Here is the second session from Friday. The average time of the three sessions were 13 minutes. Hardly worth the price of admission. Desire was being chased by the spec Miata sporting a set of Hoosier after passing him in the first lap. Desire shamed two Corvettes that day. She was pushy and you can see the understeer tendency in the video.

Very strange YT video no longer shows the player.
Upon editing later in the day now the player shows.


Also there are duplicate emojies:

 

I misfiled this information once and I wasted a bunch of time looking for it. It is needed for installing Solo 2 DL.






of course some of these are fake realtime data by SW magicians with liberal creative freedom

 

I just remembered that the race tire guy I bought my R888s from said that they can be run in either direction, no problems. Only the tread is directional. I would think that would be the same for the R888Rs.

 

Yes. That is the reason I like them. You just need to make sure to install the outside on the outside, and inside on the inside tire to wheel that is. I dislike directional tires as you cannot flip left side wheels to right side without remounting and rebalancing them.

 

As I have Desire and her sidekick GT4 as track cars I need to be able to quickly move the Solo 2 DL data logger and the SmartyCam between the two. I want the least pain way of doing this but without buying 2 sets of cables from AiM as they cost way too much. Also a long cable hanging around when not being use is a mess. Instead I fabricate my homemade interconnect pigtails to be installed in both cars. With a 4-pin connectors I can effortless move them between two cars. The interface for both cars are via the CAN bus so making them really simple. It can easily tucked away out off sight when not being used.

As CAN bus is higher speed differential bus with controlled impedance I made some effort to not cause signal integrity problem. I was going to keep the pig tail as short a possible but decided having a few inches hanging out a the back of the tachometer is too messy. I decided to place the interconnect pigtail in the European parcel shelf instead. For the Mini the CAN bus signal is easiest to access at the tachometer connector. But with the mechanical oil pressure and vacuum/boost gauges it is quite an involving job and requires extreme care so not to have engine oil over the cockpit. Failure is not an option.


first removing the tachometer and the mechanical gauge pod assembly



these two pressure lines requires handle with care






the green connector contains the CAN bus





I stripped back a segment of the fiber tape



the CAN bus is the twisted pair



I made a twisted pair cable out of teflon jacket MIL-spec wire which I happen to have laying around and spliced it with the short off the shelf pigtail cable



I covered the now longer pigtail cable with fiber tape so it looks factory; the power and ground were tapped from the center console which is a major PITA to get to them



the oil pressure line is one that failure is not an option so handle with extreme care



pressure tested the mechanical lines and no leak

Next is to modify the Solo 2 DL's cable by adding the mating pigtail connector.


I staggered the four splice joints



insulated the solder joints with heat shrink tubings



again the fiber tape gives a professional appearance

All the prep work for the Mini is done. Next is to configure the data logger for the Mini using a Windows PC.

 

The driving in the dark at TNiA is fun though it does increase the pucker factor quite a bit. The time that I did that they had the lights on for the front straight. It was very dark for the back isn't-really-straight.
Here's my vid - yours is much more dramatic. Mine is shot with a D750 and a 14mm f2.8 which gives a little bet better representation of the actual lighting or lack there of.

 

This is awesome, having CAN available would make Harry's much more viable as well. Think it's possible to wire these to the OBD port to turn it into an ISO 15765 compatible connector? I'd love to have faster PIDs available from my dongle!

 

I am afraid not. The parameters are BMW preparatory. If you are handy and willing to invest time, I suppose it should not be that hard to build a dongle with uC to translate them into ODB compliant formats. For me it is just easier to spend a few hundred dollars. However it is a slippery slope.

I am giving up on Harry's. It have been nice just for lap time at PIR. Out in the sticks I cannot get it to work reliably, partly I didn't want to waste time screw around with electronics when I am out to drive.

 

Your's was more like dusk driving which I also have done. We did have pitch black track as it was way past sunset, and in a night of heavy rain clouds with thunderstorms. We could not see the flaggers. With more safety oriented organizations I don't think it would even be allowed to run.

 

An expecting package arrived from FCP Euro. It has this cute packaging tape with tasteful yellow and blue Happy School Year graphics all over. It reminds us the driving season is half over, or to play with the theme Desire's summer driving school is half over. Thankfully for her there are still much to learn. A three days of intensive class is coming up this weekend and she needs new shoes ready, for rain or shine.


Desire's summer school supplies



more school supplies; these are for to be used in case of wet school playground



less fortunate Mini at the tire shop



this poor R50 needs an engine and have been there like forever

 

I love to read the posts by someone who has saved and restored an older MINI. I hope those 2 find a good home...

I have done a full track day that went until 9:00pm. But, it was something like June 10th and the sun had not even set....
Not the same, I know. But the hard part was the exhaustion from doing 2 hrs (4 sessions) in the day to doing another 2 hrs in the evening. That wasn’t one of the more intelligent things I have done.

 

4 hours is a lot of driving. Soon one gets tire and sloppy and when that happen not much fun. Let's see how we do in the upcoming 3 days of all you can eat driving at what I coined "die braune Hölle"

 

“die braune Hölle" - might be a little harsh as you are going to have fun...

Have Fun.

 

Die braune Hölle is my affection for ORP though on second thought "die kleine braune Hölle" would be more apt. It is my tribute to the Green Hell that is the Nordschleife. But with only 2.2 miles it is a mini me of the Green Hell (that is 12.9 miles) at best, hence "The Little Brown Hell". The Little Brown Hell demands respect from the drivers.

After all we have the infamous Valkyrie Hill, the Pucker Factor, and the Plunge. Valkyrie are the choosers of the slain. They decide which warriors and their rides are to survive or die . I struggled if it should be yellow or brown though both works. In the mid of summer the fields are a sea of yellow and the fine soils are brown. Desire and I had first hand experience but lucky to survive and fight another day.


this seemingly harmless slight crest was where we got into trouble because we were going faster through turn 16



Desire went off track to the left



then cross the track rotating CCW






the arrow show Desire's heading



this is the heading when Desire came to rest; a huge plume of fine soil covered Desire's interior and I couldn't see for a while - hence the Brown Hell

We thought Desire was going to roll when it went sideways off track onto the right side. Fortunately the field was dry so her wheels didn't dig in deep. There were so much sideway forces that three of the tires' bead were peeled loose momentarily and the sand and sharp gravel got in between the rim and the tire beads. The next day I took her to the nearby tire shop to have the three tires remounted. Continue driving would be dangerous and will cause damages to the rims. None of the Konig wheels were bent or with increased runout from this incident so I now know how strong they are.

 

With the promise of three day intensive learning for her summer school Desire agreed to risk her hide in local traffic to go grocery shopping today. I signed up again to prepare food for the entire club, this time for a dinner. I like to make everything from scratch and am specific about the right ingredients. Because of this we went to multiple stores in a well planned route. It is important as the day is hot, and traffic is thick as molasses.



one thing that I was not willing to compromise is Semolina flour for freshly made pasta but finding them took two store visits



it would turn out had I just go to an employee owned supermarket I would have been able to buy the same flour in bulk at 1/2 the price



5 stores later Desire came home unscathed with all the needed ingredients

Desire is itching to ride with these ladies over the infamous hill

 

Hopefully you remain on the side without the scattered bones...
and ride you shall...

Your trip off course is a scary one in any car. A friend did roll his MINI doing just that sort of thing. And getting grass, dirt and stones imbedded in wheel rim bead area is common but people don’t know to look for it and will have tire problems later on. The problem can be that there is nothing showing if you just inspect it. Glad it all worked out well for you. No harm, no foul.

 

Our track team made it to the Little Brown Hell (die kleine braune Hölle).



Desire didn't fall off the wagon on the Oregon Trail; we have jet stream (Gorge's strong tailwind) to cut our travel time and cut the diesel bill



it is a sea of brown this time of the year at ORP; it is surrounded by farmlands with grain crops


Breezy and quite hot and dry. The breeze is nice to reduce solar gain of the motorhome.

 

Our track team came to this three day track event at ORP without any high expectation. We didn't have enough time to entertain installing the new set of coilovers. We were just expecting just more track time at this challenging track 3 hours away from the city. It would turn out we have the best driving here in our second day. Today Desire has her best time of low 2:03 lap time driving CW. She was consistently faster than the Red Baron while in the past she had to struggle to stay competitive. Just when we were ready to give up on the Koni Yellow and Swift springs budget suspension we made huge strives with our lap time without resorting to going with a set of Hoosier R7. The only variable was going from 100 wear rating tires to 80.

What I like Red Baron is we can be very open about our Mini's and our driving and be very honest to each other. Our cars are such polar differences in the extend of modification. In our first time driving together at ORP, he told me he has never encounter a minimally modified street R53 that fast, and for a very long time I didn't think he was being honest, In time I would found out he has always been genuine. I can be quite competitive on good days, but not so much on others. Yesterday was no different. I had to try very hard to keep up with him, and generally I do better if I am on the lead with him chasing. Desire tend to get very loose at ORP. Also I attribute left foot braking helps significantly to close the gap of our level of modifications.

Today, I was consistently 2-3 seconds faster than him, and best my prior time by many more seconds. What better is a very experienced member that has asked why I driving a piece of sh1+ wrong wheel drive car and I should get a BMW instead. Today he could not catch me after 10 lapse not for his lack of trying. He was driving a E36 M3.

2:03 is a very good time for ORP. Red Baron pilot today decided to trying left foot braking at my encouragement. Initially he thought it is something that is monumentally difficult but seeing how I left him in the dust in turns he tried it and spend the afternoon practicing it. By the end of the day he is a convert.


the second day of her three day intensive learning in her summer school



Red Baron is definitely Desire's frenemy - they are mortal opponents but yet have deep mutual respect for each other

 

I have had days like that and they feeeeel soooo goooood!

Don’t forget that you have made 2 changes to the car; the brace up front and tightened the rear sway bar. While these might be perceived as subtle changes, they have probably improved the balance of your car and you are able to extract more out of it. And, it sounds like you are very comfortable with pushing Desire to new heights, too. Congrats...

I’ll be repeating myself with this - but - I wish I could left foot brake in my MINI. You are so lucky with yours on that one.

 

Thanks. The front brace sure induced a notch of understeer tendency. With the one step up of rear sway bar stiffness they seem even out back to before the front brace was installed. At time there is still a bit more push than I like so I am going to set the RSB to full stiff. I say this because at some turns when pushed to the limit, the car drifts sideways and with the front tires a bit more.

I was very strange that on Saturday it was the first time Desire wasn't squirrelly when driven very hard. Red Baron pilot had remarked how loose my Mini is. I am beginning to suspect that I need to dial in more rebound damping at the rear. Saturday was the coolest of the three days, and I also wonder if ORP that is much harder on suspensions and dampers is causing the Koni Yellows to heat up (due to twin tube design) and lost damping. I had never thought of this before.

Normally Red Baron is consistently faster than Desire, but not that day. It started with the E36 M3 track car catching up to us while we were still warming up, and I was in the lead. Red Baron gave the M3 point by, and it was gaining on me. Instead of just giving up I thought at least I can fight him back for a couple of turns so I went for it. After two turns I realized we were quite even, so I kept driving as best as I could, and before long we left Red Baron in the distance. Desire was very composted laps after laps, and I was really in the zone getting all the lines right, and not early nor late apex. I was able to not brake at all in many turns that I had to before. Before long I was building some distance ahead from the M3. The fight went on for close to 10 laps and at the end I built a good lead.

Without left foot braking I would have no chance against the M3. He is a very experienced instructor driver and has been driving ORP almost since the inception. The other thing that I have been working on is being smoother releasing the brake after heel and toe downshift so not to upset the car at turning in. I am also rethinking staying in 3rd in some tight turns rather than going down to 2nd. I learnt so much since last September first driving at ORP.

On Sunday I spun Desire while tailing my buddy's E46 M3 track car. Going through turns 4 and 3 Mini can be so fast and I caught up to him after he gained a distance at the Valkyrie Hill straights but he was too slow at turn 4 and I lifted the throttle so not to crash into him. This resulted in Desire spinning. He is a really nice guy and we had a good time. Only later that I realize I was driving with one rear pad down to the steel backing plate. No wonder Desire lost all composure braking at the bottom of the Valkyrie Hill. A tire chirped and she went a bit sideways but I always managed to make the turn in at the compression zone.

Yesterday I jacked Desire up to see what was causing the Ouch, Ouch, Ouch brake noise from the right rear when going shopping. I thought a piece of gravel must had lodged on the caliper or pad and grinding at the rotor face. I came home and put Desire on the jacks and only realized one rear pad has gone metal to metal. That is the set of Ferodo DS2500 that I had misgiving after order it. It didn't last 3 full ORP track days (including the two quickies at PIR where I got skunked also). I will never buy another set of Ferodo again. I should rely on my own judgement rather than relying on the pad guy's advice. Live and learn. I am getting a set of ST-45 for the rear and they are obscene expensive as I was told they build them to order and cut the friction material on a band saw. So we pay for one's custom order and hence twice more expensive than for a set of Wilwood front. Got to love those Wilwoods.

 

I feel naked and exposed without a set of rear race pads ready for Desire. For now I installed a set of worn OE pads that I didn't throw away to tide her over until the Raybestos ST-45 arrives. Good that I have a habit of not throwing used things away. The Raybestos ST-45 has been ordered!


how lucky do you feel today, punk?



the Raybestos size code for R53 rear is RC940 and the suffix is the pad compound

Oh, and HOD will be having 2 HPDE days at ORP this upcoming weekend. Red Baron's pilot will be there to instruct but Desire won't be driving in the event as I am too cheap to pay her two days of HOD school days. Our club days are much much cheaper.

 

we were the first to arrive on Thursday afternoon and scored this prime spot with strong cellular signal; the down side is a long walk to the showers


these were most of the cars that drove on Friday


we were all very curious with this race car with very long wheel base



it has a 1300cc Yamaha engine



note they didn't even bother to chamfer the sharp corners of the foot pedals



the most interesting are these Kevlar safety harness at the lower ball joints; I joked is the ropes the only thing holding the lower steering knuckle in place; that turned out to be a bad omen



even the Hoosiers are strange too; they are classic series



a very well built race car; he would gone on the last session of race the next day at PIR; he only needed to show up and finish the run to win podium







we were all nosy and chipped in our snark remarks while he worked







there were three gen 1 Caymans and Boxster







this guest has been traveling the whole West Coast and driving many different tracks as a tour

 

Desire get to park in this privileged spot because I was the executive chef for the dinner



likely for the history of ORP guest cooks, I am the first to cater with meals that are the most involving with most dishes made from scratch slow way; note the pasta machine



I even made some chicken for those shunt seafood



the meal was to be an Italian fair with freshly made pasta; I even hand peeled and cleaned all those shrimps






I didn't have a chance to take photos of my dishes except this little leftovers that I saved for the next day; note the titanium knife and fork

 

the Oregon Trail theme















Saturday had the biggest turnout of all three days







this track car broke a lower joint near the steering knuckle and we chipped in to help him load the car






Desire sitting there pretty after dusting the Red Baron on Sunday



as Desire was the lead Red Baron is not in our track video; while Red Baron has this forward facing camera he has not yet figure out how to download the video






Desire also dusted a few Porsches and one driver that I never met came over and gave her a look over but didn't say anything



this is the first time I came across an M3 with foldable roof






tthere were at least five Vettes with highly modified engines; his one has close to 900 HP



this is also one with crazy power






the bunch of friends talking about left food braking



Desire parked strangely to minimize solar gain in the cockpit



Red Baron has pizza size Stop Tech BBK and 17" wheels with 235 width tires



the Red Baron pilot got to drive the Cadillac on track

in all Desire drove 400 miles and consumed no less than 48 gallons of fuel



and these new Hankooks took a good pounding

 

Nice. It does sound as if you are more comfortable with the car with the current setup. Your 2nd to last paragraph suggests to me that it might be best to leave the RSB setting where it is and give it a few more track days to see how you work into the best aspects of new setup. You may find that you are able to get it to work in those corners where the car is pushing. If you further stiffen the RSB, you may find it causes too much understeer that will actually slow you down. Just a suggestion.

I run Hawk DTC 60 rear brake pads and I have at least 6 days on them and expect to get at least 4 more. They seem to be working out very well for me.

BTW - I finally got a chance to try out my big BBK at Watkins Glen, where I have had the most braking issues. The good news it that they worked really well. But I did see that concave wear pattern on the face of my rotors that you saw. Not sure what causes that condition.