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Driving Palomar

4K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  kenhoeve 
#1 · (Edited)
The south grade of Palomar in northern San Diego county is a famous stretch of road for enthusiasts of all kinds: motorcycles, cars, even bicycles. It has an impressive series of switchbacks that gain about 3,000 ft of elevation over about 8 miles. Many of the turns are greater than 180*, with widely varying turning radii. There is absolutely no need to exceed the speed limit on this road to push the limits of a serious car. We set out this past Saturday in the late morning, just as the roads were drying out, and I knew there would be almost no traffic to worry about. It was a great learning experience. Some of the things I learned…

While the stock settings are very very good, it immediately begs the question of just how great the car could perform with more aggressive settings. The car is very composed and precise. As mentioned often, there is a softer brake pedal response, longer travel, but they are absolutely effective turn after turn. This characteristic also allows modulation of the brakes much easier without the worry of upsetting things with quick stabs and the need to adjust to various road conditions. The P* immediately penalizes neutral throttle. It is certainly not an unusual out of balance understeer, it's perfectly acceptable without much trouble, but it impresses upon you quickly that to maintain balance you need at a minimum maintenance level throttle to bring the front and rear into balance. It's a good kind of feedback and quickly lets you know what feels wrong and what is right, it highlights mistakes, but does not cause undue handling loss. It provided this excellent balance no matter the tightness of the turn, always predictably in sync with a very sharp front end.

Something I had not been able to experience until this road was the ability of the car to transition from left to right. It is exhilarating how well the car shifts weight back and forth so quickly and effortlessly. So sure footed, the suspension makes easy work of the substantial weight of the car. It settles in so smoothly that you always know exactly when and where the transition to each side is. The push in the side from the bolsters is actually an excellent gauge for this. After a few repetitions you get very used to how that bolster push in the side lines up with the exact moment you hook from left to right. It is quite a bit of fun.

And the suspension settings. An absolute blast and so good. So good you wonder, how good could it really start to carve with 3,4, even 5, more clicks? There is so much potential there that I am sure you will see diminishing returns on the street. The limits will exceed what can be safely done with limited sight distance. Me, I have to know. So I will take the car in to be adjusted and repeat the trip, only to dial them back. All in the name of, uh, science. :)

I can't impress enough just how pleased I am with the way the car handled this trip. Volvo and Polestar delivered way above and beyond my reasonably high expectations for this car. It really is that good, and then they even give you the option to make it better. Insane.
 
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#2 ·
Thank you!

I just did the break in procedure for the brakes yesterday night. The brakepedal did get softer and the pedalway got longer after the following procedure:
20x from 70 to 30 easy breaking
10x from 90 to 50 normal breaking
10x from 120 to 50 hard breaking

The braking performance did remain but like I said, the pedalway got longer. We will see how this will affect track performance on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I will keep you guys updatet.
After the break in I now have a nice layer on my discs - like its supposed to be:thumbup:
 
#3 · (Edited)
The braking performance did remain but like I said, the pedalway got longer. We will see how this will affect track performance on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I will keep you guys updatet.
After the break in I now have a nice layer on my discs - like its supposed to be:thumbup:
Thanx for the feedback. Are you planning on changing the brake fluid before hitting the track or leave it as is stock from the factory? I believe I read PolestarOfficial recommend it; and it seems that's likely to lessen your observation of increased brake peddle travel.

I enjoy reading all your driving accounts Ken. I don't have the roads available to me where I live and need to take trips to get to some; and I'm on snow tires at the moment too. So can't take full advantage of everything this car has to offer. But I can say when attacking highway on/off ramps, minus some shifting I can feel as the car settles due to the new, deeply siped, softer winter rubber rolling over, the Michelin Pilot PA4 does an exceptional job giving me cold weather grip. (and they were quite good in full snow covered roads when I did that too, but I get more and more off topic.)

Back to handling ... in light of me using winter rubber. The only place I haven't found this car to meet or exceed what I could expect with my Mini JCW (stock suspension, but the advantage of it being a 1/2 ton lighter), or my heavily modified C43 AMG (500 lbs lighter but modded with many adjustable links with hiem joints for the bar ends, solid bushings, upgraded anti-sway bars, adjustable spring perches running stiff racing springs and Penske 8100 dual adjustable dampers, and a custom alignment to take advantage of it all) is ... down-hill, off-camber turns. The magic pixie dust Polestar sprinkled on our car to take 500~ish pounds out of the feel of the car when turning it all come back in a rush when I turn the wheel without braking or give some power early when going downhill around an off-camber turn. But by weighting the suspension by braking into the turn -- and lets not ignore that's what you're supposed to do and would do if driving near the limits, and I only don't do it on one special turn near my house is to test the limits of the car's suspension/dynamics/tires -- brings the turning performance on par with all other cases.
 
#4 ·
The south grade of Palomar in northern San Diego county is a famous stretch of road for enthusiasts of all kinds: motorcycles, cars, even bicycles. It has an impressive series of switchbacks that gain about 3,000 ft of elevation over about 8 miles. Many of the turns are greater than 180*, with widely varying turning radii. There is absolutely no need to exceed the speed limit on this road to push the limits of a serious car. We set out this past Saturday in the late morning, just as the roads were drying out, and I knew there would be almost no traffic to worry about. It was a great learning experience. Some of the things I learned…

While the stock settings are very very good, it immediately begs the question of just how great the car could perform with more aggressive settings. The car is very composed and precise. As mentioned often, there is a softer brake pedal response, longer travel, but they are absolutely effective turn after turn. This characteristic also allows modulation of the brakes much easier without the worry of upsetting things with quick stabs and the need to adjust to various road conditions. The P* immediately penalizes neutral throttle. It is certainly not an unusual out of balance understeer, it's perfectly acceptable without much trouble, but it impresses upon you quickly that to maintain balance you need at a minimum maintenance level throttle to bring the front and rear into balance. It's a good kind of feedback and quickly lets you know what feels wrong and what is right, it highlights mistakes, but does not cause undue handling loss. It provided this excellent balance no matter the tightness of the turn, always predictably in sync with a very sharp front end.

Something I had not been able to experience until this road was the ability of the car to transition from left to right. It is exhilarating how well the car shifts weight back and forth so quickly and effortlessly. So sure footed, the suspension makes easy work of the substantial weight of the car. It settles in so smoothly that you always know exactly when and where the transition to each side is. The push in the side from the bolsters is actually an excellent gauge for this. After a few repetitions you get very used to how that bolster push in the side lines up with the exact moment you hook from left to right. It is quite a bit of fun.

And the suspension settings. An absolute blast and so good. So good you wonder, how good could it really start to carve with 3,4, even 5, more clicks? There is so much potential there that I am sure you will see diminishing returns on the street. The limits will exceed what can be safely done with limited sight distance. Me, I have to know. So I will take the car in to be adjusted and repeat the trip, only to dial them back. All in the name of, uh, science. :)

I can't impress enough just how pleased I am with the way the car handled this trip. Volvo and Polestar delivered way above and beyond my reasonably high expectations for this car. It really is that good, and then they even give you the option to make it better. Insane.
Were you driving in "normal" mode or DTSC in "Polestar" mode? The difference in throttle-induced cornering balance should be very noticeable.
 
#11 ·
That is some fine looking driving Foxy. That looked mega fun mixing it up with those guys in the first vid. Anxious to see you get the P* on track!
 
#14 ·
I live 30 mins from there so you probably drove right through Valley Center! Its truly a wonderful road and provides a lot of entertainment.
 
#15 ·
I come over on the 76 when driving. But I have parked at Harrahs for the last couple years when I am training for race season. It takes about 1hr and 5 to 10 minutes for me to ascend to the artesian well just prior to the summit on my road bicycle. I then have one hell of an awesome descent, the best I have ever experienced (weather providing). And then turn around to do it again. Couple shots of me in the first hairpin on the way down.



 
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