moochman4life

Spent the weekend with the TrackDaze crew and some new/old buddies at Summit Point Shenandoah Circuit. So, I'm going to truly suprise everyone who reads this and say I had an AWESOME frickin' time this past weekend, haha. Only my second event at Shenandoah, and I feel as if I've gotten sooooo much better. Last time out I blew through my brake pads and I was on all-seasons so it really handicapped me. This time with HP+'s and stickier rubber.

Almost always, with getting better I want to go faster. Ie., faster lap times. My best times came on my second session of the second day (third and fourth sessions there was some serious rain). Didn't have a timing device (technically not authorized), but I followed my vids and recorded the rough times. Best ones were 1:53.xx-1:54.xx. I'm pretty sure I know a couple things I need to do to get "faster", but any advice surely is welcome. All of my mods are in my sig:

1. Get smoother, duh.

2. Although I packed my HT10's, my HP+'s did the trick. It barely looks like I even put a dent in the pads. However, I really never hard-braked anywhere on the course. I always went into as many turns as possible as soft as I could so as not to overwhelm the front end with the weight transfer right before I made a hard turn. You know...understeer. I think by applying a little more hard braking just slightly earlier, and then easing off the brake the closer I get to the turn will help me spread some more weight throughout the cars four corners. This way I don't overload the front and can get better tread contact for all four tires going around turns.

3. On any of the straights, I always let off the throttle WAYYY early. Like, getting a super top speed wasn't important (and it's not). My objective the entire weekend was to get smoother. So, I sacrificed some speed. I wasn't impatient and always trying to get around every car at every opportunity. However, I know I could've carried a little more speed towards turns and would've been fine with my HP+'s brake-wise.

4. Because every time I go to the track I firmly envision driving her home in one piece, I got a little apprehensive about track-out speeds on a couple of the straights. However, the more comfortable I got in my car on the track, I got a little faster. Then I realized that my car actually wasn't going to go off the track. I just need to let go of some of that "fear" that I'm going trash my car. As long as I'm holding my lines and not getting crazy, I'm going to be fine.

No R-comps, no dedicated track wheels, no racing seats. Everything I do to my car is practical. Rule number one is to never **** off my wife on a road trip because the ride is so rough she can't take a nap. Trust me, this is rule number one. Therefore, no dedicated track anything. Everything else is game, though.

Attached a vid for everyone to check out. It's about 15 minutes, sorry for the length, but it was one of my favs. I thoroughly enjoyed running down the hard-top red Miata. He had something cooking in that car. The owner and I had conversations throughout the weekend. That's one of the things I love about these events: on the track you might pair up, have fun, trail, observe, etc., another guy (genderless term, btw) who drives something totally different, takes different lines, has a different skillset and most of the time have a blast doing it...then when you get done with the session you wind up giving all kinds of compliments, receiving all kinds of compliments, and putting a face to the car. You make buddies this way. Happened the entire weekend with almost everyone in my run group (green). Only the guy with 370z (in the vid) and two M3 dudes refused to even look at me unless it was to mean-mug when I was driving by in the paddock. However, I met so many cool people, and it was absolutely enjoyable talking cars and the track the entire weekend. Pretty cool to get a lot of it on video, too.

ALSO, got to ride with Argonaut (Brad) in his vette. It was a blast! Dude is a beast in that thing. Thanks for the ride and snapping those pics!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHbARrPjP-s

SamsBlueGT

Really awesome read man, I have GOT to make it out to Summit! Hoping to later this summer at least! What kind of video camera do you use? I just picked up a GoPro Hero camera, planning on using that at the strip and if I ever make it out to Summit.

Argonaut

Here is a picture of Greg's mustang. This is coming out of the 'corkscrew', the slowest turn on the track. He'd be doing roughly 35MPH here with that Supercharger just kicking in...LOL. Heading into 'Little Bend', arguably the most important corner on the track. This is good positioning, toward the right side of the track is exactly where you need to be so you can take 'Little Bend' at the highest possible speed. Note to Greg - you are moving your hands on the wheel too much...shuffling. Keep those mits at 9 and 3 (with possible exception of the corkscrew). Good job though! Your car has some wicked acceleration.

Argonaut

Here is a track map. Green = acceleration. Red = braking. Black = coasting (i.e. no detectable longitudinal acceleration). The 'Ski Jump' is a nearly airborn situation. The straight before it is uphill and then you crest the hill which greatly unsettles the car and wiggles the hips, thats why its black. You can see the Corkscrew and Little Bend turns pointed out in previous post:

Argonaut

There was a fellow in my run group with a Ferrari 430 Challenge car (its a full factory race car, not street legal) he recently purchased and had on track for the first time. Below is a picture of it and a video of me chasing him down. Its always fun to chase down supercars but I really can't crow about this - he was obviously babying the car and Shenandoah, with all its concrete walls, is not a place where you want to take a 100K car off track. Fun nonetheless however:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUeiAMqlWB8

moochman4life

I use the same camera. I love that thing. I have it set up to capture video inverted from my rear window. I know guys like to use mounts that attach to headrests, but I like being able to see everything that is going on with me inside the car. Remember, the vids are cool but I'm using them more as a tool for helping me get better. Believe it or not, a 1080p 30+ minute vid is like 4.x gig. Just get the 32gb chip and you'll be fine.

Dude, everyone who lives in NOVA/DC and loves the rush of driving cars should hit up Summit Point for an HPDE once in their life. They are so educational.

What branch you in? I'm Navy.

Hooyah.

moochman4life

Brad, thanks man. And thanks for noticing the hand-shuffling. That's the kind of feedback I need. Matter of fact, though, my instructor never mentioned that at all. Interesting because he still solo'd me after that last session. And believe it or not, I even worked on hand placement myself, and made sure I wasn't shuffling too much. Ex., if I had to slide the right hand up on the wheel, I would make sure my left hand always had a light grip. Then after my right hand moved and re-gripped, then "slide" my left hand back to 9-9.5. Made sure that if I was moving one hand on the wheel, the other one was attached. Is this wrong? I defintitely wasn't perfect or even close. Maybe it's just the inconsistencies that I need to continue to work on?

Unfortunately, one can't really see what's going on with my left hand because of camera placement...so I guess that kinda debunks my whole "I like the camera mounted there because I can see everything going on in the car" theory.

moochman4life

I was looking at this map from my phone on the train ride home yesterday, so it was kind of small...and I can't see it on my work PC (now). However, I'm pretty sure I was hitting all of these except for one. The black patch before the bridge on the bridge straight. I wasn't WOT, but I did have some throttle. I guess that's bad ju-ju?

Argonaut

I use to shuffle my hands a lot, it was a habit I picked up when autocrossing, where the turns are typically much tighter and you have to shuffle. On a track it can't always be avoided depending on the particular track and the car, but it should be minimized. You should have both hands firmly gripping the wheel at all possible times because you need to "feel" what the car is doing and be able to react instantly. This is especially true when getting on the power, if the tail end starts to come out you need to react instantly and precisely and you simply can't do that with one hand (although I have to admit I've seen video of John Hennesy - father of the C5 corvette - driving one handed better than I can with two). Also concentrate on keeping your hands at the 9 and 3 points rather than say 10 and 2. Its gives you more room to work with. Is somewhat of a preference thing, some guys like different hand positions, but 9 and 3 is where you should be right now.

Norm Peterson

mooch - some things that I noticed watching all of your videos last night. Understand that my "really hard driving" experience is limited to autocross at this point.

Noisy tires.

Lots of small right hand repositioning that does not appear to be justified by the amount the wheel was further steered. Maybe it's a difference in the distance back from the steering wheel that you and I sit, but I've rarely needed much more steering even at autocross than I could comfortably manage without shifting hand position.

I was itching for a camera angle that would pick up the left turn apexing a little better, and body 'english' at the kitchen table wasn't helping me much
And to have better hearing to pick up your instructor's spoken guidance.


Norm