On Friday, May 13th, Wietzes Toyota Scion hosted their first track day at the Mosport Driver Development Centre. If you have never been to the Mosport DDT it is a road course with a wide variety of turns and a couple of straights. The rolling topography adds to the interest as there is a fairly significant change in elevation through a full lap. It is quite a bit of fun, even if it does not offer top speed thrills like some larger tracks - the Mosport big track would offer this.
For an autocrosser like me this track provides plenty of thrills. At an autocross it is very rare to get into third gear, but the DDT had a couple of spots where you were full throttle in third, before braking hard for a corner. Top speed, when it was possible to glance at the speedo, was around 125 km/h. The digital speedo in the xB was actually helpful here, because it was easy to read quickly.
The day turned out to be very nice, weather-wise, if not a little hot. The weatherman had been calling for thunderstorms all week, but the track stayed dry all day long. There was quite a wide assortment of cars at the track. Everything from the top dog 911 GT3 RS to a Scion xD, with a number of other Porsches, an Audi A3, BMW 6 Series, a couple of Camrys and several Scion tCs.
Speaking of the Scion xD, it was there courtesy of Scion Canada. Nice to see Scion out enjoying the day with some of their customers. Special thanks to them for the bit of swag they sent my way.This was obviously my first opportunity to drive my xB hard. I had only had it for about a week and a half. Not really knowing how it would handle, nor wanting to learn the track on my good tires, I started the day on the stock tires that came with the car. I quickly got comfortable with the xB on the track, and soon was wishing for the extra grip the Falken FK452s would provide. I'm glad I started out on the stock tires as it allowed me to get up to speed without any real danger of over-driving my skills, not to mention the noticeable wear the tires showed when I took them off.
Once I put on the Falkens there was a significant increase in grip. Proof that spending money on better tires was worthwhile. Overall, I was very pleased with the handling on the xB. The TRD springs, rear sway bar and front strut tower proved themselves to be very important upgrades. The lack of understeer was actually a little surprising to me - I only had understeer when I really over-cooked a corner.
Overall the day was well organized and safely run, with a good group of guys ( and a lady or two). Having a couple of instructors on hand was invaluable, and certainly made my day better after listening to some advice. A nice lunch was provided, and given the heat, lots of drinks were available. Hopefully Wietzes Toyota Scion will make this an annual event.
