As promised, here is the update after doing a track day today.
It didn't smoke! Looks like indexing the scavenging pump correctly solved the issue. Phew!
I really thrashed the thing today, and it ran just great without any issue. I guess I won't sell the damned thing after all, and I've even started to allow myself to like the car a little bit. But just a little!
It turns out the $99 for the set of rotors from China don't work well at the track, warping enough to cause severe juddering, and the pads faded badly, so I had to ease out of the gas way before the turns and brake early. Despite that, I was able to reel in a 2002 911 (he eventually spun, no doubt from me pressuring him
), and a new 911 blasted past me down the straight, but I was quicker in the turns, despite the huge tires that car has. So I feel pretty good about things. Not having to worry about the smoking allowed me to focus on my driving and learning the track, so that was fun!
My daughter lives nearby, so she came out and I gave her a ride for one session. She felt very nauseous afterwards, so that was a positive as well; if I made my kid sick, I must be doing something right!
That will be my last track day this year, so over the winter I throw some decent rotors and EBC Yellows at the car, and I'll start looking for some M030 roll bars. But I'm really happy to have a car that functions as it should on track!