I attended the COM sports car club event at Le Cercuit Mont Tremblant just outside of Montreal on August 3-4. COM events are standard HPDE / instructional events on the first day, and a time trial competition on the second day. You have to get signed off to solo to be allowed to drive on the second day. Many participants take the time trial aspect of the COM events pretty seriously, there are trophies at each event and season long points.

Le Circuit Mont Tremblant is a track in a very park-like setting, even moreso than Lime Rock. The track was designed in the 60's, and as the classroom instructor said, tracks designed in those days were designed for the drivers, not for spectators. Lots of elevation changes and blind turns, a mix of a few low speed turns, some rhythm / S turns, and some high speed turns. All with ot a lot of run off room should something go wrong.

I had studied the track map and watched a lot of in car video from the track before I headed up there for my first experience at Le Curcuit. Not that it made things that much easier. A group of 5 of us went from the sports car club of Vermont. Two spec Miata drivers with a lot of experience on tracks, a (non spec) Miata driver that started doing these driving events at the same time I did, an S2000 driver that had to take his daily driver Acura TSX because his S2000 doesn't yet have a rollbar (which is required by COM), and myself. None of us had driven Le Circuit before.

We made the drive up to the track and set up our tents right next to the paddock. Before you think this was a hardship, here's our campsite:



And yes, this is right next to the paddock:



And the lake was great for cooling off in during the day.

The next morning, we cobbled together the required numbers, class designations, taped up the glass on the cars, and added "rookie stripes" on our cars and headed for tech inspection. COM has many more requirements for tech (and car numbers, etc) than the BMWCCA, mainly because COM events have timing, and therefore are competitive.



Tech was uneventful, there was the normal driver's meeting, and eventually we hit the track...

Wow! Le Circuit is a long, complicated track. 15 turns, and only a couple of them are no-brainers.



It took me quite a while to just remember when to turn left and when to turn right, never mind brake points, shift points, etc. The first lap, turn 8 came up as a complete suprise - "this is the hairpin?" as I'm 1/4 of the way through the turn looking for the exit.

Here's a quick(?) turn-by-turn...

Turn 1 is a bit of a mystery... you don't enter from the extreme left edge of the track, it's more like mid track. The whole point of turn 1 is to get set up for turn 2. Oh yeah, even in my little Cooper, turn one was taken at around 90mph in 4th gear, and that's with a slight lift at the end of the straight. There's a slight dip in the track as you go into 1...

Turn 2 is scary. The apex is at the crest of a hill, and you cannot see it until you've already made you turn-in - at 90mph+ with a downhill on the other side of the apex. And there are a couple of slight bumps in the pavement at the crest of the hill because there's an unused chicane on the inside of turn 2.

Turn 3 is at the bottom of the hill, and similar to the downhill at Lime Rock, except you have to get the car straightened out so you can brake between 3 and 4.

Turn 4 needs to be taken really late (which is hard) so you can set up for 5. There's enough of a straight between 4 and 5 that you are tempted to hit the gas hard between them, but 5 is tight enough that when you do that, you wind up overcooking 5 and coming out too slow.

Turn 5 should be easy, but like I said it's really tempting to come into 5 too hot, and then you're losing ground all the way to turn 8.

I was undecided on whether to use 2nd or 3rd gear for turns 4 and 5.

Turn 6 is one of the few no-brainers on the track - flat out and no elevation changes. A shift to 4th gear came for me between turns 6 and 7 (90mph+)

Turn 7 required a slight stab on the brakes and is very slightly downhill.

Turn 8 can be done as a double apex or single apex. It's increasing radius. There are two sets of curbing on the inside, with a stretch with no curb between them. I'd apex at the end of the first section of curbing, then want to hold the car to the inside and always think I was about to put the inside wheels on the grass... I guess that's what happens with an increasing radius turn. Again, I was undecided on whether 2nd or 3rd gear was best for this turn. When I used second, I'd shift to third just before the track out of the turn.

Turn 9 - the hump - is really no longer a turn. They blasted out a bunch of earth to flatten the hump. I guess it used to be a very dramatic elevation change, but now it's pretty tame.

Somewhere before turn 10, I'd be in fourth gear at around 100mph (one of the few places where there was time to peak at the speedometer). A quick stab of the brakes and a shift to third for a late entry to turn 10, another really quick (and maybe unneccesary) brake for turn 11. Turn 11 would often be taken with the car sliding sideways a fair amount, but is uphill on the exit so things stayed under control.

Turn 12 - the bridge turn - is very blind. The bride has solid concrete sides, so you cannot see out the sides of the bridge. I think turn 12 is a pretty solid 2nd gear corner for my car.

Turn 13 - the kink - is another no brainer.

Turn 14 is pretty evil too. The braking zone is uphill, but the hill ends maybe 2 car lengths before the turn in. So, you want to brake later, but you can't because if you aren't all slowed down before the top of the hill, the car will get really light and you'll lock up the brakes and go sliding straight off the track. Immediately after you turn in (late), the track plunges away. And you need to get back to the right side of the track so you can get through turn 15 - paddock bend. Turn 14 was 2nd gear. Shift to 3rd between 14 and 15, and shift to 4th towards the end of the straight.

Not that I'm an expert on Le Circuit.

So, the first couple of session were spent with my instructor trying to explain the line to me. We'd take the first 1/4 of each session "slow" working on the line. Run the middle half fast, and when things got too rushed, wind up taking the last 1/4 slow again. It worked out really well, and after a few sessions I felt like I was getting a handle on most of the track.

Of course I was getting passed a lot (giving a lot of point bys), but I'm pretty used to that. And this crowd attracts a lot of really fast cars and really fast drivers. A much faster crowd than I'm used to from BMWCCA events.

The third session was spent with not much chatter between myself and my instructor, so for the fourth (and last) session of the day I went solo, at my instructor's suggestion, while he filled out my log book which is required by COM. The log book is a lot like a BMWCCA evaluation form, but it's a book with a bunch of them, and it gets filled out that day.

My solo session was a little sloppy... I did my usual thing of turning in early when I feel rushed, which is a really bad habit. But, I managed to keep the car on the track for the whole day, so things went pretty well. And I knew that I was turning too early, so at least I wasn't oblivious to the fact that I was doing things wrong.

After the fourth session, I picked up my log book. I was signed off to solo (obviously, since I had soloed the fourth session that day), but I would not get my COM competitor's license that day. Not that I expected to get it, as it means I'm in the advanced run group and no longer need to attend the classroom sessions. But, I was told that if I keep driving like I was, I would probably get my license at my next COM event.

That evening was a buffet / banquet, some swimming in the lake, and a night in the tents.

Friday morning was another driver's meeting to explain how time trial day runs. There are two 30 minute long practice session with the entire field split up into two groups: big bore engines and small bore engines. That means that I'll be out there on the track with all of the drivers of the small cars, even the really fast ones. And, during the first practice session you need to have someone time you and submit a time card with your best time of the session. These times are used to set up the run groups for the time trials so that they can get 4 or 5 cars on the track at the same time that are about the same speed, so nobody will have to deal with traffic (the cars in the time trial are stagger started with about 20 seconds between cars). So, not only will I be out there with the fast guys (in the small cars), but they'll be trying to drive close to all out. Thankfully, point-bys are still needed during the practice session. So, I spent most of the first practice session pointing lots of cars past me. The spec miatae that came with us were running 2:03s, the street miata had a time of 2:14. I came in hoping for something in the low 2:20s (like a 2:22), and was surprised to hear that my best lap was a 2:18.

The second practice session seemed much less crowded. Perhaps not everyone went out for the second session? I wasn't timed during that session, but I felt that things went very well. I was getting comfortable on the track.

I had a very late running run group for the time trials - group 14 out of 17. My group consisted of myself, a Nissan Sentra, a Saab 9000, and a Ford Mustang SVT - and I was seeded as the fastest of that bunch, so I got to get out on the track first for my three laps.

It's really nice to be out on a real race track, by yourself, driving as fast as you want to, with no one in front of you or behind you. I didn't try to be blazingly fast, I just tried to drive like I had been all event. The official results haven't been posted yet, but I wasn't first or second in my class (suprise, surprise). I think the top time for my class was a 2:03 the MCS that won its class turned a 2:08. That's what I get for being in a class dominated by Miatae. From my video, I estimate my three laps as 2:18.3, 2:17.5, and 2:18.6

Here's my car coming out of turn 14:



I finished off my set of Ferodo DS3000 front brake pads. When I changed them out, they were worn down to the groove in the pad material. At the begining of the event, the pad thickness was thicker than the backing plate...

Halfway through changing wheels and brake pads, a torrential downpour broke out. The rest of the SCCV gang pitched in to change the last rear wheel then hold a tarp over my head as I changed front brake pads and wheel. It's great when people allow themselves to be inconvenienced to help you.

This was my first track event with the Helix front camber plates on my car. I had things aligned with zero toe and -2.0° of camber in front. There was more front grip in the car with these settings than with stock camber. The back of the car did feel a little looser than before, but it never got out of control. I just felt like I was sliding into the turns at at slightly different angle than I was before I added the camber plates. Instead of understeer / plowing into the turns, I was more neutral when sliding into the turns. It felt to me like the back end was stepping out a bit, but in reality it was probably still staying pretty neutral. It's hard to tell from inside the car.

The biggest difference from the camber plates may be the increased "feel" of what the front wheels are doing. I can feel better when a wheel is spinning when powering out of a turn. I can feel when the turn-in goes from grip to slip. I can even feel the difference between good slip (tire slip angles working to my advantage) and bad slip (understeer) when the differences are small. I could feel bumps in the road better. I could feel the curbs better. The increased grip is really nice, but expected. The increased feel is a nice, unexpected surprise.

All in all, a great event at a great track.

COM events would be great for people who have already have a few HPDE events under their belts, but I don't think I'd recommend them for a first timer. The BMWCCA events are probably less stressful for newbies.

I'll have some video once I edit it.

 

Wow. That was a lot of fun to read. I'm sure it was a hellofalot more fun to be there and do the driving and the camping. I'd love it if we had a track like that out here. Looking forward to seeing the video.

 

Thanks for the great write up. You were very fortunate to get all that track time. I wouldn't be in all that much of a rush to get a competition license from COMs -- take advantage of as much instruction time as you can get, too.

I have every intention of getting up to Le Circuit Tremblant some day -- this makes it sound all the more worthwhile. See ya at NHIS soon!

 

The video has been imported into my computer, but not edited yet. Turns out that my fastest lap was during the second practice session, in traffic, on a lap where I went off line to point a spec miata by.

I missed recording two full sessions, so the only session I taped with an instructor in the car was the very first one. And I didn't get the sessions where I actually passed a few people.

The video always looks more boring than it is in real life, so I'll probably edit it down to just a few laps...

 

As always, a great write up and detailed account of your experience. Thanks.

 

That sounds like an awesome event. Great write-up, thanks.

I have only been on one track (at AMVIV in LV) and it was a pretty low speed track. I would love to get out on a track like that and really crank the speed up.

 

I still haven't edited the video, but I looked at it more closely this evening... figuring out sector times and such. Splitting the track into thirds, my best time in each third was close to a second faster than my average time for that third, and the difference was usually not made by being faster through the long straight parts - it was by being faster through the rhythm areas, which was not what I was expecting.

The one surprising thing I found was that one of the few times I tried taking turn 4 in third gear, then grabbing second for turn 5 (turn 4 and 5 are the esses) turned out to be my fastest time for that third of the track. Shows that when I tried to downshift from fourth to second in the braking zone for turn 4, I would wind up braking more than I needed to because it took me that long to get the shifting done. So, I guess that isn't too surprising, as shifting is one of the things I really need to work on.

If I had managed to string my best thirds together into one "perfect" lap (for me), it would have been a 2:16.3 - a little over a second faster than my fastest real lap.

In any case, I'll get around to editing the video soon.

 

Here's the in-car video of my three time trial laps:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...34447778477944

 

Jason,
I always love your track report post and videos. Thanks for all the effort you put into them.

In watching the video I see a couple of things. One, it looks like the car is misbehaving, especially in turn ins. Might be a toe thing but also might have to do something with rod ends. It's only something that I 'think' I'm seeing on the video, so I may be way off base, ... but something does not look right at all.

Now, maybe because of what I said above, you seem to be driving more timid then you normally drive. Looks like the car was more willing to go faster then you. The biggest 'sign' here is how much you unwind the wheel on your turnouts to reach the exit cones.

Nice job. Keep up the great work.

 

Thanks Greg, I think.

It didn't feel like anything strange was going on with my car, but I just may not have the experience to notice that it was misbehaving. I did feel more front end bite / rear end slide on turn in than before, but I attributed that to the new front camber plates. What do you think you are seeing? There are way too many miles on my car, so it is possible that something has worn to an unacceptable degree. What should I check, or have someone who knows more about these things check at this weekend's autocross?

As for driving more conservatively, that's probably right. I took me a long time to get even slightly comfortable on that track. It's much more difficult to drive than the Lime Rock or NHIS. And, over the course of the event I got to watch a few cars get flatbed rides back in. So, conservative seemed like the right option.

 

I can see where you might want to be a little conservative. Looks like a lot of Armco and concrete along that track, not much run off room. Unforgiving, shall we say?