Several HPDEs in, looking into mild track upgrades

[FLtrackdays]

Damn, one day off and y’all nail ? it all. Rock is spot on. If you’re in a momentum car you’re forced to drive a decent line and maintain car control. Otherwise you loose speed you can’t regain with horsepower. I honestly don’t know if I could be that disciplined in this Supra. I still look for the fastest MX5 guys at any track event & follow them in the turns. Gives you a great perspective on momentum driving.

Bryan (Razor) dang dude… Spot on! Blue group most dangerous by far. Red, everyone already knows the rules and is driving via 2nd nature with much greater awareness.

And when you finally get hundreds of track days under your belt (not mods), doing what @garudathree said will make you fast as ?. My best time (fastest lap time) at Homestead was following someone I know & respect in the red group. Just having fun, not worried about time. Always more to learn ?

A good friend was just starting out & followed my pro buddies. He went every weekend religiously. Paid for instruction. Traveled with them. The whole 9 yards. He ended up winning all kinds of amateur SCAA events in a matter of no time in a spec MX5. I don’t have that kind of time or money. But what an eye opener how fast you can get when you‘re being taught by the best and following their lead. Well said!

I still think everyone should track this car, regardless. Lots of evidence you don’t have to put a ton of money into the car to go fast or have fun!

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[decodeddiesel]

Good post Mark.

 

[decodeddiesel]

Those that know, know...

 

[decodeddiesel]

Best take away from today was how much tire pressure makes a difference.

Wet skid pad at hot 40+ psi, drifto machino. Was able to initiate, recover, and sustain the drift for over 360 degrees on the skid pad which was a huge accomplishment. The AutoX circuit at this pressure was ?, but still a lot of fun.

Dropped my hot pressure to 34 and couldn't maintain a drift to save my life, but absolutely dominated the AutoX circuit. Three instructors told me I was by far the fastest at AutoX...no one else was even close. They suggested instead of driving fast trying to drift all of the corners ??... I tried with mixed results.

Had the tc and vsc 100% off all day. Friggin love these car control clinics.

 

[Eyelise]

How about this Mustang doing Mustang things in front of me. I still have no idea how he even did that.

I could see how loose he was and predicted it turns prior.

 

[Mnranny818]

Best take away from today was how much tire pressure makes a difference.

Wet skid pad at hot 40+ psi, drifto machino. Was able to initiate, recover, and sustain the drift for over 360 degrees on the skid pad which was a huge accomplishment. The AutoX circuit at this pressure was ?, but still a lot of fun.

Dropped my hot pressure to 34 and couldn't maintain a drift to save my life, but absolutely dominated the AutoX circuit. Three instructors told me I was by far the fastest at AutoX...no one else was even close. They suggested instead of driving fast trying to drift all of the corners ??... I tried with mixed results.

Had the tc and vsc 100% off all day. Friggin love these car control clinics.

I'll be at their Car Control clinic 7/18, looking forward to it!

 

[decodeddiesel]

I'll be at their Car Control clinic 7/18, looking forward to it!

Awesome! Have fun with it!

 

[razorlab]

I could see how loose he was and predicted it turns prior.

Yea same, only reason I put so much pressure on him is because he drag raced me down the straight. I was just surprised he lost it where he did as he was going totally straight at the time. Maybe the Mustang saw a crowd of people to the right?

 

[decodeddiesel]

How about this Mustang doing Mustang things in front of me. I still have no idea how he even did that.

Fragile ego on full display here. Why is it that I see this from Mustangs and Camaros more than anything else combined?

 

[Rocksandblues]

Fragile ego on full display here. Why is it that I see this from Mustangs and Camaros more than anything else combined?

Even though i know they don't, they seem to act like solid axles in the turns still. I am amazed following them on the track how the rear end seems to jerk- not smooth rotation.

 

[razorlab]

Even though i know they don't, they seem to act like solid axles in the turns still. I am amazing following them on the track how the rear end seems to jerk- not smooth rotation.

Yea it's weird too, the GT350's have less torque than me and a longer wheelbase but they seem sooo much more sensitive to throttle out of corners.

 

[rwense]

Full disclosure, I did start tracking with the Supra. It seems like the biggest thing is attitude, and going in assuming you know nothing is probably the best attitude to take in. It really helps, as you said, to get instruction especially on a new track regardless of experience, chatting and riding with people who know the track, and watching Youtube laps of similar cars to get an idea of what to expect.

We're not really spoiled for choice as you guys in the Northeast are for tracks, so most of us do make the trek out to the same track over and over each summer and get in a lot of seat time there.

But I do fully agree the Supra allows you to cover up a lot of mistakes with a bootful of throttle, and it takes some experience to feel where you're losing time.

Totally agreed with this^^^. I too started track driving with my Supra. Up until then I had a good amount of AutoX experience in an STI and an ND2 miata. So a bit of experience with control but obviously AutoX and track are 2 different animals.

Now that I'm 6 events in I'm feeling more confident but still VERY early in the learning stages. IMO 2 things that have really helped me is driving with traction in sport mode first of all. Yes I know its not the fastest but it really eases some of the pressure knowing you've got a bit of help when/if something goes wrong. And when it does you can ID it and try not to replicate it. Ive had great luck with traction in sport mode thus far!

The other thing that helped me atleast was time on my sim rig. again very different animal to real life but its been great to drive each track and just focus on looking ahead, brake release, smooth input, etc.

 

[kaj]

I used to get SUPER fired up about track days with friends. They all quit. I'm doing it all solo. ??

Yea it's weird too, the GT350's have less torque than me and a longer wheelbase but they seem sooo much more sensitive to throttle out of corners.

True. I was on 305 SC3R tires and had to be super careful on corner exit, if I were up in the RPM. The Supra seems more planted to me.

 

[romanLegion9574]

Totally agreed with this^^^. I too started track driving with my Supra. Up until then I had a good amount of AutoX experience in an STI and an ND2 miata. So a bit of experience with control but obviously AutoX and track are 2 different animals.

Now that I'm 6 events in I'm feeling more confident but still VERY early in the learning stages. IMO 2 things that have really helped me is driving with traction in sport mode first of all. Yes I know its not the fastest but it really eases some of the pressure knowing you've got a bit of help when/if something goes wrong. And when it does you can ID it and try not to replicate it. Ive had great luck with traction in sport mode thus far!

The other thing that helped me atleast was time on my sim rig. again very different animal to real life but its been great to drive each track and just focus on looking ahead, brake release, smooth input, etc.

I agree with your thoughts on sport mode; knowing when it kicks in gives me insight into if I've overdone a corner, but still offers some peace of mind that the car isn't going to spin off. It feels great going through sessions not lighting up the VSC but getting faster.

Also, on the Ridge especially, full TC on cuts power in basically every corner and costs you at least 5 seconds a lap if not more. I was fairly consistently losing between 7-10mph out of the hairpin leading onto the main straight with TC fully on vs VSC only.

 

[razorlab]

True. I was on 305 SC3R tires and had to be super careful on corner exit, if I were up in the RPM. The Supra seems more planted to me.

It's that magic BMW diff. I swear, even with 450wtq, my Supra powers out of corners almost like my Evo 10 did.

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