General Discussion Competiting with the new MINI on track or at a SCCA Solo event.

Another track day in my GP3. Mark Pombo WHAT?!?!

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Old 05-14-2021, 12:34 PM
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DavidPinAZ
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Another track day in my GP3. Mark Pombo WHAT?!?!

Took my GP3 for another track day on Wednesday. I scheduled some coaching from the guys at Track Rekord and decided on using Apex Motor Club as the track. I've never been there, so I was pretty excited! Each of the two coaches took my GP3 out for a few laps and I have to tell you, riding with them was the most valuable coaching I've ever had! The question of "What can my car actually do, and how does it feel doing it" getting answered in spades! It's one thing to have people say "get the car to rotate". It's another to *feel* the rotation happening!

Anyway, their best times were 1:58.xx and 2:00.xx, although they both said they were only driving at about 7/10ths since the car wasn't theirs and they weren't as familiar to it as they'd need to be to go harder. A week or so of driving it would probably solve the last point. I had my best time at 2:03.xx, which I wasn't *super* excited about, but still happy with. The part I was most happy with was being able to replicate the car rotation similar to what they did!! That was HUGE for me!

And at the end, after they closed the track, these guys called Mark freaking Pombo!! I about lost it, tbh . Anyway, some good info from Mark on racing the Mini's:

- Higher tire pressure in the rear tires. Basically, you want as little traction in the back as is safe for you. Less traction == more rotation
- Due to the shorter wheelbase of our Mini's, under hard braking, the back can get loose. Especially if your tire pressure is higher in the rear. You have to expect and work with that (this was new to me, and something that has been freaking me out when I track my car. Knowing it's normal, though, I can adjust)
- They have a bit of toe out on the rear's. Not as feasible on a daily driver, but still interesting.
- The GP inspired F56 that they just introduced is an F56 S, but with the GP3 motor. And a manual transmission!!! I forgot to ask which manual, though.
- He thinks (and I agree), that the GP race car is gonna win a lot. Its *fast*!! Still some adjustments to be made, but it's ready.

All in all a very cool guy and mad props to Kai and Steve from Track Rekord for coaching me in the areas I needed!

And here's the video:
 
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Old 05-15-2021, 08:21 AM
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I also thought I'd post some of the data from the AiM Solo2 DL. In both images, my data is the light blue, the coaches are red (two different coaches). You can clearly see some areas of improvement for braking for me, as well as the "off the gas onto the brakes" time gap. All the graphs are distance based rather than time based so you can see both drivers at the same spot on the track. If the graphs were time based, the light blue line would be far ahead of the red lines...becomes my times were longer than theirs, lol!



 
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