Nice.
Practice and seat time seems to be working for you. Smooth. You have also started to look ahead and work that into your driving. It shows in the fact that you didn't seem to be driving from turn to turn.

Seems like it was a pretty high speed run. You did well with things coming at you fast. A couple of places where you jerked the wheel, but could not tell what that was a result of. You could tell better. You may be looking at 10ths or 100ths now for improvements and that is tough to see in a video. Nice.

 

thanks! i didn't think i was that smooth, but something definitely clicked as far as driving while looking ahead - i've been looking ahead, but i stringed the course together far better today - i think it may have been in part thanks to the PDX I did the day before. Totally different sport but it helped a lot with line and tracking out/using the full course, and 60 minutes of seat time doesnt hurt either!

 

update:




:: I noticed I REALLY haven't updated this in a while - I got used tires on the Mini from the Miata we've been running which we're planning to sell - went from 180 runs RS3s to 120 run Z2 star specs which had plenty of life - the Miata is very kind on tires. I immediately jumped about 0.3-0.5s faster compared to my benchmarks, and have been doing better than I ever have been. it's too late points-wise to do anything about this year, but I think there were both bad and good points to having spent most of the year on uncompetitive tires. The good is that I really had to hone in on my driving and inputs. The bad is that I've 1) blown the year, but 2) underestimate now what I can do with the car with tires. I started getting there with the latest event though.


So the season is about wound down now and I'm really looking forward to next year. My confidence built up at the last event (beat a few guys I've never beaten before), and I'm sure it will keep going once I hop into RE71Rs. Will shoot for top 10 in my region for next year!


Hoping for a positive index drop for HS compared to all those soft-indexed street classes! :D

 

from yesterday:




I genuinely didn't think this was a good run but by the numbers this was my fastest - ever. I think I leveled up or something. A little more work and I'll be at the top soon enough. I am shooting for top ten in my region for 2016 and at the rate I'm going it should be doable.


Next week I'm doing a little bit of end of season TnT'ing in the Evo, then a year end event on 11/14!

 

Just wanted to bring in my latest UOA: very pleased with Amsoil SSO 0w30 for my uses - I may use it year round!


http://r56hs.com/2015/10/21/mini-uoa-5/

 

It is interesting that you thought the PDX helped you in the Solo. Maybe it "slowed' you down a bit. Generally the transition from Solo to the track is better than vice versa.

Your video posted above is really pretty good. Not a lot of off-gas time and you played the slaloms really well. No wonder you were quick.

The new round of 200 tires are really good. That should have you looking forward to next year. Hope you make your goals. You have made great improvements this year by the way the videos look.

With oil, I have found that I need to be careful that I don't cook it. I watch the oil temp on my ScanGage when I am on the track. 10-30 Castrol will only last a few days before I notice a significant time rise. I met someone who has something to do with Redline oil and he suggest a higher weight oil to bring temperatures down. I tried their 10-40 and it worked really well, but it is expensive. I also tried 0-40 Mobil 1 with good success.

 

Thanks for the input as always.


It's hard to say WHY it changed so starkly. I looked at video the week before the PDX/StlSolo weekend, and it wasn't anything special either.


I have a pretty good idea WHAT changed though, as they are things I'm actively focusing on the last few events:
1) Looking ahead further, which is helping me string the course together, maybe slightly better lines too.
2) I'm on the throttle longer, in part thanks to looking ahead further. Staying on the throttle as long as possible.
3) Going a bit harder in the slaloms. The last few I've been pretty close to the limit on them, though they were space nice and fast, which I like.


Here's the video of the weekend before the PDX weekend. That said, the site I raced on is a lot smaller/tighter, more of a point and shoot course which hurts the Mini. I'm finding the best courses for me are fast/offsets/slaloms with not many digs and not too many sweepers. Even so, I would have been 8th in index had the below run been clean.




Final event in the Mini is 11/14 on the same site. Curious to see if my new-found improvements will hold there. I think things will definitely be different next year. STF is way too soft, as is FS and a couple others. I think HS will remain similar based on how things have gone this year. Like you said, I'm really looking forward to RE71Rs


Been thinking about a scangauge, may be a worthwhile purchase for me - however, I've got a base cooper, so I don't know how much I'll be cooking the oil. I should really get something for the Evo though if I'm gonna be on the track more. It was a cool day when I did it, maybe 60s - can't imagine what it'd be like in the 90s.


I am working on a sponsorship with an oil that I think will pair perfectly for both the Evo's and the Mini's hard use. I'll let you know once I find out if I get it.

 

The Scangage for the mini is a great investment. The latest version can be had with oil pressure programmed into it, which would be worth while for a base cooper. So you could be showing water temp, oil pressure, volts and something else. That would cover the vitals of the engine.

Looking ahead is very helpful anywhere. I have started indoor go karting and it is amazing how that helps there. It gives you time to plan instead of just reacting.

This video is pretty good. You did well with the slaloms, again, and seem to have that down. Nice and tight with the cones; little steering wheel movement and reasonably smooth. But it seems that on other turns you have some space on the corner cones. I know that some are not near the apex of the corners, but it seem there were places you could tighten it up. Here I would check with Charlie Thompson about what he thinks on being closer to some of those corner cones. In his last posts he talked about the shortest line. Maybe he could give better insight than I can. I will say that it is all a big improvement over the beginning of the season.

It will be good to get a sponsorship, let us know how it goes.

 

yea - if you can tell from the video the site is a lot squarer, so a lot shorter going for a while, then tight turn around, go, turn around etc. Big power big grip preferred on this site. I think the Mini likes faster courses without a lot of slowdowns

 

hoping someone can help me decipher what went wrong with my last event... obviously a different site than what I normally run but I do come here fairly often. the structure provides a much different style of course, a lot more point and shoot than at home and I always half joke that these are big power big grip courses/site. a lot of low speed digs that hurt me but otherwise I'm not sure what I did to be so off pace - probably 0.5-1s slower than what I had been doing. the only thing that immediately jumps out is that I could have maybe tried to carry more speed through the turn-arounds. maybe a little more looking ahead, which I wasn't doing as actively as before. Not sure what else I could have done here. The tires weren't feeling great at the end either, felt like they are falling off a bit, which makes sense, given that I think they have roughly 150+ runs...


Run 2:


Run 4:


thoughts?

 

My biggest observation is you left a lot of room on a lot of cones. For example, in your 4th run you come out of the start with a fairly straight run until the cone and pointer before the 1st slalom. It is a left bend and you need to enter the slalom from the left, but you swing wide so you were holding the left turn to almost the first cone of the slalom and didn't enter from a straight shot. I think you were scrubbing speed as the wheels were always turned. Then you are wide to each of the following cones and didn't straighten the slalom out as much as you have in the past. Same thing (space on cones; not sure if that means much on the intermidate cones but it likely does with the last one of the group) with that last big left hander that has you looking at the hanger and the following cones before the exit. You made a small correction at the end of that left hander which means you apexed too soon. I think a little wider swing there and then closer to the last cone all in one motion would have helped. And I agree with your observation that you were driving point and shoot. There were also a few hard jerks on the steering wheel. It seemed like you were not planning ahead like you did previously.

Take another look at your 4th run with those observations. Let me know what you think - I could be way off base here.

 

you're definitely right - must not be used to the tighter course, but definitely a lot of space left. a few spots evident I'm not looking ahead. the rest of the loss can be attributed to course disadvantage and an off day I guess

 

Long winter in the Midwest finally coming to an end -- not much new for the Mini, but happy to announce Red Line Oil as my newest sponsor!!

I chose to reach out to Red Line Oil due to their outstanding reputation in making extremely high quality, ester based oils. This came out of a search for an oil that was of even higher quality than Amsoil, while perhaps being more suited for racing. One of Red Line’s strong points is its high use of moly, which helps cling to the metal - from my tests, this seems like a big part of keeping the Mini's engine happy. Their oil in general is very stable and relatively thick, often thicker than oils of higher grades, with a superior base stock and excellent wear protection characteristics.

For both the Mini and the Evo, I will be using Red Line 5w30 in the engine. This is probably one of their best engine oils, thicker than many 10w30s of other brands, but notably with extremely high HTHS (high temperature high shear) values, which is very good for racing. For the transmissions, I will be using their MT-90 and MT-85 for the Mini and Evo, respectively. I am using Lightweight Shockproof in the transfer case of the Evo – this is a very sensitive part of the Evo’s drivetrain, one that you really need to be careful in choosing the oil – where most of the community still uses straight 90 OEM oil. After a lot of research, the lighweight shockproof sounded perfect for my needs – protecting like a 75w140, but flowing like an 80w oil. Finally, using their 75w90 Gear Oil for my rear differential.

 

mega update - had an interesting weekend to report on -

on saturday, i drove at ccscc in Central IL, codriving with my old mentor for 2014. was a good event, and i was actually able to beat him by a few tenths. he had a few faster dirty runs and his fastest raw was a tenth quicker, but still a good sign as far as improvement:

Me:

Codriver:


On Sunday, I codrove with a local evo school instructor. I was not able to catch him, but the margin was a decent 2 tenths - he ran a 49.8, and i ran a 50 flat. However, we both got beat by a local kid in a Civic Si - course was definitely to his advantage and he has been improving lately, but makes me wonder. On a national stage, these cars are really disadvantaged by their super short 2nd gear (tops out at 53) but locally, they seem to be doing quite well.

Me:

Codriver:


With that, I'm honestly fairly convinced this car isn't the car to have on a whole. They will still do well at nationals and local events, but it requires a lot of course dependency. Courses where the Mini will excel or even be the car to have are fast, open courses with high speeds where you don't have to give up a lot, but not too many local venues have that. My evo instructor-codriver thought the car felt pretty good but could be set up a little looser, which I agree with. Will keep campaigning the car for now and see how things play out at nationals.

::
I put about 71 runs and 3k miles on the Red Line 5w30, sent off for UOA to blackstone. i expect wear to be a little higher, just because the mileage is higher than most samples. Car felt good on this oil, and did the next change with it as well.

 

your driving has improved tremendously! You gotta get closer to the apex cones and be more aggressive with the throttle!

 

thanks!


last event's run below. we've been getting hammered with power friendly courses, this was the first course we've had this year that swung toward momentum/handling. it's too late for me now to win class championship, but had a good event, only running 0.874 behind in pax from the leader.

 

+1



Saw some aggressiveness in the last video. Smooth... Eyes are obviously looking ahead. Nicely done.

You have gotten closer to the cones, but you've got some more to go. I know it is going to fill like, if you do, you will wack them, but you are at the point you need to hit a few to learn where the car is and to straighten out the turns. But also, some cones are "throw-away" and they don't matter like some of the cones in that left hand sweeper you did. But, in the slalom, closeness counts.

A good practice is to pick a seam or little pot hole on the road and try to just touch it. Try it with a series of road marks so you get so you can do it by just glancing at it.

Lastly, it is good to hear that you have started to think of yourself as doing well. That will take you as far any other technical change you can make. Keep it up.

 

thanks! few more points events to go - nats filled up nicely this year, will be interesting! looks like reno is back in the mix, hopefully he can pull off the W!

 

picking up where I left off last year - I'm still on carryover 205/50-16s that seem to have a tiny bit of life left in them, but I'm looking to move to 205/45-16s pretty soon. Kind of on the fence, not sure what my car's fate is at this point, but with it nearly paid off now I think i'll hold onto it for a little. Did okay at the first event here, but I just can't keep up in this car.. gonna try really hard this year to forget about the results and perfect the driving.




the evo on the other hand, very interesting. I finally went from the stock wheels to STU legal 17x9.5's and the results were astounding. FTD'd for the first time ever, and the car felt like it had unlimited grip. will be a real challenge to get precise in this car.

 

in the mini, you brake way too late for the sweeper and scrubbed off a lot of speed which you could've carried. Another tip would be to get closer to the slalom cones. You're about 6" away. Otherwise great driving!

 

thanks for the input - definitely a couple spots there I didn't brake enough and ended up scrubbing speed. also need to work on getting closer to the slalom cones for sure, leaving a lot of distance out there.

 

Another thing I noticed is that you drive the Mini like it's the Evo. The Evo can hide all of your mistakes. Your line choice in the Evo is exactly the same as the Mini. So that should tell you a lot. Evo can beat the Mini on the straights but they still corner the same speed. If you can be faster in the Mini, you'll be faster in the Evo. That 4wd really hides a lot of mistakes. So pick the car you really want to be fast in.

I'm not sure if you're feeling like you are at a plateau. If you feel that way, hop in an ES miata for a couple events. Then go back to the Mini. You'll get faster just by being frustrated with the Miata. LOL.

Lately I've been listening to podcasts (autocrosstalk.com) and all the fast guys aka Tom O'Gorman, David Whitener, etc. they all say the same thing. It's a race on who gets on throttle the quickest. Do all of your braking (less brakes and make them early!) and then mash that throttle!!! I wish I could co drive with you to show you.

 

I would also suggest that in the middle (maybe 2/3s into it) of the run with the MINI you are pinching the cones as you are going into that long left hand sweeper to the point you need to make a correction and then at the next cone you are scrubbing speed. This seems to be a place where you could have made it in one long arc.

An observation about the Evo, you seem to drive it with more confidence than you do with the MINI. You seem to know what to expect from it and where it is on the track better than you do with the MINI. With the MINI you are more choppy, almost like you are over-driving it.

 

Hmmmmm - I like what you say in your last paragraph. I could do with a bit more of that

 

loving the feedback guys - watched the videos a few more times:

one thing off the bat though, not that this is an "excuse" of some kind - these are simply my fastest clean runs - i actually thought that was one of my worst runs in the mini, but either by luck or pushing hard or whatever, happened to be my fastest run. regardless -

definitely pinched a few corners with the mini - i think the biggest difference is i'm trying so hard not to lose any speed in the mini, which ends up sacrificing corners & scrubbing speed. with the evo, i know it's acceleration can get me out, so i am much more willing to slow down for corners. i also make everything in the evo about being able to get on the gas again, whereas in the mini i make everything about keeping as much speed as i can. i should try to do a liiittle more slow in fast out in the mini, but the acceleration is just so slow...