I have posted to my website, in-car camera 4k videos with speed telemetry and roof mounted 4k GoPro Videos from the Track Night in America event at Pocono April 20th.

www.markchiles.com

I had issues with the KIWI OBDII not connecting, so there is no throttle or brake position telemetry. And the GPS speed sensor gave some bad reading during the third session.

But hey, A bad day at the track is still better than a good day at work.

Be sure to set you YouTube setting to 4K for best resolution when viewing.

Enjoy,

Mark Chiles
Hershey, PA
2021 MINI JCW GP #999
2019 MINI JCW Orange International Edition (manual)
2013 MINI Cooper (Manual - Winter Car)
2009 Pontiac G8 GXP (6.2L - Manual)

 

I haven't watch them all, but still, nice!! I always get a kick out of watching Mini's overtake the "more powerful" other cars, lol!

A couple questions if you don't mind?

For track use, not autocross (I don't autocross):
For braking, do you brake early and hard, then ride the speed through the turns? Or do you brake late and carry speed? Or something else? What about trail braking? Obviously it's not a thing on every turn, but your thoughts? I've read both for FWD (trail brake and don't trail brake).

 

David,

I enjoy your track videos too. Very high production value. Especially, compared to mine.

I brake WAY late and hard. Which is a good or bad practice, depending on how you look at it. I picked up the late braking habit from autocrossing. People are always commented to me that they can't believe how late I wait to brake, consider my velocity.

The good: I can maintain a higher top speed and dive bomb on the inside of corners if an opening presents itself. Trick from my racing days. Although the GP does get rather squirrely under high speed hard braking.

The bad: it is rough on the equipment and I go through a lot of front brake pads and rotors. There were many races in the old days where I finished the race with 'NO BRAKES". I wore them out during the race. Just metal pad backing plates scoring the rotors.

I am using OEM brake pads on the GP because I feel they are the most abrasive compound compared to aftermarket and they don't squeal or squeak or require anti squeak lube or special backing plates.

I am finding when I am doing hard braking from 140MPH in the GP, it is the front brakes doing most of the work. The GPs automatic 'slush box' transmission does little for engine braking. Downshift the paddles to lower gears does little to help in braking, in fact the downshifts are delayed until the speed matches the gearing. I have a love/hate relationship with the GPs transmission. Mostly hate.

I try to do classic cornering. Never coasting. Trail brake to the apex and back on the throttle after the apex.

I used to left foot brake in other cars to keep the engine revs up to help rocket out of corners. However, the GP seems to get confused and go into Ice Mode when I try to left foot brake. GP Mode does not seem to turn off ALL electronic nannies.

Mark Chiles
Hershey, PA
2021 MINI JCW GP #999
2019 MINI JCW Orange International Edition (manual)
2013 MINI Cooper (Manual - Winter Car)
2009 Pontiac G8 GXP (6.2L - Manual)

 

Thanks!

Good to hear that. I do the same thing, at least I try. The problem I've been having is that the brakes essentially seem to stop working after X number of laps (X changes). I'm still not sure if I'm braking too hard, which initiates ABS, or some other thing is happening. Per the AiM Solo2 DL, ABS is kicking on. But, per the Solo, it kicks on when I'm *not* braking that hard, too. So....dunno . I'm ok with going through pads, just not a new set every track day, lol!

GP mode does not turn off many nannies. Turning DSC completely off (hold down the GP toggle for a few seconds) turns more off, but they're never completely off. In fact, I've noticed that if, on a track in GP mode, and I try to trail brake, lots of nannies start to kick in. It freaks me the hell out, too.

I've actually found a couple things to help with the engine braking bit, even though I don't use it *that* much on the track (I mostly just brake...then go). You may or may not be aware of these, but I'll put them here either way:

1). Holding the left paddle (downshift) : The car will down shift to the lowest possible gear you can be in at the speed you're going.
2) Generally, even day to day driving, I have DSC completely off. I can get pretty good (not manual transmission good, but good enough) engine braking going from say, 7th gear @55mph to 3rd gear (yeah, gotta hit that downshift multiple times rapidly, but it works). Even holding the downshift paddle will take me from 7th @55mph to 3rd with some pretty good engine braking.

For both, the gear stick needs to be to the left in "sport" mode. I also get the most engine braking when I have *some* brake pressure applied. I'll have to test this more, though, tbh.

 

So far with my GP, I have replaced the front brake pads ONCE. After 2,700 miles and two Track Nights at Pocono.

I might have been able to get one more Track Night event out of the original front OEM pads, as the left front pad wear sensor was just on the verge of beginning to wear.

I decided to change the front brake pads before the Pocono Track Night last week out of an abundance of caution to prevent damaging the 'big ticket' rotors. I was able to reuse the brake wear sensor.

I have not checked the brake pads/rotors or tires yet after the Pocono Track Night last week. I will check them before the next Pocono Track Night on May 11th.

I have extra sets of OEM front brake pads and a new pair of GP OEM wheels with mounted Hankook OEM tires in the garage if needed.

Mark Chiles
Hershey, PA
2021 MINI JCW GP #999
2019 MINI JCW Orange International Edition (manual)
2013 MINI Cooper (Manual - Winter Car)
2009 Pontiac G8 GXP (6.2L - Manual)

 

I was getting about the same with the OEM pads, 4 or so track days. Except for the "stopping working" part, I've been liking them. I have some things in the works to get that sorted out, though.