Track forum general chit chat.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by CorruptCommie

Back to Gopro issues, has anybody ran the 7 Black? My sound keeps getting muffled for part of the lap. Like it's switching between mono or stereo or something. I think I updated the firmware but the issue was still there last I tested.

Are you using an external mic? Any kind of case?

I'm wondering if the mic is trying to drop the levels way down to avoid clipping from wind noise.

[dparm]

How do NASA HPDEs compare to other organizations? They have a weekend event at COTA in two weeks that I'm considering doing, but I have never run with NASA. I don't want something overly pedantic and anal, but I definitely don't want a loosey-goosey thing where people go full-retard.

It's also a bit unclear to me how it works with these groups...since I've never run with them, but have experience, do I have to start at the bottom and work my way up or something?

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by CorruptCommie

Back to Gopro issues, has anybody ran the 7 Black? My sound keeps getting muffled for part of the lap. Like it's switching between mono or stereo or something. I think I updated the firmware but the issue was still there last I tested.

The sound setting is probably set to Auto - which will switch between stereo (non-wind compensation) and Wind. Just hard fix it to whichever you prefer.

[CorruptCommie]

Originally Posted by redpriest

The sound setting is probably set to Auto - which will switch between stereo (non-wind compensation) and Wind. Just hard fix it to whichever you prefer.

I thought I looked in the settings and didn't find anything, will check again. This def sounds like what it's doing.

I'm not using an external mic and using the standard case for it.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by dparm

How do NASA HPDEs compare to other organizations? They have a weekend event at COTA in two weeks that I'm considering doing, but I have never run with NASA. I don't want something overly pedantic and anal, but I definitely don't want a loosey-goosey thing where people go full-retard.

It's also a bit unclear to me how it works with these groups...since I've never run with them, but have experience, do I have to start at the bottom and work my way up or something?

I immediately went to HPDE 4 when I ran with NASA NorCal. I had to justify why I should have gone in there, urine sample, blood testing, etc.

There was tons of traffic though, because they were fitting the TT run groups directly in the HPDE 4 groups that day, which made for some interesting conga lines at Sonoma, lol - I was about 5 seconds off pace all day.

They were definitely cracking down hard on people that broke rules. I swear we had professional NASCAR teams testing their cars there, and in our run groups.

Highlight of my day was the run group lead dressing down some 14 year old in a stock car for going to wheel to wheel through turn 11 with someone who had just been promoted from HPDE3, lol.

[ThunderMoose]

Originally Posted by dparm

How do NASA HPDEs compare to other organizations? They have a weekend event at COTA in two weeks that I'm considering doing, but I have never run with NASA. I don't want something overly pedantic and anal, but I definitely don't want a loosey-goosey thing where people go full-retard.

It's also a bit unclear to me how it works with these groups...since I've never run with them, but have experience, do I have to start at the bottom and work my way up or something?

I run in NASA's TT program. Based on your experience you should be able to get into HPDE3 or 4. It's well managed. But it's not a lot of track time compared to Chin for example.

Great vibe though. It's my favorite organization to be at track with. Try it out and maybe try to move towards TT which is still DE but with a bit more purpose .

[CorruptCommie]

I found the setting. You have to turn protune on. Now I gotta figure out what that means.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by redpriest

I immediately went to HPDE 4 when I ran with NASA NorCal. I had to justify why I should have gone in there, urine sample, blood testing, etc.

There was tons of traffic though, because they were fitting the TT run groups directly in the HPDE 4 groups that day, which made for some interesting conga lines at Sonoma, lol - I was about 5 seconds off pace all day.

They were definitely cracking down hard on people that broke rules. I swear we had professional NASCAR teams testing their cars there, and in our run groups.

Highlight of my day was the run group lead dressing down some 14 year old in a stock car for going to wheel to wheel through turn 11 with someone who had just been promoted from HPDE3, lol.

Originally Posted by ThunderMoose

I run in NASA's TT program. Based on your experience you should be able to get into HPDE3 or 4. It's well managed. But it's not a lot of track time compared to Chin for example.

Great vibe though. It's my favorite organization to be at track with. Try it out and maybe try to move towards TT which is still DE but with a bit more purpose .

Thanks guys, I'll probably try to get into group 3.

And yes, last time I was at COTA we had multiple Blancpain GT Challenge vehicles running on the track in my group. Those things are in your mirrors in an instant. I drag raced one down the back straight and lost by a big margin, lol.

[kayha12]

NASA is great; really varies by region. I think if you can prove your experience, you should be able to start in at least DE2, if not maybe even DE3. I run mainly in Mid Atlantic and this year they've gotten very strict on just letting people climb the ranks... there's actually written test for every group advancement now. Too many people make it to DE4, TT, Race groups and don't even understand flags..

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by kpewpew

I blame my alignment too...

Over 0.5" difference from front of tires to rear of tires. Lol

[kyippee]

Originally Posted by derbo

my oem exhaust mod 4pipe passed Laguna 90dB...lol, you probably will pass.

FYI I didn't pass in the cold morning, day 1 (Saturday) at Laguna. Registered 90.4 with Bomiz valvetronic muffler in closed/quiet mode, 3rd gear WOT up turn 5-6 run, hanging to right side of track. Rest of exhaust system stock.

I shifted early to 4th gear for the rest of sessions, no more problems.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by kpewpew

FYI I didn't pass in the cold morning, day 1 (Saturday) at Laguna. Registered 90.4 with Bomiz valvetronic muffler in closed/quiet mode, 3rd gear WOT up turn 5-6 run, hanging to right side of track. Rest of exhaust system stock.

I shifted early to 4th gear for the rest of sessions, no more problems.

Interesting! I was full 3rd WOT T5-T6 straight without any issues but maybe I'm just too slow, they thought ehhh

[Ximian]

What's the easiest option for switching out stock cats for less restrictive ones? Ideally, something I could do a few days before a track weekend and switch it back to stock if I wont be going to the track for a while. My car is a daily driver in the summer so I'd like to keep it stock as possible, avoiding loud exhaust or the smell of running catless.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by CorruptCommie

Back to Gopro issues, has anybody ran the 7 Black? My sound keeps getting muffled for part of the lap. Like it's switching between mono or stereo or something. I think I updated the firmware but the issue was still there last I tested.

Check your audio control and set it to manual stereo. I have a hunch it is switching back n forth from the wind setting.

MANUAL AUDIO CONTROL
By default, this setting is off and your camera automatically switches
between recording in stereo and filtering wind noise to achieve the best
audio balance. When this setting is on, you can manually select which of
these two filters to apply.
For example, you might want to turn on this setting and select Wind Only
if you are recording outdoors on a windy day. You might select Stereo Only
if you are recording in a club or theater where consistent stereo audio is a
priority and wind is not a factor.

[derbo]

How is 18x10.5+20 for the track? Possibly buying a set of rims in a squared setup.


From my current 18x10+22, its 4mm less inner clearance, 8mm extended from the outside.

[bigjae1976]

Originally Posted by derbo

It's called Auto Exposure in Hero5. You have to hold the screen down, then tap the windshield, click the check mark to confirm. It will reset every time the Hero5 is turned off.

I had better luck with mine. Set FOV to Linear, 1080p60fps, AutoExposure locked to the windshield.

Thanks, I'll try it out tomorrow and report back.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by Ximian

What's the easiest option for switching out stock cats for less restrictive ones? Ideally, something I could do a few days before a track weekend and switch it back to stock if I wont be going to the track for a while. My car is a daily driver in the summer so I'd like to keep it stock as possible, avoiding loud exhaust or the smell of running catless.

Bolt-in test pipes.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

Bolt-in test pipes.

I like to agree with this and tack on using Vband flanges on both the stock cats and test pipes to make it easier to switch back in forth while reducing the need for storing a big stock x pipe somewhere.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by Ximian

What's the easiest option for switching out stock cats for less restrictive ones? Ideally, something I could do a few days before a track weekend and switch it back to stock if I wont be going to the track for a while. My car is a daily driver in the summer so I'd like to keep it stock as possible, avoiding loud exhaust or the smell of running catless.

Slippery slope. You'll need to find a shop that can do bolt-in high-flow cats or something, but it's illegal to modify or remove functioning cats, so...

I would just run high-flow cats all the time. They'll still pass emissions and won't smell. Sound won't be drastically different unless you get one of those tiny spun-body 100-cell things.

[macdude357]

Originally Posted by derbo

How is 18x10.5+20 for the track? Possibly buying a set of rims in a squared setup.


From my current 18x10+22, its 4mm less inner clearance, 8mm extended from the outside.

Once you start going really wide you have to optimize both inner and outer clearance. So it will really depend on how much clearance you have now and how much tire you want to fit.

In my case, I run 18x10.5 et25 (285/35/18 Hankook RS4's) and have about 4mm clearance to my inner strut and maybe the same on the outside. Moving the wheel 5mm towards the outside wouldn't be ideal in that case since I'd be losing clearance on the outside.

Keep in mind it's easy to add a 3mm spacer if you need a bit more clearance but not the other way around. So I'd lean towards a less aggressive offset that you could tune with 3 or 5mmm spacers.

[dparm]

Thought this was a great read on how rear diffusers actually work and the practical limits to what they can do.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...ers-explained/

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by kpewpew

FYI I didn't pass in the cold morning, day 1 (Saturday) at Laguna. Registered 90.4 with Bomiz valvetronic muffler in closed/quiet mode, 3rd gear WOT up turn 5-6 run, hanging to right side of track. Rest of exhaust system stock.

I shifted early to 4th gear for the rest of sessions, no more problems.

you didn't pass sound with bomiz closed and oem xpipe?!

I'm swapping to oem xpipe for my smog check / registration due in May. Laguna is in end of June. Maybe I'll just keep it on with a stock tune for that day to play it safe. It's just so much slower without tune and with cats lol

I have the macht schnell quad resonated xpipe and with the oem mufflers to me it sounds pretty quiet already. Not sure if I should roll the dice and for sure I'm not taking no extra xpipe with me.

I think my set up would be quieter than an akra evo set up though.....

Would be ridiculous to run laguna pipes on oem muffler lol