Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Been waaaaay too long since my last post...
Been a very long time. Since my last event in NASA's HPDE2, there hasn't been much to report. Made Group 3 so when I finaly get back to the track I'll definately enjoy the more relaxed passing priviledges aforded in Group 3. But...With the economy in the crapper, and my income with it, that may have to wait a while. In the mean time I'll work on not being so crappy at playing GT3 on my PS2, and I'll take the time to tinker with the car a bit.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
OctoberFAST - Summit Point October '08
We had great weather for this event! A little brisk in the morning, but warming up nicely. I ran my first session on Saturday on my H rated street tires again while my new (used) RA1's were being mounted up by Phil's Tire Service at the track. The street tires were howling so bad my instructor & I didn't get much accomplished we were laughing so hard! The tires sounded like a tortured dog when being pushed more than 6/10ths around the track!
The second session was much much better as I had now put the RA1's on the car (thanks Robert Allen for the great deal on the tires & to his Dad also for loaning me a jack to put them on!)
We worked on my line through turn 3 with great sucess - untill I had a brain fart & loss of talent and ended up turning in too early and went off into the gravel trap at the outside of 3 - but I drove through it, and came back onto the track and continued on to the hot pits to get the car checked. Back out on track then with no more incidences for the rest of the weekend.
I learned to carry more speed than ever before through turn 3, turn 9, and turn 10 - especially turn 10! This of course affected my terminal velocity at the end of the front strait, which made me have to adjust my braking point for turn 1.
My instructor also made me call out everything I was thinking, going to do, and doing to him as I was driving for the entire 1st session on Sunday to make sure I was situationally aware. So it went something like this:
Alright.. we're heading out of the pits, I'm checking my mirror for traffic as I enter thetrack - staying track-right - checking the rear view mirror to make sure no one is too close behind me - doing a brake check - checking the flagger station - double yellow flags - looking at my turn in point - waving aknowledgement to the flaggers - looking at T1 apex point - turning in - looking at my track out point - apexing perfectly - looking for my T2 apex point - tracking out - etc, etc, etc.
It was strange having to call out everything like that, but that must be pretty much what it's like being an instructor - all the while watching the student, where they are looking, what they are doing with their hands & feet, listening to their breathing, watching the other cars on track, and watching the flaggers as well. Instructors have a pretty hard job, and one of substantial risk considering they are getting into an unknown vehicle driven by an unknown person at relatively high speeds.
Here's the one video I was able to pull from the weekend.... Sunday second session "solo".
OctoberFAST (NASA) Summit Point HPDE2 from NOT///MPOWER on Vimeo.
The second session was much much better as I had now put the RA1's on the car (thanks Robert Allen for the great deal on the tires & to his Dad also for loaning me a jack to put them on!)
We worked on my line through turn 3 with great sucess - untill I had a brain fart & loss of talent and ended up turning in too early and went off into the gravel trap at the outside of 3 - but I drove through it, and came back onto the track and continued on to the hot pits to get the car checked. Back out on track then with no more incidences for the rest of the weekend.
I learned to carry more speed than ever before through turn 3, turn 9, and turn 10 - especially turn 10! This of course affected my terminal velocity at the end of the front strait, which made me have to adjust my braking point for turn 1.
My instructor also made me call out everything I was thinking, going to do, and doing to him as I was driving for the entire 1st session on Sunday to make sure I was situationally aware. So it went something like this:
Alright.. we're heading out of the pits, I'm checking my mirror for traffic as I enter thetrack - staying track-right - checking the rear view mirror to make sure no one is too close behind me - doing a brake check - checking the flagger station - double yellow flags - looking at my turn in point - waving aknowledgement to the flaggers - looking at T1 apex point - turning in - looking at my track out point - apexing perfectly - looking for my T2 apex point - tracking out - etc, etc, etc.
It was strange having to call out everything like that, but that must be pretty much what it's like being an instructor - all the while watching the student, where they are looking, what they are doing with their hands & feet, listening to their breathing, watching the other cars on track, and watching the flaggers as well. Instructors have a pretty hard job, and one of substantial risk considering they are getting into an unknown vehicle driven by an unknown person at relatively high speeds.
Here's the one video I was able to pull from the weekend.... Sunday second session "solo".
OctoberFAST (NASA) Summit Point HPDE2 from NOT///MPOWER on Vimeo.
VIR, July '08
The weekend went well despite my RA1's being corded & having to run the entire weekend on H rated street tires. My instructor was very good at his job, getting me to look further down the track & eliminating shifts. I made my way around the track faster than ever before despite the crappy tires! A good weekend for sure. I got signed off "solo" for the second day, and he said that another weekend in HPDE2, and I would be ready for group 3! Woot!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Thunderstorms...
...are the forcast for my up-comming weekend at VIR.
meh...
Some people don't like to drive in the rain. I love it. You can learn more about car control, fine tuning your feel for weight distribution, and your feel for grip in just one track session in the rain than you can in half a year's dry track driving. That was the case with me last March at VIR.
So I can't wait to do it again. I've learned to embrace driving in the rain, and hopefully that will give me a competetive edge when I finally start racing in the Spec E30 class.
In preparation for this weekend's event, I have replaced all of my soft metal 
wheel studs with hardened bullnosed racing studs, and new nuts of course. I'll be leaving my street tires on since the forcast is calling for thunderstorms, but will take the RA's with me just in case mother nature decides to play nice!I'm hoping that my driving performance this weekend will get me a check ride in Group 3, as I'm really looking forward to more passing opportunities on track. Not only to pass, but to be passed anywhere on track. Group 3 requires extreme situational awareness, and an almost automatic ability to drive the car at 10/10ths.
Monday, June 23, 2008
A great weekend at Hyperfest '08
I arrived early Saturday morning to find a full paddock, including an enormous tractor trailer parked lenghthwise across an area "reserved" for HPDE participants. Had to paddock behind the OG Racing shack. It was warm... very warm for 6am in the morning. It was going to be a hot day!
The weather report was calling for scattered thunderstorms, but we didn't see any rain until very late in the day on Sunday, and it pretty much evaporated as it hit the track.
Saturday went well, worked on my line through T-4 & T-5. Learned to carry more speed through T-1 & T-2. My instructor Matt Rembold was a great guy who helped me to attain my goals for the weekend.
Saturday went by without incident for me, although I wish it were true for one of the other students in my group. There was an unfortunate roll-over incident during the second lap, of the second session on Saturday. The student (who was driving solo) had carried too much speed into T-4, and lifted off of the accelerator producing a lift-oversteer condition which he could not recover from. His vehicle went off track at T-5, hit the tire barricade, and rolled onto it's roof. He was for the most part unharmed thankfully, and was able to exit the vehicle through the passenger's side window. This is not saying that the student was a bad driver. Quite the opposite actually. In order to "drive AT the limit, you must OVER-DRIVE the car, then UNDER-DRIVE the car, then OVER, UNDER, OVER, UNDER, etc.... The average being THE LIMIT. Sometimes when trying to reach the limit, you go over the limit, and sometimes you crash. The incident did end our session after that second lap tho.
With his permission, I've poted the video below with a note from the driver as well.
I have not read your sight yet but I'll give you the strait poop. use it if you wish it could be very helpful to fellow compatriots. I use a traqmate data acquisition system . my past telemetry shows i do not need to lift and certainly do not need to brake from after turn 1 until turn 5 . so this was my first attempt at not lifting or braking . I decided to do it incrementally i did not brake but did lift before 3 and before 4 but got back on it in short order. the problem came as i did not break before 4 i only lifted and i did not adjust my turn in point . I began to run out of track to my left after 4 and frankly lost my balls ! So I lifted just as i was ending the turn but as i was at the limit of adhesion as planded... well the rear came around and I did not catch it fast enough. In other words Driver ERROR period .. I had put in some steering correction prior to lifting but way not enough. so the lesson is don't lift !!! and the faster you go the faster the mistakes happen ...
I will go check out you post now
All my best to you and yours
Ed
Ed,
Thank you for allowing me to post this. I'm glad you're ok. Hope to see you back at the track soon!
Could easily have been much worse.
I've also just contacted RRT Performance in Dulles, VA for a quote on a welded in 1/2 rear cage to replace my Autopower bolt-in roll bar. I figure later, when I'm ready to go racing with the Spec E30 crowd, I'll finish it up & add in the front half for a full custom built roll cage. More on that later....
Sunday started off with my instructor slapping a "solo" sticker on my windshield during the grid-up of the first session. Woooooo Hooooooooo! He went with me for that first session, just to make sure I was still being consistent, and hadn't suffered a loss of talent overnight! All went well.
We were supposed to have a red-flag drill during the first three laps of the second session, but that never materialized. I even pulled into the pits at one point to ask what happened to red flag drill we were supposed to have, and got a reply like "I don't know... they don't tell us about those things"...
oooookaaaay?!?!?!
Back out I went, and completed some pretty nice & smooth laps. Did a little off-line passing, and was generally getting accustomed to the great grip of the Toyo RA1's I was using for the first time. I love Comp R's!!!
The Third (and last) session of Sunday saw rain starting to fall about 1/2 way through the session, but it seemed to be evaporating as it hit the track, and I kept pushing the RA1's, but could not get them to break loose! I must need to carry more speed still! It's absolutely silly how much more grip there is over street performance tires! I can't wait until VIR!
Sunday, 2nd session, "solo" run.
Hyperfest_08 from NOT///MPOWER on Vimeo.
The weather report was calling for scattered thunderstorms, but we didn't see any rain until very late in the day on Sunday, and it pretty much evaporated as it hit the track.
Saturday went well, worked on my line through T-4 & T-5. Learned to carry more speed through T-1 & T-2. My instructor Matt Rembold was a great guy who helped me to attain my goals for the weekend.
Saturday went by without incident for me, although I wish it were true for one of the other students in my group. There was an unfortunate roll-over incident during the second lap, of the second session on Saturday. The student (who was driving solo) had carried too much speed into T-4, and lifted off of the accelerator producing a lift-oversteer condition which he could not recover from. His vehicle went off track at T-5, hit the tire barricade, and rolled onto it's roof. He was for the most part unharmed thankfully, and was able to exit the vehicle through the passenger's side window. This is not saying that the student was a bad driver. Quite the opposite actually. In order to "drive AT the limit, you must OVER-DRIVE the car, then UNDER-DRIVE the car, then OVER, UNDER, OVER, UNDER, etc.... The average being THE LIMIT. Sometimes when trying to reach the limit, you go over the limit, and sometimes you crash. The incident did end our session after that second lap tho.
With his permission, I've poted the video below with a note from the driver as well.
I have not read your sight yet but I'll give you the strait poop. use it if you wish it could be very helpful to fellow compatriots. I use a traqmate data acquisition system . my past telemetry shows i do not need to lift and certainly do not need to brake from after turn 1 until turn 5 . so this was my first attempt at not lifting or braking . I decided to do it incrementally i did not brake but did lift before 3 and before 4 but got back on it in short order. the problem came as i did not break before 4 i only lifted and i did not adjust my turn in point . I began to run out of track to my left after 4 and frankly lost my balls ! So I lifted just as i was ending the turn but as i was at the limit of adhesion as planded... well the rear came around and I did not catch it fast enough. In other words Driver ERROR period .. I had put in some steering correction prior to lifting but way not enough. so the lesson is don't lift !!! and the faster you go the faster the mistakes happen ...
I will go check out you post now
All my best to you and yours
Ed
Ed,
Thank you for allowing me to post this. I'm glad you're ok. Hope to see you back at the track soon!
Could easily have been much worse.
I've also just contacted RRT Performance in Dulles, VA for a quote on a welded in 1/2 rear cage to replace my Autopower bolt-in roll bar. I figure later, when I'm ready to go racing with the Spec E30 crowd, I'll finish it up & add in the front half for a full custom built roll cage. More on that later....
Sunday started off with my instructor slapping a "solo" sticker on my windshield during the grid-up of the first session. Woooooo Hooooooooo! He went with me for that first session, just to make sure I was still being consistent, and hadn't suffered a loss of talent overnight! All went well.
We were supposed to have a red-flag drill during the first three laps of the second session, but that never materialized. I even pulled into the pits at one point to ask what happened to red flag drill we were supposed to have, and got a reply like "I don't know... they don't tell us about those things"...
oooookaaaay?!?!?!
Back out I went, and completed some pretty nice & smooth laps. Did a little off-line passing, and was generally getting accustomed to the great grip of the Toyo RA1's I was using for the first time. I love Comp R's!!!
The Third (and last) session of Sunday saw rain starting to fall about 1/2 way through the session, but it seemed to be evaporating as it hit the track, and I kept pushing the RA1's, but could not get them to break loose! I must need to carry more speed still! It's absolutely silly how much more grip there is over street performance tires! I can't wait until VIR!
Sunday, 2nd session, "solo" run.
Hyperfest_08 from NOT///MPOWER on Vimeo.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Dare I say...
... It's fixed?
Got the fan clutch installed - took all of about 15 minutes. Car seems to be running fine, and not overheating anymore. Bonus! Also got the RA1 scrubs mounted & balanced, and the alignment done. This will be my first track weekend running comp R's, so I'll be taking it slow to begin with, and see how far I can push 'em. I have no idea what their break-away characteristics are, and have heard that they give little to no warning before they break away, but I think my driving has gotten to the point now where I'll be able to handle it. I hope. ;-)
Got the fan clutch installed - took all of about 15 minutes. Car seems to be running fine, and not overheating anymore. Bonus! Also got the RA1 scrubs mounted & balanced, and the alignment done. This will be my first track weekend running comp R's, so I'll be taking it slow to begin with, and see how far I can push 'em. I have no idea what their break-away characteristics are, and have heard that they give little to no warning before they break away, but I think my driving has gotten to the point now where I'll be able to handle it. I hope. ;-)
Monday, June 16, 2008
AAAARRRRGGGH!
Why did I have to metion having the cooling system sorted?!?
True to form, the 318 has presented me with yet another issue just prior to a track weekend!
I'm not really mad tho. After all, the car does have 220,000 miles on it, and it's used for track duty, and daily driver duty.
Driving the car back to work from lunch today the temperature gauge started climbing steadily toward the red zone. I managed to get it to stop it's climb about 3/4 of the way there by turning the heat on full blast. When I got to work, I popped the hood, and after a little investigative work found that the clutch driven fan could be stopped easily by hand.
I've ordered a fan clutch from Olympus Imported Auto Parts, and I'll install it tonight after work so I can get home!
... add another $75.00 to the total!
True to form, the 318 has presented me with yet another issue just prior to a track weekend!
I'm not really mad tho. After all, the car does have 220,000 miles on it, and it's used for track duty, and daily driver duty.
Driving the car back to work from lunch today the temperature gauge started climbing steadily toward the red zone. I managed to get it to stop it's climb about 3/4 of the way there by turning the heat on full blast. When I got to work, I popped the hood, and after a little investigative work found that the clutch driven fan could be stopped easily by hand.
I've ordered a fan clutch from Olympus Imported Auto Parts, and I'll install it tonight after work so I can get home!
... add another $75.00 to the total!
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