Slow! Have not raced the rF3s since, well-- when LO's F3 hit the "shelves"! I know they are not exactly the same thing, but I was hoping to be a little quicker out of the box. I practiced at Brands tonight, briefly, and I was slower than my wife getting ready in the morning. Okay, I was on "get-to-know" my car and on full tanks (25 laps) but for the love of Jove! Low 26s, and not achieved easily. I am going to need a lot of practice for next Thursday's start of the season.
Love the track, and this version is beautiful. Silly Paddock feels like the start of any relationship: you dive in eager to discover, you have no idea where to start slowing, where you are going, and when and where you should get out of there. What a turn: priceless.
The whole track is wonderful, very challanging and full of blind spots. I must shamefully admit that I never spent a long time there, not out of choice, just that with all the tracks I never found myself at a race there. Until this series.
The rF3s are great cars, very well modeled and handling very nice; they are very responsive, you feel the tires and you know when you are on the edge of the precipice. My only problem is that I have a week to tune it up and get much faster. On tonight's server I saw a couple of people in the 22s, and I guess the track record is in the 21s here at R2P. I think with proper doses of caffeine and properly allocated cigarette breaks I might make it in the low 24s. I think anything faster than that would require me to analyse my whole spiritual existence and make a pilgrimage to Monza or Indianapolis to burn some incense.
Clearly, I could have spent the five minutes it took me to write this at the track, shaving a tenth or tweaking my anti-rollbars. But since I was having a anti-acid moment, and I wanted to vent (I can't touch the brake ducts by the way, how inconvenient) I came here. Now I must go to bed, sweet repose and the arms of my darling wife who- as usual-thinks at any moment the people in the white coats are going to come storming through the house and finally take me to the asylum.