Share Your Track Day & Autox Experiences

[Sam Strano]

It was good to finally meet you Jason. I only wish it could have been last year at the school I was slated to teach until my Mom passed away..... Once Greg mentioned it, I vaguely remembered him and his Mini from the Evolution School he took a few years back. I'm terrible with names, but he looked familiar before he told me, I just couldn't place him. If it makes you feel any better, I was every bit as venomous about the grid fiasco for 2nd drivers... Once the heavy National stuff is over we'll have to try and get together where I can run my GT against yours and/or get your butt to DC/Autocrossers Inc events!!!!

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[JiminVirginia]

Last weekend I ran in the Blue Group at an SCCA PDX and played tag most of the day with a friend's Caterham. No video, sorry. But I can testify that a Stranoparts suspension set up with Nitto NT-01s works very well, here at Turn 1 and elsewhere on Summit Main.



Jim

[Sleeper_08]

Yesterday was my third track day this season and my second at Mosport. The event was Mustangs At Mosport and the cars were limited to Mustangs or any other Ford powered car. They had 45 cars ranging from a variety of Mustangs to 2 Ford GTs and 2 Cobra replicas.

Mosport is a 2.5 mile high speed circuit located about an hour from Toronto

http://www.mosport.com/trackmap.htm

There is a total of 10 turns including 2 tricky blind left handers and the famous Moss Corner, The large elevation changes add to the challenge. The straight is over a mile long.

The cars were split into three groups, slow, intermediate and fast, with each running 20 minutes in sequence. The entry fee was a bargain at $200 Cdn. Passing was limited to the back straight and then only if you were waved past.

My main objective was to improve upon my fastest time from the previous event of just under 2 minutes. I was able to cut almost 8 seconds off and got down to a best lap of 1:52.2 which is an average speed of about 79 mph.

The car ran like a charm and I felt very comfortable with it on the track.

Here is an interesting video clip from the morning's session

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU-jWAteKaY

When I get a chance I'll post some more video.

[Sam Strano]

Day 1, 3rd run in the wet (really slick on Hoosier's):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_zix78MNHs

Day 2, 3rd run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0LkxvH2gn0

[Argonaut]

Vacation at the Track:

Just got back from vacation at the Jersey Shore. Spent 5 days at NJMP on both the Thunderbolt and Lightning courses. Some observations:

- First time on Thunderbolt. Its a 2.25 mile track. Fairly easy track with only a couple technical turns. Only one hard brake zone at the end of the main straight. Overall its pretty high speed. Its in great shape, smooth as glass. 3 days in the dry, one in the rain.
- 1 day on Lightning, in the rain. A shorter track and perhaps a little more technical. There are two blind right handers over the crest of a hill where its really easy to get the car light and drift to the outside. One 911 driver found that out and put his beautiful car into a tire wall, sad to see.
- I drove with the Porsche club. On the rain day at Lightning lots of guys bailed, so they combined the intermediate and advanced groups. Liberal passing rules - anywhere with a point by. There were several Porsche Cup cars there on Hoosier rains with full areo packages. They were unbelievable fast in the wet, lapped me two times per half hour session.
- I have little experience in the rain and don't enjoy it much but I have to say it is an excellent teaching experience. You have to be very smooth and precise. The rear end will come around so easily that it really teaches you throttle modulation. Cars were going off left and right but fortunately I kept it on the track (I was pretty cautious).
- At about 120 on the Thunderbolt front straight my powersteering hose blew off, dumping oil all over the hot headers. Big ball of smoke, everyone thought I blew the engine. That was an interesting experience. One new clamp and a quart of oil and I was back in the next session.
- I ran Nitto NT01s on the front and Nitto 555RII on the rear. Worked pretty well, the front stuck like glue and the rear was exceedingly easy to steer with the throttle.
- Chinese rotors S**K big time. Pieces of junk.

[Sleeper_08]

Yesterday was my fourth track day this year and my second time at Toronto Motorsports Park. It was another Exotic car day and we had four Mustangs there. Three with FI and one with without but a fast driver.

Here is a video with data of one of my quicker laps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKMiYWaoG3Q

Here here is a video of me and an M6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcQyOHsSTDk

He has been sitting on my bumper for a few corners so I let him past and gave chase. Fortunately the train of students pulled off and got out of the way!

The car ran fine but it sounds like the rear pads are finished. I'll check them out later today and report the results in a new thread.

[Vapour Trails]

I've gone to 3 autocross meets in the last 4 days. Last night I finished 14th out of 43 cars on nearly dead V710s, and we have several national quality drivers in our club. I feel like I'm improving and it makes the entire experience much more fun.

[Sam Strano]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nKfzwuUN-U

[Sleeper_08]

Sam

Nice to see another nice run by a master.

Based on your enthusiasm at the end it looks like you were happy with the result.

I see the lateral G readings were peaking at over 1.2 G at times. What tires are you running?

[Sam Strano]

I was pretty happy with it. First run was a mess. Second run was to get one in the bank. That run I could be a little more aggressive. That run won me two more Hoosiers. ($644 worth). Thank you Hoosier for your great contingency program!

Tires are Hoosier A6's size 295/30-18 on stock sized wheels, 18x8.5" Volk RE30's. Not bad for a car without a million trick mods...