Gotcha... should be interesting to hear your thoughts comparing the two afterward.

 

We're back from Laguna now, that was fun.

I was anxiously watching the weather all week, the forcast was changing between 30% and 60% chance of rain. Rain would put quite a damper on the proceedings. We could still run in the rain (with the windows up for once), but its a lot more uncertain. As it was the forecast settled down to showers with a 6% chance of rain until 9am (when we'd be on track first) and cloudy with a 2% chance of rain for the rest of the day.

It rained that night and as we were on the way to the track, so the track was wet for our first sessions. It was dry for the rest of the day, but the track edges were still quite treacherous, so we weren't always taking the ideal line. I managed a 2:07.9 in the wet, compared to the 2:04 in the Cooper (in the dry) in December. I reckon the Cooper-S should be 5 seconds a lap faster than the Cooper (based on competition times I've found, 1:55 for a Cooper, 1:50 for a Cooper-S). Wet makes things exciting, I had a Lotus Elise spin right in front of me at turn 11, and I almost got sideways at turn 3, but caught it and regained control.

In the second session I found myself at the head of the grid, (maybe a little overeager) so i had clear track for almost the whole session until I caught up with the trailing cars. I managed 5 straight laps of 2:00.x and a 2:01.1. Best was 2:00.0, but not braking 2:00 which is the target I set myself for the day.

In the 3rd session, I was near the head of the grid and the Porsche GT2 and the Corvette in front of me disappeared, so I had clear track. But I made the mistake of letting the Porsche behind me past, it looked like he was going to be faster than me, and he then proceeded to be a mobile roadblock, only managing 2:02-2:03. I came into the pits to create a gap. Then as I had clear track in front of me I promptly came off at turn 11, I'm still not sure why, I need to study the video more. It doesn't look like I was entering the corner much faster than I was before. I realised I wasn't going to make the corner, so I just headed off straight into the gravel trap, found that there was concrete after the gravel and drove back on the track (after checking for traffic), the excursion only knocked me down to 2:05.1. After the off I was black flagged so they could talk to me, so I didn't get any more clear laps in.

In the 4th session I was just getting into it, I managed a 2:00.5 despite catching the VW Phaeton at turn 11 (so I could blow by on the front straight). The Phaeton is not what you expect to see on the track, we'd just discussed this at one of the "download" meetings after the previous session, its a serious luxury car and weighs in at 6000lb (and has 330hp). The driver mentioned this after some comments about "Darth Hemi", the heavily modified Dodge Magnum, also not what you expect at 4500lb.

After I passed him, I saw one of the Corvettes was just coming out of the pits as I was passing, I was hoping to get in front of him as he entered the track (the entry is just after turn 2) and I did. However he knocked the Phaeton, who was of course following me, off his line. The Phaeton was too late braking and turning in for turn 3. So at the turn 3 exit he dropped 2 wheels off the track. This wouldn't be so bad if the driver hadn't tried to get back on in a hurry. An off at turn 3 can be scary because of the concrete bridge abutment coming up at high speed. Because the guy tried to get back on track too fast, he lost control and went careening back across the track and into the tires on the inside.

I saw all that in my rear view mirror, it was a little distracting. Then we saw the in car footage from the Corvette during the download so we could learn from his mistake. I was feeling a lot better about my off, at least I didn't turn it into total disaster. The guy in the Phaeton was alright, the Phaeton's wing (plastic) was cracked. The incident got us "black flag all"ed, ie they stopped the session so the recovery crew could go do there thing. After that there was only 1 clear lap before the session ended. A little frustrating.

For the final session I had mostly clear track and turned five sub 2 minute laps, only the lap when the exceptionally slow BWM 3 series got in the way was over 2 min. The best was 1:58.2, over 5.5 seconds better than the in the Cooper, so I'm happy. The top speed all day was about 99 or 100mph, the speed was reading 107 at this point. That was at turn 1, cresting the hill just before turn 2.

The contrast between the Cooper and Cooper-S was just about what I was expecting, the corners were much the same, the straights were faster. I have yet to analyse the video, I want to compare speeds at various points around the track. I think I was going about as fast I was expecting. I'd done some calculations about what the extra power should do for me, my model predicted the speed should show 97 at the top of the hill before turn 7, it was showing about 95 on a good lap.

I hardly saw my wife all day, except when we were swapping cars in the pits. Her sessions were just after mine. She seemed to really enjoy the day, apart from the driving the women could gossip among themselves after the sessions. I hope to get some video of her lap up soon.

Video, with annotations, of my best lap lap can be found here: http://btwyx.com/Movies/LagunaFebBest.mov (16MB, iPod format). I now notice I got the caption wrong, the lap was 1:58.2, not 1:58.8.

The professional photographer was there again, so we got some good pictures, http://homepage.mac.com/barryt/PhotoAlbum176.html. Here I am with a Corvette on my tail in the wet.



This photo ©Dito Milan, GotBlueMilk.com.

 

I did a little analysis of Tristan vs Shawn. Shawn was averaging about 10mph faster entering the braking zone, but entered and apexed the corner at much the same speed. Several corners the entry speed and/or apex speed was exactly the same, several shawn was a few mph faster. Shawn's exit speed tended to be 5-10mph faster than Tristan's, that may be due to the limited slip diff being able to put the power down sooner.

 

Very nice pic of the car. Nice job on the track. Can't wait till spring around here.

 

Btwyx,
You got me looking forward to next month when I can get back to the track!
Are you using your original run-flats? If so, how are they wearing? I ran them the first 3 times out on the track and they were somewhat worse for the wear! After that I bought a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1's that I use for track days. I also now change out the brake pads before each track session to some Carbotech pads.
Keep after it! I bet you'll end up shaving a couple more seconds off your lap times!
Trent a.k.a. Okiesnake

 

I got rid of the runflats 3 MINIs ago. I'm running Goodyear Eagle F1 DS-Gs in 205/50R16. I do wonder what dedicated track tires could do for me, but things are going to get complicated and expensive if I do something to find out. The only problem with the Eagles is the squealing and a tendency to rub off the shoulder of the tire. I'm thinking of trying the camber mod next time.

I also run the stock brakes and pads, they work just fine as far as I'm concerned.

 

Our club (Tarheel Sportscar Club) just had our first event of the year, at Virginia International Raceway's "Full" Course (3.7 mi.) Here's one of my better laps:

feels good to get back out........

 

It looks like you had better weather than we did. Looks like a fun course, that's a really long straight (4000ft acording to the VIR website), you could get going pretty fast there.

 

I just booked my next adventure, Hooked on Driving are doing their first event at Infineon, which is pretty famous for having NASCAR and IRL races. That'll complete the set of the major courses in this area.

I'm a little hesitant about Infineon, its not what I'd call a particularly "safe" track, there's a lot of concrete walls surrounding the track, particularly at the hairpin and the front straight. I've got pictures of a friend running his sports racer there, not a lot of room.

 

Limited slip is a big advantage at a track like Thunderhill or Buttonwillow, less important at Laguna although you will lift the inside wheel on Turns 2 and 11. You also lift on 8, but you're already going steeply downhill there so it doesn't matter. Looks like you had fun. If you want to kick it up a notch, follow this LINK.

Cheers,
Jerry

 

The Oklahoma City Z club sponsors a track day at the Sheriff's training facility. It is only 1 mile around the track but at $30 for the day, I think its a good deal. I got in 5 sessions of about 15+ minutes each plus cool down. The track really works well with front wheel drive. There were 3 of us Mini's running this day. They are going to have 4 more this year and I'll be back!
If you are in the OK/TX/KS/CO/AR area, you might want to join us next time.

 

Nice little video. I'm really surprised how close cars and people were to the track. Not a very good idea to me. Looks like a fun time.
The price was a bargain. What speeds did you get up to.

 

I too thought there were people to close to the track. The straights are not very long and they put up chicanes to keep the speeds down. My top speeds were in the mid to lower 90 's.

 

Thanks.
Looks like fun.

 

I just got back Siddhartha's Advanced Car Control Clinic at Laguna Seca. Apart from an incident at the end, which I'll let others talk about, it was a fun day. I got my lap time down from 1:58.2 the last time at Laguna to 1:55.5. I'm not sure how much of that is Jerry and Bob's tuition and how much is due to new lightweigth wheels (SSR Type-Cs, all of 11.4lbs each) and stickier tires (Dunlop Z1 Star specs). It could also have something to do with running with the DSC off for the first time. I've never felt the DSC was hindering me before,but today it kept bogging me down in the turns.

I decided that I like how I'd been "puttering around" like my previous track days, rather than the super agressive style Jerry was teaching. (Jerry's a fine teacher, I just decided its not for me).

I have video of my best lap, complete with a data overlay courtesy of the iPhone and a OBD-II Wi-Fi dongle. (16MB of it.) http://homepage.mac.com/barryt/.Movi...AprilBesti.mov

There was a pro photographer covering the event but things got a bit distracted at the end and I don't have to the photos yet.

 

Barry, thanks for coming to the Advanced Car Control Clinic at Laguna Seca.

You did very well today. There are still probably 3-4 seconds left in your car with it's current setup and you did very well pushing your personal envelope a bit even though I could tell you were uncomfortable at times. Laguna is very technical with many blind corners so you need to know what you're going to do before you can see where you're going. It's a tough track and you performed very well.

I think you will find that with continued practice your lap times will continue to drop in small increments through the season. You will find that what seemed like the ragged bleeding edge yesterday will become just another ripple in the pond by July because now you know that your car (and you) can do it. It's kind of like being hit in the face with the stream from a fire hose; if you're thirsty enough, you'll eventually find a way to get a drink.

Cheers,
Jerry

 

Game vs Reality

 

Btwyx,
I enjoyed your video. I really liked the speed and G info overlay. I have an I-phone, a MCS, a PC, a video camera and a track to drive on. What do I buy and to do to get to the data synced to my videos? It would be a great self-training aid.
I too upgraded to the Z1 Star tires and added lighter weigt riims (although not as light as yours). Recently I also added an H-Sport Competition rear sway bar. That was eaisily the best upgrade I have done! It really took out alot of the front wheel squeeling / plowing in the turns. It is so much eaisier to get the car to rotate around. I got mine from Way Motor Works http://www.waymotorworks.com/product...cat=333&page=1
- Trent

 

So??? Any "others" care to elaborate?

 

The iPhone is running "Rev" from the ap store.

Rev is talking to one of the Wi-Fi OBD-II readers that it supports, I'm using an ElmCan.

In Rev use the "Multi-Metric logger" function to record the data, that's 3 ODB channels and 2 axes of acceleration. Once that's done, use the tools to send the data to your computer.

On the computer you need to reformat the data as a QuickTime text movie. You can use an editor to do that (I did the first time). I wrote a tool to do that automatically for me now.

Now you have to persuade your video editing software to overlay the movie with the data onto the live video. I couldn't help you there, I use a Mac.

On the Mac I use Toast Titanium to convert the text movie into a video movie (I convert it to iPhone format). Then I use iMovie's picture in picture feature to overlay the video format data movie. It takes a little fiddling to get the two synced up, I actually fiddle until the shifts look right. (I have a synthesised gear indicator in the data from the ratio of RPM/MPH.)

I've been looking for a method of turning the text movie into a video movie which doesn't involve using Toast Titanium (like something free). I can do it using Apple's QuickTime Compositor developer tool, but that's really complicated.

 

I'd heard about that, but never seen it. I'm not impressed with Clarkson's abilities if he can only do 1:57 in an NSX, I can do better in a MINI. (I wonder if I could beat his time in the JustaCooper, its about 5sec a lap slower than the S, so I've got a few seconds to go.)

 

I've been comparing the data I have from this session and the previous Laguna session in Shawn. I plot speed vs where you are on the track, and I come up with this:



What that's showing me is that the line Jerry was teaching us is using a lot later apex than I did previously. (What's weird is I thought I was using much the same line as I was previously as Jerry's didn't work for me.) The turn in speeds this time match the previous apex speeds and the apex and exit speeds are substantially faster. What that means is I was running down the straights substantially faster than previously.

 

And how do you think you were running down the straights faster?

It's because we helped you tweak the carbon unit and showed you how to carry more momentum through the corners and down the straights. Could you learn to do this by yourself? Sure. Bob and I did - but it took years.

Don't get me wrong, appropriate mods are great and data acquisition is a useful tool, but the most important go fast goodie is you. As the green Mustang driver demonstrated all day, a fast car with a great track setup means nothing unless it's driven properly. You should give yourself more credit, you did well.

 

This is just entertainment - not serious at all. And the idiot is sliding the car and going wheels off without any safety gear - not even a helmet. But he does put on his driving costume to play GT. It would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous.

Don't try this at Laguna Seca. It'll bite you.

 

I like to know what I'm doing and why I'm going faster, and that graph is showing me that. Its showing that what was happening was not what I thought was going on, now I can appreciate what you did for me. As I said several times during the day, "I've no idea what happened, I'll have to review the video", or in this case the data. I think I've frustrated several instructors by wanting to think about things, rather than just do what they say. My heart just sank when that Mustang just snuck into pregrid before me on session 5, when Bob was with me he was going 10 seconds a lap slower than me and he wouldn't let me by (I'd just done a 1:59, I see from the video he did a 2:09 in front of me), I had some choice words for him, I should post that video. He seemed to have learnt something by session 5, I gave him as much headstart as I could but caught up with him in 2 laps, he managed a 2:03 while I did a 1:56. This time he pointed me by at the first reasonable opportunity, I really only caught up with him at turn 2 and he pointed me by at turn 5.