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I just retired this from dual duty: Because I bough this as a track rat:  It came stripped and caged with all the right suspension upgrades already on it. I took the porsche to the track for the first time a week ago and had to learn to drive all over again. It's got a radically different driving feel than my street M3. It was a whole bunch of track firsts in one: first time driving a rear-engine car, on track suspension, on DOT-R rubber, without ABS, in seats & harnesses, without power steering. After I got my 1st spin out of the way (on the 2nd hot lap, no less) I settled in and picked up the pace session by session as I got more confortable in the new car. By Sunday morning I was maintaining a quick enough pace that I actually got to actually pass someone - I'm in the advanced run group, so it takes a lot of hustle to keep up with those guys. Then I flat-spotted and corded a tire ending my weekend early. New rubber is on the way, and the thrashing at the track revealed a few more maintenance items I need to take care of. Can't wait to get her back together so I can sign up for the next event.
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Jun 19, 2012 00:45
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hedge posted:Getting ready to do my second track day. My first was running Streets of Willow Counterclockwise; we are running it clockwise this time. I felt pretty good in my last two sessions, but seeing as how the track will be completely different this time around am I better served running in the beginner group again? Did you get promoted out of the newbie group last time? Just run with whatever group you ended the day with last time. Most groups will put you there by default anyway.
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Jun 19, 2012 04:29
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Boiled Water posted:Will I need to bring additional tires to a track day or can I use my normal ones as long as I don't thrash them? Assuming you're a beginner you should definitely do your fist few events on normal street tires. Any decent summer performance tire will be fine to begin with. It's safer and better for learning this way. Many of the DE orginaztions are starting to require beginners to run street tires (it's always been encouraged) because novice driver + sticky rubber = recipe for spectacular offs.
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Jun 20, 2012 02:27
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kimbo305 posted:Don't some cars have pretty good camber gain under load? Yes, but nothing comes from the factory with enough static camber to be properly set up for the track, and very few cars have the adjustment range to get there without aftermarket camber plates. Like most things, it's not a big deal for beginners since they'll be learning fundamentals, but more adavnced students will either want proper camber or need to learn to deal with the handling and tire wear consequences of not having enough.
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Jun 20, 2012 05:09
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Admirable Gusto posted:HPDEs + traction control = bad habits I'm pretty sure we've all done this. Here's mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N64g7iNySF8 Taught me that I needed to be more aggressive with my steering corrections (more of it and sooner). And as your car control develops without the crutch of stability control, you'll find newer and more interesting ways to spin from time to time. 
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Aug 13, 2012 00:18
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Blake Smith, CDI for New Jersey BMWCCA posted:I can teach you to drive fast in a modest car in two years, but in a hot car it may take five.
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Aug 20, 2012 14:18
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Das Volk posted:I feel like HPDE 3 is the most 'dangerous' group because it's all the guys who got signoff but aren't experienced enough to dare driving in 4. This is pretty much the case in most organizations I've run with. The level 3 group has the widest disparity in abilities and speeds of any group. And this is the level where people are really starting to learn car control and how to bring the car to the edge and keep it there. Trying different things that might or might not work better for them & their car. Learning how to experiment and teach themselves how to go faster. All without the benefit of the second-nature car control seen in the top run group. The most spectacular offs of the weekend usually happen in this group.
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Aug 21, 2012 05:10
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Aurune posted:If it makes you feel better, I don't think it matters as long as the right thing happens. This. Whether you "bigfoot" it or use actual heel and toe doesn't matter. Do whatever is comfortable for you, your knees, your feet, & your car's pedals. The point is to be able to apply continuous and consistent brake pressure, while being able to get a blip of the throttle. You do NOT need to be accurate with the throttle blip amount (and it's generally better to hit it too hard rather than too soft). You do need to be accurate with the blip timing. Practising on the street is a great idea with one caveat: You're braking a lot harder on the track (or should be, anyway), So make sure your're able to adjust for the lower brake pedal when it comes time to do it on the track. Also, good heel-toe downshifts are not generally a skill beginners are expected to master. It's perfectly fine to not even attempt them until you have other track basics (good braking, proper line, flag & traffic awareness, etc.) down.
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Aug 22, 2012 06:00
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Joe Mama posted:I'm jealous of half the people who post in this thread. Don't be jealous. Get that miata in shape and come join us.
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Aug 26, 2012 03:35
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drgitlin posted:Don't ever let anyone tell you 24 hour racing isn't hard. I can't believe anyone who has actually been on a racetrack would believe enduro racing isn't hard.
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Aug 28, 2012 03:03
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Bumming Your Scene posted:Speed Ventures. I've had my car for 5500 miles and thought "Mehhhh the stock suspension is fine, its the track package" A few laps around a track change that thinking in a hurry. Resist the urge to mod the car and upgrade the nut behind the wheel first.
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Feb 24, 2013 06:51
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kimbo305 posted:And anyone know how much the bottom of the barrel Bell helmet weighs?: I have the full-face version of the Bell sport. It weighs 3.75 lbs. I don't find it bothersome at all while driving, and I don't worry about the extra weight in a crash because I wear a head & neck restraint system. In more exciting news, I've been confirmed into the Porsche club DE at COTA in 3 weeks. Just need to get the drat car back together and broken in! 
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Apr 21, 2013 06:05
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As far as I know, it's the latter. I don't know of any new DEs scheduled since they tried to boot everybody.
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Apr 21, 2013 06:39
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MomJeans420 posted:Ignoring NVH issues, are there any positives/negatives over going with spherical bearings over polyurethane bushings? The downside is all NVH, but the NVH will be severe with spherical bearings. I would not put them on a car unless it's exclusively a track rat. Well-made Poly bushings are a reasonable compromise if OE aren't available and/or you want a bit more rigidity in the suspension.
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Apr 25, 2013 05:56
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rotard posted:anything else I should bring? A helmet and the attitude that you're there to learn. You're pretty well covered on mechanical bits and if you should need something you didn't bring most groups are very friendly and willing to lend tools/assistance to get you back on the track.
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Sep 30, 2013 02:38
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A week ago, I went to a private clinic featuring Andy Lally. Limited enrolment, open track all day, with plenty of advanced instructors on hand and a session with Lally driving your car meant you got all the driving and coaching you could handle in a weekend. Here's Lally strapping into my car to give it a workout: And he proceeded to demonstrate why he is a professional - on a track he had first driven the day before, in a car he had never driven before (and had only driven a few similar cars ever), where he was sitting further back from the controls than he would have liked (my seat is fixed), he proceeded to do a warm-up lap that was about my personal best hot lap. And then the next 5 hot laps he did were about 4s faster than I could do. Unfortunately I put a locked SD card in the gopro that session, so no video.  It was incredible to watch him work the car - feeling for grip, managing the rear end end of the car, seeking to preserve corner entry speed without sacrificing exit speed. It was also interesting to see that he used a very different line in a couple of places than even experienced racers typically use at this venue. But the data generally showed that he was better or at least no worse than the more usual lines. Anyway, the E-ticket ride plus the coaching from top notch AIs helped. I got off my previous plateau and set a new personal best lap by a full second, and I know where a couple more seconds are to be had, too.
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Nov 19, 2013 18:41
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drgitlin posted:That's TWS! Joey runs a great a track. Yes indeed. It's a fantastic track to have nearby. We had people from as far away as Atlanta attend this event, and it went well for everyone. The organizers say they intend to offer more of them, perhaps even at other tracks in the US.
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Nov 20, 2013 03:23
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NitroSpazzz posted:I've probably mentioned this before but your track rat porsche is awesome. Thanks, man. Despite starting out doing HPDE with my DD e46 M3 cab, I mostly did DEs with Porsche Club since they were 'vert friendly and had top notch instruction. After years of hanging out with the p-car guys, one of which is an unrivalled air-cooled 911 fan with a craigslist compulsion, when I was ready to purchase a track rat I had lots of help looking for old 911s. Found this one nearby in Austin already track prepped and for a good price and couldn't say no. Glad I didn't.
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Nov 22, 2013 01:11
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Phone posted:The only 4 point harness "worth" buying is the Rallye one by Schroth. This. The Schroth Rallye contain an anti-submarining feature (basically the inside shoulder belt contains a loop of extra belt that rips open allowing you to twist & fold over the lap belt like with a 3-point setup) and for this reason these are the only 4-point belts permitted in any of the track organizations I've run with. I would not ever use any other 4-point belts, and I would not use these if 6-points were a viable option.
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Feb 12, 2014 22:27
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Kill-9 posted:If you had a choice of a free track day at either Texas Motor Speedway or MSR in Houston which would you choose and why? MSR Houston. It's a decent little road course with a highly technical back section that should be a blast to drive in something nimble like an Abarth. (I've driven this track and speak from experience here). TMS, on the other hand doesn't have much in the way of a road course configuration, so you will either be on a very short infield course or a roval config that is mostly nascar oval. (I haven't driven TMS, so going by info I can find).
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Feb 20, 2014 04:56
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Ultimate Mango posted:Do events like this tend to suck and would I be ill advised to attend, or is 'hey drive a new Vette on a track, ignore the marketing hype' a good mindset to go into this with? It's a way to play with someone else's 'vette on the track for free. Hell yes you should go. Events like this tend to be highly curated - afterall they're letting total noobs out in serious machinery and they want both the people and cars to finish the day in the same condition they started. But if you don't have any track experience to begin with, you probably won't find that limiting anyway. And manufacturers do these events because they want the performance of the car to speak for itself - it's not like sitting through a timeshare presentation to get free parasailing tickets. They'll talk up the car and the local dealer, but nobody will pressure you to buy one that day.
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Feb 20, 2014 17:56
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the poi posted:So I'm running NASA HDPE tomorrow at Auto Club Speedway...and it's going to be raining. Any tips? I running new R888 that have been heat cycled, but not scrubbed in yet. Full tread depth R888s will do just fine in the wet. Don't be a wuss - driving in the rain is highy educational. It brings speeds down and amplifies car control issues by a factor of 10.
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Mar 1, 2014 03:52
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smelly cabin filter posted:Dont they make a non blue version for the us though? Yes, it's ATE typ200
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Mar 2, 2014 16:14
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eriddy posted:Do the HP Plus make a ton of noise ? Is the squealing thing just something that sorts itself out after the pads wear in a little? They shouldn't be as bad as a full-on race pad, but they will be louder than street pads, and this will not go away with wear. It's one of the things you have to live with to get the higher temperature tolerance. My porsche's brakes sounds like a goddamn garbage truck when I'm driving around town.
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Apr 13, 2014 04:52
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Pagid Yellow/Black. And my BMW did the same with PFC 06. I don't think it really matters which pad. All of them in that performance class are loud as hell, especially when cold.
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Apr 13, 2014 04:58
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Sab669 posted:Any suggestions on a helmet? It says Snell 95 required, and Amazon seems to absolutely suck at listing product descriptions. Snell 95 is an ancient standard. Anything new is going to be SA2010 rated. Bell Sport or G-force Pro Eliminator are the most common entry-level helmets I see. I would recommend the full-face versions.
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Apr 14, 2014 06:16
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Drop your seat. If you're short, you shouldn't have headroom clearance issues in most modern cars, unless you're really disproportionate. It's not a problem if you can't see the road right in front of the car, in fact it will probably help your driving by forcing you to keep your eyes down the track. Helmet should be snug, but not uncomfortable. Ears folding over as you put them on isn't necessarily indicative of too tight. On my helmet, after I put it on, I can grab the chin bar and move it side to side a few times to get my ears in a natural position. If you can't do that, it may be too tight. What's the return policy from the place you bought the helmet? Can you buy the large, try them back-to-back, and then send back the one that doesn't fit the best?
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Apr 17, 2014 19:52
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Enough helmet chat. How about some videos of big spins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bQPfPsZjOA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrxjVYOCno4 Both of me from this weekend at TWS. 1 and 2 are the fastest sweepers on the course, and (at different times) I lose it in both. It's interesting to use the video and GPS data after the fact to see what really went wrong - my memory of the incidents doesn't get all the details right! For instance, in the spin at 1, I though a bungled downshift started the rotation, but the video clearly shows there was no downshift at all - I was merely thinking about downshifting at the time. You can see I'm turning pretty considerably to stay on the ultra low line the instructor was discussing, and I simply get on the brakes too hard for that amount of lat G I had going on at the time. Despite the offs still a great weekend for me with new personal bests of 2:01 laps.
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Apr 20, 2014 06:33
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blk96gt posted:The car will definitely get floaty under braking going into T2. It's pretty awesome once you start using that to your advantage. Do you happen to remember who your instructor was? The AI was Hugh Brazier - Jim Garett was talking about this line in class and Hugh was in-car pushing us to try it. That ultra low line definitely requires a light touch, but a contributing factor to the spin is that my alignment is probably off - I had a couple of hot shoes drive my car for comparative data and they said it way rear end-happy even for an old Porsche. I'm watching a cousin get married next weekend, otherwise I'd probably be at COTA with PCA. But I better start booking my weekends with TWS while it's still around.
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Apr 30, 2014 05:12
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kimbo305 posted:If lower psi makes the tire softer -- will grip genrally favor that side? Again, ignore the complicating factors of different pressure on temp over time. Hard to say without knowing the specifics of the tire and the pressures under consideration. Lower pressure = bigger contact patch, but lower pressure also = softer sidewalls, so the tire rolls over more easily. The former tends to increase lateral grip, while the latter tends to decrease it. So there's a pressure at which lateral grip is maximized and increasing or decreasing from that point reduces lateral grip. A tire 5psi over optimal inflation will have a very different feel from a tire 5psi under optimal inflation, but both will have less grip than a tire at optimal inflation.
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Apr 30, 2014 05:21
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nm posted:Real. My smartphone is pretty dumb. I have the Solo. I can confirm it's awesome and works about 1000000x better than a smartphone app. Reliable, detailed data 100% of the time.
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May 6, 2014 03:09
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Eh, I'm used to impenetrable analysis software from work. It definitely helps to have someone knowledgeable show you the basics, but if you spend some time screwing around with real data, it begins to make sense.
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May 6, 2014 04:22
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nm posted:I have been told, but not personally witnessed that pads with what would seem like reasonable life on the street are bad for the track because they can remove from the backing plate or something. Don't know if that is true or just an old wives' tale. De-lamination is certainly possible, but shouldn’t happen on well-built pads. I've run PFC's down to <1mm on track with no issues. Hawk shouldn't have trouble with their adhesives, either.
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May 13, 2014 16:30
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I have a pair of these: http://www.saferacer.com/sparco-land-gloves?gclid=CO_-kK6dsb4CFeMF7AodY3sA-g , but the previous generation. They're comfortable (even in the heat, which was a surprise).
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May 16, 2014 20:59
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TrueChaos posted:Got pulled from the novice group and stuck in intermediate. Got pulled from the intermediate and stuck in the top / advanced run group. Cangrats. Novice to Advanced in one day is unheard of, I've never seen it happen. TrueChaos posted:Both my shoulders are also bruised, bucket seat is great and all but man I'm sore. Time for seats and harnesses (and a roll bar).
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Jun 4, 2014 05:32
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Man, I came in here stoked to announce that I made it through a rather intense weekend of instructor training. Passed the test and got an invite into the instructor corps. I haven't been this excited about something that happened at the track since I popped my track cherry. And you guys have to remind me that this hobby is dangerous.  And that is why we got two full days of instruction on how to teach newbies and corral problem cases.
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Jun 11, 2014 03:38
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IOwnCalculus posted:As long as the car is safe / passes tech, I think everyone would much rather teach you in a slow car, than have you be a newbie who has no idea how to handle the 500hp supercar you wrote a fat check for. This x1000 Extra posted:Thank you I appreciate the reassurance, I'm a bit self conscious when around people with expensive cars so it's probably just all in my head. There is no feeling better than getting a point-by from someone in a car that is orders of magnitude more expensive than yours. I have seen beginner run sessions where well driven Jettas pass poorly driven 911s.
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Jun 28, 2014 20:58
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Crustashio posted:Just the size of the holes. Pole positions are 3.25x1.35 (max dimensions) with semicircular ends that reduce the opening size at the corners. SlapActionJackson fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 19:09
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Or they're just assholes who think that because they can out motor you down the straights, you haven't really caught them.
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Oct 9, 2014 04:41
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parid posted:I also heard COTA was reconsidering their aloof stance on the prols taking to their sacred tarmac. Good to see some dates getting announced. COTA has been available all along. There was some to-do in the first year as they tried to cancel amateur weekends, but they realized pretty quickly that you can't pay for a venue like that with just a handful of pro events per year. The issue now is making the financials work for amateur events. COTA charges so much more than anyone else for track rental and that gets passed along as entry fees that are 2-3x anywhere else in the region. Everyone will pay the price once to say they've done it, but organizers aren’t yet sure how much repeat business they can draw at those prices.
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Nov 25, 2014 04:43
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