Rams Eye The Track Guy

New track car? You bet! Just picked it up a few weeks ago for a long term test to serve as a dual purpose daily and track car. It's a bit obscure and forgotten about but packs a lot of special features and one of the best AWD systems you can buy. Watch to find out what it is, why it's forgotten, and what I like the most about it (plus how much I paid for it!).

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A post shared by Michael R (@ramseyethetrackguy) on May 21, 2019 at 5:17pm PDT

There are no shortage of automotive journalists praising neutral handling balance, sliding a car half way around a track, and condemning understeer as the enemy of speed. It's not just journalists, either. Forums for all sorts of cars are filled with people who hate understeer and try their best at exorcising every last understeering demon out of their cars. But is understeer actually that bad?


Drifting vs Hot Laps

Everyone seems to categorize the three distinct traits at the limit - "understeer", "neutral", and "oversteer" - this way: Understeer is bad. Neutral is good. Oversteer is slow but fun. And since most people don't get to drive a multitude of different cars, let alone push them to their limits, most opinions are formed based on professional reviews. That's fine in general, but there is a distinction between "fun" and "fast". Drifting is a lot of fun, yet everyone knows that drifting is not the fastest way around a…

This is a bit overdue (okay, long overdue) but I figured it's better late than never. If you're following me on Instagram or Facebook, you already know that I had to replace my clutch in 2018. It wasn't so much because the clutch failed. It was actually the clutch slave cylinder. Why would I need to replace the clutch if my slave cylinder went? Well, Ford had the genius idea of putting the slave cylinder inside the transmission. Ok, this isn't entirely fair. Putting my engineer hat on, I can see how this makes sense. If you put the slave cylinder in, it's outside of the elements and should theoretically last longer. Unfortunately, Ford should have invested in a better slave cylinder for this to be a great idea, not one that can't make it past 22,500 miles (36,000 kms), albeit with track use - which probably exacerbates the problem because of the additional heat and higher temps. But I digress.

At any rate, the slave cylinder went. Most people would replace the…

Before getting into this, I have to confess something... I had never driven an Audi TT before. Not until this one, anyway. But that hasn't stopped me from forming an opinion about it from the comforts of my own couch while reading and watching reviews online. After all, if you've never done that, do you even know what the point of the internet is? Now, we all interpret reviews differently. Call it confirmation bias if you will, but if you like a car, you'll read a review and look at the positives as what makes the car great and the negatives are but a few quibbles you have to live with. If you don't like a car, the positives are a few things the manufacturer got right while screwing up everything else. It's a bit harsh to put the TT in the latter category, but that's where it ended up for me...

I never took the TT seriously. The problem with the TT for me isn't that it's a Golf underneath, per se. There is nothing wrong with a performance car sharing a c…

Does the Cadillac ATS V live up to its mission of challenging the BMW M3? There is no better way to find out than a couple of days at the track and a nice back road drive. Stay tuned for a review article soon and if you like the video, make sure to subscribe for more upcoming videos! (with a new mic and better audio next time...)


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A post shared by Michael R (@ramseyethetrackguy) on May 21, 2019 at 5:17pm PDT

A few weeks ago, I made a post explaining mainstream AWD system types and how they compare, pros and cons, etc. including some simple diagrams to show where the power goes and how much. As promised, this post will focus on specific cars and what AWD systems they use, especially ones that that have more or less been defined by their AWD systems, and the best place to start may be with a bombshell; the Nissan GT-R.


Nissan GT-R (R35)

The GT-R has built a reputation around having monster traction and very approachable performance, thanks to its AWD system - Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Terrain (ATTESA) - and what it can do for you. But the GT-R doesn't actually use the most mechanically sophisticated type of AWD systems discussed in the previous article, namely a "true" AWD with a centre differential. Instead, it uses a clutch pack to transfer power.


The R32, R33, and R34 Skyline GT-R's used a system that looked basically identical to the traditiona…