Track Built 240HP Abarth 124 Spider Hot Laps Englishtown Raceway Park Road Course

This is the Abarth 124. But it's not my Abarth 124. This one belongs to Kevin Lee, who had to sneak away from his wife to join us today. And we're here at Raceway Park's road course in Old Bridge, New Jersey. They just opened up their new track configuration, so I wanted to be the first to give it a shot in this little track built monster like mine. This car has an intake tune and exhaust with sway bars and lowering springs. But it's a manual, so it's lighter. And it's tuned by torque instead of rear compulsion. So it should have a bit more punch than 93 octane. It's also got scaffolding, a park bench, a speed bump grader, and a carbon fiber hardtop. All of this should make the car a bit faster than mine on this little 1.35 mile road course. First, I'll show Kevin around the track, then he'll drive with me in the car. And finally he'll go out and set his own hot lap. Let's give it a go.

All right, so let's go through the. We'll take it easy. This first one kind of warm up the tires.

Yep.

We'll see what this new track orientation is like. Because it's gonna be different, huh?

It's gonna be very different.

We'll find out. I thought your car was a soft top for some reason.

How happy, huh? Yeah.

The tires need to warm up.

So there's two left. What?

So they came all the way out to here. This is interesting.

So it's still a hairpin.

So it unsettles hair. It's just a lot. It's a sweeper at this point.

Oh, this is cool. I really lower radius.

I like that it comes in a decreasing radius here. Oh, this bump here.

A lot of.

There's a lot of debris though. It breaks it up a little bit. I like it, you know, because I've been running this track for so many years. It's been the same orientation over and over again. And I haven't really tired of. Yeah, in a way, tired of it, you know, but it makes it a little bit more challenging, I guess. You got a blow off valve on this thing?

Yep. Oh, yeah.

So you see what I'm doing? I'm carrying speed here and I'm cutting it in like this.

Yes. You see?

And then I go wide to the wall.

Yeah.

This car definitely needs a little bit more power.

Yeah, I know, right?

But I think the thing is here, I think you have like the arrow is good. You see how.

Pretty stable at a high speed.

Your car has decent amount of power.

Actually.

It feels like it's got more power than mine. You can pretty much do this whole track in third, in fourth, because how.

Much torque we have. All that drag for nothing. Is that from our tire? That's me. Yeah.

That's what you want to hear, too. No, because you're on the limit. So bam, brake, carry speed, go to the outside here of the wall, Come in, brake. Take this. You can. You can carry this all through third gear. Honestly, I wouldn't even waste time downshifting because you have enough torque to come through here and then carry speed through here because you don't need full power to kind of, you know. I like this Popples you got here.

Whatever. Oh, don't you have that too? Huh? Don't you have that?

I don't think so. Maybe not as much. Maybe it's your tune.

What I mean was, didn't you. Didn't you get the EC tune? Didn't you opt for the.

No, I didn't get the. The pop holes or whatever.

How long does a set of tires normally last?

You what, A set of tires?

Yeah.

Two seasons.

Really?

Yeah, because I have multiple sets of tires.

I think these tires are just giving away because how. Like, how. Look how many miles on my car?

Yeah, there's a lot. If this is, like. If this is what, you've been running this whole time, then.

Yeah. Well, not whole time, but maybe 12 miles.

All right, let's have some. Where's the traction control button?

It's on the left. The left. Left, left.

I'm making him nervous, I think. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Yeah, don't. Yeah, don't do that.

Cuz, you know, I don't want to. I think it.

Easy. I'm gonna.

I'm gonna.

Do it.

All right, so we're gonna hop off this one now.

Yeah, so.

There you go. That's a good line on that. Don't shift. Don't sh. Me. Don't break. That was too early.

I'm scared of blind turns. I can actually flat out. What's that? I can actually flat out through that.

Yeah, you can if you want.

Good.

Like I said, one continuous sweeper. One continuous sweeper.

You're right to stay on the left. So you can turn on the right here. Yep. Then go in the. For it. That's okay. Break.

Okay, Come wide. Remember to see that cone. This is the one. Now go. Yes. There you go. You're gonna. You feel the tires squeal. And then you want to go straight away and then the Corvette behind me.

So shall I let him by?

Yeah, let him point. Point them by on the straight away.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, that's the thing. You want to break in a straight line. Point them by.

Go.

Stay to the left and then point them by.

Point them by to the left. Yeah, that'. Slide. Ah, I missed. I missed the small blocks.

Well, it's not even that.

Yeah.

It's just that you want to break in a straight line up there for sure. Because you have two variables you have to deal with. One is turning and one is a decrease in elevation.

So your.

Your suspension is offloading up there.

Okay. Break. Third. Third's not that friendly. Carries. You can carry.

Carry it car.

Yep, carry it.

There you go.

Same thing.

Wait, brake. Okay, carry it. Stay in third. Yes, that's fine. Stay in third. Brake now. But make sure you're done braking like you're not braking through the corner. Yeah. Do not brake in this corner. Cause that's gonna unsettle the car for sure. I think you're good to go on your own after this. You feel confident, Kevin?

Yeah, of course. Oh, not of course. Gonna be a little bit boring without anybod.

You're good to go. All right, have fun.

Be careful. All right. I'll see. I might be a little bit slower because I'm running out of energy. What is that? It's. It's.

That was pretty spur of the moment, but it was a lot of fun and I like to start doing it more often. So this will probably be the start of what I call the fan wall, which is a place where we can get fans on the show, maybe set some lap times or do some acceleration runs with their cars. Anyway, Kevin's car felt great. The added aero looks a little bit overboard, but it definitely helps to make the car feel more planted. Plus, he stripped some of the insulation out so it sounds a bit more raw than my car, even though mine does have the non resonated exhaust. But I'm not quite sure I like the manual gearbox in this thing. I used to think that I made a mistake by buying my in auto, but even though the gearing is better, I still feel like the shifter feel doesn't quite cooperate with aggressive driving. It isn't very notchy, the throws are moderately long, and the engagement felt uninspiring. Anyway, Kevin's fastest lap timer on the new track orientation was 126.67. There's nothing else for me to compare it to, so I'LL just leave it right here for now. Thanks for watching. For a full list of mods, check out the description of the video. I know I've got some work to do as I refine this new format, but let me know what you guys think of it in the comments below. And with Track Season upon us, I'll be doing more racing videos and less reviews, but hopefully I can still squeeze in one or two here and there.

My bad, it's been a while.