pascal

For inexperienced drivers, I should have mentioned that you never want to go above you skill limits despite how performing your car can be, which could be a blur line for youngsters, lol.

tekzilla41

I shake my head everytime I see someone jump in their freezing cold car in the morning, fire it up and take off 5 seconds later. I have had good luck with every car I have owned and I think alot of it comes from never driving it cold.

As far as shifting, I pretty much always shift around or right before 3k and try not to get above 4k all that often.

nemosgt

This is a sensible reply. I think we can all recognize when a car is being driven hard or being abused. Let the idle drop down to normal after start before driving off and use these few moments to check oil press, etc while you buckle up. Then drive easy until everything warms up.
You can drive the car hard, just don't abuse it.
Don't spin the tires, hit the limiter all the time, smash the brakes, or as as mentioned here, dump the clutch. Common sense should be your guide.

Cheers.

nemosgt

Good advice for experienced drivers also.

Cheers.

pascal

Duhh! What a dumb post of mine.

No one should ever go above his/hers own limits, that's a given.
No matter how high the skills.

What I wanted to say is that inexperience folks have almost no cushion to correct things if need to be, despite the fact that they think they do...

Maybe one day I'll learn to converse in English, lol.

JIM5.0

At least you didn't say "converSATE! lol!
(Gawd, I HATE that word! Why do people F*** up the word converse like that?)


Anyway, I agree, anyone driving beyond his skills is a recipe for one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpGkY...eature=related

USAF Jetman

Hard driving is bouncing the RPM's off the rev limiter on a daily basis, doing 3K-4K clutch dumping launches daily and banging it through every gear...that would be hard driving. Keep the oil changed with a good quality full synthetic oil & oil filter...you shouldn't worry. Besides this is a sports car & meant to be driven...not babied...so drive that sucka like it's supposed to!!

pascal

I agree, I like "converse", more better.

crescent_wrench

Can't be serious with this question. The motor is designed to hit redline or there wouldn't be a redline indicated. Just maintain the car, keep your oil fresh, and have fun.

Vapour Trails

When my car is out for the summer it gets flogged pretty hard.

I would guess I put about 70-80 autocross runs on it last summer. Runs are about 60 seconds long between 3000-6500 rpm, but mostly 5000 rpm+.

The stress on suspension components is also high with the level of grip R-compound tires provide. I've taken numerous trips in the grass along the way.

As far as drag racing, about 30 runs last summer. Most 60' times are in the 1.6x range.

I believe the S197 engine, transmission, rear end and chassis are quite robust. I'm making 180% of stock power and everything drivetrain related is factory stock, down to the clutch.