More seat time = more grin time.


Leading a yellow Viper and Derek's graphite coupe into the brake-burning Turn Five 'slingshot.'

The pencil-wide vision of a rookie is starting to give way to a more sweeping view. Now my old fears of not seeing flags or noting overtaking cars were slowly changing into the realization that I could account for these phenomena and still keep driving in a brisk but safe manner.

This time there was a 'G Posse' on hand - Derek173 in his clean graphite coupe and ChicagoX in his graphite AWD sedan.


The obligatory 'flame-bathed' shot of the G coupe under the Snap-On Tools bridge at the start of the never-ending right-hand bender, The Carousel.

ChicagoX had installed a couple of interesting modifications - a plenum spacer and an ingenious manifold cooling system using the wiper fluid for cooling. His manifold was many times cooler now than before thanks to his neat little run of tubing.

He had brought an extra set of rotors and some extra pads as well but was to still have some brake issues despite his good automotive knowledge and preparation. Road America is the king of all brake-eating race courses - no other course comes close.


ChicagoX's AWD sedan - This shot is from the Hurry Downs between Turns Seven and Eight.

The event at hand was the F-Body Association, which holds two HPDE's each year at Road America. This was my third run with them, as it was Derek's. It was ChicagoX's first event with them. ChicagoX had some pretty hot laps, including one in which an instructor in a brand new TL couldn't catch him and was impressed with ChicagoX's speed in his AWD sedan.

Derek, who has possibly the fastest nearly-stock G35 AT coupe in the quarter-mile, had a smooth series of runs around the course that matched his nicely detailed G in cleanliness.


Cutting' through the Canada Corner, Derek173's coupe gets ready to head up Thunder Valley.


This 928 turbo was one of fastest cars in the intermediate group.


A blue GTO that was blocking traffic with slow turns. He finally was dropped from our intermediate HPDE group but not before he had chances like this to hold me up!

The obvious braking and handling quality of the Beastie Coupe was shining through. Time after time I saw the coupe enable me to pull up major distances on even the fastest of cars at turns and braking points. The coupe turned and braked better than almost anything else out there! Virtually every ridealong of the weekend – and the weekend before – were impressed by the way the coupe danced between turns.

My tuner – Team Noble Racing in Glenview, Illinois – has done a great job in balancing the coupe. The Tein Flex and EDFC install, the stiffer polyurethane bushings on the stock sways, and the corner-weighting done by TNR during those installs has been stellar.

So, even with a driver like me guiding it, the Beastie Coupe is a joy to guide between the turns. The Five-Six-Seven combination and the Canada Corner-Thirteen-Fourteen combination are great fun to wail through in such a sweet-handling car.

‘Awesome’ was the word ChicagoX’s friend John said while riding along. ChicagoX himself kept saying ‘Nice! Niiiice! NIIIIIICE!’ as he rode along, hanging on to the coupe’s very handy arm rests!


The coupe slices for the track-out point at Turn Fourteen. A friend hangs on as I start to squeeze the throttle to have it fully open when the G reaches the very beginning of the Home Straight.

Also contributing to the handling were the excellent Kuhmo Ecsta MX’s grip and their wonderful communicative nature – they ‘talked’ to you as you drove. One level of squealing indicated that the tire was starting to reach its’ slipping limits – if you heard a higher, louder squeal that merged into a howl, it was time to let off the throttle!

Only once – and a terrifying solo event it was – did the coupe (really ‘me!’) clumsily execute one of its’ handling ‘dances’ – and of course it happened at the one place at Road America where you definitely do NOT want such an event to occur.

The Kink! :shocked:

Fortunately – for them – no one was riding along with me on the one trip when I almost smacked my G upside the wall (they might have needed a change afterwards!)

I repeated my #1 mistake on road courses – coming in too fast and apexing too early – even for the Kink which is the one place at RA where a slightly early apex is actually okay.

The coupe was doing 100-105 at the end of the short straight after The Carousel and, instead of tapping the brakes for a couple of instants, the brakes were tapped for a brief single instant. The difference between heaven and hell on a road course can be just that small - even at my modest level.

The combination of too early an apex and not enough front-end ‘sit-down’ led to – oversteer!!! :shocked:

My heart leapt into my throat as the tail of the coupe suddenly swung out about 15 degrees to the left! I began to squeeze the throttle to bring the tail back in line when Nissan’s nanny stopped the slide by gentling engaging the rear left brakes only. Slide corrected – but then the effects of my throttle engagement kicked in and the tail wagged ever so slightly to the right – maybe five degrees (but at 100 mph on a turn with concrete walls on both sides that is not just a ‘slight’ scare!!!)

Again, Nissan technology to stepped in. The right brake engaged slightly and the tail tucked in while I feathered out of the throttle engagement, counter-steered gently and emerged out into the Kettle Bottoms with an intact car and racing pulse. WHEW!

I know that while the ‘escape’ at The Kink was definitely aided by the presence of VDC, traction control, and the like; it was not completely accomplished by those systems alone . Three years of AutoXing and driving clinics, of reading and modifications, were also present in the keeping the car of the wall.

I still know I was lucky. If the tail would have swung out another twenty degrees, this story might not be so happy. But the tail didn’t do that, it tucked itself back in – partially through the efforts of the electronic nannies, and yes, partially through MY efforts.


Here I am pushing the coupe hard through the Canada Corner. This is a tough section for the heavy coupe to do well. Proper apexing and immediate re-application of full throttle as soon as possible is need in order to keep speed up for the uphill climb into turns 13 & 14!

Onto to less scary things – like driving well, having fun, and talking and looking at sweet cars!

There was a supercharged Mini Cooper S next to us. That little thing could scoot – it was great to see it go by on the Home Straight – an angry little growl coming out from the engine and tailpipes, see it briefly brake at the start of Turn One and then corner like it was on rails!


Go Mini Go! The lil’ critter scoots through the Canada Corner.

The couple who owned that Mini also had a blue VW R32 – the first I had seen up close. It was handling sweetly and showing some muscle on the straights before the clutch suddenly went out.


The Volkswagen R32 that had some good runs before it’s clutch went south.

Another impressive car in the ‘C’ intermediate group was an E36 BMW that ate up the course – and which I found impossible to keep the Beastie Coupe ahead of.


Hey! Come back here!

One of the last happenings in this all-too-short two-day HPDE was to have a Z06 driver named Dave come over and introduce himself to me to ask what suspension was on the coupe and to remark that it handled fantastically. ‘I was watching you on the course and you were going through the turns great! What kind of mods do you have on your Infiniti?’

:grin: :grin: :grin:



The coupe going through the no-brakes Turn Seven. Next time I am at Road America I will dial down the EDFC to an even stiffer setting to get this kind of lean 'scrubbed out!'

Thanks so much for reading this! If you have any questions please feel free to reply or send me a PM. Hopefully I can get a video processed and up on Boones' G-Owners website in the next week or so.


- Riff

P.S. All the high-resolution photographs of my coupe by Edmund Lacis. Credit to Geoff Brisbine for additional shots of the Infiniti 'Posse' and other cars at the event.