Here's a good picture of the MINIs in the second session, extracted from the video. That's the R53 in the lead, the JustaCooper is being overtaken and the other R56 directly in front.

 

^ Thats a sweet pic! ^

 

On Wednesday, we were at Infineon in Shawn, it was a good day. We had originally intended to go Trustan, but I hurt my back just before the Laguna track day in August and my back didn't want me swapping our track wheels over to Tristan, so we ended up in Shawn. I'd previously done one day in each MINI at Infineon, and the wife only one, in Shawn.

My previous fastest lap was 2:12.6, and I wasn't sure I could go much faster than that. So I was thinking if I could do a 2:10 I'd be ecstatic, but I'd be happy with consistent 2:15s. I was studying my video from the previous outing at Infineon and I thought I could do better if I kept my foot planted between 1 and 2, 4 and 6 and between 8 and 10. Also I needed to keep my speed up through 6 (the carousel), I picked up quite a lot of time when an instructor persuaded me to take turn 6 at about 60, or 4500 rpm in 3rd. I was also contemplating braking later into the hairpin. I'd been very circumspect of the hairpin, not wanting to end up in the tires.

The day started unusually early, this was a makeup day for when Hooked on Driving got rained out earlier in the year. Infineon was fitting it in before their regular Wednesday night drags. So the driver's meeting was at 7:30 (yawn) and the first cars were to go on track at 8. With only 3 run groups things were due to finish at 2:55. It was cool and a little misty, the hilltops were cloud covered, but the track was clear. I was on track with the first group at 8am. Getting people on track was slow for some reason, by the time I got on at the tail end of the group the lead car caught up with me at turn 2. That must have been a bit frustrating for him, I was just warming up and it was still under yellow. The session was quite smooth, some knots of cars formed, but they resolved themselves quite quickly, none of the usual long trains as people had forgot how to let people pass. At one point a little knot formed behind me, but I got them all past going up to turn 7, there was a Shelby Mustang, another Mustang, a Ferrari 360 and an M3. I felt I was quite fast, checking the video I see I managed a 2:18, respectable but not stunning.

For the second session I had to hot swap with the wife, our sessions ran back to back. That went smoothly and session 2 was a good session, I got clear track for a lot of it. I passed a Viper (which I later saw was on Hoosier R-Comp tires) and got held up by a slow porsche. I had 5 laps of 2:15 or better, including a couple of 2:11s. It wasn't even 9:30 and I was already meeting my goals for the day, I hadn't even needed to put on my sunglasses yet.

Session 3 was pretty good, though I caught a little more traffic. Also a Corvette spun at turn 3 on the outlap, so there was a lot of dirt there for the rest of the session. A clean line formed, but it was a little earlier turn in than I was wanting. I did 4 laps of 2:15 or better, including another 2:11. I was letting a lot of traffic by, at one point I saw something yellow on my tail coming into 6, so at the exit of 6 I pointed them by only to find it was way way behind me, no where near passing. I finally let him by coming up to the hairpin. On another lap coming out of 6 there was a MINI on my tail, so I pointed him by and wondered why they weren't passing. Only then did I realise I was still on the gas. I was so used to the high horse power cars blowing by my, I usually didn't have to lift to let them by. I lifted, he got by me just in time for 7. That MINI was one of the instructors cars, it was an R53 with mods and had full race seats and harness, running on Hankook Ventus tires of some description (I'm still surveying what tires MINIs run at the track.). There was only one other MINI I saw, an R56 with Pirelli PZeros, he was in my group, I never saw him on track, we seemed to be doing similar lap times. That seems to be arsci, he just posted in the pictures thread.

My plan was obviously working, I was going faster than before. I was keeping my foot down between 4 and 6, though I'd been hitting the limiter in 3rd going into 6, so I started short shifting coming out of 4, then I forgot to change down again for 6, but it seemed to work so I started keeping in 4th all the way from 4 to 7. At my previous day at infineon I'd already started short shifting into 4th before the Esses coming out of 7, I was still doing that, but I was also keeping my foot down through the first 2 Esses and found I was needing to brake for 8. Coming out of 8a I found I could keep my foot down most of the way, with just a little lift if I used a very tight line around 9, rather than the mid track line I'd been taught. Looking at the data I see I'm 10 mph faster braking for 10 than before, that's now the fastest point on the track for me. I was still having trouble with 6, I just couldn't get myself to enter as fast as the coach encouraged me to. Now I was taking it in 4th so I didn't know how many revs I should be looking for. I also experimented with an inside line again, as had been suggested in the download meeting. I was braking later for the hairpin, though still earlier than I could if I wanted to push it (which I didn't). That left the run up to 2 which I was still having difficulty with, I'd asked about that in one of the download meetings, but still couldn't find a line which made sense. I was off the power and just coasting most of the way up the hill. It didn't seem right. I tried putting in some braking and different turn ins, nothing seemed right.

For the 4th session I decided to get an coach to help with the run up to 2. I hijacked the coach who'd just been coaching my wife and took him with me for the session. I had three laps with him coaching me through the run up to turn 2, then I had to drop him off so he could get to a meeting, he hadn't been expecting to coach someone this session. Coincidentally the Viper passed me during that time, maybe he was getting faster. I ended up doing the hill more or less as I started, trying to make a smooth arc from turn 1 to turn 2, getting quite near to the right edge where there's a berm. I'm off the throttle through most of that so I'll just have to live with it like that. After I dropped off the coach I then immediately turned my fastest lap of the day, 2:09.3, so I was ecstatic once I found out. Maybe it did me some good after all.

For the 5th session I was putting everything together, chasing a Ferrari 360 ("Ruby 360") he may have slowed me down a little, I did a 2:09.5. On the video you can hear me exclaiming a little as I tried not to crash into the back of him running into the hairpin. On my 4th lap (all sub 2:15) I overcooked the exit from 8a coming out of the Esses and put 2 wheels on the grass, so I decided to dial things back a bit. At the download meetings they'd discussed alternate lines through 6, so I decided to try the outside line I hadn't tried before, that should give you the fastest exit. It turned out to be too fast and I promptly sailed straight off the track the other side of the drag strip, almost taking out the green cone marking the overtaking zone. It was very slidy out on the dirt, but I managed to keep things under control and get back on track, of course I got black flagged. After that I really didn't try to push it, and ended up doing a 2:09.8 chasing a red Corvette.

Comparing video from this session to my previous best lap, I'm doing pretty similar up to 4, a lot faster around 5, similar to the entry to the Esses, I go faster through the Esses, exit the Esses faster, and was much faster around 9. I was entering 10 faster which was a bit of a surprise, that wasn't deliberate, I had been being quite careful of 10, it can bite you. Now I wasn't thinking about that. So I was exiting 10 faster and getting to a faster speed before braking (later).

All in all, I was very satisfied with my performance. Though I think that's fast enough, I'll just be puttering around in future. Now I want to go back and try the same thing in Tristan. There's a day at Infineon coming up in December I'm being quite tempted by. Though that one is just 1 week after we come back from a Day at Laguna (the day before Thanksgiving). I was planning on doing Laguna in Tristan, though the results may not be comparable as I'm getting new tires. The Dunlop Direzzas we have been running have lasted longer than expected, 10 track days (usually with 2 of us driving). They've probably still got some useful life in them, but I'm getting worried about if it rains.Now I'm getting some Bridgestone RE-11s, though they have to be in a slightly larger size as there's very little choice in the size we're currently running.

Meanwhile, my wife was having a productive day. She started out without a coach for the first 2 sessions, they had a shortage, and as she's experienced and had run Infineon before they let her go solo. The first 2 laps were lead follow. For the last 3 sessions she was coached. She was pleased with her smoothness and how at ease she was feeling in the car. She still wasn't very fast, about as fast as her previous outing at Infineon and ended up with a lap just .1 sec faster than her previous best (2:26.6). The instructor said there would be no problem if she wanted to run in the B group instead. The only reason she's not running in B already is we share a car, and I'm most comfortable in B, though they wouldn't have a problem with me running in a higher group. Though when I have been in a higher intermediate group, it seemed a little fast. The MINI just isn't that fast compared to a lot of the cars people run.

The pro photographer was there as usual, so I have pictures: http://btwyx.com/InfineonSep11/

Video of my best lap, unfortunately without data: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonSep11Besti.mov
Video of my wife's best lap: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonSep11CBesti.mov
Video of my second best lap, with data, chasing the Ferrari: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonSep11BDi.mov

 

Yup, that was me! I was right behind that corvette when he spun in 3, we know him from our corvette club. Was my first time in MINI on track...i'm used to a corvette so this was definitely a change, but a fun one at that!

Are you going to be at Thunderhill next weekend (24-25)? I'm running in B group on sunday the 25th in the MINI. I know Thunderhill MUCH better than I do infineon so I'm really looking forward to dialing in the MINI.

 

Our next outing is going to be Laguna in November. Thunderhill is a great track, but its a pain to get to, so we mostly run Laguna and Infineon because they're closer.

 

Wednesday was Laguna, it was a great day, almost perfect. It just started out a bit chilly, on the way to the track the frost warning went off. It had got up to 43F when I got on track at 9:20. I started out quite gingerly, I wasn't sure how the new tires would handle especially in the cold.

After my success at Infineon, I'd been studying video of my previous session to see where I could improve. There wasn't much I could see, except a little at turn 7, which is the top of the hill. Turn 7 itself would be a non event if it wasn't also at the crest of the hill, and its the braking zone for turn 8 the "Corkscrew". So braking for turn 8 is done a little before turn 7 and a little after turn 7. There is a theory that you could do all the braking after the crest. I'd tried that once, and it didn't go well. Theory would be to try less and less braking before and more and more after, until you find the optimum braking. I also was going to try holding onto 3rd gear and running it up to the redline. The optimal shift points in the Cooper are different than in the Cooper-S and I'd been using the Cooper-S shift points. Also the new tires are larger diameter meaning I can get to a higher speed before having to change up. I was looking to improve on my best time of 2:03.5 I'd set 2 years earlier.

There was also an article I found in Motortrend which had data about a lap of Laguna Seca in a 2008 MINI Cooper-S, just like Shawn. I compared the data there to the best lap I'd ever done at Laguna Seca, I matched most of the speeds given, but it showed I could be taking turn 4 and turn 9 faster. (In Shawn, I'd done 1:55.5, Motortrend had managed 1:52.0.) That's not directly relevant to Wednesday, as we were taking Tristan. But I took a close look at how I was taking turn 4, the first time I was at Laguna (in Tristan) I remember I was taking turn 4 without braking, just letting off the throttle a bit. I wasn't sure what I could do about turn 9, but I was going to think about it.

Also at Laguna I was trying about a new iPhone ap "Harry's Lap Timer", I'd had the Ap for a while but it hadn't worked for me, now I'd got an iPhone 4S it worked quite well. It did not only lap timing, but also data collection. The lap timing meant I could have a better idea of how well I was doing instantly after a session.

So in the first session, despite going quite gingerly, the lap timer said I got a time of 2:03.8, the second best time I'd ever done. I'd had clear track for most of the session, which was refreshing. They'd said the faster cars should line up on the right and the slower drivers line up on the left. I lined up in the middle. That seemed to be the right place, I was passed by one car (a Mustang) and passed a couple of others (M3s). Remarkably little traffic.

The second session I did even better, with a time of 2:01.7 and three other laps in the 2:02s. Again there was remarkably little traffic, only a little problem with an ugly Chevy (a Camaro it seems), which pointed me by then didn't lift to let me by. It took me another lap to get by him, when he went off at turn 11. He also caused me a little consternation when for 2 laps in a row he braked in the middle of turn 9, somewhat of a recipe for disaster. I was surprised to work out later that the driver was one of the coaches. So things are going well. I'm not sure how much of the improvement is down to me or how much is due to the new tires. I'd been not braking into turn 4 and trying to keep my speed up, nothing much had changed at turn 9 and maybe braking a little later at turn 7.

At the download session after session 2, the group leader suggested we try some alternate lines at turn 2 and turn 8. At turn 2 there are 2 standard lines, the single apex and the double apex. I'd never successfully managed the double apex version, but I thought I'd give it another try. At turn 2 I've been using a very deep single apex in Shawn and a different line in Tristan which while technically a double apex, wasn't the classic double apex line. Here's a handy diagam.

.

At turn 8 he suggested entering from mid track, rather than over on the right like I'd been taught. Entering mid track straightens out turn 7 even more. In the next 2 sessions I experimented with the alternate lines. I'm not sure if they helped or not, I'll have to analyse the video some more. I did a couple 2:03s, four 2:02s and a 2:01.9. The mid track line at turn 8 was difficult to come to terms with as there was nothing to aim for, I wasn't sure where braking should end and turning should begin, but I think I got a handle on it. I was also moving the braking point closer to the crest of the hill. I was still getting remarkably little traffic, I'd been lining up in the middle again. I passed the Camaro again, this time he lifted and let me by. I caught a little more traffic in the 4th session, I passed a 911, an Elise, an NSX and a Laguna Seca Edition Mustang (that was piloted by a girl from work). Nothing passed me.

For the last session I went back to the old line I'd been using for turn 2, I continued to use the mid track entry to turn 8 and late braking. I'd also noticed that I didn't need to use all the track at the exit of turn 9, that means I could enter it faster, so I could do an earlier turn in and earlier apex, so I decided to experiment with that. Unfortunately the lap timer decided to start playing up. As I was waiting to go on track I noticed it had stopped reading the OBD data (revs, speed etc). It had been a little unreliable and would miss some readings. Half way through the session it also stopped timing laps, this meant it lost the data for the last half of the session. There's no way to actually save data except for it to recognise the end of a lap. So I wasn't sure how well the last session went. Looking at the video I see the first half was unremarkable, but the second half included a couple of 2:03s, a 2:02 and a 2:01.3, the best lap of the day and the best lap I've ever done in Tristan. For the last session I was a little late to the grid, so I was the last car on track. That meant that the fastest cars at the head of the group started to catch me up. I got passed by 3 911s, a GT300, a Mustang and an X5M. (The X5 really does not look like something which belongs on the track.) The good thing about being passed by fast cars is I don't have to lift, so it doesn't spoil the lap. The fastest lap was still the only lap with no traffic.

My wife says she had a good day, but she was catching a lot of traffic. Passing did not seem to be working in her group and she'd get to the end of a very long train of cars. Several times she drove through the pit lane in an attempt to get clear track. Her best lap of the day was a 2:16.9 which is not as fast as she's gone in previous attempts.

My attempts to use the Lap Timer was mixed, it failed in the 5th session. Also looking at the data it produce it was slowing down in the previous session. After it went wrong I quit it (not a simple thing to do with iOS 5) and restarted it and it got better. If I use it in future I'll probably quit it and restart after every session. Even when its running properly it also doesn't log as fast as the usual ap I use. Also as I was using my brand new iPhone, it wasn't calibrated properly, and its calibration seems a bit hit and miss. In this case it was a miss and the acceleration/braking gs were totally off. Also as I analysed the video, I extracted the lap times as I usually do, the lap timer was giving similar results but differed by an average of +0.18 sec. One lap it differed by +1.02 sec. It was useful to cross check the lap timer and the video, it caught some errors where I'd split the video in the wrong place.

All in all it was a very good day. The pro photographer was there as usual, so there are photos: http://btwyx.com/LagunaNov11/
Video of my best lap (without data): http://btwyx.com/Movies/LagunaNov11Besti.mov
Video of my wife's best lap (with iffy data): http://btwyx.com/Movies/LagunaNov11CBesti.mov

 

Sounds like you had a good time! Are you going to be at Infineon next week?

 

Yup, we're at Infineon on Thursday. Looks like its going to be a good day, I was a little concerned about rain after I looked up the weather statistics, but the current forcast is showing no rain. We were also a little concerned about doing 2 days so close together, we get really wiped after a track day. A week is just about enough time to recover.

 

Very interesting track day recap as always, Btwyx! Thanks for posting these. Good luck at Infineon, everyone!

By the way... any plans for mods to either of the MINIs for track use?

 

Very nice, I'm going to try and be out there for a few hours (between classes, about 15 minutes away!), but I won't be running. My aunt and uncle are driving in C, and I have a student in A (from a past event) and I'd like to see how hes doing. I'm going to be running my cooper at Thunderhill on the 16th. I'm excited!

Have you ever tried the LapRecorder app for track use? I have a bluetooth OBDII device and I can link it to the phone and pull data, it syncs very well with with the video and whatnot. It works pretty well on my android phone, I notice you have an iphone...im not sure if its on the apple market but thought i'd mention it since it sounds like you were trying a few out.

 

Amazing! Last time I was all the way in Cali I took a photo of your car! Then I just stumbled upon this post.

Attachment 56824

 

No plans for mods, I'm happy the way they are, just the wheels/tires.

 

It doesn't seem to be available for iPhone.

 

Yo Btwyx, thanks for your great posts and pictures! I have enjoyed this thread very much.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

I'm glad people are liking the posts, I was worrying I was going on a bit. I've found it really handy to refer back to my posts the next time I go to the same track, so I'm writing these for myself.

 

Thursday was Infineon, it was a great day, just about perfect. We were going in Tristan (the "Slow" MINI), which I'd originally meant to take in September, but we took Shawn instead. My previous time in Tristan at Infineon was my first time there. By the end of that day I was still learning the track, so I thought I had some improvements to make. Since then we've gone back twice in Shawn, and I was getting quite used to the track. My previous best in Tristan was a 2:17.5 with a coach and several 2:18s solo, with a best of 2:18.1.

I thought I could probably manage a 2:15 if I tried and we have the new tires which I'm reckoning are worth about 1.5sec a lap. So my target was something like 2:13.5. Looking at the video the areas of improvement would be keeping the speed up through turn 6 the Carousel (that's what made the coached lap faster), keeping my foot planted up the hill to 2, and around 5 and 9, which worked the last time in Shawn. I also wanted to be running up to redline, which is the optimal shift point for the Cooper, rather than the shift points I'd been using which were appropriate to the Cooper-S.

Here's that handy track map:



For the first session I was on track for 8:20, they started the day quite early at 8am. Again they said the faster cars should pre-grid on the left and faster cars on the right. I said I was in the middle and got directed to the second line on the left, which was maybe a little faster than I'd want. So I got passed by 2 Corvettes, an M3, a Boxster a Z4 and a Porsche GT3-RS. I got held up by a Cayman-R. In between I got a couple of clear laps. I was a little hesitant to let some of the cars past, because they'd catch up to me at the end of a straighter bit and then fall back during the twisty sections so they'd be nowhere near me at the start of the passing zones. I was worried that if I let them by I'd be held up.

I was running the iPhone lap timer again so after the session I could get an immediate feel for how I'd done, my first lap was a 2:18.8, a good start and the clear lap was a 2:15.9, almost to my target for the day (ignoring the tires). A good start.

For the second session I made sure to line up at the head of the 3rd line, which put me squarely in the middle of the field. Unfortunatly I'd only got as far as turn 6 when the session was black flagged (ie we had to come back in to the pits). Passing through turn 8 I saw what the cause was, a Bimmer was parked with its right side wheels on top of the wall and it was pointed in the wrong direction. You can see a video capture of it in the pictures, or on the pro photographer's web site: http://www.gotbluemilk.com/web111201/sb/index.html. I guessed he over cooked the entry into 8 and lost it, pretty badly by the looks of things. At the download session after, he fessed up basically saying he over did it on cold tires. That reinforced my practice of taking an easy warm up lap before trying for real. Though turn 8 is about where I'd start trying.

So the session was suspended for half an hour while the Bimmer was recovered. It must have been pretty well stuck because the recovery people are usually very quick and moving stuck cars. They said when the car was moved they'd give us three laps, then readjust the schedule for all groups to make up the time. They were actually caught up by lunch, everyone had one truncated session. I actually got 4 laps. There was somewhat of a snafu at the restart, when we came in the pits they directed us to line up to the left and right alternatly I stopped on the right, but when they restarted they let the entire left line go first, including the people who'd lined up at the back of the grid. So we spent the next few laps sorting out the mess, I passed some slow cars and got one clear lap. It was a 2:13.7 though, so I was very pleased, that was just about my target for the day.

For session 3 I decided to turn off the DSC. I'm quite content to let the DSC do its thing unless if get in the way. I hadn't turned off the DSC for the previous 5 track days at least, I'd beaten it into submission so it wasn't getting in the way (its supposed to be adaptive). But in the first 2 sessions I'd noticed it bogging down at the hairpin and over turn 2, so I somewhat hesitantly turned it off. I again lined up in the middle and I got clear track for most of the session. Only an anonymous 3 series BMW passed me and I didn't pass anything. (There was an Exige who insisted on passing during the cool down lap, but that doesn't count.) I smoked a tire in the hairpin the first time around, with no traction control. I floored it as usual and the wheel (outside one I think) just spun, I could smell the hot rubber. After that I had to do my own traction controlling, if I heard it spinning I'd have to back off the accelerator. This is where Shawn has an advantage, has a limited slip differential (a mechanical one). If we had a later Cooper, we could have DTS and the EDLC, but Tristan has nothing like that to help.

The lap times were good, but not stuning, 3 2:16s, a 2:15 and a 2:13.8 to finish. Something was obviously going right as during the 3rd lap I noticed that I was hitting the red line a long way through turn 9. Looking at the data I touched the red line there on a couple my previous laps, but for this lap, I was at red line for 6-7 seconds, long enough for me to notice as preoccupied as I was. (Apart from anything else the lap timer goes crazy with an upshift notification when I redline it.) So I did what I did in Shawn when I had the same problem last time, I threw in a short shift some way back up the track. I chose the exit from 8a for the shift. In Shawn I was shifting before the esses.

For the 4th session I decided to let a little air out of the tires. I'm still trying to find the optimum tire pressures for the new tires. I've been measuring their temperature profile after the sessions. Optimum is if the tire is uniformly warm across the tire, second best is a steady increase across the tire. If the middle is warmer than the shoulders you have over inflated tires. The middle was substantially warmer than the shoulders, even after I'd let out 3psi at Laguna. So I let out another couple of psi out. Unfortunately, the lap timer played up, so I didn't know how well I did. I noticed it was showing the wrong status at the pre-grid, so I stated it manually so it was gathering data for the session, just not timing any laps. After it failed at Laguna, I'd been quiting it and restarting after every session. I'd even rebooted the phone at lunch just to help, but it was still failing on me. I eventually worked out that the TomTom navigation doc (with GPS) that it was sitting in had gone wrong, power cycling that made it come back to life for my wife's next session.

I had a good session, a Z4, Mustang and Bimmer passed me early on then I didn't see anything till I passed an Audi wagon mid session (I think it was piloted by our group leader), and caught a Miata for the last lap. Analysing the video I see I got a 2:16, a couple of 2:15s a couple of 2:14s and a 2:13.4, my best lap up till then, but I didn't know it at the time.

For the last session I caught a little more traffic. I got passed by quite a few cars (An Audi R8, an Exige, a Race Prepared Mustang and a Boxster). There was also an older race prepared BMW 3 Series I let by, and then he proceeded to get in the way for most of the next lap. You can see him on the video, I'm almost running into him at turn 11, when he passed at turn 1. Despite the traffic, it was a good session, 2 2:16s, 3 2:14s and a 2:13.7. Analysing the video the best lap was a 2:13.3 and the best lap of the day.

For most of the day I was working on the areas I'd identified for improvement, it seemed to be working. I was still having problems with the run up the hill to turn 2. When I got to turn 2 I was taking it without much braking if at all, that seemed like a good thing. Also I was reducing the amount of braking into turn 3, and carrying more speed through 3 and 3a. At turn 4 I started off with the line I'd found worked for me in Shawn, a late turn in. That didn't work for me, so I decided to move the turn in back a bit to try to carry a little more speed, the turn in was back to where the coach taught me, which never felt right the first time I was there. I was keeping my foot down and taking a tight line around 5. I was braking later into turn 6, I was braking some while cresting the hill, which is probably not a particularly good idea. Some of my entries into 6 were a little ragged. I was trying to keep the speed up through 6, but I still couldn't manage it, it just doesn't feel right. Through 7 I was trying to find a good line, I was using a a double apex line to try to carry speed though. I never did find a really good line. I was keeping on the power into 8, and putting in a quick brake just before 8 (just like I did in Shawn). I had to put in the quick short shift coming out of 8a, and then managed to keep my foot down through 9. I started off with a tight line I'd used in Shawn, but later on went wider to give myself a straight approach to 10 for braking. I was braking less for 10, trail braking a bit and carrying more speed. I was braking later for the hairpin, though not too late. I frightened myself in one of the earlier sessions almost ending up in the tires. All of that added up to the 4 seconds overall improvement.

Meanwhile my wife was also having a good day. Normally in the A (beginners) group, the instructor drives the first couple of laps to show the student. As she was used to the track, that wasn't necessary, so she got clear track while everyone else went into the pits to change drivers. She improved in subsequent sessions, by the 4th session she was getting better lap times than she'd got previously, and previously she'd been driving a supposed "faster" car. Previously she'd done 2:26.6, she did 4 laps faster than that including a 2:22.9. She was getting clear track most of the time, much better than the traffic jams she'd had at Laguna. For the last session we ran back to back so I met her at the pre-grid. As I was standing there handing over the car, the A group leader walked by and suggested I ride with her, so I did. She did really well, not as fast as her 4th session (a bit tired by that time, and too much ballast), but quite impressive.

She was having the same experience with turn 6 I was, on the video you can hear her as the coach encourages he faster. She also had a couple on "interesting" experiences. In her third session, she was just exiting turn 7 heading for the esses, when a Corvette passed, with no point by, on the wrong side, in a non passing zone (a very bad place to pass for beginners). Her coach radioed that in and the guy was black flagged, but he seems to have ignored the black flags as well. I was wondering what his coach was doing, but it seems he was going solo in that session. In the 4th session, she was following a Miata into turn 7 when it lost it and went sideways. Cathy's line was taking her in front of it, just as its wheels caught again and it started heading for her. There was no contact, but it was definitely a scary moment.

The pro photographer was there as usual, so I've got pics; http://btwyx.com/InfineonDec11/ (plus a few of my own), plus there's the usual video of my best lap: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonDec11Besti.mov and my wife's best lap:http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonDec11CBesti.mov. I'm trying out a feature of the lap timer ap on the iPhone where it does a fancy data overlay on the video. The lap timer is a bit flaky, so the data is missing in places, and it seems to drift with respect to the video.

 

Please keep posting these! I love reading about your adventures on track, especially those where I have some experience. (Seca, Sears, and Thunder Hill.) Fenimore may get some quality time out there at some point, but probably not for a while...

 

Tuesday was Hooked on Driving's "Valentine's Drive", it was a near perfect day. After our last couple of track days in the Tristan, I reckoned the new tires were worth 1.5sec a lap. My previous best in the Shawn was 2:09.3, so I was looking to see if I could manage 2:08, and I'd be happy with consistent 2:10s. Over Christmas I'd also read an interesting web site "Auto Cross To Win" http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets.html , a lot of what he said was also applicable to track driving. One of his theses is that performance is 80% driver, 15% tires and 5% everything else, and most of that everything else is to keep the tires happy. His comments about front wheel drive were interesting, that its a "triumph of enthusiasm over physics", but it does have some advantages, one of which is its not going to get you into trouble. If you kick in the power too early you just get some understeer. You don't get interesting power oversteer by being too enthusiastic with the gas peddle. That was basically the method that the professional racing driver taught me back in 09, but not in those words. His method was to turn in late and step on the power. That's what I'd been doing ever since, trying to get hard on the power as soon as possible after turn in.

Looking at the weather forecast as the day approached, it looked like Tuesday was going to be a dry day, between 2 rain fronts. The forecasts seemed adamant to give Tuesday 0% chance of rain, so I was wasn't worried when it poured down on Monday, but it was a bit disconcerting. It also didn't help that I started coming down with a cold on Sunday. Luckily it stayed in my head, and I didn't feel all tired and achy, just like my head was stuffed full of cotton wool. So on Tuesday I took a good supply of drugs and hoped for the best.

It started out bright and cold, my wife was in the Ladies only group and was on track just before me. Hooked were being their usual efficient selves getting the groups out on track, so I didn't get to line up where I wanted, somewhere in the middle. (They were doing the usual, fast on the left, slow on the right.) I trailed the last cars out by about 15 sec. I caught up with the stragglers just after my outlap. A Shelby 350 seemed particularly not interested in letting me by even after drying in his mirror from turn 4 to turn 7. There were about 8 cars in front of him, and I didn't see any passing going on, so when he didn't point me by after turn 10 I pulled off in the pits to create a gap. A Ferrari followed, we let him go out first.

For the rest of the session I got mostly clear track except for catching up with a particularly slow Porsche, and just before the checkered flag a Red Porsche tried to point me by on the entry to turn 6, not a passing zone so I declined that. I think I surprised him by catching him up real fast, I was managing to keep my foot planted around 5, so I was entering 6 quite fast. The track was mostly dry, there was a little puddle on the straight up to turn 7 and the entry berm for turn 10 was wet. That berm is the braking zone for turn 10, and having 2 wheels on a wet berm while braking was "interesting", it made it feel like the stability control was off, somewhat lively. I made sure to keep off it after I worked out what the problem was. For one lap I managed to put 2 wheels off after 3a, after that I decided to turn in ever so slightly later so that wouldn't happen again. That's actually what my coach taught me the first time out, to hold 3 for a tick longer before turning in. I had the lap timer running on the iPhone again, so I got immediate feedback after the session. My best lap was the first clear lap, a 2:10.8, a good start, getting close to the goal.

Meanwhile my wife was having fun. There were only 6 or 7 Ladies in the Ladies group, so they said they'd run it as a separate group for the morning but combine it with A for the afternoon. That would give everyone more track time. Her previous best time was 2:22.9, but that was in the Tristan, her best time in the Shawn was a 2:26.9. The laptimer showed her best lap of the first session was 2:25.7. She did complain of trailing a Yellow Maserati for most of the session, which also didn't seem to believe in letting MINIs by. Its laps were about 20 sec slower than my wife had just done.

For the second session I again hot swapped with my wife, this time I was just in time to catch the tail of the middle speed line. Annoyingly the guy directing traffic stopped me going out and let the slow line go first. I was following the Shelby 350 again. For some reason the session was immediately black flagged, but by the time we got into the pits they just let us go out again. I don't know what that was all about. On the second outlap, I caught up to the slow Porsche again, and the caught him again just before the checkered flag. That's the first time I ever remember lapping someone. I caught the Shelby 350 again, and he seemed just as reluctant to let me by, I was behind him all the way from 2 to 11 before he got the hint. Most of the rest of the session was clear, and I turned 3 laps of under 2:10. So I could be happy. One of the laps was 2:09.2, my best ever. It was definitely starting out as a good day.

my wife had a couple of laps of clear track and turned a couple of fast laps before catching the Yellow Maserati again, then things slowed down. She trailed the Maserati for 4 laps before it finally let her by, that's pretty egregious. Later on my wife heard from the coach who was in the Maserati, the driver was reluctant to let her by, complaining "but its a MINI!". After getting by my wife turned her best ever lap with a 2:22.8.

For the afternoon, the Ladies were amalgamated with the A group. So that meant I was out first and my wife would hot swap with me. I got to the grid nice and early and got a spot in the middle where I wanted to be, despite the guy directing traffic who pointed me to the faster line. There seemed to be a disconnect here, we'd been told they'd do the usual thing and you grid yourself according to how fast you thing you are, a system which worked very well for the past few events. However, they had a guy directing traffic on the grid who was just lining you up in the order you arrived, a bit annoying. As I was waiting on the grid the driver of one of the other cars, a coach I think, exclaimed she didn't have her helmet and needed to drive off an get it. At that point I worked out I also didn't have my helmet, so I had to drive off to get it. When I got back I didn't have such a good grid position. I caught a little traffic during the session, but did get a few clear laps and turned 3 laps in the 2:07s, including a 2:07.2. So I'd made my goal for the day and I could stop worrying about it for the rest of the day.

So I made my goal, mostly that was just by doing the same as before, but with the stickier tires. I was still turning in a tick later at 3a, I was keeping my foot down around 5. I was trying to keep the speed up through 6, I had the digital speedo turned on and was aiming to keep it above 60. Sometimes I was managing it and the tires were squealing. At the previous track days the tires had been pretty quiet, so maybe I was adjusting to the new capabilities. I was again keeping my foot down through the first 2 esses and putting in a quick brake before turn 8. The line I ended up with seemed a bit weird, but did seem to work. I ended up mid track before turning in for 8. The classic line is to keep to the right, but like the corkscrew at Laguna keeping right just seems like extra effort you don't need. I was keeping my foot down around 9 again, but I had to be careful of the berm, so I was braking on the way to the turn 10 apex and turning in about 3/4s of the way across the track. Seems weird, but did seem to work, the data shows a minimum speed of 80 around turn 10 for one lap, that's the fastest I've taken it. I was having trouble with the traction control at 11 and 2, so for the 3rd session I hesitantly turned it (together with the stability control) off. I continued to have trouble with traction at turn 11, even having a mechanical limited slip diff didn't seem to help.

I was working on my run up to turn 2. I'd never found a line which seemed to work, the coach had helped in September, but I still seemed to be just coasting up the hill. At the download sessions they were still talking about the hill holding you, as its turning quite steeply uphill you should be compressing your suspension and giving yourself extra effective weight and grip. I was finding if I let it I could keep on the power a little longer up the hill, but looking at the data, I'm still off the power quite early, but it felt like I was going quite a bit faster up the hill. In the download session they were talking about not braking, or even not lifting for turn 1. I'd been taught to lift for turn 1, but now I was taking it with my foot planted, until I find myself running out of track. Later I started experimenting with a later turn in, which would allow me a little more speed up the hill.

Meanwhile I managed to get my wife to the grid on time and she had a great session, with largely clear track she managed a 2:19.3 and a 2:20 before she was black flagged for passing without a point by. She says there was a point by but it was pointing across the car to the right. All point by are supposed to be on the left, so she really shouldn't have taken it. The video shows her best lap was actually a 2:18.8, very creditable.

For the 4th session we were released from the download session a little late, so I was hurrying to get to the grid. When I got to the grid I noticed we didn't have much fuel left. I switch the lap timer to show the fuel level (a new feature in the latest version) and it said we had 25% of a tank. If we'd done 3 sessions on 75% of a tank, we should be able to both do a session on the remaining quarter. (Logical if the fuel gauge doesn't start at over 100%.) So was watching the fuel level during the session, and I thought I'd pull off early if they threw the white flag again. In earlier sessions they threw the white flag to signal to coaches the sessions about to end and they need to get back to the grid to coach the beginners. They didn't and I exited the session with 5% of a tank. I had to retrieve my wallet and fill up from the slowest pump in the world. (The video shows it took about 3 min.) So my wife was a bit late on track for her session. As I was no longer worrying about lap times I went even faster. I got a few clear laps and turned 3 2:07s again. Because of the joining of the A and W groups, we were getting longer sessions, so I was getting 8 to 9 laps in a session (plus in lap and out lap).

For the last session I was again not worrying about lap times, and was thinking about trying some alternate lines. I was wondering about a tighter, double apex, line around 7, and tighter line around 11. There was also the alternate lines through 6. For the most part I wasn't trying the alternate lines yet, but I was thinking I should. At 6 I'd used the inside line a couple of times when I entered over to the left just after passing someone, turn 5 was a passing zone for us. Or I'd used the outside line if I was following something slow (like a Shelby 350) so I could get a run at them going up to turn 7, the outside line has a supposed faster exit. My previous attempt at the outside line hadn't been successful, it led to me sailing straight off the track at the exit. I think I worked out that I turned in too early. From the outside you can see the apex sooner, and I usually head for the apex as soon as I see it. I made sure to wait for a later turn in from the outside line.

Midway through the session I found my self chasing an Audi (not sure what, a midsize sedan with 4 wheel drive). I chased after him for a lap and managed to pass him, then he chased me while I tried to lose him. I said to him after the session "I couldn't shake you", to which his response was "I couldn't catch you". While I was concentrating on that I turned 2 2:06s and 3 2:07s. I noticed while trying to lose him that he'd catch up to me at turn 7 and turn 11. I seemed to be using more time through those corners than he was. So for the last lap I tried the alternate lines I was thinking of, it turned out to be a 2:05.6. Smashing right through my target for the day by about 2.5s. I'm not sure where those extra seconds came from, I'm going to have to dissect the video some. To say I was pleased with myself would be putting it mildly.

Meanwhile my wife was still turning decent laps, quite a few in the low 2:20s and thoroughly enjoying herself.

For all our enthusiasm, I'm getting a little concerned about the car. Particularly the brakes. After our last session in the Tristan we found that we had warped front brake rotors. the Shawns brakes were feeling a little strange as well. We're wondering if our enthusiasm was hurting them. (MINI's paying for the brakes under the service plans, but we don't want to damage the cars.) This time the service computer counted 12,000 miles off the life of the front brakes, that's the most its ever counted off for a track day. Also we wore off 2.5mm of front brake pads, the front pads are now not thick enough to take us to Laguna on March 2nd. That's the most we've taken off the pads since I got the brake pad measuring tool. Usually we only take off 1mm or so. Luckily the service computer is very nearly down to the point where they'll change the front pads if we're in for another reason, and we need to go in to get a recall done and some warranty work.

I have vide of my best lap: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonFebBesti.mov

and my wife's: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonFebCBesti.mov

The pro photographer was covering the event as usual: http://btwyx.com/InfineonFeb/index.html

 

Ahhhh I've been checking religiously waiting for this post! I love reading your track day responses. I was standing out by the start/finish cornerworker for a couple of the B sessions. I managed to get some video in my car when I went out for a few laps, although my phone was acting up so the picture quality is terrible. Our lines are a little different in a few spots, I was trying out a couple different ways through 2 and 7 when I went out. What tires were you running on Tuesday?

 

The new tires are Bridgestone RE-11s. I had to go up to 205/55R16 to get those.

My wife got a ride in a coaches MINI at lunch, I think that might have been you. She was impressed at how fast you were going up the hill.

 

Congrats on the new personal best by a few seconds, Btwyx! I always enjoy these post-track day briefs as well.

 

Friday we were at Laguna, the Autoclub at work had their own semi-private track day. The Autoclub at work doesn't really exist, its really just a mailing list. But one of the members put the name forward for a date at Laguna, and put up the money to guarantee it. It was a great day. There were only 3 run groups, so we were going to get a lot of track time, and the groups were limited to 25 cars, so there was going to be plenty of space. Only the B (intermediate group) sold out so there was even more space, I counted about 18 cars in my group.

There was no beginners group so we signed up for the B and C (Advanced) groups. We'd already signed up for B and C at the April Laguna day, that was due to be our test of whether we can run in B and C, this brought things forward a bit. As it was the C group didn't seem that fast, maybe even a bit slower than the B groups I've been running in recently. We'll see how we do in B/C for real in April.

After the day at Infineon in February, we needed new front brakes, and MINI covered this under the extended maintenance plan. We got new pads and rotors. We hadn't yet driven the brakes the recommended 300 miles while we're supposed to "Drive Cautiously". I'd tried to bed in the brakes, so I hoped they were ready for this.

I was hoping to get my lap record for this day. I'd again been studying my video to work out what I should be able to do. My previous best lap was a 1:55.5 I did after the tutoring of the racing driver in April of 09. I havn't tried to beat that since. Now we've got the new tires, I reckon that they're about 1.5 sec a lap faster. So I'm looking at 1:54.

Then there's the article in MotorTrend where their tame racing driver drove a very similar MINI around Laguna in 1:52. (That MINI didn't have such good tires, and may not have had the mechanical limited slip differential that Shawn does.) I'm not thinking I can equal that, but the data for that lap shows the speeds at various points around the track. I did much the same except for entering turn 5 (by 5.4mph), entering turn 10 (by 4.7mph) and at turn 7 (1.6 mph). I could probably match those speeds by increasing my speed through turn 4 and turn 9, I'd been trying to do that at November's Laguna day (in Tristan), and I'd been 4 mph faster in 4 and 6.4 mph faster in 9. I had been thinking that I wasn't getting anywhere with turn 9, maybe I was after all. If I can match those speeds in Shawn, I think its worth 0.5 sec to turn 5 and 1 whole second through turn 9.

I should be able to match the turn 7 speed by braking later as I had been doing in November. I also will be trying the mid entry line to turn 8 I was using in November. The video showed those 2 things could be worth anything up to 0.4 sec. If I put all that lot togther, maybe I can do a 1:52. So the plan is to use much the same line as I did in April of 09, turning in very late and accelerating hard across the apex. Trying to enter 5 at about 70mph, braking later at turn 7, trying to do more of my braking after the crest of the hill, use the mid entry to turn 8 and enter 9 at 65mph.

I'm using the iPhone lap timer again, it has a handy feature where it'll display a map of your lap overlayed with the speed maxima (at the end of the straights) and minima (entering the corners). I came up with a table of speeds I should be aiming for for each straight and each corner. So I'll be able to see which bits I needed to work on.

I was first on track at 9am and it was still a bit cold and felt quite slippy, so I wasn't pushing it. The first time I approached the hairpin full speed (about 102mph), the brakes went disconcertingly soft. After that I was trying to be gentle on the brakes. I had the lap timer running, so I could see how my lap times were while still on track, and that lap I managed a 1:59. About what I was hoping for given the conditions. I hardly saw any traffic during the session and consistently turned 2 min laps.

For the second session I had to hot swap with my wife, so I was last on track. I caught a quite a bit more traffic during the session, but still got some good laps in. The second lap was a 1:55, getting close to my goal. The 4th lap was a 1:54, so I'd now made my target for the day. I'd been trying to keep my speed up entering 5 and looking at the data, I was managing it, this didn't lead to me being faster entering turn 5 as I'd hoped. At that speed I couldn't get on the power early enough. I was entering 9 faster as well, I was just lifting, not braking at entry. That also didn't raise my speed at the entry to 10 though.

The brakes were feeling much better this session, the pedal was no longer sinking, but it did feel both mushy and hard at the same time. I was having to really stand on the brake to stop, the brakes need looking at.

Also at Laguna were some luxury and performance car dealers. Obviously the prospect of selling to our demographic with a proven affinity for fast cars was an appealing prospect. They were showing off some interesting cars including a Bugatti Veyron (look, don't touch) and a couple of Lamborghini Aventadors. A lot of the cars were available for test drives, and a few were available for an on track test drive. There was a Jaguar XK-RS and 2 Lotus Evora (the Evora were borrowed from Skip Barber, the racing school on site). During this session, I met the Jag. First I got behind him, and he was going really slowly (I did a 2:04 behind him), and didn't seem to believe in pointing anyone by. Me and Corvette were trailing him from turn 5 to turn 10 when he pulled off. It was just after he pulled off I made my fast lap. Later on the Jag passed me, obviously with a different pilot. He got caught in a long train of cars which seemed to be caused by one of the Evora.

Before the session I'd signed up for a test drive of the Evora. I'd only actually wanted to sit in the Evora to see if I fit. I've had trouble fitting into other Lotus (like Elise or Exige). So as my wife was waiting to go on track the girl from the car dealer said it was my turn on track in the Evora. So I went on track in an Evora at the tail end of the B group with an instructor. I got 5 or 6 laps, the instructor didn't need to do much instructing, except to warn me not to transition so rapidly from the gas to brake while still turning. I'd come across some slow traffic as I was coming around turn 1 (the fastest place on the track). I was being quite cautious, but managed about 1:56. I liked the Evora quite a bit.

So I hot swapped with my wife again for the third session. I got mostly clear track, and I was experimenting with different lines. I was torn between the method I had been using, late turn in and hard acceleration and an earlier turn in in an attempt to carry more speed through the corner. I waffled between the two approaches for the rest of the day. I'll have to analyse the video more to work out which worked better. Just to make life interesting, the lap timer quit during the first lap, so I had to restart it while setting my second best lap time of the day (but I didn't know it at the time). I made good times, a couple of 1:54s and 3 1:55 and assorted other sub 2 minute laps.

During the last lap of the session, I found myself behind a McLaren (must be an MP4-12C). There were at least 3 or 4 McLaren's running around. Some people at work had been to the launch party for the new local McLaren dealer, I was wondering if this was the result. I'd noticed this one as it had a particularly pretty paint job, and was a very pretty car overall. But was going around quite slowly and pointing people by. I tucked in behind it entering turn 5, at that point it braked, and its rear spoiler rose up as an air brake. I was hoping the extra air brake didn't send me into the back of it. I'd hate to stuff up $229Ks worth of car.

Meanwhile my wife had been turning some reasonable laps herself. Her previous best was a 2:10.6, and my comment was she'd tended to let off the power early. So I said she should keep her foot down on the straight bits. This seemed to help she'd turned a smattering of 2:05s and 2:06s. With all this speed, we seemed to be using a lot of gas, it was only lunch time and we were already running low. At least this time I noticed before the session and could fill up at our leisure. We had to fill up again before the last session, that's the most gas we've used at any track day.

For the last 3 sessions I was trying not to worry about lap times. But with the lap timer sitting their being obvious, it was difficult to put it out of my mind. I was waffling between lines getting a lot of clear track and putting in a variety of sub - 2 minute laps. Even when getting held up by traffic I was turning fast laps. For the last session I was late on track and then had a "moment". At turn 5 something happened and I found myself nearly going sideways. I wasn't sure what happened at the time, but reviewing the video: http://btwyx.com/Movies/LagunaMarB6Wobble.mov I see that I was running a little wide at the exit, I was landing on the rumble strip at the exit and hadn't unwound the steering yet. It looks like the right rear wheel skidded on the rumble strip and started heading off track. The wheels catch and now I'm headed back across the track towards the tirewall on the inside. I manage to get the car under control and headed up the track, but by that time I'm on the otherside of the track.

When I had my moment, I was about half a second ahead of my best time, so despite the wobble I still turned a 1:55. I turned 4 1:55s in a row in that session. Overall I had 51 hot laps (and 12 warm up and cool down laps). The best lap turned out to be the one in the 2nd session, the video says it was a 1:53.8. So I met my target for the day, but didn't go beyond that as I'd managed at Infineon. I was also turning fast laps consistantly, there were a couple of 1:54s and 13 1:55s and a host of other sub 2 minute laps. my wife had 48 hot laps, and her best was a 2:04.1 in her third session. She turned 5 other 2:04 including 3 in the last session. Her last session was particularly quiet, only 13 cars so it was clear for her. She also did 7 2:05s and other good laps.

For all our enthusiasm, the brakes seem to be suffering. The new front brake pads are now done. They're down to 4mm from 11mm, the service computer counted down 18,000 miles off the front brakes, and 14,000 off the rear brakes. The front brakes will definitely need changing before our next track day. For the next one, I'll probably be more gentle on the brakes and not trying for my outright fastest lap.

The pro photographer was there: http://btwyx.com/LagunaMar/

Video of my best lap is here: http://btwyx.com/Movies/LagunaMarBesti.mov

Video of my wife's best lap: http://btwyx.com/Movies/LagunaMarCBesti.mov

 

thanks for the story sir - i do enjoy reading your accounts!

cheers,

Charlie

 

Well, that's not completely unexpected for running back-to-back sessions. But still can get pretty expensive!

Do you have any brake cooling? That can actually help the brakes last longer.

 

We've usually managed to get three track days out of a set of pads even with both of us driving. There's usually the odd 10,000 miles as well. MINI's been paying for the brakes, but I don't feel like turning up 1000 miles later and seeing if they'll change them again.He's completely stock, apart from the wheels/tires.