Blog Title: Adventures in Racing
Inspired by DG's old Talon Digest race reports, I've been chronicling my own race experiences. You'll find write-ups here dating back to 2007, although I've been active in autox & time attack since 1999.
Here are my adventures in racing. Hope you find them interesting / entertaining.
Here are my adventures in racing. Hope you find them interesting / entertaining.
Autox @ Truro, NS - Aug 07, 2011
Posted 09-14-2011 at 07:32 AM by Scott McIntyre
My second outing in the Talon for 2011... and it was August! 
After fixing my cracked exhaust manifold and melted oil dip stick, I was ready for action.
The venue for this event was in a rather small & tight parking lot in Truro. That meant a small & tight course, which does not favor my car. It's also somewhat bumpy with lots of big dips. So I wasn't expecting a stellar performance.
I mounted the big Goodyear race tires and set the pressures the same as at the previous lapping day. I had also raised the ride height of the car about 1cm as the tires had been rubbing pretty hard on the fender arches at the track.
After the event I read a magazine tire test article where they tested the Goodyear tire against the Hoosier A6 and a max-performance street tire (Hankook RS3). I was disappoint to learn that the Goodyear was a full second slower than the Hoosier and a mere 0.5 second faster than the street tire!
Considering that they were testing the softer autox compound Goodyear, that would mean my harder road race compound is even slower... Likely on-par with the street tire, or even slower. Ugh. Oh well, at least I got them for 1/2 price (promotional offer).
I also learned from the article that the Goodyears like much higher than conventional air pressures, to the tune of +15psi more. So evidently I had been running mine much too low. Next event I try adding more pressure to see if they grip any better.
After fixing my cracked exhaust manifold and melted oil dip stick, I was ready for action.
The venue for this event was in a rather small & tight parking lot in Truro. That meant a small & tight course, which does not favor my car. It's also somewhat bumpy with lots of big dips. So I wasn't expecting a stellar performance.
This time I tried out my new laptop mount and captured ECMLink logs of each run. Plus I had my Dell pocket PC with MaxQData running for GPS-based data acquisition. And I had my new Drift HD170 action camera setup. A total geekfest. lol!
I mounted the big Goodyear race tires and set the pressures the same as at the previous lapping day. I had also raised the ride height of the car about 1cm as the tires had been rubbing pretty hard on the fender arches at the track.
First run was somewhat conservative, getting a feel for the grip... there wasn't much of it. Lots of boost lag too. The course was so tight that I couldn't get into the boost anywhere. Felt slow, and it was. Came in about 4 seconds off FTD.
Second run was a bit better. This time I focused on getting on the throttle as early as possible (basically at corner entry) in an effort to build some corner exit boost, and also tried to improve my lines so I could hold that throttle down. Dropped 2 seconds off my previous time.
Third & fourth runs were about the same but no improvement. My second run ended up being my fastest of the day. This put me 4/5 in my class and 8/23 overall. Pretty dismal, but my driving was rusty and the course didn't suit my car. Oh well, at least the car was finally out racing instead of stuck at home on jack stands.
After the event I read a magazine tire test article where they tested the Goodyear tire against the Hoosier A6 and a max-performance street tire (Hankook RS3). I was disappoint to learn that the Goodyear was a full second slower than the Hoosier and a mere 0.5 second faster than the street tire!
Considering that they were testing the softer autox compound Goodyear, that would mean my harder road race compound is even slower... Likely on-par with the street tire, or even slower. Ugh. Oh well, at least I got them for 1/2 price (promotional offer).
I also learned from the article that the Goodyears like much higher than conventional air pressures, to the tune of +15psi more. So evidently I had been running mine much too low. Next event I try adding more pressure to see if they grip any better.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Dude, you HAVE to learn to left-foot brake. On a tight course, you can't be dumping boost and respooling again and again. With that said, I agree that that course was a nightmare.Posted 09-16-2011 at 06:18 AM by jtmcinder
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I tried LFBing on a few "fun runs" and it was no better. The turns were just too long & too slow to be riding the brakes the whole time. Plus the tires would break loose the moment I hit boost anyway. There was zero grip with those tires on that dirty / bumpy course.Quote:Originally Posted by jtmcinder
Dude, you HAVE to learn to left-foot brake. On a tight course, you can't be dumping boost and respooling again and again. With that said, I agree that that course was a nightmare.
Posted 09-16-2011 at 07:36 AM by Scott McIntyre
