June 20 - TBD - Post Event

[twistedwankel]

So did Ken Marion have to trailer the GT3 home or did he sort out the coolant/belt issue? I saw he was able to move it off grid at least. Unlikely even a Goldberg would be available like Steve fixed!!

I always hate to see anyone have a mechanical at these fun events. Been there too many times myself with new parts often failing and reusing the originals to get home. Chinese crap.

**note to Brian: I am so paranoid about locking keys in my car anymore I roll the window down even in grid just in case my frickin' electric lock does that by accident. It's happened to me once and a repair shop once. That's twice too often.

[dbeng]

I really enjoyed the course yesterday, a really fun & challenging layout, I couldn't seem to get into a rhythm though. Over driving in places and (as mentioned a few times already in this thread), not always looking far enough ahead to get the car positioned where it needed to be. The second skidpad turn-around was particularly difficult to look far enough to the next apex cone.

The heat was brutal but TBD's covered area was great to get some shade in between runs.

the Honda in S3 was an error on his part, should be S5.

I was surprised to see a Civic in S3 since it seemed to me it is a pretty similar car to my 3. I don't know the classing lists in detail and assumed there must be some reason, but I must say I thought it was a bit strange Oh well - congrats on the class win

Eric - Thanks for such an entertaining passenger ride in your C4 - What a blast. Tons of torque, a low grip surface and great driving equals a drift extravaganza

See you all again at Brooksville on the 5th.
Dan

[twistedwankel]

Go Steve. Glad he didn't drive my car.

If I don't fix my car, I'll probably be looking to bum a ride from someone next time...

Steve, if I'm there you can share.

[dbeng]

Pictures!

Philip, thanks for the great pictures - they are always good but you outdid yourself this time around.

Dan

[rrath]

Pictures!

Philip, thanks for the great pictures - they are always good but you outdid yourself this time around.

Dan

Seconded!

[aw614]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ladRdgSt0Hg
Hot day today, strangely enough working the course wasn't that bad and there was a light wind.

Here is my run for today, found areas I was late, and where i can improve.

I honestly don't see a spot that you are late on anything. You're braking too early and too much. (EVERY turn - except 2) If you notice, you aren't pushing out to the outer edge of the turns. That just means you entered the turns too slow. It costs you tenths for braking too early, and tenths for taking the turn at lower mph. That said the whole circle/double turnaround before the finish looked really good. You cut a decent amount of distance on the entry and the car naturally pushed to the outside on tight rights.

You would literally pick up 1-2 full seconds by taking turns at the max speed allowable by your tires. You're driving a decent road course line, but your being way too conservative for autoX.

Thanks for the input. Being conservative is probably right and not feeling confident going a bit quicker in some of the areas without losing it. A lot of it is trusting the brakes going in later. Loren's post about trusting the grip at TBD is how I feel during my runs and leaving time. I know typically in brooksville, I also have a habit of braking early, but also have a general feel of the grip level and how the car will react.

This was my third event at TBD and I am starting to get a better feel for the grip levels. Tricky, but its fun.

Any thoughts about my driving or coaching points appreciated.

I'm sure I could watch that video a couple more times and nitpick it, but overall it looked very good! Looking and thinking ahead was definitely critical to getting around this course fast. And TBD requires you to be really comfortable with how much grip you have available. That's my personal problem, I don't trust the grip, so I leave just a little bit on the table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ladRdgSt0Hg
Hot day today, strangely enough working the course wasn't that bad and there was a light wind.

Here is my run for today, found areas I was late, and where i can improve.

You're running a good line, and it's hard to tell because I wasn't in you car, but it seems you're "stabbing" your throttle a lot. You got through the beginning slalom very well, but when you exited the slalom and exited the hard right afterwards towards the first big "sweeper" you were on and off the throttle a lot. I think if regulate your throttle input, your car will be more stable, and you could probably drive right through both of the turnarounds.

Yeah it does sound like I am using it like a switch especially on the first turn around, does it make sense that I am trying to suddenly lift on the throttle, tap the brake and gas quickly to get the back end to wiggle/rotate?

[Loren]

You've got to be flirting with the edge of traction to be able to get the rear of your car to dance like that. If you're not there, you're probably just slowing yourself down by trying to do it. First learn to drive at the limit. Standard "slow in, fast out" stuff, trying to use as much grip as your tires have without overdoing it. Once you've mastered that, THEN you can move on to the fancier stuff like trail-braking and tring to induce oversteer on turn entry. It takes a great deal of finesse to pull that off and actually have it be FASTER rather than SLOWER.

There's some car setup involved, too. With FWD, if you fit a larger rear swaybar (or stiffer rear springs) and/or stiffen the rear shocks and/or raise the rear tire pressures, you can make the car much easier to "rotate". If you can learn to autocross a "loose" FWD car, they can be very fast.

[BigBlue]

Let me throw out a quick apology for the classing mix up. I'll blame it on the heat frying brain cells a bit too much. (Loren should have the updated files.)

Thanks to everyone who helped out yesterday. Like most others, I really enjoy the events at Tampa Bay Downs. It's nice to have some shaded seating and some AC to duck into for a bit. Not to mention, no penalty boxes.

For what ever reason, I felt very relaxed on course at this event. I enjoyed working to find that power to traction limit in the sweeping turns and the surface felt way better than the last event at TBD. Maybe some of the afternoon showers have been washing it down? I really think the course was one of the funnest I can remember. Kudos for that layout Loren.

Hopefully everyone is getting signed up for The 5th and the 18th of July. See you all then!

[aw614]

As always, I want to thank FAST's organizers and many dedicated volunteers for a safe, fun event. Especially thankful that a majority of us survived the heat.
Great to back with you all, now that Joan is running again. Spent most of my time trying to figure out the new throttle response and forgot about all that practice I need with braking instead of just lifting (among other things). Lots to learn still...

https://youtu.be/tSMLOSAkaSc

See you guys and gals again soon!

Your car was so loud probably as louder that the the viper . First time I've seen you run while working since the last few times I remember usually being in your run group at brooksville heh.

There's some car setup involved, too. With FWD, if you fit a larger rear swaybar (or stiffer rear springs) and/or stiffen the rear shocks and/or raise the rear tire pressures, you can make the car much easier to "rotate". If you can learn to autocross a "loose" FWD car, they can be very fast.

setup wise, I do have the rear sway bar and shocks, springs eh, Im starting to feel their softness at limit. But they are oem type r springs, so stiffer than stock and are really good for dual use and perfect ride height, it's on my long list of plans. I need to try higher tire pressures, I think I've gone as high as 45 psi, but Im not sure to trust the gauges I use, but I haven't touched the tire pressures since the night event...I can't complain though car drives great

Time to look for a more accurate gauge.

[BigBlue]

I also wanted to throw something out there to see about opinions. Loren asked me at one point when I rolled up to the start, why I was lined up pointing at the left cone wall a bit, rather than straight. I was watching almost everybody come to the line straight on from the trailer and I was thinking about how the start was sort of like already being in a slalom. By putting myself in a spot that was on the arc I would ideally be on in a slalom, I felt like I was ahead at the first cone and could stay ahead and be attacking the back all the way through. Make sense to anyone else?

It's not like I ever tried it straight, so I can't compare. It just felt 'right', so I stuck with it.

[shakedown067]

Great pics Philip! I miss bringing my camera out. I don't have access to a 300mm any more so I leave it at home.

I was wondering if I could pull a wheel after disconnecting the sway bar. Just a tad bit of air!


I

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GTB/ZR-1]

Thanks to everyone making an outsider feel welcome ;-)

You guys really put on a nice show & I know how much work is involved to put these events on--so thanks to Loren & crew for their hard work.

Great pics that were posted--I think I must have been on the power in this one... lol

IMG_3697 by Philip Petrie, on Flickr

Speaking of power, I guess I didn't have enough for Ken--he schooled me big-time w/ his 40.2--nicely done. Not sure how he did it, though!

George B.

[Solar]

So did Ken Marion have to trailer the GT3 home or did he sort out the coolant/belt issue?

I saw his car leaving on a flat bed.

[Tim_M]

Philip: Thanks for the wonderful images!

[Loren]

setup wise, I do have the rear sway bar and shocks, springs eh, Im starting to feel their softness at limit. But they are oem type r springs, so stiffer than stock and are really good for dual use and perfect ride height, it's on my long list of plans. I need to try higher tire pressures, I think I've gone as high as 45 psi, but Im not sure to trust the gauges I use, but I haven't touched the tire pressures since the night event...I can't complain though car drives great

When I drove your car a few months ago, I thought it felt great, too! Tire pressure gauge accuracy isn't as important as consistency. As long as it reads the same each time, unless you're documenting and trying to replicate the setup with a DIFFERENT gauge, it doesn't matter how accurate it is.

[Loren]

I also wanted to throw something out there to see about opinions. Loren asked me at one point when I rolled up to the start, why I was lined up pointing at the left cone wall a bit, rather than straight. I was watching almost everybody come to the line straight on from the trailer and I was thinking about how the start was sort of like already being in a slalom. By putting myself in a spot that was on the arc I would ideally be on in a slalom, I felt like I was ahead at the first cone and could stay ahead and be attacking the back all the way through. Make sense to anyone else?

It's not like I ever tried it straight, so I can't compare. It just felt 'right', so I stuck with it.

I was just giving you crap.

I don't think how you lined up for the start made that much difference on this course for most cars. Higher powered cars, or cars without an LSD might have benefited from the straighter start. As long as you could get off the line without kicking sideways and around the first turn without issue, it's all good.

[twistedwankel]

I also wanted to throw something out there to see about opinions. Loren asked me at one point when I rolled up to the start, why I was lined up pointing at the left cone wall a bit, rather than straight. I was watching almost everybody come to the line straight on from the trailer and I was thinking about how the start was sort of like already being in a slalom. By putting myself in a spot that was on the arc I would ideally be on in a slalom, I felt like I was ahead at the first cone and could stay ahead and be attacking the back all the way through. Make sense to anyone else?

It's not like I ever tried it straight, so I can't compare. It just felt 'right', so I stuck with it.

I approached every run with ass angled to left making the first cone part of the slalom. Felt normal. I was clean all day. I saw way too many skilled drivers hit the 2nd slalom cone ruining their fast runs.

[aw614]

I kept the car centered straight, but had it closer to the left but not too far left, don't want to knock one cone near the beginning and ruin a run from the start!

[Loren]

Great photos, Philip.

I like your self-portrait:

[Loren]

Let me throw out a quick apology for the classing mix up. I'll blame it on the heat frying brain cells a bit too much. (Loren should have the updated files.)

Thanks, Ron. Updated files are on the website now.

I was going ot update season points tonight, but lack of sleep has finally caught up to me. I'm going to bed "early" tonight.