Got the Wilwoods in with the Poly H pads. Holy S@#t will they stand the car on its nose. Now, maybe I can break a half g braking
I should complement Todd at TCE for the great customer service and taking care of the brake line issue I had. Problems sometimes happened; it is how it is taken care of that I car about. Todd is #1 in my book.

For anyone running Wilwoods, the H pads are very linear; easy to modulate. Nice. But the down side is they grip like a pit bull on a ham bone. Not sure if they won't over power a set of street tires if one is not careful.

Also put the R888s on the car. These are 225-45x17s on Enkei wheels with a 38 mm offset and I have rubbed the wheel well liner on the rear wheels. But I think I did that when I bottomed the car out on a woop-de-do near my house and hoping they will be OK on the track. Otherwise, wow, these are definitely a step up from the Z1s. The Z1s are like marshmallow next to these. VERY quick turn in, even at low tire pressure. Grip is really good too, but only real experience is under braking conditions when I was was bedding in the pads. Between these and the new brakes I thought I could feel my brain (what's left of it) banging against my forehead when I hit the brakes...BTW I "blue-ed" the rotors already. If I did the math right, that is about 1200 deg.

 

the poly h's are great pads. I use them on my race car. over 1.0g with slicks. they will definitely overpower any street tire, but that is why street cars have abs and traction control. these are easy to modulate with the dual master cylinder setup on the race car.

I've run poly b's as well. also a great pad.

 

Bean - nice to hear about the Poly Hs. I will be careful with them out on the track. I have R888s on the car so maybe they will take to being stood upon up to a higher g load than I have done before. I ran a autocross with them (mostly to test out the new brake setup) and, yes, they are easy to modulate and they did easily trip the ABS even with the R888s.

Question - How fast do the Poly H wear compared to other pads? Should I expect more than a couple of track days? Remember, the pads for Wilwoods have a relatively thin pad - 0.6" including the backing plate.

 

I only ran poly h and b on the track (even in my street car). At a pretty aggressive DE solo level, they were good for 4 weekends. Pad taper can be an issue. Keep a pair of backing plates when you kill the first set. Grind them flat and insert them as spacers when you have room. This will minimize taper.

 

Oh, I am not planning to run them on the street, just HPDEs. I guess I should have said that. Todd said that I will become a good rotor customer if I run them on the street... So 4 weekends at solo level, that is good to know.
And thanks for the hint about the spacers to handle the tapering. I will keep an eye on that, although Carbotech XP10s pads wore evenly on my last set of Wilwoods.

 

OK - 2 days in the rain, shower and generally damp weather at the Glen and I knocked 3 seconds off my best lap time. 2:29.4 and a top of 119 mph on the gps on the same old still being-worn-out Z1s. That time was on generally dry/damp track with a big puddle at the apex of T2. Go figure. I did have a fantastic instructor who worked on technique vice the usual correct this corner or that corner. Not to say I didn't get some of that but mostly it was the technique. Got signed off for solo and recommended for A-solo next outing.

Got to LOVE the new Wilwood brakes. But I almost destroyed the rotors with the BP-20 pads. Wilwood says "suitable" for the track but not sustained track driving. Well, not for me, not even in the low traction rain. 2 sessions that was it. I then put in the Poly H pads, rebedded them and, fantastic, my new favorite track pad. Huge grip, but very linear and controllable, even in the rain. I am running XP-10s in the back and that made for a really nice combination. The down side is that I now need to relearn braking. I am now over braking for most corners. Well, they always ask about your objectives at these events. I have a ready made one.

BTW - the track pad dust I got from the H pads was full of iron filings that clogged the corners of the rims at the spokes. Got some Mother's foaming wheel cleaner...that worked like a charm with a bit of rubbing to get the crap off.

I am still looking to try the Toyo R888s. Maybe next time.

 

Hey - just signed up for LRP on 7/1 with Veggi. We need more MINIs.

 

We're u there just before the G52 event? Did you get Seymore?

 

I'm up there tomorrow. If all goes well, and there's still room, I may try to get away for 7/1.

 

Yes and Yes. He is a fantastic coach for someone at a higher level. I got to watch him run his truck but no ride. He had very little say about my driving. His main comment amounted to that I was too tentative. And that he liked riding with me and, I guess that isn't something that he says to everyone. BTW - he thinks you have "jumped in the deep end of the MINI pool" , but he hopes to see your car in action.

Have fun tomorrow. Let us know how it goes.

For now the web says there is still room in all except novice.

 

Had a great day at LRP yesterday. MINI was running as good as it has ever ran. My son tracked his EVO for the first time and we ran in the same group. Can't beat that.

Unfortunately, I can't make July 1. I forgot that my wife has a medical procedure and I have to drop her off and pick her up.

I usually don't buy Track Time photos. Too pricey for me. But on May 30 they took a shot that I couldn't resist. See attached.

 

Nice Glen!

 

Here is my youtube post of my "only a little damp" session at WGI. My fast lap is at the end (I think). There are a number of mistakes in my line, but I was coming off from a day and a half of the "rain" line. And my braking is a little off. I was learning to be more aggressive with them but have not yet moved fully towards the turn to make the harder braking effective. Enjoy:

 

Nice video!

As you know, I haven't run at WGI. Every time I plan a trip up there, something happens. SCDA has over $1000 of my money for days that I had to cancel at the last minute. Two questions:

In all the times you've run there, how many times have cars sideswiped the barriers? They look intimidating!

Also, how big was the run group? It looks like you have the track to yourself! At LRP on Saturday I was pushing through traffic all day.

 

GKP, don't forget there is a huge difference in track length between WGI and LRP. Those 3.5 miles can accommodate a lot of cars, compared to the 1.5 mile LRP circuit.

 

I guess. I just don't recall any runs at Monticello or NJMP being so open, and they are longer tracks (but not 3.5 miles). I have to get up there.

 

GK - thanks. I had the instructor that everyone that is an advanced driver should have. He did a great job of instilling and raising my confidence. And I also think that driving in the rain made me faster in the dry. I was able to play with the limits of the tires and I could feel what the car would do at the limits. Something that I have never done in the dry. That gave me something to look for when I went out in the dry and I went faster as a result.

The guard rails are always in your face and I think, unlike a lot of newer tracks like NJMP and Monticello where the guard rails are not seen while you are driving and some people have no respect for staying on the track, everyone has a big, healthy respect for them and for staying on the track at WGI. For those who ski, WGI is like going to Whiteface or Stowe versus Stratton or Okemo. The caliber of the drivers at WGI tends to be very high. That doesn't mean that something foolish doesn't happen, but generally it is few and far between. In most places where people are bound to go off they have tire barriers that help a lot. One car, this time, went into them when the driver was a little hotter than he wanted be going into T6, activated the ABS, got off the brakes and shot straight into the tires. Car was still drivable but it looked like it was used as a cat's scratching post. But that is a typical "off the track" - too hot in the corner and either push off straight or try to force it, put two off at the track out and shoot into the barrier at the inside of the turn exit.

My run group was a little small, it was damp (which is a great equalizer for the MINI) and, as veggi said, the track is long which will absorb a lot of cars. I wish I could have found out whether that BMW that I was approaching was an M or not. It does have dual exhaust, one on each side of the car, so I thought it might be. You can see how he was driving which was fairly typical of who was out there, which means we stayed pretty evenly spaced through the sessions. In the rain I did lap a few people, which was fun. If you look at my other posts with video, you can see that WGI tends not to be crowded even on really nice days.

 

Soooo, how was July 1st with SCDA? I saw VV, Eddie, and Suess parked side-by-side in a FB post.....looked pretty wet!

 

How about just saying that a monsoon wet day at the track beats a dry day in the office

After watching the weather for the past week I decide to put my "rain" track tires on the car (the ones I used at WGI last month in the rain) and pack the all season tire in the back just in case the "rain" tires don't work. No R comps for Monday. I show up early and as 8 am came around, I start to wonder where veggivet was. Well veggivet shows up at the last minute and gunnin' for bear - Rcomp slicks in the back of his MINI ready to go on. We get one side of the car changed and wouldn't you know it, the sky opens up and starts to dump. Back on go the street tires.

1st session was wet with water running across the track at west bend (after the back straight and at the start of the downhill). It was negotiable - just aim for the flagger and then finish the turn. But it was also running down the down hill to the turn onto the front straight. So braking for that last turn was interesting. Then I found all of the standing water on the front straight. This was going to be an interesting day.

2nd session was in the pouring rain; it started with no visibility. Now there were 2 more rivers across the track; one after the left turn and one across the straight just before the uphill and there was standing water at the apex of several turns. The one on No Name was just after the dogleg and the only way to take it was to aim for the apex point for the uphill, go diagonally across the track and once through it head back to the left side of the track to setup for the up hill. The interesting thing I found was that on a few of the turns the dry line or very close to it worked quite well. I was also amazed at how much traction I had braking for the west bend and going through it.

3rd session was the most treacherous. That is not just me saying that but veggivet thought the same. It had stopped raining but track was very damp and still had the running water. Traction was high over a lot of the track but it would disappear. I struggled with the last turn. The back end would wiggle a little and as soon as I would add a little gas the front would push. I guess that is what is called being on the edge.

4th session was the best for me. Back to light rain. The track was consistent all the way around. I could test how the car would push a little with a little added gas, how the back would get light by letting off the gas a little and how much braking the car had in the wet.

The MINI is a great rain car. The car communicates really well and if you are paying attention it will reward you. It is especially good for the up hill. Push too hard in a MINI and it "pushes". Too much gas with a rear wheel drive car going up hill and the back end comes around. A Lotus had that problem. Luckily he didn't contact the wall. I left all of the Nannies on. They cut in a little but not too bad, mostly when I was hydoplaning. Even with all of that, my best time was 1:21

I'll post some video soon.

 

I hope to get to your part of the world in Sept. for the BMWCCA race school and Endurance Series Race at WGI. I hope to meet some of you there.

 

Ahhh, cool Greg! Will have to try and make it out there for that! Know the date yet?

 

The school is 18-19 September and endurance race on the 20th. Maybe more racing on 21-22. I'll get in all that I can with a 1400 mile tow each way! Greg V wants to make it there as well.

 

According to Motorsportsreg.com BMWCCA - GVC is running the race on the 20th and will have a HPDE on the 21st and 22nd, which I am signed up for. Should/maybe see you there.

 

Think I have the week off before that - if so maybe I can change weeks. Will have to check..

 

I would love to meet some of my Northeastern brothers, and say hi to a few that I have already met.