2025 One Lap of America (TomFree is running again...)

[FLtrackdays]

Day 4 writeup...National Corvette Museum raceway today. I did a recon day a few weeks ago in a friend's C8, so the track was fresh in my mind. I ran a PB and managed to beat my best lap time in the C8 by about 2 sec. I'm a lot more comfortable in my car, clearly, but that Corvette was quick. My finishing position was about what I expected - mid 40s.

My co-driver did the afternoon session, and had never seen NCM before the videos a friend gave him this morning. For those that don't know the track, there are a lot of blind elements that trick you into braking...when you should be flat. He struggled, but he'll be back.

It's a long, late night transit from NCM to VIR tonight. We'll get there around 1:30A, but we're staying in the VIR lodge, so we will sleep in and roll out of bed as late as possible.

We are taking a slightly longer route through the Cumberland Gap area, and we got pulled by a KY trooper for a speed that could have landed us a free night of room and board in KY. The guy was super cool and let us off with a verbal warning "Boy, you betta slow yo sef down." One of the competitors behind us took a pic of the stop. I'll get a copy and share eventually. We got SOOOO lucky.

My car is SO stockish.

AFE Control sways, F & R
AFE Control adjustable end links F & R
Verus Camber plates
18x10.5 wheels/275 RE71RS
Race brake pads, Pagid RSL29 in front, CSG 11 in the rear. Castrol SRF fluid.

That's it. Stock springs, stock everything else.

Just got on the road after day 3 at Hedge Hollow in middle-o-nowhere Missouri. This is the 2nd year we've done HH, and it's one of the finest facilities I've ever seen. The track is great, but you can't help but be awestruck at how much money has been spent there. Good grief.

I had a decent morning session, but just didn't attack it like I should have. My co-driver had an excellent afternoon session and absolutely wants to come back to HH.

I now strongly dislike the RSL29 pads I have on the front. I guess I'm drinking the CSG kool aid, but I miss the stupid initial bite of the CSGs I ran for the previous 2 years. The Pagids just don't have much initial bite and require a ton of pedal pressure to get the car slowed.

I didn't really notice that in the HPDEs I did with these pads, but in the more aggressive mode of these OneLap time trials, they are just the WRONG pad for me. I just need to adjust my driving and stop going so deep into braking zones for this event.

That’s awesome y’all beat the C8 ?. After this long event, give the Project Mu 999s a try. Bought my 4th set from Japan. Like them better than the endurance CSGs I tried. Great bite, stopping power and last longer than expected (if not on slotted or drilled rotors). The Cumberland Gap area is such a blast to drive. Glad you got out of that one ?‍

Do you have an official map you can post of the drive? Start to finish ?

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[tomfree]

Ask and ye shall receive (the map) https://www.onelapofamerica.com/images/history/2025/OLOA_25_Map.png

Finished up day 5 at VIR - familiar territory for both co-driver and I. We continue to be mid-pack, in the 50s. Neither of us were willing to just send it today. I think we both left some out there on the uphill esses and a couple of other elements. As I've said on here before...I'm not fast, but I know a little. My PB in any car at VIR is a 2:14 in a friend's I-Prepared e36 with Hoosiers and a good aero package. I was nowhere near that in the Supra, as there are some places I REALLY WANTED aero today. I did at least run sub 2:20, but that's not all that fast considering this OLOA crowd. We had a car in the 1:55s today. That is seriously quick for a street car.

To be truthful, I'm not used to driving something this fast at VIR, most of my previous cars were momentum machines with limited HP. Whoa-ing the Supra down from 140+ is a little sketchy, as the rear unloads a bit and dances around a bunch - normal, but I'm not very used to it.

Do I still hate the RSL29s? Yeah, I do. I've adjusted my head to drive around them now, but I still don't like them.

 

[razorlab]

Whoa-ing the Supra down from 140+ is a little sketchy, as the rear unloads a bit and dances around a bunch - normal, but I'm not very used to it.

The brake coding mods help with that. After that, aero.

When I went to aero, all that skitterness went away and the car just hunkers down under braking. It was actually the biggest difference I felt at first.

 

[FLtrackdays]

Ask and ye shall receive (the map) https://www.onelapofamerica.com/images/history/2025/OLOA_25_Map.png

Finished up day 5 at VIR - familiar territory for both co-driver and I. We continue to be mid-pack, in the 50s. Neither of us were willing to just send it today. I think we both left some out there on the uphill esses and a couple of other elements. As I've said on here before...I'm not fast, but I know a little. My PB in any car at VIR is a 2:14 in a friend's I-Prepared e36 with Hoosiers and a good aero package. I was nowhere near that in the Supra, as there are some places I REALLY WANTED aero today. I did at least run sub 2:20, but that's not all that fast considering this OLOA crowd. We had a car in the 1:55s today. That is seriously quick for a street car.

To be truthful, I'm not used to driving something this fast at VIR, most of my previous cars were momentum machines with limited HP. Whoa-ing the Supra down from 140+ is a little sketchy, as the rear unloads a bit and dances around a bunch - normal, but I'm not very used to it.

Do I still hate the RSL29s? Yeah, I do. I've adjusted my head to drive around them now, but I still don't like them.

Wow you guys are hustling through those places. Not a lot of rest in between! As far as aero, it’d be nice to have. But like you said, one thing leads to another - slippery slope indeed. I’d want an unlocked ECU to power through the extra downforce, an upgraded manifold to keep the temps down (with the extra juice) and lots of duct tape for when I‘d inevitably go off track & mow the lawn.

What kind of street cars were running under 2 minutes and is there a limit of how many mods you can do to the car?

Good luck on the upcoming events ? ?

 

[Davo307]

Good luck at Pitt Race today! I loved that track when I was there for Nationals in 2023. The Supra does great there.

 

[tomfree]

Wow you guys are hustling through those places. Not a lot of rest in between! As far as aero, it’d be nice to have. But like you said, one thing leads to another - slippery slope indeed. I’d want an unlocked ECU to power through the extra downforce, an upgraded manifold to keep the temps down (with the extra juice) and lots of duct tape for when I‘d inevitably go off track & mow the lawn.

What kind of street cars were running under 2 minutes and is there a limit of how many mods you can do to the car?

Good luck on the upcoming events ? ?

My updates kinda fell off the radar as the week went on - pretty friggin' tired. Let me see if I can answer questions and wrap this up.

I met another Supra forums guy - Mike F - can't remember your screen name for my life. Mike's car was HAWT - wrap looked great and the Zebulon aero stuff is bad@ss. It was fast and well-driven all week.

What kind of street cars were running sub 2-min - The "Super K" S2000 with absolute alien drivers were sub 2, I believe a GT3RS, the Tesla Plaid, and maybe a few others. There is some serious driving talent besides the hardware that shows up.

What sort of mods? - Classing in OLOA is arbitrary and mostly wide open. There are some "stock" classes, but most are just whatever you want to do. The conventional wisdom is that the folks who mod the cars to the moon blow up. Aforementioned S2K was indeed modded to the moon, and blew up. For example, my car and @razorlab 's car would be in the same class. SS1GT Small Bore. We all argue every year about writing new rules for classing, but it always dies from lack of inertia.

OK, on to Day 6 at Pitt Race. I really like Pitt Race, and I like it more every time I drive it. I beat my PR in the morning session, and everything felt good for the run. Afternoon was similar, but the track was a little slower, so the times weren't quite as good. This was the only track where one driver drove all day.

Day 7 at Grattan was a fustercluck for me in the morning session. It's very flowy, lots of tight, blind stuff, and I didn't have enough time on the sim to memorize the track. I went 4 off on T3 (low drama) and just drove it back on the track and finished my session. That killed my already glacial time. My co-driver did a better job reading the track and threw down in the afternoon.

Day 8 back at South Bend/TireRack HQ for the dry skidpad - I was one of the first cars to run, ran a little under 1.1G, and ended up in the 30s for that event. My co-driver was pretty beat at this point in the week and we opted to hit the road early. We loaded up the car on his trailer and managed to make it back to MD on Saturday night.

Overall finish was 55 - not exactly what I wanted, but I changed the approach to the event since my co-driver was new to OLOA and wanted to experience as many tracks as possible. I knew this would kill finishing position, but I'm not at the pointy end anyway (is there a dull end?)

 

[tomfree]

As alluded to in this thread...something will change over the next year.

If I keep the Supra, I'll go full wings and things, some suspension work, a Seasucker rack, and a small rooftop box. I got pretty tired with the Jenga exercise to pack and unpack the car more than other years, and every other Supra aside from me had a cargo box or some kind of external storage. If I didn't carry a spare tire/wheel, it makes it a LOT easier, but I feel like that's just asking for trouble. All of this is very do-able, but we start getting down the path of a car that is modified to a point where I'm not the right owner to tune/tweak/maintain. I've had heavily modified stuff in the past, but I was younger and had more energy and time to dedicate.

That leads to the inevitable "What's next?" Caddy CT4V Blackwing is first on the "need to drive it" list. In theory, I could go down to just 1 car (Supra sits in the garage 99% of the time), and simplify life a bit. The Blackwing people (CT4 and CT5) seem to have a contingency that track the cars, and they come with a ton of alignment adjustability like most of the good GM performance cars do (C8, Camaro, etc.). It's a little limited on wheel/tire for the weight, but I can probably work around that to some extent.

While a clear step down, the Golf R is a natural option. I already know I like how they drive, they're a known quantity in OLOA, and the hatchback means I can haul the hound around as well. I'd actually come away with a few $ in pocket if I went that route.

I dunno, it's "silly season" now for OLOA, so we all pontificate about what's next.

 

[razorlab]

As alluded to in this thread...something will change over the next year.

If I keep the Supra, I'll go full wings and things, some suspension work, a Seasucker rack, and a small rooftop box. I got pretty tired with the Jenga exercise to pack and unpack the car more than other years, and every other Supra aside from me had a cargo box or some kind of external storage. If I didn't carry a spare tire/wheel, it makes it a LOT easier, but I feel like that's just asking for trouble. All of this is very do-able, but we start getting down the path of a car that is modified to a point where I'm not the right owner to tune/tweak/maintain. I've had heavily modified stuff in the past, but I was younger and had more energy and time to dedicate.

That leads to the inevitable "What's next?" Caddy CT4V Blackwing is first on the "need to drive it" list. In theory, I could go down to just 1 car (Supra sits in the garage 99% of the time), and simplify life a bit. The Blackwing people (CT4 and CT5) seem to have a contingency that track the cars, and they come with a ton of alignment adjustability like most of the good GM performance cars do (C8, Camaro, etc.). It's a little limited on wheel/tire for the weight, but I can probably work around that to some extent.

While a clear step down, the Golf R is a natural option. I already know I like how they drive, they're a known quantity in OLOA, and the hatchback means I can haul the hound around as well. I'd actually come away with a few $ in pocket if I went that route.

I dunno, it's "silly season" now for OLOA, so we all pontificate about what's next.

After the Supra, you would probably dislike the Golf R on track. I would go CT4V Blackwing although I know they are two different price brackets.

The BRZ/86 Twins would also give you more carrying space than the Supra but it sounds like you enjoy having actual horsepower so maybe not.

 

[FLtrackdays]

As alluded to in this thread...something will change over the next year.

If I keep the Supra, I'll go full wings and things, some suspension work, a Seasucker rack, and a small rooftop box. I got pretty tired with the Jenga exercise to pack and unpack the car more than other years, and every other Supra aside from me had a cargo box or some kind of external storage. If I didn't carry a spare tire/wheel, it makes it a LOT easier, but I feel like that's just asking for trouble. All of this is very do-able, but we start getting down the path of a car that is modified to a point where I'm not the right owner to tune/tweak/maintain. I've had heavily modified stuff in the past, but I was younger and had more energy and time to dedicate.

That leads to the inevitable "What's next?" Caddy CT4V Blackwing is first on the "need to drive it" list. In theory, I could go down to just 1 car (Supra sits in the garage 99% of the time), and simplify life a bit. The Blackwing people (CT4 and CT5) seem to have a contingency that track the cars, and they come with a ton of alignment adjustability like most of the good GM performance cars do (C8, Camaro, etc.). It's a little limited on wheel/tire for the weight, but I can probably work around that to some extent.

I’m with Bryan, a Golf R would have more cargo but be a downgrade on track. I’m also with ya in that I don’t want to muck with a lot of software options/playing around for this car. That being said, this site & forum has been great & really evolved. We now have an affordable brakes, tires, manifold, car racks, aero, MDH tune and multiple other suspensions options you can do to this car that are pretty bolt on with the right shop. You’ve already got the car & it doesn’t take as much as it sounds, is all I’m saying.

I went suspension overkill and coulda shoulda gone slower with it. But even then, you do have to buy every stupid part like me. As far as aero, it’d be nice for sure but my times are pretty decent without it. That and the tune could be two areas that would cost you the most. But even then (did I already say that, lol), it’d be cheaper than buying a new ride.

Kudos and well done Tom ? That’s was a fantastic write up and had to be exhausting no doubt!! So I say enjoy it & keep this ride. We all can try & help you get some sponsors for next year - help cut your cost down a bit on the upgrades you want & make this car really shine ? next year.

 

[tomfree]

My frazzled brain has been playing out a whole bunch of scenarios over the last few days. I agree, the smart play is keeping the car and finding the goldilocks "just right" level of modification. To me, that's keeping the car streetable for 3000+ miles in a week, still reliable, and actually make the car faster on track with _me_ driving it.

I've been known not to make the smart play.

One of my good friends in the event wrecked his car (992 911 Turbo S) at NCM...and being the kind of person who owns a turbo S, went out and bought another car to finish the event. He picked up a '20 Supra with low miles and some questionable mods to finish out the week. He'll clean it up and sell it in a few months after the Porsche is fixed. The silly thought has crossed my mind to sell my car, buy his '20 and use that as a baseline. It's nowhere near as nice as my car, and already has a few holes drilled in it by a previous owner.

I think the conclusion to all this is that I need to get more sleep for a few days.

 

[FLtrackdays]

I've been known not to make the smart play.

I think the conclusion to all this is that I need to get more sleep for a few days.

Who hasn’t. That’s part of owning a track car. Thinking this time, I’m going to get it exactly right ?.

Ideally a track beater and that nice sports car you don’t track on a regular basis, would make the most sense. It just doesn’t fit the pitch to my wife that one car can do both and I won’t go overboard. This time… ?

Good luck amigo and definitely rest ?

 

[Davo307]

Who hasn’t. That’s part of owning a track car. Thinking this time, I’m going to get it exactly right ?.

Ideally a track beater and that nice sports car you don’t track on a regular basis, would make the most sense. It just doesn’t fit the pitch to my wife that one car can do both and I won’t go overboard. This time… ?

Good luck amigo and definitely rest ?

That's what I did (for now until the Supra becomes the next track slut). 10/10 would recommend.

 

[FLtrackdays]

That's what I did (for now until the Supra becomes the next track slut). 10/10 would recommend.

That‘s the way!!!!! Makes me think I shoulda never sold my S2K ?. Regardless, I’ll keep working on my Leatherman multitool (purpose) Supra. This time… mine will do both equally well ?

 

[Vtec13]

Hey Tom. Sorry I am late to the thread. It was great meeting you at one lap.
i think you should keep the supra and do the mods, I think you will enjoy it more than the CTV4V.
i also have an S2000 as well as the Supra (you can see the profile pic). i am liking the Supra more lately.
the roof rack is a good idea, but be careful, the roof dents easy. David’s roof has dents in the four corners where they kept pushing on the suction cups. My hitch solution worked well, it’s not for everyone, but we had lots of room.

 

[tomfree]

Mike - I was hoping you'd show up in this thread.

I watched Dave/Mike K put the seasucker rack on in previous years...and their emphasis was on speed ?. I'm not surprised there's some damage on the roof. Watching Adam and Jake put the rack on their car this year...they seemed to be very careful.

As I said in the parking lot...I've never seen anything like your rack solution. Extremely inventive!

While I haven't made up my mind yet. I've started pricing out pieces and parts for the Supra. Take that for what it's worth...

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