AJ, Clint and I went to Laguna Seca this Friday and ran the raceway with the Speedventures crew. What a fabulous day! The weather was absolutely perfect, the track conditions ideal, and only about 12 to 15 cars per run group (red/blue/white). We did not break or bend anything (Clint came close and will post later with some absolutely awesome video of his little escape, but no more hints...you will have to watch!) But some other lads were not so lucky. A Porsche turbo caught fire, an Evo hit a wall, and a couple of other dudes swapped some paint. But nobody got hurt or scratched. AJ made his debut and got some really excellent times in for a first comer for this track, and will lend his special perspective to the experience with his posts. We had a fine Italian dinner at Fisherman's wharf afterwards.....and slept like rocks from the exhaustion of the day. You just cannot spend that much effort and adrenaline and make it much past 10pm! Video from my cam and Clint's, Including some chasing of each other around the track, and AJ got some good digital pics as well. We will work on getting some narrative and perhaps some good vid split screen style. I have sent Boones my video, so it will be hosted on G-owners.com soon. We were turning 1:52 lap times, so slowly getting better.

 

I am going Feburary 9 with Checkered flag racing.I am really looking forward to see the improvement with -3.5 degrees negative camber and the 275x40x17 race tires. Lookinf forward to your video.

 

C Ray Z:
You are going to love it with the -3.5 camber, which is exactly what I ran with the Perf Nissan front UC Arms.
The track was just perfect and smooth and in great shape. The only things to be uniquely careful about were 1) drainage channels. With all of the rain, which of course is good, they drained the track with a lot of small drainage channels. Thus there are places close to the edge that have this and make going OTE much less desireable, and some have sandbags near them. So on your warm up lap, keep your eyes open and mark the spots. 2) there is a lot of fog and mist in the evenings and night time, which lay down a pretty good wet that is not burned off by the first run session, even when the sun comes out as it did last Friday, in Turn 6. Since there is a little "dip" or bowl there very close to the apex candy stripe marker, if you come hauling through there with WOT you can lose it, as two guys in the very first session did. By the second run it was all dried up and no worries, but if you go OTE with vigor in Turn 6 the first session...you might not get any more!

We will get the video up in a couple of days, and hopefully Clint will add a link for his. Put your thoughts down on your run in a couple of weeks to this thread too!! Some comparative review of how you take the turns with the new camber setting would be of strong interest for folks interested in that mod to their Z/G cars.
Have fun!

 

That was great G2 as we say in the busniess. Thanks allot. I will take the time to give my thoughts on the day after.

Ray

 

Here is the first video link. Courtesy of our friend Boones. Clint will do a split screen type video to add to this thread later.
Enjoy!

http://www.g-owners.com/pictures_ima...una%20seca.wmv

 

Here is Clint's split screen video:
http://www.hardwarewhore.com/albums/...20Seca%203.wmv

 

I'm going to Laguna next Monday. Thanks for the walk through

 

Nice videos! That was a great event. Here is a link to the pics I took. If you guys find any of yourselves that you'd like full res version of drop me your email address and the number of the pic and I'll send it over....
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php...um&album=13509

I have a pic of one of the G's coming through the corkscrew..
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php...age&img=202053

and a shot of you guys maybe? in the padock...
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php...age&img=201996

I wrote a little writeup also...
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=263624

Karim
*driver of the slow s2k in the white group*

 

G2.....I'm used to S2 at my level. You must be way up there!!! Just O1E here.

-Steve

 

Laguna Seca is awesome. It's been one of my favorites for years, and the Miata Cup races these past few seasons have been epic, with up to 70 cars at a time. I'd love to run the Roadster there, but I'll settle for a Grand-Am Cup ride in April!

How's it look with the turn 9 bridge moved? I understand that there is more runoff now.

 

With the bridge moved upslope it removes a landmark reference and is startling the first couple times through. They are bulldozing the hill behind the turn 9, I think for more stands and viewing. As far as runoff is concerned, there really isn't much difference. The track width is unchanged and when you sling down hill into the apex of 9 on throttle the inertia still is the same, pushing all the way right to the track out on the edge.

 

I just had a very beautiful day of tracking at Laguna Seca.

"Eagle 1" that FI makes a difference in time doesn't. I ran 1:55's. The -3 degrees front and rear made for a very well balanced car at all speeds. I am still NA. I spent most of my day learning the line as it was the first time for me at this track. There are four sections I was near redline in fourth.

I am really getting addicted to tracking, what a rush.

 

With all of that uphill running on the back section of the course, power makes a big difference at Laguna Seca. My best in the Miata is a 1:49.5, and there were cars that would pull away from me on the straights.

C Ray Z, the thing to keep in mind about driving at 10/10ths on the track is that one day it will all go wrong. It may not be your fault at the time, but will it really matter? I always tell people who start racing/track driving to pick a car that they can afford to throw away.

 

When it comes to tracking your street car that you can't afford to throw away and it isn't paid off...
Wise man once said driving 8/10th's will leave you thinking about the time you left behind at the track on the drive home. Driving 10/10ths will eventually leave you thinking about the car you left behind on the ride home.

OK a wise man didn't say it. I just made it up like 20 secs ago

Karim

 

I am an old guy but I have always raced competively. Downhill in collage alpine events. Bicycle raced as a young adult, Water skiied competitevly as a young adult but as I got older my skils degraded and that level of competition is for the young.

This provides that rush I use to feel, but I am aware of margin and always will run at 8/10's thats why I ran 1:55'5. I know technique development is key to safe fast enjoyment. That is what I am into today. Today I compete with myself.

 

Well, Karim, then it has to be that you are the wise man!!
You and Scott are absolutely correct.

I have run Laguna Seca twice in my little G35. The first time was in February of last year, which was my very first time on a track. As is almost always the case in such an introduction, I felt like I was a leading candidate for wussy of the month. If you don't know what you are doing, and surely if anyone did not, it was me, take it easy. No transponder, just follow a few basics and get around safely without bending anything, learning both the course, and the car, and a few things about yourself. It was a blast of fun and energy.

In the interim of almost a year to my second run this past January 21st, I read voraciously about driving, did some mods to the car, talked and LISTENED to experienced drivers, watched videos of good drivers taking the course, etc. And went to several other tracks to drive and practice. And I got better. Slowly and steadily.
This time, driving cautiously but with a bit more purpose, I did 1:52. (I highly recommend Alan Johnson's little book on how to recognize driving line and prioritize corners for their importance). But it was so painfully clear to me that my car handling technique was cautious and sloppy. I had the idea for the line, but I was not setting the car right, and my exit speeds from turns was not anywhere near what it should be. My ability to pick braking points was good, and I was carrying speed deeper and longer, but gosh darn it, my exits sucked, and that cost huge speed and lap time consequences down the straights. The turn in and transition from brake to throttle was inconsistent and ragged. And because I was babying my equipment, not running the motor to redline, I was getting power but nowhere near the potential with the FI that I had.

But here is the good part, it was all done in a very leisurely fashion, running the car low in the power band and not pushing the braking....just going smoothly and working on technique. Seriously, we are talking about 6 or 7/10ths here. The car has WAY more capability than I do, and that is nothing to be embarassed about. There was huge potential for improvement over a baseline or foundation that was building. Time for the next step.

Then I went last weekend to Skip Barbers three day race driving school on the same track. We drove those little 130hp Formula Dodge cars, with the Neon in line four cylinder engines on 1,100lb bodies. Those little bugs did lap times easily under 1:50, with your bottom two inches off the surface in a paper thin fiberclass shell seat, a quarter inch foam pad stuffed behind your shoulder blades to ease the bruising. By the time you strap in tightly you are not so much riding in the car as you are wearing it as an extension of your body. The pedals are tiny, stiff, and very close together. Your heels are on the thin floor pan braced outside edge against a little ridge that runs the width of the nose where your feet are, about a foot or less wide. The tranny is a four speed crashbox (nonsyncromesh).

The difference of course was in the cornering. The supercharged G has huge horsepower comparatively, about 425hp on a 3400lb body. And going up the track in the G35 out of turn 4 you get more speed advantage, up hill from turn 5 to turn 6 more speed advantage still, and up the very steep hill from turn 6 through turn 7 to the corkscrew, yet again more speed. Those hills are very steep. Probably a draw from 8 through 9 and down to 10, and finally much more speed from 11 to 1 down the front straight. The Dodge is doing a little over 100mph and the G was doing a cruise like 115mph+ easily as you go over the crest on the front straight.

But through turns 2 to 3 and up to 4 the Dodge is amazing, and more importantly THROUGH turns 6, 8 and 11 it is very fast. And this is with no abs, no power assist controls! Totally primitive. Lateral g load capability at 1.25 g is part of the answer.

But the other key parts to the answer clearly were........1)no worries about breaking it to pieces (which is a major issue in your daily driver) and a concentrated series of instructions and drills to learn specific skills about how to drive fast on a track (NOT stuff to do on the street): and 2) different technique.

They deliberately took you to 10/10ths just to make sure you know how to recognize it in yourself, and in the car, as well as in the limits that the track itself provides.

For example, here is one fun little drill. You come out of turn 11, after a deliberate slow entry, late apex and second gear choice. Take it to 6000rpm and shift, then in third to 6000rpm and shift, then fourth gear and hold it to the floor, pop over the hill at about 100mph. The car is light and skips or jitters a bit to left and right, but hold the pedal to the floor. Track out right and as soon as you get to the edge of the track, point the nose at about the center to left center of the entry of the curve...a touch left of the k rail barrier entry point for the emergency vehicles just off the back of the turn is a good aiming or reference point for this turn, and go straight. Keep the pedal down WOT. Now you are accelerating DOWNHILL into the hairpin. Your brain is kicking into self preservation mode and screaming "lift, lift, lift". Don't lift.

Down on the right at what seems to be an insanely placed point far down the track is a large green cone. Keep the foot down, ALL THE WAY DOWN, until you reach the cone. We are now really moving but I have no interest in anything but the road surface, and there is no speedo, just a big tach anyway.
When you see the cone in your peripheral vision pass to the right.....HARD on the brake. How hard? All the way to just before lock up. Don't ease into it, get ON IT NOW. When you see the front wheels start to catch or lock in those little seizures, lift your toe, but not your foot, to just relax the pressure enough to keep the wheels at max effective braking (when you are locked you are sliding and that is bad for control and braking distance, and you will just shoot right off the turn into the gravel). Still going straight. Now, while all that is initiating, and keeping pressure on the brake pedal, depress the clutch pedal quickly and roll your right foot edge and blip throttle, maintaining max brake pressure without lockup, and down shift from fourth to third, holding steering with left hand, and then quickly but smoothly repeat and go from third to second gear, (this is your heel-toe single declutch move), engaging clutch just before the turn in point to the first apex of the double apex Andretti Hairpin.

This is where it gets really good.

As you enter the turn and have yourself set passing the first apex mark, turn your head smartly and at about 90 degrees left is the second apex point. Look directly at it, not the road in front.
Still on the brake as you make turn in, ease off the brake gradually, trailing into the turn. (Remember, you have front loaded the force on the front of the car and its tires, ,and that downforce helps the tires grip even while turning in...if you suddenly lift you will lighten the front, lose grip, and understeer/plow/push off the road). Keep watching the apex point and controlling the car with gentle steering input and feel for the back end to get light, which it happily obliges to do. Transition slowly to some maintenance throttle to sit the back of the car down and with a little drift or oversteer from the rear, slight countersteer to get the nose pointed where you want, which is within six inches of the left front wheel at apex point. As soon as the back settles keep adding power smoothly, but not enough to get loosey back there, and keep coming on with power to where you have enough that just with throttle the inertia throws you out to the track out point without leaving the road surface, upshift to third at redline and take your line to the left side of the road surface to set up for.....Turn 3.


Then go around the track and set up to do it again. After a half dozen or so passes. The green cone gets moved closer to the turn! You don't do that in your daily driver.

When you get it right, the sensation is, well, sensational. And the speed you carry through and especially out of turn is just remarkably faster.

Now the issue is more along the lines of how hard am I going to want to push my little baby to get a low lap time. And to have fun. The answer will be different for everyone, but in my case, clearly I am going to have the confidence to pop her a lot harder than I have, and be able to do it safely. But all the way to the limits......not a chance. There is no need or sense in doing that.
But I am going to get farther out on the edge because now I have a much better understanding of where that edge is, and how much more room there is to go safely, for me and the car.

But going fast is not just hp, and in fact on a road course I would put car handling and driver skill far above hp for quick times in the early stages of driving. Only after one has the personal skills and car control abilities to take a modestly powered car around the course flat out to the max capabilities of the machine, like a little Formula Dodge or spec Miata, does it make sense to start moving up in HP. And you get new challenges in handling with those extra speeds, and typically weight associated with that hp as well.