After some somewhat mixed results using my new Canon 75-300mm IS USM lens at the recent autocross, I wanted to give it a shot at a road course venue to see how it would compare. I ran in to some trouble with the camera locking up, and I think it's related to panning with the Image Stabilizer turned on. They make a much more expensive version of my lens that's designed so as to not have that problem, but in the mean time I just went ahead and turned off my IS for any shots where I thought I would be panning. I used mainly high shutter speeds (1/800 to 1/1600) for most of the pictures, but there's a few at 125 and 160 in there too. Those are just so hard to get clearly that I didn't want to try too much at that speed.

I mainly went just to get some good pictures for Brady of his 240SX on the track. Partly because photos on the track are cool and partly because you can analyze pictures to see what your suspension is doing at full grip in a turn. This is sometimes useful, although usually it's kind of a tossup as to if it really is helpful in setup. I got there about 15 minutes too late to catch his first group, but I did get some pictures of his second session while it was still dry. For the 3rd and 4th it started raining progressively harder, so he took it as a good chance to try a little wet drifting.

Actually a number of the cars were doing a little drifting around the track, although it's not clear how many were really doing it on purpose versus just having trouble putting the power down to accellerate through the turn 1 and 2 section where I was shooting for most of the day. Either way it made for some pretty good pictures. I've got several more that are not posted here, and all the originals are much higher resolution than what's seen here. I'm still trying to decide what to do, but I may host them on a photo album site where you can order printed copies of the pictures if you see one of your car that you like.

#1794 - Honda S2000	#1795 - Subaru WRX	#1797 - Subaru WRX STi
#1808 - Honda Civic	#1817 - Honda Civic	#1822 - Honda Civic
#1823 - Honda Civic	#1812 - Porsche 911	#1815 - BMW M3 (on 3 wheels)
#1850 - BMW M3	#1816 - BMW	#1841 - BMW
#1871 - BMW	#1879 - BMW	#1927 - Ford Mustang
#1962 - Ford Mustang	#1972 - Ford Mustang	#1947 - BMW
#1957 - GM F-Body	#1860 - Brady's 240SX	#1866 - 240SX
#1901 - 240SX	#1963 - 240SX	#1971 - 240SX
#1978 - 240SX	#1916 - White Honda Civic	#1898 - White Honda Civic
#1899 - White Honda Civic	#1904 - White Honda Civic	#1914 - White Honda Civic
#1791 - 3 Hondas	#1793 - Hondas again	#1800 - CRX before getting physical with the turn 1 wall
#1801 - Acura Integra	#1813 - VW Golf	#1824 - Honda Challenge Integra

Page Updated: 2-23-04
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