreme example like this character, but it does highlight that the tool must be married up to a competent operator.