The Florida Citrus Region PCA HPDE event in February at Roebling Road Raceway is an event I have attended several times over the years and it is always a good time. This year I was able to take the Integra Type R to the track for the first time. Saturday ended up being wet all day which in hindsight was a great learning opportunity for car setup. Sunday had drying conditions and ended up giving me a couple of full dry sessions on track to cap off the weekend.
So with a wet track what did I change for car setup? I unhooked both front and rear sway bars and adjusted the rebound of the dampers to full soft. That in conjunction with a set of Continental ExtremeContact Sport 205/50/15 tires on 15x7" Volk TE37 turned out to be an incredible wet weather setup. The FWD Integra handled well in full wet, wet --> drying conditions and one session that was mostly dry. The Continental tires were beyond impressive in all scenarios. This was the first opportunity I had to run them on track. I purchased them to use as a dual purpose street / wet track tire for the Integra Type R based on great wet weather reviews and I can say those are all accurate. The amount of grip available was splendid in all conditions.
Sunday started off damp so I kept the wet setup on the car but in the afternoon I was able to hook the sway bars back up, stiffen the rebound of the dampers and bolt on the Toyo RR 225/45/15 on 15x7" Volk TE37 that I have been running on the car. The car handled well. The driver needs some work. Overall everything went as expected but I underestimated the amount of speed that I could carry through several of the corners. This was a good learning experience and the data secured will help to improve the lap times the next time out. Every opportunity in the Integra Type R I learn more and more things about it and it continues to excite me with what it does. For reference in the dry on Sunday in the video below the car was running consistent mid 1:24 lap times.
