2014 TA Track Attack Season 4 opener Le Circuit Mont Tremblant Quebec

[Bruce H.]

On Tuesday morning the car was still on the lift from winter storage with no wheels on it. I had new rubber mounted at the tire shop waiting for pickup, with my first track day of the season scheduled at Mosport for today. The forecast had been predicting a ton of rain for Mosport today, but a beautiful day yesterday for an event I had been considering at LCMT, so quick change of plans! I emailed the LCMT organizer to ask if he had room for one more, packed a bag, picked up the wheels and installed, unhooked the battery tender, checked the oil, programmed the nav for the 6+ hour drive and was on my way shortly after noon! Grabbed a night's hotel room when I got there around 7 pm and was at the track ready to kick ass bright and early the next morning!

Our cold winters and cool spring and fall weather limit the use of R-compound tires to less than 6 months when you strictly observe their 50F/10C lower temp limits. But the nice part about storing your car for much of the year is the anticipation and excitement of finally driving it again for what seems like the first time, and experiencing the AWE all over again! This would be my fourth 'first time", and that feeling of awe never gets old.

And the enjoyment of tracking it never gets old either. The car fits me like a well-tailored suit. I'm barely conscious of the low windshield header, snug interior, heated sills, limited 3/4 view, but keenly aware of the purposeful controls, excellent driving position, very comfortable ballistic seats, fabulous engine, and slick 6 speed with close ratio gears that always seem optimized for road course duty at the many tracks I've driven. Brakes are strong and resist fading with fluid change. Handling and balance are absolutely superb. The car has no vices. It does everything you ask very well, and does nothing you don't. The TA has been the perfect touring and track day special for our needs, and among the most durable track day cars money can buy. When it comes to stock production cars the TA is pretty much only surpassed by the incredible ACR.

I joined this mostly Porsche instructor/club racer private open lapping day with a buddy in his AMG GT S. This short video shows the technical aspects of the track in the gorgeous mountain setting that combines to make it Randy Pobst's favorite in North American! We swap positions part way through, and the last 1:54 lap was one of my quicker ones. The rear was pretty loose as tire pressures rose to 36.5 psi before getting bled down to the 34f/32r that I find much better. Car is bone stock other than upgraded brake fluid.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/3yjcbtsC2xc

[Arizona Vipers]

Great post, great video! You were killing him on braking into the slow corners due to your bigger rubber and much less curb weight, but he was killing you accelerating out of the corners due to the paddles and gearing. Those cars are massively underrated in horsepower. If you look for dyno videos, these cars are putting down their crank ratings at the wheels, like most Mercedes vehicles.

What tires were you running?

[Bruce H.]

Arizona, you nicely summed up the relative strengths I experience against a number of cars on track, particularly those with AWD or massive torque and a DCT or auto that keep them on boil everywhere! I'm on the stock Corsa tires...great for travelling to distant tracks where you can encounter serious rain, and kick-ass well enough for me on the track.

I find the car out-brakes pretty much everything. Coming into a tight corner is a great place to shorten the gap and hopefully set up a pass on exit. My brakes were actually a bit weak this day and as it turns out I had let the pads wear too thin. The outers still looked thicker than backer plate thickness at the end of the day but the inners must have been less, or worn really unevenly, as one of the fronts went metal on metal on the trip home. On the back straight I was having to start braking even before the first marker, and I just stopped accelerating when I hit the top of 4th to reduce speed...and to keep back a bit from my GT S buddy when he was in the lead. Hopefully the rotor isn't toast, and I won't make that mistake again...especially when I come out to meet you guys in the south and west hopefully this fall!!!

I've always felt grip a bit lacking when accelerating out of tighter corners. LCMT has two that are particularly challenging. Exiting the esses, where you might have noticed me trying a different line in an attempt to lessen the fast right-left transition, and the hairpin where you brake into a steep rise, unweight over the crest as you turn-in, and the serious off-camber section immediately after the apex. I fault the Bilstein damper valving as being way too firm for the spring rates in "Race Mode" in these type of conditions and ran the damper "Street Mode" here the whole day for improved compliance. Users of MCS and the Tractive systems note the serious improvements in this aspect...and I've been having way too much fun while wondering if it's really a problem I need a solution for. Street mode helps a lot, as does 2 psi less in the rear tires, but I have yet to do serious data-logging to test the accuracy of my butt!

[soltic]

My bad Bruce when we spoke yesterday I thought you were going to Mt-Tremblant, not already coming back!

You definitely disn't miss anything @ Mosport, as I said no one else showed - I went to socialize and supervise a friend - his Quattro appeared to like the rain.

IMG_2151.jpg

Since you are one of the big local track rats why don't you simply start a new thread chronicling your 2017 Track Season that we can all throw pics and stuff into from the dates we all are together?

[Scott_in_fl]

Gorgeous track! Nice video. To my ear it seems you could have been a gear lower coming out of most of those turns. Banging one more gear right before turn in would have probably had you spinning perfectly for the exit. There is a switchback section where you have a right, followed by a short chute, and then a left. That short chute is begging for another downshift just before you dive into the left. It takes some quick footwork, but practicing it is fun. My hunch is that the AMG GT driver was all over the gears and could be a big part of the reason how he could stay up front.

[TA Two Oh]

Bruce
Amazing write up. Amazing trip. Amazing car. I look forward to meeting you at a track soon!

[Bruce H.]

You definitely disn't miss anything @ Mosport, as I said no one else showed - I went to socialize and supervise a friend - his Quattro appeared to like the rain.

Since you are one of the big local track rats why don't you simply start a new thread chronicling your 2017 Track Season that we can all throw pics and stuff into from the dates we all are together?

I ended up driving all the way back home after coming off track a 4 pm, just in time to catch the news at 11. I was hoping the weather forecast would change and I'd do the Mosport day also.

I hope your R8 friend found it to be a great day to hone some skills...and learn the wet line!

That's an idea for a local tracks thread but if my 2017 season plans come together my TA is going Trans America again in a big way

Gorgeous track! Nice video. To my ear it seems you could have been a gear lower coming out of most of those turns. Banging one more gear right before turn in would have probably had you spinning perfectly for the exit. There is a switchback section where you have a right, followed by a short chute, and then a left. That short chute is begging for another downshift just before you dive into the left. It takes some quick footwork, but practicing it is fun. My hunch is that the AMG GT driver was all over the gears and could be a big part of the reason how he could stay up front.

The video shows a spirited lead and follow session where he was showing me the line through a couple of sections that I was never familiar enough with to be able to really commit to. Dropping a gear in some of the tighter spots often isn't any faster as I was already feathering the throttle in many exits to avoid wheel spin with the Corsas.

Bruce
Amazing write up. Amazing trip. Amazing car. I look forward to meeting you at a track soon!

Thanks Doug, and really looking forward to that too!


I'll be able to review more video footage on Sunday and see if there's some more exciting bits to post. But if there's any Z06 or GT3 fans out there just waiting to see one lay a beating on a TA I'm afraid you're going to be a little disappointed, lol.

[LmeaViper]

I like watching your video's. That is the first time I saw you run the SRT perf screen in metric.

Never drove that track when I lived out east, but it looks amazing.