Took the TA to Buttonwillow last weekend

[Brad00GTS]

Went to a test and tune day on Friday at Buttonwillow Raceway. Reached to 500 mile breakin mileage on the drive to the track. My impressions of the Gen 5 from a mediocre driver.

I have been to Buttonwillow many times in a Gen 2, 3, 4 and now 5. My first impression looking back, is the Gen 5 requires a better driver than the previous Gens. The main reason is the gearing and second, the power band. Since I just reached 500 miles, this was the first time I really got it over 4000 rpms and man does this thing jump when you step on it, so you have to be smoother on the throttle than before, and there is a lot more shifting required. In previous generations, you could run this track in 2nd and 3rd, but as I found out, that doesn't work with this car, I hit the rev limiter a few times.

My first time out with my ACR I ran a 2:03, the second time my best was 2:01, and felt it was just a matter of time before I could break 2 minutes.

On Friday my best timed lap was 2:12, not all laps were timed though. It was a slow track because of the 95+ degree weather and a lot of car traffic, and I felt fast but I just couldn't get used to the gearing, so as I said at first, a better driver would of performed a lot better. Need more track time.

[Bruce H.]

I was on the track with an ACR owner and a coach who both said the TA was 1 gear off from the previous Gen, so where they would run 2nd and 3rd I was running 3rd and 4th with the TA. Hopefully more seat time will be the answer to your lap times. Enjoy!

[Bruce]

My Gen 4 ACR definitely had better pickup in 1st and 2nd gear as compared to my Gen 5 TA. I think the two cars are about the same power wise and with the same rear axle ratio, as I had headers, hi-flow cats, 3.55 rear end, and Mopar ECU on the Gen 4. Yeah, overall I like the gearing of the Gen 4 better and it is a lot easier to go to a shorter rear axle ratio than swapping 1st and 2nd gears.

[RedTanRT/10]

Bruce, tough weekend to be at Buttonwillow, it was so hot this week! I'd throw out that 2:12. While you spoke of the trans I think the difference was really due to heat and traffic. I was there two weekends ago and met Todd from up your way. He drove his camaro real well, think he got down to 1:57? Seems he did a 2:01 there on a cold day with his gen 5. You'll get there, just need better conditions.

I haven't driven a Gen 5 but I remember looking at the trans ratio's when they first came out. I'm not smart enough to understand why they went to a 3:55 as they also radically changed the ratio's in 1st to 3rd. When I used a gear calculator I didn't really see the need for the change, seems like the result got them back close to the G4 overall set up through 4th?

The 3:07's seem to work good in my G4 ACR at BW (CW 13). In two places I'm geting close to the rev limiter in 3rd, on the back stright after the esses and the front straight I do have to use 4th.

Hope to see you up there in the fall. Think Speed Ventures has an event in either late September of early October. Mike