slcook54 - Track Journal

[rhyary]

It looks to me you spend a lot of time at minimum speed.
Nice job shuting down the throttle as you tightening the turn
very nice job patiently waiting to apply the throttle

If you look at your data, I bet you would see a big flat bottom on your speed trace. May want to work toward making it more a V shape.

I know nothing about this track, so I may be totaly wrong.

As usual, if you want to me to look at your session data, I might be able to help.

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by rhyary

It looks to me you spend a lot of time at minimim speed.
Nice job shuting down the throttle as you tightening the turn
very nice job patiently waiting to apply the throttle

If you look at your data, I bet you would see a big flat bottom on your speed trace. May want to work toward making it more a V shape.

I know nothing about this track, so I may be totaly wrong.

As usual, if you want to me to look at your session data, I might be able to help.

As always, appreciate the offer. Thank you.

This was my first time using an AIM, the shop wired it the Friday before the track with the smarty cam. I didn’t have time to tinker with it or make sense of the data. I don’t even know if the camera was recording. This was a BMW CCA event and they offered in-between session data coaching and there was a lot of V tracing, but I honestly didn’t know how to interpret the data.

Their approach was to compare several students data against each other, which wasn’t helpful since my data was 5 seconds faster per lap compared to the next closest person.

I’ll start messing with it more in the months to come.

[rhyary]

slcook54
The E92 M3 has one of the best CAN information of any car.

The unique part is that you get BRAKE PRESS (what you do with the brake pedal) and the individual wheel brake psi pressure (what the car is doing). Together with the STEERING ANGLE you can draw an amazing conclusion on what you can do to improve braking and specifically see how you release the brakes and what it does at the wheel level…. all in relatio to your steering input.

Together with individual wheel speed vs GPS SPEED you have the best situation to learn how you drive.

I am assuming the shop wired the AIM to the CAN bus.

If you want me to look at your session, export the session. It will create a zip file with everything I need.Not sure that includes the video.

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by rhyary

slcook54
The E92 M3 has one of the best CAN information of any car.

The unique part is that you get BRAKE PRESS (what you do with the brake pedal) and the individual wheel brake psi pressure (what the car is doing). Together with the STEERING ANGLE you can draw an amazing conclusion on what you can do to improve braking and specifically see how you release the brakes and what it does at the wheel level…. all in relatio to your steering input.

Together with individual wheel speed vs GPS SPEED you have the best situation to learn how you drive.

I am assuming the shop wired the AIM to the CAn bus.

If you want me to look at your session, export the session. It will create a zip file with everything I need.Not sure that includes the video.

Yes, we wired everything (to my knowledge). I just need to find time to download the data and dig in.

[//steve\\]

I'm just here for sexy car pics.

[slcook54]

Track Day #26

Thunderhill East (Bypass) - 1:58.60



Another fantastic day in the books with SpeedSF. The forecast called for rain, but the sun came out mid-morning and dried up as the day went on and I started to push harder. In my last session, I had back-to-back PB's lined up. Unfortunately, on lap 2, I caught an s2000 in the last corner and in lap 3 I goofed up T11 and T14.

Despite the errors, I was driving stronger than my last outing. I received some feedback from Jeff Cook, a former Indy Car driver. After reviewing my video, he gave me some guidance on T1 and you can see in laps 2, 3 and 4, I'm picking up 2-3 tenths on average. I'm getting to throttle much sooner and carrying more speed into T2.

The car was pushing all day, I initially thought it was the RE71RS being on their fifth day, but when I swapped to the fresh set, it was still pushing hard in T2 and T6. You can hear it in the video.

I think we induced understeer when we raised the front 10mm to fit 295's. This was giving me problems on the exit of T2 and T6, where I'm pushing past the apex and getting to throttle too late.

After watching redpriest's blistering lap, I found more confidence attacking the bypass, I'm hitting mid-70's here in my PB lap, last weekend I was consistently seeing around 80-81mph before cresting the hill.



T8, I consistently found more time here and finally carried a minimum speed above 100mph vs. my previous high of 99mph. Every mph counts here as you slog it up the hill.

I spent most of the day experimenting with T11 using 2nd gear, I was previously using 3rd. 2nd 'feels' faster but the data doesn't support that, I'm getting to the same top speed before braking for T14 around 122-123mph. 2nd also feels way sketchier going over the rumbly section in T12. I think I'm going to pivot back to using 3rd and trying to carry more speed throughout the corner.



Looking forward to a private day on 3/31 capped to 45 cars. I'm taking the car to the shop next week to see if we can make a couple of adjustments to help correct the understeer. We will also be swapping to fresh Ferodo 3.12 pads in the rear.

Next Steps

Flossman Fenders - Ordered, anticipated to ship in 2-3 weeks
Bimmerworld carbon trunk - Order three months back, still in production
M24 Hood & Door cards - Shipped from M24 to Unrivaled Auto in LA, should be landing some time next week
Gold BBS E88's in 10.5 square ordered three months ago, should be here in a 3-4 more months.

My first priority will be installing the full M24 door card setup, front and rear. We will pull out all pieces of the sound system, including the amp, radio, subwoofers and all speakers. I'm hoping this will net 75-100lbs in savings, I haven't tallied it all up, but we'll do a before and after weight test.

Once all the carbon fiber body panels arrive, I will have VT install everything and then will go across the street to RJ for paint. After paint, over to Mar.qp to have the front corrected and wrapped again.

[slcook54]

Full Session (4 Laps total)

[slcook54]

Track Day #27

Thunderhill East (Bypass) - 1:58.28 w/Passenger (Personal Best)

After my last outing, I wanted to improve the car's mid-corner understeer. The shop found that my shock settings were effectively set to full soft. Per the recommended specifications from Ohlins, they adjusted the car to 6 clicks from full stiff.



We also swapped the rear pads on the AP kit. There was the 'expected' taper again in the rear. I'll be better about flipping the pads, but still frustrating.



SpeedSF was hosting a test and tune day limited to 45 cars. I spoke to the organizer and he mentioned that only 35 cars signed up for the entire day. It was clear weather with a low car count and I was ready to click off fast laps. My friend Dave, who owns an 650rwhp AMG GTR, and I decided to hire a coach for the day. Jeff Cook is a former Indy car driver and nutty fast. He's doing 1:51's in Dave's car and 53's in his Porsche Spyder.

We organized the day for Jeff to ride with me with no feedback and then I would ride with him. We would do a download and then each drive the car solo.

With Jeff being a 200lb ballast, I wasn't in the mindset of chasing a personal best. I was focused on being consistent and showing him my driving style. Despite that, the car felt significantly better with the suspension stiffer. Without being warmed up for the day, I cracked off a 1:58.28, three tenths faster than my previous personal best, with a full tank and passenger. In the video, you'll see I'm also entering T1 roughly three tenths down from my previous personal best pace and making it back up later in the lap. At the end of the video, right before it cuts off, you can see my subsequent lap is three tenths up by T1 entry.

57's were clearly in sight, with a path to 56's.

Despite the low car count, I've never seen so many black flags in my life. Also with the open pit format, the pace of cars was all over the place. There was a stock KIA EV SUV and way too many Miatas. Clean laps were hard to come by.

Jeff's feedback was that I was getting a lot out of car. The main 'aha' moment was managing mid corner understeer using the throttle. Lifting the throttle to induce rotation and setup corner exit was a new skill I developed. It was like a giant light bulb went off. I think it's commonly said, when you get to throttle, you want to stay on throttle and not back off, which seems to be true it most cases, but shouldn't be an absolute truism. Mid-corner on T2 at Thunderhill, if you trail brake too deep, you can get back to throttle and then lift to rotate the rear and get it aimed for corner exit. It allowed me to adjust on the fly, achievement unlocked.

He also suggested some adjustments to my line in T3 and T10.

Jeff's feedback on the car, not surprisingly.
- Understeer
- Too much front brake bias. Maybe switch to a more aggressive rear compound. He didn't love the balance under trail braking. Running Ferodo 3.12 F/R
- Lack of front aero
- The car is really fun! I couldn't agree more

Jeff also struggled to get any clean laps when we were together and when he took the car out solo. I'd imagine he'd have done a 56. He mentioned that with setup alone, there is another 2+ seconds to find.

My 295/30 RE71RS's were on the third day, only to find the front and rear passenger sided corded by lunch. I wasn't expecting that since my 275's didn't cord after four days at similar pace. I hung it up for the day, frustrated I didn't get to push for 57's. I got home and ordered two sets of new RE71RS's, one in 275/35 and another in 295/30. I'm resolved to not miss any more sessions due to tires or brakes being low.

295/30 after 2.5 days



275/35 after 4.5 days



What's next

- Flossman fenders shipped
- Bimmerworld trunk, still being produced
- M24 door cards and trunk arrived on US soil. Waiting for them to ship from LA to San Francisco





Also....ordered a new F90 M5C. It will be sad to see the F80 CS go, but this will be an upgrade for my use case. Obviously, it won't stay stock.

[slcook54]

[Gouki]

slcook54, do you have any more updates? It's nice to re-read your whole journey so far, it would be difficult to believe that you haven't been to Laguna yet after the resurface and set faster times, I hear turn 5 is faster now. I'll be there on 8/6 with speed SF.

[slcook54]

I did a 1:38 last week there. Thread is overdue for an update. Let me find some time. I’m also posting more on Instagram if you’re on there @Hellrot54.

https://youtu.be/cPSKeVI485Y

[Gouki]

That's certainly cooking, no drama whatsoever - the lap looked super clean. Looking forward to your next set of updates.

[slcook54]

Running it Monday. I think if I clean up a couple of mistakes on that lap and find more speed in corkscrew, 9, 10 and 11, there is a 1:37 there.