Da Groj

Had a blast yesterday. In spite of the minor delays, it was another well run Fast event. But Rob Ledwell has put an end to my winning streak in S5. I guess I'm going to have to get serious about sucking less and pushing harder if I'm going to earn the coveted FAST T-shirt at the end of the season.

Kdub085 wrote:At least in all of the pictures Phillip posted you had a smile on your face!

...some say he even smiles in the face of danger...

Just brought in from the yard, a brand new spanking alternator. (am I saying that right? I think so) Amazon same day delivery!
Little late to install, but it was fun to see if it would show up on time.

Philip: Absolutely wonderful shots!

I didn't know I was still three wheeling!

CaptainSquirts wrote:48.808 Run from me. I was happy with that.

Pretty good run! I can't say that you made much in the way of obvious mistakes. Maybe going a little wide around the far apex of the turn-around (adding distance). I think you've gotten pretty good at picking out a line, driving it, and generally not OVER-driving it. The biggest thing now, and this is HARD to get right, is that you have to master the art of "leading" your turbo. Just like in a car with bad shocks, the driver has to "lead" each turn input by turning earlier to give the suspension time to move and settle, you have to "lead" each throttle input by getting on the gas BEFORE you need to so that you're on boost exactly where you want to be (but not before). It's not an easy thing to learn, and I wish you well with it.

Kdub085 wrote:As usual today's course setup was suburb, I was able to keep all of my track times within hundredths of a second for all four runs

Consistency is good. But, once you've achieved that, you need to be looking for areas of improvement. Finish each run with a quick analysys. What was the one single thing that I messed up the most? How can I fix it? Do the next run same as before EXCEPT for the one or two things you try to clean up.

For example, my 4 runs at this event...

Run 1: Got behind and over-drove the slalom, almost spun, ended up in the grass. Plan for run 2: put down a clean run!
Run 2: It was a tiny bit wet, but I was still way too tentative. Put down a reasonable baseline time. Plan for run 3: hope it dries out, push harder, focus on REALLY staying ahead of the course... way too easy to get behind.
Run 3: It did dry out. Good run. 49.4 No signficant mistakes. Could have taken a better line through the challenging parts of the return side and carried more speed through there. Beat Steve's morning time. In the hunt for M3 times... but, need to knock off at least a half-second to be there. Joe's 48.1 is probably not touchable, but I can fight for 2nd, the rest of the class is in the high 48's. Back to the usual FASTiva driving mode... optimize the line, get on the gas early, and stay on the gas as much as possible!
Run 4: Not perfect, but managed to stay on-throttle more on the return side. Found a half-second and came in with a 48.9. Happy!

Don't try to change your whole strategy from run-to-run unless you're just driving that badly. Try to pinpoint problem areas and try to work them out.

BTW, I didn't forget that you asked me to take a run in your car. It was just a bad day for it. Hit me at a Classic event!

Wow, S0 was wide open this weekend! It looks like I'm going to be living in Maryland for a year and doing some stuff up here. So, have at it S0 folks! May be a good time for Doug to bump back up! :-)

TD

Native wrote:

Kdub085 wrote:At least in all of the pictures Phillip posted you had a smile on your face!

...some say he even smiles in the face of danger...

I *only* smile in the face of danger.

Loren wrote:

Kdub085 wrote: Don't try to change your whole strategy from run-to-run unless you're just driving that badly. Try to pinpoint problem areas and try to work them out.

BTW, I didn't forget that you asked me to take a run in your car. It was just a bad day for it. Hit me at a Classic event!

You pretty much nailed it on the head, my strategy going in on the first run was.. 1. ok don't mess this up, just go out and take a nice semi aggressive lap, get a feel for the speed of the course and find out where the problem areas are.

Thoughts for lap 2, damn those first couple turns coming out of the starting gate are a lot tighter than I thought, gonna have to play it cool through that and exit clean with speed into the slalom.

Lap 2 was actually my best time for the day except I managed to take down two cones somewhere...?

Thoughts for lap 3, ok i think I have the start and slalom down, now if I can just get through that apex turn around without coming in too hot...

Lap 3 & 4 were clean runs but the over eager under disciplined driver in me just couldn't resist being heavy footed on the throttle and powering through the course. Looking back and playing the videos I can see how I should have approached each section, gotta love Monday, well Sunday morning quarterbacking your runs.

But yeah, the offer still stands for the ST seat time. I'll definitely be at the classic event, hell id even like to see how Dave handles the ST since he was able to man handle his RS into the 47's.


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tdinfl wrote:Wow, S0 was wide open this weekend! It looks like I'm going to be living in Maryland for a year and doing some stuff up here. So, have at it S0 folks! May be a good time for Doug to bump back up! :-)
TD

Even Lineberry can't beat the GT3. You were our only hope. Hope you don't have to go there until April. See you next year then.

Keith- would love to get together to help you get faster! I always learn a few things as well. Let's try to run same side of an event next time. (Both AM or PM)

RedBRZ80 wrote:Keith- would love to get together to help you get faster! I always learn a few things as well. Let's try to run same side of an event next time. (Both AM or PM)

Sounds like a plan, for the open events I usually go for the AM session. The wife takes issue with being gone all day "playing around"...

I'll be at the classic event on the 28th, should be a good chance for improvement if we can get in 7-8 runs.


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Dem Season Points have been updated.

We're almost half way through the season, and things are just starting to get interesting. With 3 drops and 7 events left, absolutely nothing is decided yet. But, the trends are fun to watch!

Carracer wrote: Big thanks to Urban for spotting for me in the morning and Mike for getting the afternoon run group 1 pictures.

Great course, just wish I had figured it out quicker. Found out I could theoretically get into the 47s and coned my last run. I was really disappointed as I felt like that was my best driving in weeks.

Thanks for the pictures Philip. I also wish I figured out the course quicker, when I realised where I could go faster I surprised myself and lifted when I should not have inducing a spin on my last run. Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.

Blue_Heron wrote:Had a blast yesterday. In spite of the minor delays, it was another well run Fast event. But Rob Ledwell has put an end to my winning streak in S5. I guess I'm going to have to get serious about sucking less and pushing harder if I'm going to earn the coveted FAST T-shirt at the end of the season.

At least you didn't lose to a girl.

jev61 wrote:At least you didn't lose to a girl.

Yet... Sara's getting faster, closing the gap.

Great coarse, wished I had the Stang for this coarse . hit 3rd gear in the Cooper early on the back side and got to twist 3rd up a bit .fun day , fun coarse ,see y'all at the dog track.

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Loren wrote:

CaptainSquirts wrote:48.808 Run from me. I was happy with that.

Pretty good run! I can't say that you made much in the way of obvious mistakes. Maybe going a little wide around the far apex of the turn-around (adding distance). I think you've gotten pretty good at picking out a line, driving it, and generally not OVER-driving it. The biggest thing now, and this is HARD to get right, is that you have to master the art of "leading" your turbo. Just like in a car with bad shocks, the driver has to "lead" each turn input by turning earlier to give the suspension time to move and settle, you have to "lead" each throttle input by getting on the gas BEFORE you need to so that you're on boost exactly where you want to be (but not before). It's not an easy thing to learn, and I wish you well with it.

Definitely might be the next big area to try and focus on while maintaining what I'm doing with currently. After comparing my video with Tim's video, I def do notice his turbo is spooling at almost the right/better time than mine where he needed it compared to me where my turbo is in the process of spooling but could use the boost at the moment. I'll have to try and get boost going earlier, but I feel like I'm going to get some understeer. Or I could just go the easy route and look into the Anti Lag System

Is there a way to forcibly make the back rotate(in a controlled manner..) with some good hand/footwork on a front end heavy car?

CaptainSquirts wrote:Is there a way to forcibly make the back rotate(in a controlled manner..) with some good hand/footwork on a front end heavy car?

There are ways. It's a driving style thing. "Homey don't play that". I'm generally not a "rotate the car" kind of driver. I like to keep both ends of the car pretty well stuck.

So, you'll have to find someone who does it... does it without COSTING them time... and ask them.

My guess is that it just takes a well-balanced car. You trail-brake into the turn hard enough to get the back end light and let it start to slide out a little. Then you hammer the throttle to shift weight to the rear and catch the slide. AWD cars should be good at it. But, it's not going to be easy on tires. Sliding = chewing up rubber.

Loren wrote:Sliding = chewing up rubber.

If that's the case then I can tell the wifey I need new tires since mine got shredded