Well I think it fits anyways. Just getting aligned because I have dreams of beating 1:17.6. Maybe delusions? But whatever

 

Well I thought I would take a few minutes to make my post race weekend blog style update.

This past weekend was CSCS round 4 back again at TMP Cayuga. I put lots of pressure on myself to do well here because it seems like 100% of your race cred, at least at this entry level into motorsports is derived from your TMP time around here. And I'm just like that. Always striving to improve and go faster.

The existing record was set last year at the season finale by Riann Van Vuuren in his Z06. 1:17.6. Looking at everything I was actually intrinsically super confident that I could demolish this time. But I tried not to let too much of that exude for fear of completely embarrassing myself.

So Sasha went to work on the engine before DDT. And I will be the first to admit I was the biggest skeptic ever after seeing my round 1 and 2 results and then Sasha's mid season dyno. But on the track the car has been a different animal. It's like it's an axe murderer compared to the car that showed up to round 1 and 2. I have not compared my most recent run with my best run from last year, but the car was definitely the strongest it has ever been. I was able to set the class record in a respectable time of 1:00.078 at DDT where I don't have a lot of seat time, and there was oil all along the top of the track which if it didn't play a physical role in slowing the cars down it certainly made me a bit nervous up there. To further increase my chances at TMP in my own mind I visited Scott Murfin at Can Alignment on Friday to get the car tweaked a little bit.

The car was packed up and ready to go and I arrived with a friend to act as my pit man early Sunday.

recently I have been starting the day on the Hankook RS3s just to get warmed up and get the feel for the track. The car had a lot of understeer off the trailer, and it was grinding the splitter up really badly. Which is a bad combo because the splitter being low is supposed to help with the understeer.
So the next few sessions went toward trying to solve the splitter and understeer problem by playing with the tire pressures and moving the splitter and wing around.

No dice. The car was making me nervous it was understeering so much. So I decided we couldn't devote any more time to the RS3s I had a 1:22 flat in traffic on the RS3 which was encouraging however.

So we decided to go leave the aero where it was and throw on the TD's. At the same time I increased the rear shock absorber rebound 30%.

Holy crap the car came to life. Like a different animal. I ran a 19 flat then a 18.4 back to back without much effort.

And like I said the engine was pulling stronger than ever. So Sasha was definitely right. The 280 whp horsepower dyno must have been a hot day fluke. A quick check showed I could get up to 178 on the front straight as opposed to last years 171.5, and through T1 I was able to get a few laps with a mid corner speed of 100-101 I think! that is rippin time at least in my books.

We decided to try and lower the tire pressures a bit to get some more grip. I was running them quite high because I like the feedback. Nope, too squirrely in my hands. If the pressure is too low or the temp is too low driving on the R comps is like driving on a road with the occaisional surprise patch of ball bearing booby traps.

I also started to swing for the fences. I almost went off T1, T2, T6, T12 looking for everything I could get. Cooler heads prevailed and I came in before I killed the car. I lost the gas pedal on the last session so I was driving around with just the peg. We fixed that before the final time attack.

Pressure was increased and I was back into my comfort zone, and ready to kill the record. At least in my mind.

For the time attack I was not under much threat. There was an S2000 from Speedstar that I know from my extensive youtube creeping can run mid 19s. But I felt I was looking at mid 17s at worst! Once again I get psyched and over confident.

So the strategy was to just go wild and see where the chips fell. I was guilty of holding back on the time attack in round 2 and I felt crappy about it afterwards. I'd rather go down going for it I decided. And by going for it I mean I wanted to hold the record of sub 1:17.6.

I launched out of the gate ready to demolish. But then the errors started piling up. Coming off my cool down lap and onto the front straight to start lap 1 I noticed it bogged big time when I changed gear from 2-3. I looked at the dash and didn't see the VDC off warning light. I had hit the dangling VDC button with my knee! I sacrificed lap 1 to make sure I got that button pushed on the straight. I still came around in 1:19 flat.

Lap 2. Killer instinct time. Red mist decends. Time to demolish. Nope. Into t1 I missed my rev match on my zip tied on gas pedal. The car got out of shape. The splitter rakes down and takes a lot of force under braking and with the sudden lift the car began to squirm. It seemed like an eternity but I got the car pointed at the apex but from too shallow an angle as the car had danced right. Taking a ton of speed out at the wrong time. I actually settled my self down though on the straight and the lap came back around. I roasted the tires out of the right hander after the chicane, and then took the last corner too shallow causing me to lift, but still came around in 1:18.449. The second fastest competition super street time across any drivetrain set up.

Lap 3. Swinging for the fences when I should have just regrouped. I felt the tires had grip and were up to temp. Time to really go for it. But just too wild. I locked up a little in to 3. the rest went pretty good! until I lost my mind on the last corner. Way too deep and then too hard on the throttle to try and correct. 1:19.223.

Frustrating thing was if I moved that start finsh back to account for that blunder it was a 1:17.60 looking lap. Oh well.

My confidence is refreshed for round 5. I want to get out the tmp to practice on my rs3 and no aero so I can just get the feel again beforehand.

I feel like this season has been too much of me a) whining b) flashes of brilliance c) swinging too hard for the home run everytime I'm at bat.

So Sasha has the engine in the best position ever. I'm getting more able with the new handling limits.
My goal is to take a 1:17.5 in the final round. I have my delusional goals of 1:16.99 on a miracle lap.

Here is a pic


time attack

chasing Andrew Cassidy for a lap in his FC RX7

 

And was going over solo data. Car was able to hit 178.9 on the front straight. So it definitely has got a big power bump over last year. Last year my best speeds were around 170-171.5

 

Aggressive wheels and stretched tires. Hella flush. Stanced! stretch n poke!

 

some out of car video.

this one is funny. "How's he even ripping those corners? He wants blood! Look at him come into that corner! Ooohh! That was insane!"


meanwhile the car's nick name is now "50 Shades"
Jeff Beech, fellow driver, photographer, and videographer commenting on the panels not matching perfectly and it's multicoloured hoods of the past. Also fitting because it's a 350, it's grey, and it's a freak.











Also, my goal is 1:16.9 at the last event.

 

Awesome write up! Keep up the great work and realize that these are some pretty awesome times you're running. I hope you get 16's!

 

Thanks Frank. Looking forward to seeing you out there.
I decided to go to the track for fun on Sunday. Was nice to just go out and not really try too much. I was hoping to get cool videos of other cars, but no dice.

The track was wide open especially between 4 and 5 so that let me do a bunch of things back to back and see the differences. I really understand how my rear wing works now. How it helps and how it hurts. I ran no splitter all day, because putting it on isn't fun.

I am not sure if this is my fastest lap of the day, but it was easy to render and I have video out the front and back. The Gilman Auto Prelude blew a hose and threw oil all over T1 and it was slippery. You can see it in the incar view and you can hear me feathering the throttle in the rear view. Greasy through there. That cost a bunch of time too since it's the start of straight 2.


Not too many cars in the area have broken the 1:20 mark on RS3 tires. Teknotic ITR. ALphamotorsports 1 million hp monster EVO X. Some of the OTA Corvettes. But my car can do it. I was considering going for time by making some suspension adjustments. But I really just played with adjusting my driving with an oversteering vs understeering car.

 

^- Not sure if you notice, but I notice you're getting a lot smoother with the steering wheel. i definitely think that's helping your times.

 

+1 Sawing at the wheel might look cool but it hurts your times.

 

compare that to this.

 

I haven't had time to put any real thoughts out or make any real videos with data from the last event. But for now I made this vid which should be entertaining

 

That's some cool racing right there, I felt like I was driving. To bad the GTR didn't let you by in the straight to see if you could out run him through the corners.

 

Thanks Dave. At that point he was slowing me down a second a lap. But he came back later and whooped me so...

Here is a season review video

 

Congrats on yet another championship Mike! Man what a fun year it was! Thanks for all your advice/tips throughout the year bud!

 

thats awesome!

 

well just to toot my own horn a lot more as I do all the time in this thread and online in general.
So I ended my season on a good note. I set an overall track record! Meaning the fastest lap on this particular track configuration.

The previous record was held by a........ Radical SR8 1:09.328. I beat the Radical. Now the track was only built in 2011, and a lot of the big name time attack cars have never run hereat all. But still. Pretty good for a little NA 350Z on the same R comps I've run all year! And I go by an NSX and a Viper in the process.

 

 

3 and a half hours and 34 pages later I'm now going to bed dreaming of R comps on my Z. You are my new hero! keep it up
Check out my page www.facebook.com/driftss

 

Michael is a hero to most of us! Amazing what he's done in such a short time! And it's almost all recorded here!

 

Ha. Thanks! I thought that most people found me insufferable.