I'm flying by the seat of my pants, but I've had about 10 track days or so with this configuration. This seems to work the best for my car and my driving style. I'm all ears if there is a better way to go.
I race my car up here in Washington, but have family down in Tuscon. Curious if I were to get a little Miata and take it here, do I need to upgrade cooling because of the heat or do they tend to do okay?
A lot of people run stock radiator but is up to you. I was running a 8th gen SI on stock radiator and I was just fine, I did 8 track days and 3 or 4 in the summer. I recently upgraded to a koyorad radiator but because during other routine maintenance the shop broke the radiator plastic outlet. As long as you run fresh full synthetic oil you will be OK.
Nice job. What tires were you running? And what lap timer is that mounted to your windshield? I have an AIM system and it's probably more sophisticated but I like the large display of differential time to the fastest previous lap on your machine. I noticed that you almost lost it twice in the left hander just past S/F and into the sweeper on to the straight. The pucker factor was likely pretty high when the car gave a giant wiggle just after your quickest lap. Nice save, by the way. It started going south as soon as you touch the brakes. You got on the brakes fairly aggressively while you were still turning in, which made the rear of the car really light and took away a whole bunch of rear grip. To avoid that problem, you may wish to consider the following...or maybe not. Either way, here goes: The curbing on the left just past S/F is T21 on Inde's track map. It seems like it should be T1 but it's not. Anyway, The sweeper onto the straight is T1. In between about the the end of the T21 curb to about the end of the T1 curb, the car is pointed straight. If braking is delayed until the car straightens out as it leaves the T21 curb, it can cope with hard braking all the way from there to about the end of the T1 curb. Then trail off the brakes as you turn right into T1. If the car starts maximum track right approaching S/F and catches maximum T21 curb on the left, it will be pointed straight sooner than if it's even just a little bit inside maximum track right on approach and even just a bit wide of the T21 curb. If the left front tire is about half on the T21 curb and half over the back side of the curb, with the same thing at T1 with the right front tire, the car will be pointed straight for quite some time (relatively speaking) before turning into T1. You'll be surprised how hard you can get on the brakes without upsetting the car. You don't know who I am and maybe my suggestion is worth what you paid for it. But, it seems pretty certain that if you keep getting hard on the brakes when you're still turning around T21, it will come to grief sooner or later. So whether you try my suggestion or not, you might want to try something different in the T21/T1 combination.
Your suggestion has a lot to unpack, I'll pull out a track map and read it through again. I often make it through that turn without any trouble. My idea is to brake as the car is pushed down into the uphill, but if my wheel is turned then things can go south quickly. Fortunately, the run-off is somewhat forgiving, but getting a consistent flow through that section is something I need to work on. Thanks for your comment, I will try to learn from it.
I was just looking at the track map and looking at my video of this section, and I think you make a good point. I'll try this at a sub 100mph speed. I think I'm being a bit cautious about getting too close on the left due to the proximity of the wall.
Stiff suspension! Nice hand speed. Good control.That bump at the start/finish is a killer. Thanks for the ride along.
Well done. Interesting line in the turn12 through turn 15 section.
I'm flying by the seat of my pants, but I've had about 10 track days or so with this configuration. This seems to work the best for my car and my driving style. I'm all ears if there is a better way to go.
Nice job on your personal best 👍 Keep pushing!
That was a fun weekend. My car is in for repairs, I kissed a tire wall at Bondurant/Radford on Thanksgiving weekend. I will be back!
I race my car up here in Washington, but have family down in Tuscon. Curious if I were to get a little Miata and take it here, do I need to upgrade cooling because of the heat or do they tend to do okay?
A lot of people run stock radiator but is up to you. I was running a 8th gen SI on stock radiator and I was just fine, I did 8 track days and 3 or 4 in the summer. I recently upgraded to a koyorad radiator but because during other routine maintenance the shop broke the radiator plastic outlet. As long as you run fresh full synthetic oil you will be OK.
Mods?
Nice job. What tires were you running? And what lap timer is that mounted to your windshield? I have an AIM system and it's probably more sophisticated but I like the large display of differential time to the fastest previous lap on your machine.
I noticed that you almost lost it twice in the left hander just past S/F and into the sweeper on to the straight. The pucker factor was likely pretty high when the car gave a giant wiggle just after your quickest lap. Nice save, by the way.
It started going south as soon as you touch the brakes. You got on the brakes fairly aggressively while you were still turning in, which made the rear of the car really light and took away a whole bunch of rear grip. To avoid that problem, you may wish to consider the following...or maybe not. Either way, here goes: The curbing on the left just past S/F is T21 on Inde's track map. It seems like it should be T1 but it's not. Anyway, The sweeper onto the straight is T1.
In between about the the end of the T21 curb to about the end of the T1 curb, the car is pointed straight. If braking is delayed until the car straightens out as it leaves the T21 curb, it can cope with hard braking all the way from there to about the end of the T1 curb. Then trail off the brakes as you turn right into T1.
If the car starts maximum track right approaching S/F and catches maximum T21 curb on the left, it will be pointed straight sooner than if it's even just a little bit inside maximum track right on approach and even just a bit wide of the T21 curb. If the left front tire is about half on the T21 curb and half over the back side of the curb, with the same thing at T1 with the right front tire, the car will be pointed straight for quite some time (relatively speaking) before turning into T1. You'll be surprised how hard you can get on the brakes without upsetting the car.
You don't know who I am and maybe my suggestion is worth what you paid for it. But, it seems pretty certain that if you keep getting hard on the brakes when you're still turning around T21, it will come to grief sooner or later. So whether you try my suggestion or not, you might want to try something different in the T21/T1 combination.
Your suggestion has a lot to unpack, I'll pull out a track map and read it through again. I often make it through that turn without any trouble. My idea is to brake as the car is pushed down into the uphill, but if my wheel is turned then things can go south quickly. Fortunately, the run-off is somewhat forgiving, but getting a consistent flow through that section is something I need to work on. Thanks for your comment, I will try to learn from it.
The data set up is the Garmin Catalyst.
I was just looking at the track map and looking at my video of this section, and I think you make a good point. I'll try this at a sub 100mph speed. I think I'm being a bit cautious about getting too close on the left due to the proximity of the wall.
Very zippy, Dave! That car sounds cool! Too bad it doesn't have a clutch pedal. Lol
That thing just slow ya down.