A few months ago I had a chance to experience an F3 car at Infineon Raceway. But this one was no ordinary F3! The engine comes straight out of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, tuned to over 300hp. The turbo gives the engine so much torque that even in third gear you could make the car stand still with white smoke.
The performance of the car was incredible. To get maximum braking out, you have to press down on the brake pedal with over 1200 lbs of pressure, and up to 1500 lbs.
Even in a 3rd gear corner, the peak cornering G was close to 3.0. The straight is rather short at Infineon Raceway, but the car got to over 130mph after a dead-stop final corner.
Man! Did it feel great to be in a bigger car with real horsepower.
Photos by David Reite.
Here is my onboard footage of one-lap around Infineon. Pole position!
Here is an onboard lap at the New Tokyo Circuit in a shifter kart:
140 km/h on the straight.