Thanks Lee, as always I appreciate you giving me the pointers at the track. Like I said, I don't know if I am giving myself excuses but..... I want to say that sometimes I do get worried about damaging the car. At the same time it also feels I have a pretty good handle on things.

I guess I will learn slowly but I feel I need to improve on my reflexes when I totally loose it. The one time when I lost it around the busstop I had no clue what I was doing.

 

So, there were a bunch of GT-R's (4) at the 3Balls event and man-oh-man they were hauling ***. Supposedly they did a re-tune and were running about 14psi boost versus 9psi from stock (?). They said they had about 550WHP and sounded like jets going down the straights.

 

I have signed up for Autobahn on Aug 29-30 with Chin Motorsports. They were offering a special that was too good to pass up. It's only $199 for two days. They run

South Course - Aug 29 (2.1 mi, 15 turns)
Full Course - Aug 30 (3.5mile, 19 turns)

If you are interested sign up ASAP, there are only 25 openings. Btw, they do require a membership - $50

 

From what Kenny tells me - the south course is not that great, but the full course is absolutely worth the price. I am tempted to go for the second day, but its in the middle of the week, I think. Right?

 

Actually, it's on a Monday and for full course its 149. Even at that price I think it's a good value. However, you have to factor in their $50 membership. I like the idea that they only take 25 participants.

I was talking to the GT-R group and they seemed to really liked Chin Motorsports. One guy felt that 3Balls was very liberal and said he just jumped around run groups and no one noticed. He said Chin Motorsports is between NASA and 3Balls in terms of lenience, being organized etc etc. So I decided to give it a try.

 

That is an interesting perspective - I guess I am cynic, b/c when I hear that I think "that guy is a serious DB." The 3balls philosophy is kind of "police yourself." When you have guys like that jumping run groups w/o asking, it can cause problems. With that said, I plan to suggest to Ken (I have been thinking about it for a while) that he think about a sticker system, etc. to identify run groups. For me, I prefer the more open structure to the rigid NASA structure - for me, it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. That's just one man's opinion...

 

Actually I gave him the same reasoning, but I am also open to other ideas. One could say that it is the responsibility of a driver to watch out for the run groups he/she goes in, but it's not always a given that everyone will be responsible. So, I guess being a little bit structured (doing different wrist bands might not be a bad thing. Now, this is coming from the conversation I had with him. New people always bring in a new perspective and that's what makes things better.

So, as groups evolve and become bigger it's only natural for you to start becoming more rigid around the rules keeping the safety in mind. I guess there is always a trade off

 

I had this same issue before with my brake light coming on. It ended up being low on fluid because of the pads being really worn down. I also have learned to bring a spare set of rotors and pads which I do every time now. Wish I could have been there. I really want to make it to that track before the end of the year. Good luck at Autobahn. I'm going to Mid Ohio again this weekend. Really looking forward to it. I got some new wheels and some R-comps.

 

As much as I wanted to go back to Mid-Ohio again I said 3 days is enough and I wanted to try out some of the other tracks. Plus it would have been back-to-back weekends. Feel bad about leaving behind wife all the time.

Have fun man, post up your vids when you return

 

man deepu ur crazy. I bet you're getting faster and faster each time out!

 

Haha .... I hope so. I just got some stuff I ordered for data logging. I am pumped ... can't wait to try it out at the next track day. Following is what I bought to log data at the track

- RaceChrono Software
- They sell a hardware unit that they recently came out with but their software is FREE
- Works on Nokia S60 (Symbian) and Windows Mobile Platforms
- Works with external GPS Puck and OBDII scanners

My Setup
- I plan on picking up a used / older Windows Mobile phone ~$50
- Bought an external GPS Puck - BT-Q818X on Ebay for $60. The GPS works on 5HZ sampling
- Bought a Bluetooth OBDII scanner ~$40
- You can then use RaceRender a FREE software to generate video overlays

So my total - $150

 

I would kinda like to do Autobahn too. 'course from the site it reads like it would run me more like $300... and I think I'm due for pads too. I need to find someone with a garage, jack, and torque wrench to bug.

 

This must be the second session on Saturday as I see Lee riding with me in the car.

 

I can help you with the pads install, gimme a call and we can find some time to work on your car.


Actually, I jumped on it looking at the $199 and didn't pay attention to the fine print So here's the breakdown
$199 - 2day event fees
$50 - instructor fee (if it's your first time running at A TRACK with them you automatically get registered as Novice)
$50 - Annual Membership

Total - $299

But reading around the net and looking at track layout, it looks like this will be one of those tracks that I will be going back to more and more.

 

Mic-Check ... 1,2,3

 

It has been quiet the past couple days. I need to take a look at the local schedules and find another HPDE.

I think I'll just go ahead and order some more pads before I give you a ring to borrow your garage, Deepu. Judging by the horrible noises they're making I'm probably due for a new set.

 

I am changing mine too, I ordered mine from Carbotech a few days back and they shipped today. I should get them by the end of this week. If you order soon enough we can do both at the same time (I have two jacks and 4 jack stands).

I also plan to
- bleed my brakes
- install a Rear camber kit

Let me know ....

 

Well, I made it Mid Ohio and my clutch went out on the third session on Friday. Sucks because I paid for the whole weekend. It's a long story on what happened, but I think my pressure plate is whats wrong. I will be pulling the tranny on Friday to take a look.

On a brighter note, switching to R-comps is like crack. I picked up four seconds from my best street tire time on the first session out. I had it down to a total of 5 seconds by the time my clutch blew. They were running the club course on Friday. They are going to have open passing from now on in group 3 and 4 except from braking to apex. I absolutely loved it. It was so much more intense and a great learning experience. Anyway, my best was 1:46.5. I know I could have dipped into the 1:45's because I was still getting used to those tires. I am pretty sure those are competitive times for TTC. I checked the results from the last event. I am hoping to get signed off at the next event to do time trials next year. I am posting a video from Friday as we speak. I will post the link up soon.

Good luck to you guys and may your luck be better than mine.

Oh yea, I am selling those 370 wheels if you guys know of anyone that wants them. I have an add placed in the classified section.

 

Here is the link as promised. Almost no traffic. I will post another one later of the first session where I was getting passed by some TTU, TTR and TTS cars. They were stupid fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEQKd--zTPw

 

Nice driving there Dominic. It totally sucks when you can't run the full weekend. You already don't get a lot of time with NASA and if you loose a day it hurts.

TimeTrials is cool man, good luck. I am going to Autobahn towards the end of this month with Chin Motorsports. Let me know if you want to join, its about $299 including the mandatory instructor fee ($50) and their yearly membership fee ($50). They supposedly give you about 2:30 to 3hrs of driving time per day. Because they run 3 groups with 30 min sessions.