I have not been visiting any discussion boards in a while and especially this site. Now that I have come back and read some of the extremely informative threads in the road racing section I am going to be doing a lot more reading. It is amazing how much you all have learned and shared. I really liked the rebuilding your Brembos thread. Anyway, I don't do track days very often due to cost, about two a year, but I love them. Quite a while ago Kolio(spelling) hosted a vid for me...thanks again...so I was coming back to share another video. I can be creative now that I bought a new Imac replacing my six year old Dell. I don't claim to be fast but I feel I am pretty smooth. I talked my way through the first two laps in the video and in the third clip my former student was in the car who had never been to a track event. Because of this most of my friends feel that this video isn't as boring as my earlier vids

Well, again I had an absolute blast at Sebring with Chin Motorsports. This was my first solo day(my fourth event) and I must admit it was the most fun I have had yet. I brought along a friend who was a student of mine from five years ago. He has since graduated college. I also ran into a former instructor of mine...Bart...who was a joy to work with all day. He is very patient, informative and just interesting in general to talk to. Anybody would be lucky to have him as instructor, especially when they first start doing track days.

I still run my car totally stock or at least with "street" equipment. I have Hawk HPS pads and Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires. I believe from watching my videos that my best lap of the day must be about 2 min 55 seconds. Of course I say this now that I am home in one piece like I cared during my track day. I am of course happy that I once again came home in one piece. I was once again the only G35 coupe at the track and there was only 1 or 2 350z's. You will see the 350 passing me

The "good, the bad and the ugly" would be within my first few hot laps of the day. I went VERY wide in turn seventeen coming way closer to the tire wall under the bridge than I ever want to be again and then missed turn 13 braking straight into the run off area within the same lap. So I turned around, drove into the pits and said hello to the lead instructor. I explained my error, what I did, and he checked over the car. I then took a couple of cool down laps in the paddock area and took a deep breath. I then analyzed what I had done wrong which mainly was not completing all my braking in a straight line and losing braking force on the inside front tire as the weight of the car shifted while I was trying to finish my braking. The rest of the day was very good in my book with only minor errors or misjudgments...you know no lap is perfect. I also tried very hard not to rev my engine over 5500 rpm even though the red-line is 6500 again trying to ensure that I drive my baby home in one piece. Other Nissan drivers have told me that this is not necessary but I feel better about my short shifting. This feeling was especially validated when I passed a VW R32 puking fluid all over the track going into the hairpin. I also used fourth gear coming out of turn 17 even though I could probably have gone down into 3 only because it simplifies the turn for me saving a downshift and I am not racing. Good thing or I would be losing

My friend got to ride with me for much of the day after I got into my rhythm of course. My former instructor also gave him a ride. He also took some great pictures. A small sample follows. The video is long about 35 minutes. Hope someone enjoys the video and the few pics.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/d...1301195eda.htm

 

Nice sebring video!

excellent line lap after lap after lap after etc etc

i seem to be able to find ~50 different lines for each corner for the ~50 laps on a track day

no fair editing out the bad bits though :-)
nice ariel atom - that looks like a real fun toy

i'll be there 5/26th with safemotorsports - i've bookmarked you new vid to watch in the days prior

i'm stealing your line thru 17 brake-turn-brake/straight towards the white section of barrier then take the corner to get that apex cone - Thanks!

 

wow, so many nice cars

 

Burntz....I am thrilled to hear you liked the video so much That is why I share them. My discription of turn 17 is that they had this model of a long smooth perfect 180 sweeping corner and then smack the corner on the ground giving the corner a flat spot and destroying the nice smooth surface. I have heard that there are 1 to 20 ways through this corner and they all stink. Besides the extremely wide layout of the corner, the fact that it is basically a blind corner, turn 17 is very difficult to learn because it tightens up half way through and that is also were it seems to get the bumpiest. So it is easy to go in too hot and then find it difficult to slow enough with the tightning radius and the bumps upsetting you and your cars exposure. At least that was my experience! So when I got real wide, I had passed the first apex and did not get the car straight before applying the brakes. The weaker then expected braking force due to the fact I was braking and cornering and the fact that I went in too fast for my own abilities resulted in massive understeer that the bumps were more than happy to help continue. My response was to lightly touch the brakes, lift, touch the brakes, lift...and generally hope that I was scrubbing enough speed until the car decided to turn. I felt that light brake application may help since just lifting the throttle usually tightens you line and this had no effect this time. Not sure if that was correct but it helped this time. Oh...then I looked ahead and two other cars had spun just as I was entering the beginning of the corner. I was not the only one to mess that up If I had a real video camera you would have seen this but I use a homemade camera mount and a point and shoot digital for video so I don't have that much memory. With Chinmotorsports you can be on track for 4-5 hours. I probably logged over 300 miles that day. I have to guess because I forgot to set my trip odometer on my first solo day ever...DUH. I know I drove for 175 miles after lunch.



Yeah...lots of eye candy tmak26b. Go to Chinmotorsports.com and check out some of the rides that showed up at homestead last time.

Oh...It sounds like you may have been at Sebring before...if so I hope I did not explain that too much. It is the teacher in me

 

Nice images.
Is therer any way to save the video ?

Oh, short shifting is ok. When you start to use all your revs, its an added difficulty to your driving. But rest assured the engine can rev all the way to red line all day long without any mechanical issues. Don't over rev on down shifts thought!

When you're confortable enough with getting nearer to red line, you'll discover that you still had a rather large acceleration reserve in these 1,000rpm!

 

Great pictures, looks like turn 1, turn 17 and the straight away between them. Is Sebring the only track you have been to?
I was planning on being at this event with Chin, yet when my car went boom at Road Atlanta, I will have to wait until Fall to drive Sebring again. I may come down to Sebring in May to help people out with the cars, help Chin with registration and maybe instruct, are you going to be there?

 

how much was this...i wish i wouldve known.

 

I may be at the next (May 5/6) event just hanging around with some friends. If you are going to that event and wish to do so, I can give you my take on the lines at Sebring.

For comparison sake, I owned my 2003 Z 10 days when I drove it in its first track day at Sebring in 2003. Ran 2:41's with only Motul RBF600 brake fluid and upgraded (N-Tech Competition compound) brake pads. It's gotten quicker since then...

 

Thank for sharing that video! I will be attending a PBOC event there May 19-20, so the video comes in handy as I want to study the track before I go.

Is the track hard on brakes. How much brake compaund did you have left after the event?

 

Unfortunately I have family coming to town and as much as I love going to Sebring I don't think anyone else in my family will. So I will not be at Sebring in May. I probably will not be there until August or later. My wife and I will probably be tavelling a lot this summer. I need to try coming down in June I think...? and take some pictures. I don't do many professional jobs but I thought it would be fun to come take some pics and try selling some DVD's pretty cheap to anyone interested. That way I could be around the track and cars without the expense of driving even though that is what I would want to be doing

RACIN I would love to take some laps with you in your car some other time at Sebring. My second instructor has a G35 sedan and I learned not just about the line but some idea of what I could do in my own G. That helped me get a lot faster even with my strong instinct of self survival I knew the car had more to give than what I was asking of it but a 2:41 is awesome in my eyes. I am of course assuming the pace and clock of Quicktime is accurate because that is all I have for data collection for myself. I will definitely be using track pads and some Motul fluid or other high temp fluid for my next day at Sebring.

I felt the most confident this track day and for the first time really experience true brake fad with my DOT 4 fluid the dealer uses and street pads. At any sign of fade I would slow and let them cool a bit...again being very cautious. This should tell you I am not very hard on the brakes NICOLAYCASTRO. I probably went through a third of a new pad this last track day which is by far the most I have ever worn my pads in all of my four track days. Since this was my first truly solo day I am happy with my progress. But yes the full course can be hard on the brakes if you drive at the limit all day.

I have a lot to learn still but I can't afford to start going all the time. I would like to start doing three track days a year instead of just two. Getting real fast will be a very slow process if even possible at that pace but I have a blast every time I go. This was definitely the funnest day yet getting to share the experience with a friend who actually was a student of mine five years ago in high school.

Sebring is about 350 a day when you are using an instructor and about 280 when not. Add in the gas, tires, brakes, fluid.....

Sebring is the only track I have driven at as well. I can make it down, drive and get home in one day and save the expense of a hotel stay. From what I have heard I would love to make it to the ...Barber Track.? Eventually.

Kolia, I don't know about saving streamed videos from streetfire, but if you have a server I could load it to that would be fine. My email service certainly won't handle files that large. Learning about your level driving education, I am honored you would even ask- You must want to save somebody elses video...hehe

 

It was an amazing time again at Sebring November 10 in my G. The new brakes held up much better with the new rotors, ss lines, Nismo pads, and Motul fluid. Though it would not have been if I had not managed to save that slide. Not only would I have damaged a car I special ordered and waited three months for, but it was only the second session of the day. I probably logged another 180 miles after this incident. I believe I drove around 260 miles on the track Saturday. I will again do a writeup but the weekend was busy and now I am fighting a cold The picture of me and the friend that went...I was wearing the hat...was taken after my slide and he went out with me afterward the slide as well!









If you think the G35 only plows into understeer this is the second half of my tank slapper I did today. Thankfully my superhuman driving skills helped to save the day

More pictures, video, and a writeup to follow...later.

Colour Tech South Motorsports Photography took the picture

Before



After

 

I believe I lifted just a bit off the the throttle in turn 11 because my increased confidence allowed me to accelerate more out of 10 through 11. With my increased speed I was running out of revs in third gear. The rest of the day I came out of turn 10 in fourth gear which didn't give me a great launch out of the corner but allowed me to keep accelerating smoothly all the way until turn 12.

 

 

Nice pics. Good thing you where able to control the car, in that turn my instructor taught me to point the car towards the tower.

 

DANG...That is what happened! I thought I was supposed to go toward the wall...LOL

It was really a weird place to loose it. My intended line sounds like the same as yours...After double apexing turn 11...basically straight line it through 12 to turn 13 which is the next 90 degree right hand turn...letting your right hand tires graze the right side curb...which I ended up in front of in the grass/getting back on track.

The initial slide started after the first apex in 11 and I counter steered to the right..eh too much apparently. The photographer started to take the pictures after the first "tank slap" as I have heard it called. I used fourth gear the rest of the day if I had a clear track and used full accelerator out of turn 10 through 11 and 12 until braking for 13. It felt slower out of 10 but was a lot smoother through 11 and I think I was ultimately faster at the beginning of the brake zone for 13. I must have thought I was running out of revs in third and lifted a hair which sent the tail out...