NE Track Day/Autocross/Racing Reports

[NHRef]

Quote: Originally Posted by onasled

Pete,
No sound for me, but I'll try again.
Carl is a great guy and he was my very first instructor at LRP. Was he driving his Mini or yours?
Ian, yes Carl has a Blue S, I think electric blue.

There was sound, maybe not loud, but at the very beginning you can hear Carl asking if the video is all set.

Yes, Carl drives an electric blue S.

As far as the swaybars go, I feel they are a great advantage. I can't say whether the rear would be sufficient. I do know that installing the front is very difficult and, IMO, must be done on a lift.

I'm used to them now, so haven't set them back to the softer setting. I will be doing that this weekend, with the Hakkepellitas going on after Thanksgiving.

[GadgetGav]

A rear only sway bar makes enough difference that an instructor can tell in about one and a half corners that it's fitted..! The ADSS that Ian and I both went to, the instructor went from Ian's car to mine and could tell by the seat of his pants the few changes I'd made to mine.

It's not so great over the Cambridge potholes though

[cscholz]

Pete - Thanks for posting the video, and David, thanks for hosting it. Ian, yes, it's me. And I still have the same MINI.

I haven't seen in car video of my driving in a long time. I may not be the fastest guy out there but I'm pretty consistent.

Regarding Pete's car - I think you said you had both the front and rear H-sport bars. I have only the rear H-sport. I didn't feel a noticeable difference, but I didn't drive Pete's car. Pete, I had my rear bar on the middle of the three settings - what was yours on?

Also, I believe you said you have EB Green pads - they seemed to do great - I think my pads (PF97 fr and rr) were a bit thin and the rotors are on the their last leg. I only use these pads on the track. If you're able to use those EB pads on the street and track, then they were a great compromise. But, Pete, you can comment on the feel of the brakes more than I.

[NHRef]

The rear was on the stiffest setting, as was the front (which only has two choices).

I was a bit worried about the EBC Green Pads only because I installed them the day before (a late entrant because I was spared a weekend trip to Burlington VT) so they weren't "properly" bedded in. (I consoled myself by saying "real" race cars don't drive for 300 miles of moderate braking before going on the track . . . ) That said, they performed well and hopefully their life won't be too short!

[snid]

I'm taking some of the autocross discussion from the MoP / Care for Keith event and throwing it over here so that thread doesn't get clobbered.

About getting hooked and worrying about costs incurred by upgrading parts:

If you can convince yourself that you're only competing with your own times, not other people's, you can get by for a while without putting new parts on your car. It's when you start trying to go faster than other people that it starts getting expensive.

I think a good plan is to start with the car as is, and when parts wear out, replace them with something better. I've almost stuck to that plan... the exhaust is the most obvious violation, the suspension was borderline as the stock struts weren't worn out yet, but were on their way.

Autocross is great in that it's safe enough that you don't need things like brake upgrades just to keep yourself from running your car into a tire wall (like on the track).

[ltlzig]

You know what is one of the best things about autocross? Not only do you have fun, and learn your limits and those of your car under controlled conditions but the things you learn doing this stuff can save your life on the main streets and back roads of everytown USA.

[jwardell]

Autocross has classes so you actually only hurt yourself by upgrading things. Aside from sticky street tires, stock is best.

[snid]

Oh yeah... those silly autocross rules, I forgot about those. Different organizations will have different rules on what you can do in which classes. My car, since it has an aftermarket rear swaybar, would get bumped out of the stock classes if you follow the SCCA rulebook. I haven't done a BMW club autocross, so I don't know where I fall in their system. Our local club has a system where you start out using your stock SCCA class, then add points for each mod, some mods cost more points than others, and after enough points you get bumped up to the next class. Using their rules, I'm still in the slowest class, with a little bit of room left to do another mod or two.

In any case, I still say run the car like it is. When the tires are trashed, get something better. I ran the whole summer on Goodyear F1 GS-D3 tires, half a dozen or so autocrosses, 9 track days, and daily driving. They just barely lasted through the summer. But the track days kill tires worse than autocrossing. An autocross day has maybe 10 minutes of driving if you're lucky, a track day has at least an hour.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Does anyone come down to Connecticut to the C.A.R.T. CT Auto-X events? They run a very friendly series during the spring, summer and fall. They also have some "Snow-X" events, provided we get enough snow.

You can check things out here: http://cartct.com/index1.php?center=home.htm

[jwardell]

Jason, yes the BMWCCA works on the same points-per-mod system, so you can do it if you have enough space before the next class level.

I don't think your tires rub nearly as much on the track (was my performance on saturday a good enough demonstration?) so I bet it is almost as much wear. Don't forget you had really, really, soft tires with a very low wear rating.

Bilbo yes, I did a CARTCT autocross once, and enjoyed it. We got a ton of runs and plenty of fun runs afterward. The lot was in tough shape. I always intended to go back for a snow cross...but never did.

[snid]

So, BMWCCA driver's ed vets, when you get signed off to solo, is that just for that track, or for others as well? I'm not so dumb as to think I'm ready to solo at a brand new track, don't worry... just curious.

I just got my evaluation form from the last NHIS event, and it's official... I can solo (I already have there with the BMWCCA and SCDA, but now it's official).

I'm still going to spend some time at NHIS with an instructor, just to get advice from new people and to see new lines. But I've found that when I have the same instructor all day, they run out of things to say towards the end of the day.

And, I have a shifting / heel-toe question, too... when going from a 4th gear straight to a 2nd gear corner, do you do a single 4->2 downshift, or do two downshifts 4->3 then 3->2. I was trying to do it as one downshift, which I think was a large part of why my instructor was complaining about letting the revs drop too far during the downshift. He thought I was on the clutch early which caused the revs to drop, but I wasn't on the clutch, it was just the revs dropping because I was still on 4th gear at 50mph or so, then downshifting to second and having to really rev the engine in the process. So... I'm guessing I was doing it wrong and I should do two seperate shifts in that situation.

[Actual Size]

Here's an oldie but goody...The Physics of Racing

[onasled]

Jason,
You'll only be a solo driver for White Mountain and Boston chapters. If you go to another chapter they may or 'may' not let you solo. I know that if you run with Ct Valley chapter they will actually start you down in novice. They may move you up a group right away but they will not sign you off until two instructors OK you.
SCDA will let you solo as I think you said already.
Even though your have been signed off your first run with any chapter, including BC and WMC will be with an instructor. Even if you run in advanced.

[GadgetGav]

(there was another post above this with a video link. This post and the others below refer to that missing link. Just in case you were trying to catch up.)

That's pretty sick. How many people did we just watch die..?

[NHRef]

have you met life today? or death?