BlueAdder
02-26-2017, 12:03 PM
Since snakes don't have legs :)
23385
^___ You can notice my blue tape art. Since only the hood is clear wrapped, I had to tape parts of the roof and places on the wing that may get dinged. There were a couple of spots on the roof tape where it caught some small debris but the tape did its job. I didn't have numbers and since blue on blue wouldn't have worked, I used some yellow frog tape which kept coming off...
I had a track day at MRLS this past Friday and it was great!
We got really lucky because the bay area (including the Monterey Bay) has been really wet since the beginning of the year. Thursday was somewhat decent and Friday turned out to be a beautiful day in Seaside/Sand city, which is where Laguna Seca is located.
The day before the track day I purchased Ross Bentley's virtual track walk video. That cost me some $48 but quite honestly, it was well worth it. It's about 1h40 and it walks you through every single turn on the track, gives you reference marks, turn in points etc. Great stuff. I watched it before going to bed on Thursday night but since I'm not getting any younger, I forgot a lot of it by the morning :D
I got up at 5:30 and left at 6:00, got some gas and drove to the track. My trailer isn't ready yet since I still have to get the e-tracks and straps so I decided to drive down. It's only 40min from home so I thought that it would be fine. That's the reason why I didn't install the splitter extension nor the diffuser ones. So, my ACR-E was an ACR for the day. I did remove the louvers though.
I set up the suspensions according to the booklet and it seems that it worked reasonably well.
I adjusted the tire pressure throughout the day but since I couldn't remember the recommendations, I aimed to have 35/29 hot. It was fine but I did have a few moments of 'squidlyness' but I'll do better next time.
I was pitted next to a dude who had a couple of awesome Lotus cars:
311
23386
Exige V6 Cup car
23387
He drove the 311 which wasn't even broken in yet... I think he should have gone into a slower group but despite going at a pedestrian speed, he wasn't a problem on track.
In the first session, last lap, the bloke a 2007 Exige spun right in front of me in T3 somehow and I managed to avoid him but I almost had to come to a stop because after his spin he was still going backwards :eek:
Right after we went back to the paddocks he came to apologize, which was unnecessary because it happens. Really nice guy actually. He didn't have any more troubles for the rest of the day. I went to check his car out of course because I love the Exige. Another dude who drove an Ariel came by and we chatted for a little while, he knew that I had the Viper (the only one there sadly enough) and he asked me what I thought my lap times were. I told him that I don't have a timer for one and secondly, it was my first track day with the snake and how fast I was going was not important. I guesstimated that I was doing like 2min or something rather absurd :D
I passed him in the next session and when I was gassing up, he was like: "right, 2min my butt!" as he went on to show me his own lap times. He was doing 1:50 and he said that once I passed him, he never saw me again. I'm guessing that I was doing mid 40s which is pretty slow but like I said, I didn't care. I was concentrating on hitting every single apex and trying to remember that darn video.
The Viper was a star that day. Just about everyone in the paddocks came up to snap pics and tell me how awesome the car was. It was really nice to talk to all those people and it sure was a change from bringing my Focus ST which is largely ignored by everybody :D
Then there was that gem:
23388
All in all, it was a really good day.
Things that I need to improve on:
Turn 1 (front straight), I should be accelerating until I approach T2 but it's still a daunting task for me. I think it's problem with the line I take.
I brake way too early for T2. Should brake later and harder since the brakes are brillant!
I couldn't hit the 2nd apex but that was on purpose because there was mud right there
I could go faster in T3 for sure since I barely under steer there (not fast enough)
Ditto T4
Turn 5 is OK but obviously I short shifted all day long and I could probably go a lot faster there
Turn 6, same as T3/T4
The Corkscrew. I brake too much there too but I prefer to brake before the hump rather than after because I don't yet trust the awesome brakes. That being said, that one tree is a great reference point and I always ended up in the right spot, on the blue/white strip at the apex down the hill.
T9 is so tricky.
T11, well I basically waste the whole lap right there. Lots of work needed
Proof that I'm slow
23389
Slow but at least I hit the apexes all day long or at least 95% of the time.
One more thing, It looks like the car didn't burn oil. I checked my oil level after each session (5 minutes after) and there was no noticeable change. I checked yesterday morning as well, and it looks like the level is the same as before the track day.
If the weather is nice this week, I'll take the car for an oil change (since I can't do it myself for the time being) and I'll ask them to keep me some oil that I'll get analyzed.
Ditto from GotBlueMilk took some pictures that I might purchase: http://www.gotbluemilk.com/web170224/46/index.html
23385
^___ You can notice my blue tape art. Since only the hood is clear wrapped, I had to tape parts of the roof and places on the wing that may get dinged. There were a couple of spots on the roof tape where it caught some small debris but the tape did its job. I didn't have numbers and since blue on blue wouldn't have worked, I used some yellow frog tape which kept coming off...
I had a track day at MRLS this past Friday and it was great!
We got really lucky because the bay area (including the Monterey Bay) has been really wet since the beginning of the year. Thursday was somewhat decent and Friday turned out to be a beautiful day in Seaside/Sand city, which is where Laguna Seca is located.
The day before the track day I purchased Ross Bentley's virtual track walk video. That cost me some $48 but quite honestly, it was well worth it. It's about 1h40 and it walks you through every single turn on the track, gives you reference marks, turn in points etc. Great stuff. I watched it before going to bed on Thursday night but since I'm not getting any younger, I forgot a lot of it by the morning :D
I got up at 5:30 and left at 6:00, got some gas and drove to the track. My trailer isn't ready yet since I still have to get the e-tracks and straps so I decided to drive down. It's only 40min from home so I thought that it would be fine. That's the reason why I didn't install the splitter extension nor the diffuser ones. So, my ACR-E was an ACR for the day. I did remove the louvers though.
I set up the suspensions according to the booklet and it seems that it worked reasonably well.
I adjusted the tire pressure throughout the day but since I couldn't remember the recommendations, I aimed to have 35/29 hot. It was fine but I did have a few moments of 'squidlyness' but I'll do better next time.
I was pitted next to a dude who had a couple of awesome Lotus cars:
311
23386
Exige V6 Cup car
23387
He drove the 311 which wasn't even broken in yet... I think he should have gone into a slower group but despite going at a pedestrian speed, he wasn't a problem on track.
In the first session, last lap, the bloke a 2007 Exige spun right in front of me in T3 somehow and I managed to avoid him but I almost had to come to a stop because after his spin he was still going backwards :eek:
Right after we went back to the paddocks he came to apologize, which was unnecessary because it happens. Really nice guy actually. He didn't have any more troubles for the rest of the day. I went to check his car out of course because I love the Exige. Another dude who drove an Ariel came by and we chatted for a little while, he knew that I had the Viper (the only one there sadly enough) and he asked me what I thought my lap times were. I told him that I don't have a timer for one and secondly, it was my first track day with the snake and how fast I was going was not important. I guesstimated that I was doing like 2min or something rather absurd :D
I passed him in the next session and when I was gassing up, he was like: "right, 2min my butt!" as he went on to show me his own lap times. He was doing 1:50 and he said that once I passed him, he never saw me again. I'm guessing that I was doing mid 40s which is pretty slow but like I said, I didn't care. I was concentrating on hitting every single apex and trying to remember that darn video.
The Viper was a star that day. Just about everyone in the paddocks came up to snap pics and tell me how awesome the car was. It was really nice to talk to all those people and it sure was a change from bringing my Focus ST which is largely ignored by everybody :D
Then there was that gem:
23388
All in all, it was a really good day.
Things that I need to improve on:
Turn 1 (front straight), I should be accelerating until I approach T2 but it's still a daunting task for me. I think it's problem with the line I take.
I brake way too early for T2. Should brake later and harder since the brakes are brillant!
I couldn't hit the 2nd apex but that was on purpose because there was mud right there
I could go faster in T3 for sure since I barely under steer there (not fast enough)
Ditto T4
Turn 5 is OK but obviously I short shifted all day long and I could probably go a lot faster there
Turn 6, same as T3/T4
The Corkscrew. I brake too much there too but I prefer to brake before the hump rather than after because I don't yet trust the awesome brakes. That being said, that one tree is a great reference point and I always ended up in the right spot, on the blue/white strip at the apex down the hill.
T9 is so tricky.
T11, well I basically waste the whole lap right there. Lots of work needed
Proof that I'm slow
23389
Slow but at least I hit the apexes all day long or at least 95% of the time.
One more thing, It looks like the car didn't burn oil. I checked my oil level after each session (5 minutes after) and there was no noticeable change. I checked yesterday morning as well, and it looks like the level is the same as before the track day.
If the weather is nice this week, I'll take the car for an oil change (since I can't do it myself for the time being) and I'll ask them to keep me some oil that I'll get analyzed.
Ditto from GotBlueMilk took some pictures that I might purchase: http://www.gotbluemilk.com/web170224/46/index.html