redpriest HPDE journal

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by admranger

As far as WS goes, try Jack's line and tweak it for the E9xM3.

Jack Olsen's Willow Springs Lap

I would argue that turn 4 is where most time is lost, as well as the exit of turn 5 (it leads to your longest full throttle section at the track).

BTW: Nice blog and I enjoyed your review of the Bridgestones...

Yeah, the Jack Olsen video helped me quite a bit on a couple spots, most notably I was taking Turn 1 like a noob. I easily gained a second or two from watching it, but there's some spots that I'm not happy with, like the 3-4-5-6 transition for me. Doesn't seem to fit the car, as roastbeef says.

Other thing is that I'm pressing against my mental limits, and it doesn't help that a really experienced driver just died at Buttonwillow, a track I consider ultrasafe and probably take for granted. I have a healthy fear of Willow Springs.

[roastbeef]

i think he's able to pull off some of those lines because of weight and the rear engine layout. i could very well be wrong, but i think the 5-6 he doesn't fit our cars.
i can't wait to get back to big willow and try some new lines at turn 5. i think i was focusing on just going fast down hill after 4, but it is probably screwing up my 5 exit. a faster exit from 5 is probably more valuable than speed down 4.
i can't make it later this month, hopefully josh gets some 2016 dates up soon.

[admranger]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Yeah, the Jack Olsen video helped me quite a bit on a couple spots, most notably I was taking Turn 1 like a noob. I easily gained a second or two from watching it, but there's some spots that I'm not happy with, like the 3-4-5-6 transition for me. Doesn't seem to fit the car, as roastbeef says.

Other thing is that I'm pressing against my mental limits, and it doesn't help that a really experienced driver just died at Buttonwillow, a track I consider ultrasafe and probably take for granted. I have a healthy fear of Willow Springs.

I understand completely. I've have my 'gathered leather seat cushion" moments at WSIR. More than a few. Been off at exit of 2 and 9 for starters in races. Side by side through 9 is fun too (made the pass stick!). Also seen a car airborne, over my head, upside down in 2. Guy walked away, but it was a complete yard sale of car parts. His cage builder was excellent.

You do have to slow down early for 5 so you can get the car pointed and get on the gas early.

If you can get the opportunity, walk the track. It's fascinating to get the details you don't see while you're whizzing around the track on your out lap.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by admranger

If you can get the opportunity, walk the track. It's fascinating to get the details you don't see while you're whizzing around the track on your out lap.

i'd love to walk the track, but i don't know how it would happen, there doesn't seem to be much time on track days.


red, how was thunderhill in the rain today?

[1MOREMOD]

Be the first person there. I routinely am and take advantage. Only person ahead of me is the lead instructor most days out.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

red, how was thunderhill in the rain today?

I cherry picked the best of my RE-71Rs in my stockpile, and I'm glad I chose ones with lots of beefy tread, because it was pouring rain in the morning - 35-40 mph winds!! Was hard getting set up, as rain was just coming in sideways in drenches.

It was looking real bad, they wouldn't let us go out until the wind died down; I didn't go out until around ~ 10 am, as I still had to set up my tires and change out my brake pads. By this point the wind had died down to around 15 mph and the rain had stopped. There was still a ton of standing water, and every painted surface and several patched up sections of asphalt were slick as ice.

One of my friends basically 360 spun out between turn 14-15 where there's this long strip of colored pavement prior to the rumble strip - too much throttle even at slow < 50 mph spins with this much standing water = you're going to have a bad time.

I took it really really slowly, because of the rain, and partly because this was a private track event that was NOT covered by track insurance, which was regrettable, so I went about 7/10ths the entire day, and about 3/10ths in the morning.

Rules were open track, open passing all day. About 20 drivers, all in mostly M cars. I kept to about 20-25 minute sessions, with about a 40 min break in between.

My fastest lap in that first session was about 2:37.90 as I was just getting the cold tires warmed up (was between 40-55 degrees all day) and pushing even the slightest bit of throttle with any steering angle set off oversteer.

The rain surprisingly dried off the track fairly quickly, with some spots that needed to be avoided as time went on. Fastest lap in the second session was 2:18.23 as I was getting comfortable with the track and was gradually putting more speed into corners.

Final session before lunch was 2:11.69. After lunch went out to my car to find that it would not start. Battery dead. Must have left door open or the lights on? Bleah. Had to hunt around for jumper cables and got the car jump started - which took a while, as even with two cars connected the car was not responsive for a while.

Car's been kinda funny lately - had the car alarm go off on me when I went to open the door the other day with comfort access; maybe my battery is dying? It is 5 years old, after all.

2 hours after my final session of the morning, I got started again 2:11.08. Then 2:09.90. Final session, second to last lap, got my best one - 2:08.59.

Most of the 3 mile configuration is completely familiar to me, with the exception of the left hand turn into the blind straight, which is not run in any of the 5 mile configurations. In the 5 mile, you basically turn right, and not left and run the entire other half of the course.

Still, even with it being very familiar, driving in the wet was an eye opening experience.

[redpriest]

The penalties for going off would have been staggering, as it was extremely muddy. Also, tow truck fee was $700. LOL! That would have been excruciatingly painful. As it was, some poor guy in an E46 M3 went four off on turn 10 and ended up facing the wrong way on the opposite side right before turn 11 - that resulted in immediate waving black flags.



I think he might have been able to drive off himself, in my lap time video I will post soon you will see the mud trail of his tires leading off. Hope no damage to his car!

[redpriest]

Hurricane conditions (not really but still):

[redpriest]

Here's my fastest lap of 2:08.59 - tried new angle this time, I like this better than the front view. About 8/10ths of effort - was trying to be careful, lol. So early braking, lower speeds through turns I take much faster when it was bone dry.

[roastbeef]

nice shortcut at 1:40

i'd be really bummed if a track day got rained out. i'd probably just rock my street tires and try to be as smooth as i could on those and work on the fundamentals. i'll probably be at buttonwillow with speeddistrict in january 23-24.
josh doesn't have the dates yet, but i read he is planning on taking speeddistrict to auto club as well.

[admranger]

I like the Bosch AGM battery I just put in my E90M3. Of course, I caught a killer sale at Pep Boys w/20% off plus a $30 rebate for BF weekend! Car cranks noticeably faster.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by admranger

I like the Bosch AGM battery I just put in my E90M3. Of course, I caught a killer sale at Pep Boys w/20% off plus a $30 rebate for BF weekend! Car cranks noticeably faster.

got a part#? is it any lighter?

[admranger]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

got a part#? is it any lighter?

Sorry, been on a boat so limited internet access...

I bought a Bosch Platinum Series AGM Battery Group Size H8/L5/49 from PepBoys (which still has a 20% off deal going on an online order for in-store pickup and use Code: ALLTIME20. There's also a $10 rebate from Bosch available). Part Number: Part # 49-850BAGM

I don't think it's any lighter than stock, but that wasn't what I was after. I wanted a solid daily driver battery. It's 52lbs.

[redpriest]

At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend, a perfect way to close out the year - started here this year and ending this year.

Doing a great experiment on these RE-71R tires, my rears will have been on for 5 days now. Fronts are mixed and matched from other sets, so maybe 4 or 5?

Fastest lap so far has been 1:46.16, but of course it didn't record. Lots of traffic here today, figured it would be emptier since it's the day after Christmas but apparently everyone else had the same idea! Will have videos to share later.

[redpriest]

Full day of driving completed, final session shown here:

Finally figured out how to read some of the Harry's Lap Timer graphs so I could figure out what I'm doing wrong - and there's lots of wrong! I'm not happy with a lot of my turns - specifically turn 6, corkscrew turn 8, and turn 11.

Turn 6 because I feel like I should be able to go much faster through here but also don't want to spin and hit the wall.

Need to get the landmark spotted quicker in turn 8 so I take this correctly with lots of speed and in the right gear - I was downshifting to 2nd and that really cost me a lot of speed coming out of the exit when I could just leave it in 3rd.

Turn 11 because getting this turn down correctly sets so much up for the high speed straight - made for huge differences when I was comparing my 2 fastest laps together. Also found I made significant mistakes even on turns I thought I had down.

Getting my braking points right is a challenge; I brake too soon on some turns which costs me speed. Practicing with trail braking which I haven't done before until today, and it helps the car rotate quite a bit.

Lots of Euro MDM intervention though - if you mess up turn 11 you are punished with not being able to put down power at all, even once you've straightened out the car and everything is sorted - it's a good 1-2 seconds where nothing happens. Tempted to turn it off, but not completely comfortable with doing that yet. Maybe after I take some professional driving school, lol, or lots of autocross with it off.

My issue with autocross is that it seems like a waste of tire; so I need to find another set of wheels/tires I can cheaply use for that just to get the hang of correcting oversteer better. Euro MDM is a nice safety net but I feel like I can't always "take credit" for saving spin when I correct for it - was it me or the car? MDM doesn't save you always from spinning or going off track though as I've found out.

[redpriest]

Also, was lifting and upshifting to higher gears when passing by the dreaded sound booth at turn 5, since I wasn't completely sure I'd pass sound. From what I've read with the Akra Evo, it depends on the day conditions, and yesterday morning it was dreadfully cold so worst possible condition.

By the end of the day, when I didn't care if I got flagged, I went full out in proper gear and didn't get nailed, so that was nice.

[admranger]

Great attitude, RP. Film study and then putting those notes into your Laguna track notebook will pay dividends on your next visit to the track. Saves time coming up to speed and getting on with working on the trouble spots.

You know what to do, just slow up until you do it perfectly, then add speed. Nothing wrong with a little lead/follow with a faster car (very helpful if similar setups). You can see what they're doing and see how it works for you.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by admranger

Great attitude, RP. Film study and then putting those notes into your Laguna track notebook will pay dividends on your next visit to the track. Saves time coming up to speed and getting on with working on the trouble spots.

You know what to do, just slow up until you do it perfectly, then add speed. Nothing wrong with a little lead/follow with a faster car (very helpful if similar setups). You can see what they're doing and see how it works for you.

Thanks! Watching someone who knows what they're doing really helps! Watched a video of someone walking through the track in an older Boxster S last night and while his lap times are slower than me, it's only because of the car's power.

Attacked the track today with his lessons on some of the trickier corners in mind, and immediately took a second off my time - first session was 1:45.35, and then later on in the day 1:45.21. Virtual best for me is 1:43.21 so I know I can get that if I put it all together right. I'm consistently hitting 1:45 though so that was fantastic for me.

Regretfully in the last session my GoPro and mount flew off the car on the main straight, and I couldn't find it later when I was walking the track after it closed, so I lost all the video for the weekend; only a couple sessions from yesterday got saved.

[redpriest]

Did Laguna Seca again today, figured I'd start the new year right. Had some car trouble though, after the first lap of the 2nd session, Service Engine Soon light came on, and I came in after a lap. There was no apparent loss of power, but I wasn't pushing it.

Ran out to Autozone to get a code scan, and P0116 came up, it appears my Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor has gone bad I cleared the code to see if it would come back, and managed to post my personal best time during the shortened 3rd session:

Filled up with a mix of 101/91 gas for the 4th session, and as I was driving around I got some horrible lurching/loss of power. Nothing came up immediately, but after a couple laps in the 4th session, SES came back on, and I came back in.

Misfire on multiple cylinders. Decided to end it at that, only managed to do 25 laps the entire day, but was happy with the improvement!

Maybe a little stupid to track the car with the SES, hopefully I didn't do any lasting damage.

Looking at what I have to do to get the temperature sensor changed = ugh, since it's buried on the water pump.

[roastbeef]

bummer. looked like a nice, cool day too.

does your car ever have issues with the sound at laguna seca? also, have you been with more than one event organizer there? i want to get up there this year and i would like to get up there with a good organizer.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

bummer. looked like a nice, cool day too.

does your car ever have issues with the sound at laguna seca? also, have you been with more than one event organizer there? i want to get up there this year and i would like to get up there with a good organizer.

Supposedly the full Akrapovic Evolution will break the sound limit if the conditions are just right - I haven't broken them. Then again, I'm going up the hill in 4th instead of 3rd just to be sure .

The sound booth is in a really frigging annoying spot, you'll pretty much be at the top of 3rd if you pass through there, so pretty much at every car's sound limit.

Speed SF has been pretty good to me thus far, my ranking for all that I've experienced is basically:

Speed District > Speed SF > HOD > Speed Ventures

I only rank Speed Ventures so low because of the 80,000,000 people they bring and the 4 20 minute sessions per day - they aren't actually all that bad. HOD is more focused towards absolute newbies, but they aren't that bad either - just very strict.

Speed SF runs basically 3 open passing groups, with only the beginner group being mandatory - point by encouraged in all groups. You get 5 20 minute sessions, with the option to pay a small fee to get another run group (rather than paying double like speed ventures).

You'll really like Laguna Seca, it's one of my favorite tracks now - well constructed, no massive poisonous dust clouds like Buttonwillow, and fairly quick and forgiving on your tires. Going flat out across blind turn 1 is nerve wracking but exhilarating at the same time.

Only thing is that damn sound booth :/

[roastbeef]

i don't remember your car being loud, but elyse says my car is loud when i go by on the straights. i just have the vorsteiner axle back titanium... might have to see about running some "super trapp" tips.

i found this when googling to find out more about the booth and though it would be interesting to share;
http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/threads/59281/