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CoTA 2013

Joined
8 October 2001
Messages
1,570
Location
St. Louis, MO
This is just a teaser, I have to process the video from the in-car camera and from the Z06 chase cam. I do not know when I will get time but I will post it here when I do.

The facilities at CoTA are almost undescribable but for 400 million you would expect that. The place is just amazing, the weather was perfect, and the staff was one of the friendliest group of people I have ever run into at a track. The track while difficult to learn was very rewarding when you got it right as the seconds would fall away on your lap times. Started the weekend in the 2:58's and ended in the 2:37's with lots of traffic on almost every session it was hard to get a clean group of laps together. The track surface is not like anything I have ever driven on before, it was by far the smoothest surface I have driven on, almost like they polished the asphalt, and as a result there was not a lot of grip out there. My NT-01's were singing like street tires, something I was not use to hearing. The good news was tire wear was almost non-existent and everyone was in the same boat. Brake wear is extreme at this track and it was very easy to lock the tires up when braking hard with the limited tire grip. The track got better as the rubber went down but it was not untill the third day that I felt like I had R-Comps on the car. The track was very, very, green and needs a lot more time to rubber in. There were a few spins, a few offs and a few guys finding the walls and armco. I will most definitly go back if CoTA lets us return.

While this track is very technical it is a HP track and he who has it will win, the Z06-CE driven by my friend handed me my lunch and he had time to cook it as well. We usually run much closer track times and the data showed we had very similar corner entry and exit speeds almost everywhere, but with three very long straights and his almost 15 mph top speed difference on those straights all I could do was watch him walk away and hope he hit traffic at the wrong places and I hit it right. He started in the 2:50's as well but as he learned the track and the track improved he was able to run in the 2:30's - 2:32's very consistantly and managed a 2:27.79 golden lap. There was no way I could shave off another 10 seconds with the limited 205/40/17's I was wearing up front. So that is all the excusses I have for today, I do not think I made that bad of a showing for the NSX, there was more than a few 911 and M3 drivers that stopped by to ask what I had done to the car.

Oh, one more thing I ran into Ben Beckert at the track he was running a Radical and was supper fast. Ben was one of the first BEGI twin turbo owners running the Aerochargers then the Garrett conversion and we had a chance to talk a little and catch up on all things NSX. For those that do not know my cars history it is running my version of the new larger Aerochargers in a twin configuration.

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Dave
 
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I was at COTA today and yesterday. I will be doing a turn by turn track notes on motoiq.com soon. Nit a bad time but a splitter and wing (or r-type wing) would help you ALOT here


Billy
 
I was at COTA today and yesterday. I will be doing a turn by turn track notes on motoiq.com soon. Nit a bad time but a splitter and wing (or r-type wing) would help you ALOT here


Billy

Really bad timing, I wish you could have been there when I was there as an instructor, I could have used your help. I look forward to seeing your track notes. I am going to need more than a wing and a splitter to to solve my issues. I am fighting every day not to do anything with the stock suspension as to not ruin it as a street car. I guess you were there for the Grand-AM testing days, very cool.

Dave

What did you think of the track surface?
 
Dave, stock suspension???? There are about 6 levels between stock and "ruin it as a street car". Why not get something at least a little bit better? There is a lot of room there. Not to mention lowering the COG a bit?

Thanks for the video. I wish I could visit COTA. I am going to put it on my list. Please post more videos.

Billy, as always, any of your posts are appreciated, and congrats on your latest wins.
 
Great pics. I drove COTA in the 12C a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately the track was wet and very slick, plus the COTA Big wigs were quite paranoid about letting a bunch of amateurs have access to their $350MM facility.

My 2nd session.

http://youtu.be/D0AM5lX1GWk
 
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Ritesh that's incredibly good video, what's the camera? Thanks for letting me feel what it's like inside an Mp412C. Man those shifts are on the money and FAST.
 
Dave, stock suspension???? There are about 6 levels between stock and "ruin it as a street car". Why not get something at least a little bit better? There is a lot of room there. Not to mention lowering the COG a bit?

I know, I know, I have just been down this road before and hated the car for what it was like on the street. I do have Bilsteins on the lower perch with stock '04 springs and Dali street/race bars so it is on maybe level 2. I am considering ordering new slightly and I mean like Zanardi level spring rates to go to Level 3. I will look into so Aero mods as Billy suggested, but that might limit my cars current OEM sleeper status.

I have a lot of video to process and edit, it will take some time. I have over 900 stills to go through and I bought a DVD of photos from the pro-shooter at the track so there will be lots to go through and I will share.

Dave

- - - Updated - - -

Great pics. I drove COTA in the 12C a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately the track was wet and very slick, plus the COTA Big wigs were quite paranoid about letting a bunch of amateurs have access to their $350MM facility.

Yah, after the weekend with us I do not think they will be in the mood to schedule to many more dates with the "Amateurs". We had several cars go off and damage the playground walls, they were quick to calculate the repair cost and present the bill to the driver. I hope they open the track up to more events. It is a real treat to behold a place like this. I cannot say the track layout stirred up the same level of excitement as Road Atlanta does for me, but the facilities and the overal experience was what made it worth the long trip.

Dave
 
I know, I know, I have just been down this road before and hated the car for what it was like on the street. I do have Bilsteins on the lower perch with stock '04 springs and Dali street/race bars so it is on maybe level 2. I am considering ordering new slightly and I mean like Zanardi level spring rates to go to Level 3. I will look into so Aero mods as Billy suggested, but that might limit my cars current OEM sleeper status.

Dave

Dave you need to ride in my car with the JRZ RS and 600/450 springs. The ride is pretty damn good. Contrary to some of Prime's "it's magic, more compliant than OEM, 'like a Caddy', etc, etc, etc." reviews. It's no Caddy, but it is very comfortable on the street.

I switched from the Monoball tophat to OEM tophat using the Zanardi rubber (harder rubber with vulcanized steel washers). No noise or rattling.

I think the key to having coilovers that you LIKE is OEM tophat/rubber bushings and a high pressure damper like the JRZ, Moton, KW, etc. I thought my Comptech Pros weren't a bad ride, just the noise drove me crazy. Same with the JRZ and the Monoball. The ride seemed worse when it made noises. Once the noises are gone, you realize it's pretty damn compliant.

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First video, this was not my fastest lap but I did manage to hit a 2:40:00 exact so I wanted to share this one first, please do not look at this to find the perfect line there were way to many mistakes made, more to come.

Dave

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Dave you need to ride in my car with the JRZ RS and 600/450 springs. The ride is pretty damn good. Contrary to some of Prime's "it's magic, more compliant than OEM, 'like a Caddy', etc, etc, etc." reviews. It's no Caddy, but it is very comfortable on the street.

I switched from the Monoball tophat to OEM tophat using the Zanardi rubber (harder rubber with vulcanized steel washers). No noise or rattling.

I think the key to having coilovers that you LIKE is OEM tophat/rubber bushings and a high pressure damper like the JRZ, Moton, KW, etc. I thought my Comptech Pros weren't a bad ride, just the noise drove me crazy. Same with the JRZ and the Monoball. The ride seemed worse when it made noises. Once the noises are gone, you realize it's pretty damn compliant.

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Jim, what noise on the comptechs? I totally agree with you on noise... if I didn't have my little squeak it sure would feel more compliant. I have got to figure this out. I have such a love/hate going on right now with these. You tell me to go 1000/600 then go 600/450 yourself? LOL...
 
Jim, what noise on the comptechs? I totally agree with you on noise... if I didn't have my little squeak it sure would feel more compliant. I have got to figure this out. I have such a love/hate going on right now with these. You tell me to go 1000/600 then go 600/450 yourself? LOL...

The Comptech Pro was fairly quite of the highway or smooth roads, but on even roads or seams would rattle and clink (not a clank ;) ) because it had metal spherical bushing on the top and bottom. see pic.

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Are you getting and rattling or clinking or is just the squeak from the damper?
 
Just squeaking. I made videos and KW told me its "normal" pressure escaping to the canisters. But man everytime I hit a big bump... eee-eee... eee-eee... I wonder if all remote reservoir nitrogen dampers do this. I posted this before but no one really knew. I don't have any clicking or clunking at all even though all 4 are on monoballs. The combination of the stiffer springs and the squeaky squeak makes normal driving a bit more tiresome. It's not horrible, certainly not for how it handles, but around the city a bit tiresome. On the highway, No issues.
 
great thread,nice to see the track from these perspectives.Nice to see Ritesh out playing.
 
Looked like a lot of fun out there!
I had to go to Google to find out where the track was: Austin, Texas.
It's the first time I see a circuit in the US that looks like the ones we have here in Europe.
F1 requirement for sure!
 
Just got some more pics to post.

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Sorry to dig this up, but how hard was COTA on brakes Dave?

I've been told its hard on brakes, but nothing specific to the nsx. I'll be running on 215/255 federals 595's with carbotech ax6's. Or XP's if my budget allows. curious if i need to pack extra rotors or pads.
 
Sorry to dig this up, but how hard was COTA on brakes Dave?

I've been told its hard on brakes, but nothing specific to the nsx. I'll be running on 215/255 federals 595's with carbotech ax6's. Or XP's if my budget allows. curious if i need to pack extra rotors or pads.

I am at 400whp so you have to factor that into the equation but every straight at COTA ends at a 90* to 180* left hand turn and there are 2 long straights and 2 short straights. The long back straight I can see 140+mph and the turn at the end of the straight is 45 mph so you have to scrub off a lot of speed, the front straight is almost as bad but you do have a little less braking effort as the braking zone is up hill and therefore less stressful on the brakes but still a heavy braking zone.

I run Tar-rox BBK kit with CarboTech XP20s in the front and XP12s in the rear and I can run off a full set of pads front and rear in a three day event with four sessions each day. Since you have a 97+ the stock brakes with stock rotor sizes should not be an issue, but since the cost to run COTA is so high I would run a new set of rotors and a new set of pads front and rear just to avoid the potential down time of having to deal with brake issues on track. The AX6s are a good street pad but may not be the best choice for COTA, a lot of guys have great success running the XP12s front and XP10s rear on the stock rotors. Make sure you have some sort of brake cooling deflectors, you have the rock shields removed, and you have added some sort of heat protection for your ball joints at the front and rear knuckles.

Best of luck on COTA it can be a tough track to learn, so many corners feed into the next few corners that a single mistake can mess up the next two or three corners and force you way off line, get it right and the track flows fairly well, my biggest complaint is the fact that all the straights end at 45 MPH turns so the F1 guys have the potential to pass. Makes for a track that drives like three or four autocross courses linked together in stead of a long flowing race course.

Dave
 
Thanks for the great advice Dave. With that said, I do not have brake cooling deflectors or ball joint wraps. I won't be running anywhere near the same speed on the back stretch like you (maybe 120ish?) but i'd imagine i could run through the ax6's pretty quick. in 100+ degree weather

I'd figure i'd have to sink about a grand for new rotors/pads and deflectors and debating that or bring my TTB-ish s2000. Which is ready to go, but a part of me wants do a track day in the NSX.

If any other NSX's are showing up. I'd bring mine then. :D
 
If you think you will ever track the car more than the one time, having the track pads and a set of track rotors to swap out for the street stuff is not a bad idea, if not then take a front and rear rotor and another full set of AX6's just in case.

Rotors are available from the aftermarket for $100 - $120 ea. you can even find them for much less but at $35 a rotor I question the quality.

Pads - XP12 for fronts $212.00, XP10 for rears $177, AX6 f $159 r $146

COTA is a great track, and it cost so much to get on that track I would not want to risk any down time with brake issues, at just about any other track I would not be worried about a track side brake job but last time I was at COTA the cost per session is so high that if you miss a session it was like throwing $500+ away.

Have fun you will enjoy it, the higher speed portions of the track are better suited to the NSX than the S2000, but both will be a blast. Also COTA is about the safest place you will find to run an NSX, lots of paved run off and any wall that you can hit is covered in SaferBarier so it would be a softer hit if you did.

Dave
 
I probably definitely will track the car more than once. I'll just stomach the costs and enjoy the car. Thanks for talking me into it.
 
In my experience, those $39 rotors are just as good as OEM. I ran several track days on them with HP+ pads and saw no issue at all. Those several days were enough to use up the pads completely.
 
^ That's great news. I was leery trying out those autozone rotors. I used them all the time on the s2000, but those aren't special like the nsx. I'll pick some up! Thanks!
 
COTA in the Rain

I was feeling a bit inadequate with my times for my first weekend at COTA after seeing yours dip into the 2:37's until I had seen you had about 400HP on tap. I ended up in the 2:42's over 2 days back in January 2021 at COTA, but my 91 NA only has about 276HP at present. Lots of lap traffic and a bit hard to get a clean lap, but what a fun track!

I'll post a link to one of the sessions in the rain, and more can be found in my YouTube channel. (COTA, High Plains, etc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qb6BqPm-SQ
 
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