Thunderhill Track Day Recap 7/10

[Hrant]

What's your take on left-foot braking? Do you use it to slow you down on turns where you know you are not going to be downshifting?

Sylvan, I am old school and too old to teach this dog new tricks. Plus, I tried left foot braking a few times and didn't find the peddle placement convenient for my left foot to make this work. I am sure practice would help. But I am happy with my pace :wink:

And if you notice, I think Ken is pretty much 3rd gear too in the areas you are shifting to 2nd.

 

[Sylvan]

Sylvan,

Really nice driving!

Hrant's comments on Turn 5 are spot on, that is the one area that I thought that needed the most improvement.

Making use of the most of the inside berm on the apex of turn 12 and going over the outside berm between 14 and 15 is the fastest line through there so as long as they don't have any cones to block the area, it's all good Just remember that if you ever do a track day in the wet you will want to avoid the painted surfaces so you will more than likely revert back to what used to be the late apex classic line entering 11 and 14 as well as the one at turn 8.

In regards to Hrant's comments about the early turn in at other areas of the track. It all has to do with how fast the car is going through the turn and wether or not the car is at the limit of adhesion and is slipping/drifting through the apex or not. It is kind of hard to explain to people who have not experienced it before, but from your video it seems that you are already doing it at some turns like turn 11.

The attached video is from one that I took at Thunderhill on Tuesday that might provide a reference as far as the line goes for your next track event with the Cyclone. It should also give you an idea about the changes in the turn in point once you get the car to be on a slip/drift before hitting the apex.

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oMn4riZdKQo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks for the video, that was cool. Pretty fast time, too! It didn't even look like you were working very hard, but then again videos can be deceiving.

 

[Track Addict]

FWIW, Just making sure that the NSX folks are not misinformed, there is no way in hell that you can drive between 9 to 5 flat out on a NSX when running THill backwards, 8 is real turn so are turns 7 and 6 when you are carrying speed. On a car with low HP and a lot of grip like a spec miata it might be possible, on a NSX you will go off track on 8, 7, 6 and even before you hit 5 if you are driving flat out it simply can't be done.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that I was flat with the NSX, I was in my old MR2 WOT through that section, should have said that :biggrin: I was disappointed when NASA didn't plan to run T-Hill backwards this year. There's always next season.

 

[92 white 0650]

Re: Like Bob Uecker

I had a front row seat with Sylvan today. After driving my car for 4 so-so race sessions, I had more fun riding along for 7-8 laps in his NSX.

And after riding with another driver and spending over 20 busy minutes debriefing him, I had very little to say to Sylvan other than a few comments which mostly boiled down to "good job, smooth and consistent, keep it up."

But the kicker is that I didn't remember that Sylvan was the focus of this thread til I logged on just now.

Thanks Sylvan for a fun and relaxing ride.

 

[Sylvan]

Re: Like Bob Uecker

I had a front row seat with Sylvan today. After driving my car for 4 so-so race sessions, I had more fun riding along for 7-8 laps in his NSX.

And after riding with another driver and spending over 20 busy minutes debriefing him, I had very little to say to Sylvan other than a few comments which mostly boiled down to "good job, smooth and consistent, keep it up."

But the kicker is that I didn't remember that Sylvan was the focus of this thread til I logged on just now.

Thanks Sylvan for a fun and relaxing ride.

Hey Ted, it was great to meet you today!
I'm glad you enjoyed the ride. I was making a conscious effort to dial it down a notch since it was the last session of the day, and I didn't want to make any foolish mistakes that might put you at risk. So it probably felt a bit more relaxed than some of my earlier sessions. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be seeing me out there again.

 

[Sylvan]

By the way, I appreciate everyone's advice given earlier. I ended up leaving it in 3rd most of the time, only shifting to 2nd entering into turn 11 and then 14 just before the front straight. It felt smoother and I was able to focus on my lines. Surprisingly it didn't feel like I was losing any speed by staying in 3rd. So it may be that I was slowing down too much just to get it into 2nd before. Also my coolant temps stayed lower this way.

Anyway, my best lap of the day (Aug 8) was 2:16.5 with the cyclone. Not bad, I think that was about on par or slightly better than my previous day of 2:14 bypass. There was definitely more room for improvement, especially on Turn 1, as you can see on the video because I was caught in traffic (I'll post later).

 

[Sylvan]

2:16.5 lap, my fastest from Monday. I'm actually surprised this one was my fastest. It looked like there was room for improvement in a lot of areas.

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GhGgAotRyaE?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="853" height="510" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>

 

[Track Addict]

That looked very fun and quick! Congrats on the good lap time there. Saw a few things, but nothing more seat time couldn't fix :biggrin: Keep it up and thanks for posting!

Only tip I'll give you; On turn 2 turn your head and "stare" at the corner exit...It really helps.

Good job.


Edit: I have mixed feelings about the "Cyclone" at T-hill. I really like the thrill factor of using the bypass.

 

[ac011]

Nice to meet you Sylvan. Great driving on The video, looks like there are lots of traffic on solo group.

2:16.5 lap, my fastest from Monday. I'm actually surprised this one was my fastest. It looked like there was room for improvement in a lot of areas.

 

[Sylvan]

Hey Anthony, it was nice meeting you too. I hope you had fun on your first track day! Are you going to do it again?

 

[ac011]

It was great! My 20 years old car did pretty well :biggrin: I did boiled my brake fluid on the last session, so I plan to upgrade some better fluid and rotors next time.

I am going to Infineon on Sept, 25 for NASA.

 

[Sylvan]

It was great! My 20 years old car did pretty well :biggrin: I did boiled my brake fluid on the last session, so I plan to upgrade some better fluid and rotors next time.

I am going to Infineon on Sept, 25 for NASA.

Glad to hear you're going out again. I use the ATE super blue or type 200 fluid and it holds up very well against boiling. It's also really cheap ($15/L at TireRack, compare to ~ $16/0.5L for Motul 600), so I think it's the best bang-for-the-buck DOT4 fluid out there.

I also stuck a stainless steel shim in between my front pads and pistons, basically I just cut a sheet of 20 gauge 304 stainless steel with some shears and wedged it in there. The idea is that it reduces the heat transfer to the pistons and fluid. Whether it works or not is debatable, but my pedal did seem to stay more firm throughout the whole day after putting them in. Some websites sell these made out of titanium for like $90 bucks, but I got a 12"x12" sheet of 304 stainless for $26 at Metal Supermarkets. The thermal conductivity is just about as crappy as Titanium, for a fraction of the price! I was sweating like crazy trying to cut the sheet by hand though.