redpriest HPDE journal

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by okusa

That guy is damn lucky those cars drive themselves!

I know, nuts isn't it?? Car was better than the driver.

[AP3X_FTW]

Originally Posted by redpriest

You just have to be careful on how you piece together the sectors. I mean, you could just dive bomb a straight, missing your braking zone altogether and claim that would be your fastest sector time, like this guy (lol):

I had passed him on the banked oval, but he eventually caught up to me and passed me on the straight (these cars have unreal amounts of power) - here's another one that passed me like I was standing still on the main straight, then proceeded to go sideways on the bank :O

Wow, these guys were a bit out of control.

[redpriest]

Drove out to Sonoma early this morning and got some seat time with NASA in group HPDE-4. This is my first time running with this group, and they are pretty strict - probably stricter than Hooked on Driving, which was kind of surprising to me. Their HPDE groups are definitely focused on driver education. 4 sessions, 3 download meetings, even in the "advanced" group.

They had a rule where if you spun out on the first session, you got to sit out the 2nd session. Unfortunately, someone fell victim to this (not me!).

It was very crowded for the first and last sessions, since they had mixed the TT group in with us, so there were some pretty comical situations where we were 20 cars deep in a queue to turn 7 and 11. Basically treated it as warm-up and wind-down. Track can be pretty challenging and intimidating because of all the walls.

I wasn't able to get a real clean lap all day, since it was pretty crowded. Still, appreciate getting some seat time in this challenging track. Last time I came here, it was pouring rain and it was scary. Had much more confidence today. Just a couple mistakes where I misjudged braking distances (Fortunately turn 7 has a lot of run off if you screw up), but no real oh sh**s. Hard to push the limit when you're behind slower people

First time running with the do88 DCT cooler and it seems to be working as advertised. I never had any sort of lag, even deep into the session. I'll be able to make a final verdict next week at Buttonwillow when it's hot as crap.

I don't have any real way of measuring temps on it, but for me, butt-dyno is enough - do my shifts lag after 10-15 min in the session? Even at ACS, where there's ample time at high speed to whisk away that heat in the radiator, I would have 1-2 second lag in shifts after 10-15 min.

Car ran fantastically in 83-84 degree temps. No limp mode, and I could stay in 3rd as much as I wanted without risking limp mode, or RPMs being pulled on me.

Best lap in traffic, 1:59.155:

[redpriest]

Late brake oopsie during first session:

[redpriest]

Tried to incorporate AriuSen 's advice into my laps today. Worked on trail braking and smoother applications of throttle coming out of corners. Not always successful, but it's a work in progress Thanks for the help!

Best lap was 1:57.876. Hard to find clean laps since I always seemed to find myself at the back of the pre-grid lineup pack, but still, was a great learning opportunity. I tried to open up space whenever I could, not always successful. Virtual best time is 1:52.019 according to AIM Solo DL, and 1:54.19 according to HLT. Not sure how much I believe it, but split data doesn't look impossible. Definitely a lot to learn and master here, I feel like I'm leaving a lot on the table in turns 1-2, I'll work on that next time.

[M3 Number 86]

I always wondered about virtual best time because it's assuming your fastest time in section A has nothing to do with section B eg blew passed the brake marker. Unless it is that smart or you section off your markers at the right spots.

Anyways is the bee in this vid? Going to watch now

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

I always wondered about virtual best time because it's assuming your fastest time in section A has nothing to do with section B eg blew passed the brake marker. Unless it is that smart or you section off your markers at the right spots.

Anyways is the bee in this vid? Going to watch now

Bee is in general chat thread, lol

[redpriest]

New PB with DSC off at Buttonwillow:

Was a very sloppy day for me though, in general. Had a few 2-wheel offs, and a couple spins. Was pushing way too hard generally and not getting much out of it.

It was super helpful though, once I got a ride along from AriuSen because he pointed out some things he would have done differently. I tried to apply this as much as I could in this lap.

Best virtual lap with the track divided into the below splits looks like this:



It's not a surprise to me that the best split times came in the morning when it was significantly cooler (75 deg vs 95 deg in my 6th and last session). It looks the advice paid off though even in the hotter temperatures I was able to put together a lap that was significantly faster than the morning sessions.

do88 DCT cooler worked flawlessly for me throughout the day. No shift lag *ever*. The do88 oil cooler + CSF Radiator couldn't keep up with 10/10 effort through the hottest sessions later in the day. Never went into limp mode, but I did have my max RPM retreat to 6500-7000 RPM at a couple points throughout the day. Would have been in limp mode for sure with stock cooling.

[redpriest]

Good day at Sonoma today. It was nice and cool in the morning, so I managed to set some really good times. Best session and lap happened during the 2nd session, 1:53.74. Transponder read 1:53.5, so it gave me a couple tenths for fun, lol. Air temperature was about 68 degrees F, so perfect conditions really.

Traffic wasn't too bad for the most part, even though there wasn't any pre-gridding by laptime like Speed Ventures usually does. I did get stuck behind a couple McLarens that wouldn't let me pass in the corners, and of course, I had no chance of keeping up with them in the straights.

I did manage to pass him after he got stuck behind a Miata, haha.

Have to cut the weekend short though, was going to go again tomorrow, but it turns out my tires didn't have 2 days in them - corded two of them on the inside, on the 6th day of use.

[redpriest]

It's been an interesting weekend, that's for sure, LOL.

Trying out the new Maxxis RC1 tire, this time in 265/18/35 size. The 275 tire is a little too wide I'm told by some friends to fit the front. Indeed, when you look at the size comparison, it's almost a half inch wider. Decided to drop down one size just to be on the safe size.

The first day of the weekend was the Bimmer Challenge, but I took it easy with the new tire, building up my confidence in it. That meant taking it pretty easy through turns and not stressing them overly so. This was compounded by the fact that it was immensely hot this weekend. I ran all four sessions on the first day, and on the final session, ambient air temperatures were well over 100 deg F - 111 deg F on the track!

This was too much for even my upgraded cooling to handle - I saw peak temperatures of 288 in the oil temp and 241 water temperatures. The car went into yellow limp mode several times, and I could only run a couple hot laps before I needed to take it easy.

My fastest lap on day 1 was 2:04.177. Fastest lap on day 2 was 2:02.657.

I pushed the tires harder on the 2nd day, and knew that my best chance of success was setting the best times in the first morning. This time I got a taste of the tire's character at the limits, and I have to say, I like this tire more than the NT01. Turn in was surprisingly more quick, I think, than the NT01. A couple times I had to adjust for that since I wasn't expecting it to be on the new line as quick as I was.

Also, these tires give a lot more audio feedback - you hear them squealing louder and quicker than the NT01s will, and they feel about the same - you can feel them sliding around you well in advance.

The tires did seem to fall off though after about 2-3 hot laps of pushing hard. I don't know if that's because of the ridiculously hot temperatures, or if that's a characteristic of the tire - haven't run in NT01 in as punishing a condition as it was this weekend!!

I got black flagged once during my 2nd session in Day 2 - for dropping one tire off at sunrise, in what I can only say was a great save - drifted through that final turn and only the right rear tire went off track, LOL. Uploading the full session soon, but here's the fast lap of that session and the weekend:

[redpriest]

Went back to Big Willow for the first time in a long time - I think it's been almost a year or more since. Last time out, I was able to manage a 1:37.8 with Euro MDM on. Since then, I've been improving quite a bit on other tracks, and going out without traction control on.

Came here for the Bimmer Challenge this time around, and I have to admit, this track scares me. Given that I have nothing but my own ability to recognize when the car is past its limit, with no safety net of MDM, I was quite nervous. Also, I'm still recovering somewhat mentally from the crash (and pain) I experienced as a passenger back in July, so let's just say I have a healthy fear of death and the cloak of invincibility is gone.

I took it easy, and didn't try to push the car too hard. Turn 8 and 9 scares the crap out of me, so even though I'm sure I could have gained some more time in that corner, it wasn't worth it to me. Also, since I'm rusty, my lines are probably garbage.

I experimented with three EDC settings - Comfort, Sport, and Sport+. I spent the first session getting used to the track and warming up the tires.

Second session, EDC setting Sport: 1:36.887
Third session, EDC setting Sport+: 1:37.643
Fourth session, EDC setting Comfort: 1:36.853

Can't really say if comfort made a big difference for me, given that I was getting used to the track still, but this was actually pretty confidence boosting for me. No incidents and no offs, and was still able to beat my best time previously by a second. Happy with the result!

[redpriest]

Best virtual time is 1:34.115, best rolling time was 1:36.189, so tells me what I'm capable of:

Track map:


Splits:

[roastbeef]

you're giving up time in turn 1 and in your 8-9 combo. this last time out there i experimented with different lines in turn 1. i tried using less brakes and scrubbing off speed in the actual turn and i botched it. wasn't very fast and i didn't get to place the car where i wanted it on exit. when i tried easing off the brakes during turn-in, it went well. i was able to get on the gas at the yellow pegs at the apex, and the speed took me all the way out to the edge of the track on exit. i know we can't see it, but the exit is there.
its hard to explain my visual reference for 9, but if i'm at about a 1.5 widths (feels like a lot less) from the track edge and i start to turn-in and get on the gas, and i can't visualize the car making the exit, i screwed up and need to let off the gas to make the turn (laptime is fubar at that point).

are you liking the RC1's more? how many days do you think you're going to get out of them?

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

you're giving up time in turn 1 and in your 8-9 combo. this last time out there i experimented with different lines in turn 1. i tried using less brakes and scrubbing off speed in the actual turn and i botched it. wasn't very fast and i didn't get to place the car where i wanted it on exit. when i tried easing off the brakes during turn-in, it went well. i was able to get on the gas at the yellow pegs at the apex, and the speed took me all the way out to the edge of the track on exit. i know we can't see it, but the exit is there.
its hard to explain my visual reference for 9, but if i'm at about a 1.5 widths (feels like a lot less) from the track edge and i start to turn-in and get on the gas, and i can't visualize the car making the exit, i screwed up and need to let off the gas to make the turn (laptime is fubar at that point).

are you liking the RC1's more? how many days do you think you're going to get out of them?

Yeah, I braked way early on spots, I was being extra cautious, especially at the end of turn 1. Running on 11 track day old SRF (with no bleeds), so didn't feel 100% confident.

Gonna take some practice to get it down right, especially since I haven't been here in forever and forgot all my visual reference points.

The RC1s were on their 5th track day (18 heat cycles) and I expected them to be badly mangled by Big Willow especially on the left side, but they seem to be good for at least another track day or two! RC1s talk more as you approach the limit compared to NT01s. NT01s have that howl that the RC1s lack because of the tread blocks.

A friend says that the RC1s are better for cooler track days than NT01, with NT01 being able to handle high heat better. I don't know enough to say, they seem about comparable to me. The NT01 designer left and went to work for Maxxis apparently.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by redpriest

I braked way early on spots, I was being extra cautious, especially at the end of turn 1. Running on 11 track day old SRF (with no bleeds), so didn't feel 100% confident.

SRF doesn't just go bad spontaneously. If it's less than 1 year old and the pedal feels good, it'll be fine. If your pedal is mushy, then of course, you should do something about it. I usually run it all season which is 20+ days for me. Most times, I just replace the brake fluid because a year has gone by.

To my knowledge, Thermal Club is the only track that boiled my SRF to the point that it affected the brake pedal. I didn't even realize it until the next track day at another track when the pedal was a bit soft. That track is a bit unique though. It has several long straights that lead straight into tight 180º turns. So you're going over 130 mph and you have to brake hard down to 45 mph several times per lap. It's just BRUTAL on brakes when you do that lap after lap. My SRF boiled and my friend's AP calipers discolored at that track. That's never happened anywhere else. I have to give credit to the brakes/fluid/pads though, because they kept working fine for both of us at Thermal, despite being boiled.

[AriuSen]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

you're giving up time in turn 1 and in your 8-9 combo. this last time out there i experimented with different lines in turn 1. i tried using less brakes and scrubbing off speed in the actual turn and i botched it. wasn't very fast and i didn't get to place the car where i wanted it on exit. when i tried easing off the brakes during turn-in, it went well. i was able to get on the gas at the yellow pegs at the apex, and the speed took me all the way out to the edge of the track on exit. i know we can't see it, but the exit is there.
its hard to explain my visual reference for 9, but if i'm at about a 1.5 widths (feels like a lot less) from the track edge and i start to turn-in and get on the gas, and i can't visualize the car making the exit, i screwed up and need to let off the gas to make the turn (laptime is fubar at that point).

are you liking the RC1's more? how many days do you think you're going to get out of them?

Tried both tires lot of times.
in hot summer, nt01 is the tire choice....they can take more laps before they get greasy. rc1 you can do only 2-3 hot laps and then you start sliding too much.
Now rc1 in cold weather.......a lot lot lot better than nt01 imho.
The grip compared to nt01 is just better.
my times with e92 m3 in cold weather
nt01 - 1:57 (constantly)
rc1 - 1:55 1 time and 1:56 (constantly)

with my z4m
nt01 - 1:59
rc1 - 1:57

Rc1 i found best running hot 32. But hot means like you rush to get your tires temp right when you get out of the track...cuz by the time you are in the pits going back slow, tires already dropped at least 1 psi.
btw. nt01 lasts me 5-6 track days
rc-1 last me 7-8 track days, but after 7 tracks i just throw away, cuz i remember in my 8th track day with them, i was too scared to drive fast cuz they felt like they were corded, but werent.

[redpriest]

Great weekend at both Speed District and the Bimmer Challenge with Speed Ventures! 1000 mile road-trip complete. A couple changes: Dinan lower control arm monoballs and Ravenol RSS 10w60 oil. My control arm bushings were completely shot, and I was noticing a tremendous amount of car wiggling when I was going into braking. The monoballs have greatly reduced or eliminated that, making my braking easier and less scary.

I switched to the Ravenol as my mechanic informed me that on his car, it dropped temps by a few degrees. I didn't see any magic ingredients as far as what heat capacity would go, but I figured I would give it a shot, and what's the harm? (other than a blown motor, but I'm leading a charmed life so far...). It's cheaper than Castrol. I don't think I saw very high engine temps all weekend at all, it's nice being in "winter", so I can't contribute it necessarily to the oil, but the fact I didn't blow my motor on a notoriously dangerous track (ACS) gives me confidence.

I toasted my Maxxis RC-1 tires unfortunately on the first day at ACS after about the 2nd or 3rd session. Rather than accept defeat and turn around and go home, I decided to experiment with my newly acquired Kumho Ecsta PS91.

I will be honest, I was more attracted to the fact that these tires were $816.46 with a $100 Visa gift card rebate more than any objective review (which on the forum seems generally positive). For reference, my last set of PSS street tires cost me $1218.

Now that I run pretty significant camber up front, -2.5 to -3.0, I was wasting the front tires, the inner shoulder would be worn out long before the tread wore out. I figured a cheaper tire that was maybe 90% as good as the PSS was the way to go here. I don't drive the car like a maniac (much) on the street anyway, so absolute grip on the street is not a priority. I just don't want to get killed in rain and have decent grip for braking.

I'd driven these tires on the street for a good 8000 miles prior to tracking them, so they had a decent amount of tread left. My Maxxis RC-1s (R-compound) were on end of life (6 or 7 track days, well over 30 heat cycles) and I was struggling to break into the 1:54s - my best time was in the morning with a 1:54.5, and this is with a square 275/18-35 setup.

Enter the PS91s on 245/19-35 and 265/19-35. I wasn't expecting much, but I was really shocked with a 1:54.054 best lap, and consistent low 1:54 laps afterwards. I didn't want to push my luck given that I didn't know how heat resistant the tires were, so I ran hot lap - cold lap alternating.

1:54.054 is only 1.1ish seconds off my best lap ever, a 1:52.9 lap on Nitto NT01s.

Next day at Chuckwalla, I beat my old personal lap of 2:08.14 (set on RE-71R) with a 2:07.05 - all of this is driver mod, I am under no illusions that the RS91 is better than RE-71R.

I found these tires to be very controllable and predictable - very confidence inspiring - I spent some time drifting around the track at ACS and was able to initiate and catch the slides easily.

It's probably a good idea to not punish them with hot lap after hot lap, grip will probably fall off pretty quickly if you do this. After about 6 20-min sessions, these tires are now at the wear bar on the inner half of both my front tires. I did not rotate these tires, and since both ACS and Chuckwalla are CCW, this was punishing on the passenger side tire, but visual inspection shows that they held up pretty well considering.

ACS:

Chuckwalla CCW:

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend, and a great time had with friends. Good seeing you all at both events, and good meeting new poeple too!

[redpriest]

First day testing the JRZ RS Pro suspension coilovers that I got installed with 6" 700 lb and 8" 800 lb Hyperco springs.

Dropped my lap times almost immediately by two seconds. It's crazy how much faster the car, and how much more grip I have in corners that ordinarily would result in slides.

Have the car set up suspension wise with:

16 clicks from soft rebound, 10 clicks compression in front
14 clicks from soft rebound, 8 clicks compression in rear

Will experiment with more settings tomorrow, on my final Buttonwillow trip of 2016 and day 3 of 3!

[roastbeef]

nice! i'm interested in hearing what results different settings produce.

[redpriest]

Sunday was COLD. I looked down at my temperature gauge and could not believe it was below freezing when we were in the hot pits. I had filled air up on my RC-1s from the previous day, so I was starting out about 31-32 PSI cold.

Had a much more experienced and skilled driver - AriuSen drive my car for a session the day before to feel out what the car's balance was. Cannot thank him enough for helping me tune and set up the suspension the way I wanted it. Also used kaiv 's settings as a reference so that really helped too. He has a thread that we both pillaged for information on.

AriuSen said there was a little bit of understeer, and said to try reducing compression one click on the fronts, so I did that in the morning and wanted to see how it felt.

Took it easy for the first lap, then took the second at a slightly faster speed, and felt I had grip - so kept pushing more and amazingly got a new PB of 1:58.43! It's astonishing how much faster I am with the coilovers than on the stock suspension. I cannot tell you how much effort it took me to get into the high 2:01s with DSC off - it took heroic measures and a heroic lap for me to get there on NT01 or RC-1.

My previous best ever lap time at Buttonwillow was almost 2:00 even and that was with Bridgestone RE-71Rs and MDM on, which I believe are superior to the NT01 and RC1s now (MDM fwiw intervenes far more on NT01 than RE-71R, with MDM I could not approach my RE-71R time with MDM, which was weird!!).

I wanted to beat that time without MDM, but it just wasn't happening until now. Almost 3-4 seconds drop. The car has so much more grip going into turns now. Before, the car would just give way and slide, but now the car almost hops a couple times before catching. Before, I could not come any where close to the throttle mid-corner, now, I can put power down much earlier and much more effectively.

Some of the lap time increase is coming from the cool weather, which my ancient engine just loves, but I imagine the cold is also subtracting from grip as well.

Everyone was knocking it out of the park there - personal bests all around for all my track friends.

Got pretty close to beating the 1:58.4 too, had a high 1:57 time but I got overly excited and cooked it on the last corner of the track and ruined the lap time, haha. Something to be said for ignoring your timing gear and just focusing on the lap.

Had a couple offs too, since I was pushing pretty hard in the 3rd session. I saved many almost spins, but had my first spin out at Bus Stop which was pretty scary - it sent me far into the dirt and I could feel the car hopping through. My other off was braking too late into sweeper, saw I couldn't make the turn so I just straightened the wheel and drove off into the soft dirt there. I'll post my blooper reel of this weekend sometime this week.

[roastbeef]

is the hopping indicative of anything bad like too much spring?

[macdude357]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Sunday was COLD. I looked down at my temperature gauge and could not believe it was below freezing when we were in the hot pits.

I know that Maxxis warns about storing/using the tires at below freezing temps. Any concern about having the car sit overnight at the hotel in Buttonwillow with temps that low?