I know there is a lot more to take away from the video, but this is my start. I'll have a chance to apply it next month and see how it shakes out. General:

Brake later and more aggressively.

Smoother steering inputs.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.





T1:

Turn in later. Brake later.

Wider line on exit, track-out further but not all of the way.



Esses: shift to 4th a little earlier, go flat-out until the kerbs before T5 (I’m really bad about lifting in the Esses)

T5: Stay in 4th.

T6: Carry more speed.

T7: Carry more speed.

10a &10b: get more kerb. Brake later.

T12: Carry more speed. The car will do it. The tires will do it.

 

Scotty - I am going to apologize right up front as the following may come across as a little too much...

And feel free to punt any of my ideas. I haven’t driven the track and can only provide observations from the videos.

Using your video a above...
Here is your line through T3 (I believe). I am going to use this in my examples. You nailed this turn. The right apex location, and just enough curb.


T3 - Right on the curb - Perfect

I see your biggest places of time lost is where you don’t apex the turns. By doing that, you tightening them up and making them slower than they should be. Apexing them will allow you to open up the turns and make them faster. I’ll use a few turns as examples


Here is your T1


T1 - Good apex location, but off the curb

Your apex location is good. In comparison to T3, you are several feet from the curb. Mark P is right on the curb here. If you turn in later you will be further off the curb and/or apexing this turn way late.

If you turn in a little earlier, with the same arch you will hit the curb at the apex and on your track out, you will have a little bit more room for getting on the gas.

This is also a perfect turn to trailbrake into. As you say, brake later, but then trail off the brake to the apex. This will allow you to use the brake weight loading on the front wheels as well as the slight rise to carry more speed to the apex.

Here is your line going into T10A


T10A - About perfect on the curb

Here is your line around T4


Driving around T4

You nailed T3 but drive around T4.

For the Esses you are missing the apexes and driving around each one, except the last. Then T5 you miss the apex.

You say you are bad about lifting in the esses. That is because you are driving around each part of them like you are on a country road. Straighten them out. Touch the curb on each side. Do this a few times at part throttle so you get the feel of the car and where it is located before you try it flat out or close to flat out.

General observations:
You miss the apexes of T6, 7 and 12. Try turning in earlier and open up the turn for each of these to bring the car down to the apex and allow you to carry more speed through them.

Scotty - Don’t try to work on all of the turns in one session. Pick a section, like T1, 2, and 3. You know you have T3 right. So work on adjusting your line through T1 and 2 so you continue to get T3 right. Do this at 70 or 80% so you can work on the line you want, then add speed to see if it holds together. Then go on to the next section.

I would suggest T4 and through the esses as you next section. Again, you know you have the last turn of the esses right, so work in apexing T4 and the rest of the turns in the esses and straighten them out while still getting the last one right.

T5 is its own section.

Work T6 and 7 as a section.

T10A and B... Don’t change a thing.

Work on your location through T11 to the track out so you are able to turn in for T12 early enough to fully apex it. I know this is one Mark P nails.

I hope this isn’t too much...
I do believe, if you do the above, then the following will fall into place...

 

@Eddie07S this is amazing. Thank you for putting so much thought and effort into this! I'll apply this and report back in July. I'll be sure to add more video. I think that the GoPro's have been a great tool for post weekend analysis. A long time ago, I bought a Contour camera and ran it on my helmet and rifle as I went through a shooting school. Being able to review the footage and see what I was doing was so valuable. I need to apply some of my lessons learned for training to this.

 

I am glad you find this helpful...

The hardest part of any analysis like this is knowing what to look for. I have done this a lot with an instructor/friend with respect to Watkins Glen. He didn’t live close by, so this was the only way to get instruction from him. I learned a lot from him.. Hopefully, what I have done helps with that also, show you a bit of what to look for. There is more, like watching your hand movements in comparison to Mark P. I wish there was a way to join your in-car video with his so you could see the 2 of you in side by side in a single video stream.

As you go through your and Mark P’s in-car videos, if you have questions or thoughts you want to bounce off of me, feel free to ask here...

Aside - your drive through the esses reminded my of one of my very early driving school experiences. Monticello race course has a set of esses like those you are on. After a few laps of going through them the instructor yelled through the com unit “What the ****** are you doing? You were just doing these perfectly. Now What?” He was a bit harsh, but was right. I could drive these almost straight through by touching the left and right curbs at each apex, but, for some reason, that lap I had resorted to “driving on a country road”, swinging the car left and right...

 

Ok a little fun learning...

 

Scotty
Please don’t scream. I have one more video for you. At the end Randy drives the line during the cool down lap. It is like watching him in slow motion.


I like this better than the Mark P video because the camera view is better and he gets a full open lap.

Cheers!

 

As usual, lots of great info here @Eddie07S ! I really appreciate your help.

I'm definitely guilty of abusing slip angle , but I'm getting better. I have been toying with the idea of removing the front strut bar to see if there is a noticeable reduction in understeer. Since my next event will be a little less hectic than a NASA weekend, I should have time to take tire temps and play with setup changes.

 

My strut bar cuts down on the “shake” in the front end and strengthens it. It shouldn’t change the handling at all. Don’t muck with the car... You have a “line” to work on...

 

So this is happening...





Lou and Prototype-R are about to properly tune this car. You could say I'm pretty excited.

 

You're right Eddie. I really need to dial in the line and focus on the fundamentals. It's easy to fall into the trap of "fixing" the car when the driver is what needs adjustment.

 

Oh YEAH!!! You're going to love it.

 

What was that you just agreed to? About not “fixing” the car?

Ok, have your fun..

Just remember, smokin’ the tires around the track, just because you can and it looks impressive, isn’t the fastest way around it...

 

This is long overdue. I'm really excited to see the difference between these tunes. Being able to datalog RPM Power Engine Management and compare it directly to Prototype-R will benefit the community. It will be really nice to get away from a canned tune and have something tailored to my car.

 

More power? Or just better performance within the current range?

 

More of an optimization of the performance.

My gut tells me that the previous tune was pieced together based on a list of mods and was nothing more than a best guess. There were some irregularities on the dyno that in a way gave validity to my concern. Since there is an option to collect data and have a tune tailored to the vehicle based on performance rather than a mod list, I figured that would be the safest way forward. The car has more than enough power for now, but I want to make that power as safely as possible to ensure longevity.

Because I plan on getting into Time Trial soon, I'll need to balance the performance of the car against the weight. I need to keep the car competitive and that may mean less power is needed. Prototype-R will allow for different maps that can be flashed to the DME as needed. So far Lou has been exactly what I was looking for in a tuner from day 1. He is a subject matter expert, he does the work himself, and he is very responsive to emails and texts.

I plan on collecting data on both tunes and providing that data to the community. Being able to remote tune the N18 is a pretty big feat, and if this is as good as I think is going to be, I want people to know that there are other options.

 

I have no doubt you will be pleased. I would love to see a dyno comparison of your RPM tune vs the final Prototype-R tune. Cost wise, you're paying slightly more to get a tune from Lou, but being custom dialed in for your car and modifications is priceless.

 

From day one, my R56 has felt like a “Tuesday” or maybe “Wednesday” car. It has been quicker than it should be. I know that there is an “over boost” mode and that takes the HP up to about 195 at the engine. Top speed at WGI (which is an indicator of true HP) is not far off the JCW with 228 hp (factory). Figuring that the aerodynamics of my R56S are slightly better than that of the F56 JCW and the top speeds are not that far from being the same, I am thinking that my R56S is on the stronger side of normal. I also run with 2 MINIs with tunes at LRP and I am quicker than both. As a result, I have been very reluctant to do anything like a tune for fear of losing something that I have that is pretty good.

I hear what you are saying about your tuner and that is great. Not for me, at least not yet...

Enjoy. When is your next chance to try it out on the track?

 

July 10th and 11th at Road Atlanta.

I have a target of opportunity that just popped up and I may be able to hit Barber Motorsports Park this coming Monday or Tuesday. It's really last minute so I may have to skip it lol.

 

Intrigued to see what you find in those logs on that RPM tune. Cause my "Stage 3" was more like a Stage 2 when I was still tuned by them.

 

You and me both. I'm just waiting on Tactrix to ship the cable lol.

 

Awesome developments, good luck with the tune and the track day!

 

Thanks! We've started the data collection and I received the first draft of the new tune this morning. I'm going to hold off on loading it until after Road Atlanta this weekend. We should have plenty of time to revise it over the coming weeks in preparation for Roebling and Atlanta Motorsports Park.

 

Are you going to take data when you are on the track? It seems that might be different from road use of the car...

 

No. I'm currently capturing data to a laptop via a Tactrix Openport. We have been grabbing 4th gear WOT from 2k to redline as apparently, that gives him exactly what he needs. Without a dyno available locally (or a dyno that isn't sketchy as hell) I had to find a safe place to do this since a public road is definitely not an option.

I found this on Google Maps:




4000 feet of asphalt and totally off public roads. It looks sketchy in the photo, but it is actually not bad at all, no potholes or other hazards.

 

Looks like an old air field.

Yah, with ~110 mph being redline in 4th, that wouldn’t be a good idea to do on the street...
And a laptop flying around the car out on track, might not be so good either.

Have fun this weekend! looking forward to your post track post...

A friend is going to Mid Ohio for 3 days this weekend, I am headed to NYST at the end of this month and have signed up for WGI for 3 days at the end of August, with, maybe, 2 more there after that. Lots of tire discussions going on here, especially with Bridgestone leaving the 200 TW market... The guy going to Ohio is on A052s. I am looking forward to what he has to say about that event.