2-0turbo
20+ Year Contributor
- 787
- 5
- Mar 13, 2002
-
Lynchburg,
Virginia
Last weekend, I participated in my first "track days" with my Talon. Wow, what a great time! If you are interested at all in driving on a road course or autocrossing, you have to try a track event sometime. It is well worth the money. I have a synopsis of the whole weekend below. It is kind of long, but if you are interested, there is some good info in here.
The event was organized by Mazda Drivers and was professionally organized and run. The event was held at VIR in Danville, Virginia. VIR is a challenging road course, consisting of a North and South courses. The "Full course" uses most of the North and South course and is actually rarely schedule for high performance driving events (HPDE). See the link for a map.
The Full course was used for this event. The full course is a 3.27 mile, 17++ turn road course with elevation changes, turns, straights, esses and off camber sections--an excellent track. Anyone who has ever been to VIR will agree that that track is beautifully maintained and the grounds are spectacular. I have been to several events as a spectator, this was my first as a participant.
The agenda was four (4), thirty minute sessions each day with two hours of classroom instruction mixed in. So, a weekend total of four hours on the race course and four hours in the classroom.
Saturday morning started off with 1 hour of class for the "newbies". Topics covered included flags, passing rules, accident avoidance, etc. Three run groups were created: green, yellow and red--in the order of increasing skill level. I was in the green group and every car was required to have an instructor in the car (green, yellow and red). The instructors were in the "X" group and could drive by themselves when there group was running.
This was my first track experience, but I have done quite a bit of autocrossing. My first session out, I was actually quite apprehensive. I have driven fast on the street before, but now I was on the track and I had butterflies--why? No cops, no speed limits, just open track. I guess I was afraid of wrecking my car.
I started out slow and it took a while for the rest of the Green group to work itself out. Many of the Green group were experienced drivers and a lot of passing was done as they were anxious to get going and us new guys were slowing them up. Passing was only allowed in three zones and before a pass, the lead car had to signal the pass. All the while, my instructor and I were on an intercom and he would tell me what I was doing wrong and how to improve, and occasionally grap my door handle rather quickly.
I don't know why.
Saturday went by quickly and by my fourth session, my progress (if I must say so myself), was remarkable. The beginning of the day I was seeing about 95 or 100 on the straights and I was braking at number 7 or 6. By the end of the day, I was just seeing 125 at the end of the straight and going to about 3.5 or 4 until jumping on the brakes.
Sunday morning, I made the first run with my instructor and he said that I was doing well enough to go solo. So, he signed me off to drive by myself and gave me the option of including him on my future sessions. Cool, all by myself on the racetrack!!! For some reason, I was a little anxious again. : )
My car ran beautifully. I have not done much for power upgrades, mostly suspension. I was on street tires and they did just fine (Bridgestone RE730's). They really got quite sticky once you put some heat into them--sticky enough to pick up gravel in the paddock. Not as sticky as race rubber, but stickier than I had ever felt them before on the street.
The suspension worked great. The car was pretty neutral and was comfortable sliding around in the corners. It still has a touch of understeer, especially under power coming out of the corners, but I think I like it. I don't want the thing getting too tail happy. The coilovers were great and because the track was so smooth, the AGX shocks worked well. I want to upgrade to Koni's eventually.
One interesting thing was how on Saturday morning, I thought I was at the limit of grip and couldn't go any faster through the corners. But, as the tires got warm and I starting going faster into the corners and inducing a little more slip angle into the tires, they gripped and started singing like they should. In one of our classroom sessions, our instructor was discussing tire grip and how you know when you have run out. His saying was "A singing tire is a happy tire." A screaming tire is not going to last the whole race if you keep making it scream.
The only tuning issue I ran into was high EGT's on the straight. Air temps hit about 80 that day and as the day got warmer and I got faster, I was starting to peak above 900C at the end of the straights. I turned my boost down from 16 to 13 and added 4% on the upper RPM's. That was still hitting 920 or so, so I added 4% more fuel to try and keep things cool. That seemed to work and the warning light on my Greddy would just come on at the end of the straight. I was running 100 octane fuel, so timing should not have been the issue. If I had bigger injectors, I would have added more fuel, but I am out of adjustment. The interesting item is that when drag racing, I rarely see 840C and would actually lean the car to get my EGT's up. On a road course where you are full-throttle for 20 or 30 seconds at a time, you need more fuel to keep things cool.
My buddy in his TransAm (1994) was unable to pass me on the straight and I was unable to pass him too! We were quite equal. He had a slight advantage, but it wasn't much. I think I actually pulled on him a little at the beginning of the weekend when I was running 16 PSI, but at 13, I think he had a slight edge.
On one session, I started chasing this 1997 Cobra Vert and we had good time for 6 or 8 laps. He would pull about 5 or 6 car lengths on me by the end of the straight, but I would out-brake him and catch up to him in the corners. I would hang right with him through the corners, right up on his bumper--I was just chasing him. It was so much fun! It is really amazing how evenly matched many of the cars were. I couldn't shake stock BMW 325i's from my tail. Or Miata's for that matter.
I had a great time and cannot wait to do my next track event. Anyone thinking about doing this, I strongly encourage you. I learned so much about my car and how to drive it better, driver awareness, thinking ahead, etc. It really was an education. Get your car ready and go sign up for one.
The event was organized by Mazda Drivers and was professionally organized and run. The event was held at VIR in Danville, Virginia. VIR is a challenging road course, consisting of a North and South courses. The "Full course" uses most of the North and South course and is actually rarely schedule for high performance driving events (HPDE). See the link for a map.
The Full course was used for this event. The full course is a 3.27 mile, 17++ turn road course with elevation changes, turns, straights, esses and off camber sections--an excellent track. Anyone who has ever been to VIR will agree that that track is beautifully maintained and the grounds are spectacular. I have been to several events as a spectator, this was my first as a participant.
The agenda was four (4), thirty minute sessions each day with two hours of classroom instruction mixed in. So, a weekend total of four hours on the race course and four hours in the classroom.
Saturday morning started off with 1 hour of class for the "newbies". Topics covered included flags, passing rules, accident avoidance, etc. Three run groups were created: green, yellow and red--in the order of increasing skill level. I was in the green group and every car was required to have an instructor in the car (green, yellow and red). The instructors were in the "X" group and could drive by themselves when there group was running.
This was my first track experience, but I have done quite a bit of autocrossing. My first session out, I was actually quite apprehensive. I have driven fast on the street before, but now I was on the track and I had butterflies--why? No cops, no speed limits, just open track. I guess I was afraid of wrecking my car.
I started out slow and it took a while for the rest of the Green group to work itself out. Many of the Green group were experienced drivers and a lot of passing was done as they were anxious to get going and us new guys were slowing them up. Passing was only allowed in three zones and before a pass, the lead car had to signal the pass. All the while, my instructor and I were on an intercom and he would tell me what I was doing wrong and how to improve, and occasionally grap my door handle rather quickly.
I don't know why.Saturday went by quickly and by my fourth session, my progress (if I must say so myself), was remarkable. The beginning of the day I was seeing about 95 or 100 on the straights and I was braking at number 7 or 6. By the end of the day, I was just seeing 125 at the end of the straight and going to about 3.5 or 4 until jumping on the brakes.
Sunday morning, I made the first run with my instructor and he said that I was doing well enough to go solo. So, he signed me off to drive by myself and gave me the option of including him on my future sessions. Cool, all by myself on the racetrack!!! For some reason, I was a little anxious again. : )
My car ran beautifully. I have not done much for power upgrades, mostly suspension. I was on street tires and they did just fine (Bridgestone RE730's). They really got quite sticky once you put some heat into them--sticky enough to pick up gravel in the paddock. Not as sticky as race rubber, but stickier than I had ever felt them before on the street.
The suspension worked great. The car was pretty neutral and was comfortable sliding around in the corners. It still has a touch of understeer, especially under power coming out of the corners, but I think I like it. I don't want the thing getting too tail happy. The coilovers were great and because the track was so smooth, the AGX shocks worked well. I want to upgrade to Koni's eventually.
One interesting thing was how on Saturday morning, I thought I was at the limit of grip and couldn't go any faster through the corners. But, as the tires got warm and I starting going faster into the corners and inducing a little more slip angle into the tires, they gripped and started singing like they should. In one of our classroom sessions, our instructor was discussing tire grip and how you know when you have run out. His saying was "A singing tire is a happy tire." A screaming tire is not going to last the whole race if you keep making it scream.
The only tuning issue I ran into was high EGT's on the straight. Air temps hit about 80 that day and as the day got warmer and I got faster, I was starting to peak above 900C at the end of the straights. I turned my boost down from 16 to 13 and added 4% on the upper RPM's. That was still hitting 920 or so, so I added 4% more fuel to try and keep things cool. That seemed to work and the warning light on my Greddy would just come on at the end of the straight. I was running 100 octane fuel, so timing should not have been the issue. If I had bigger injectors, I would have added more fuel, but I am out of adjustment. The interesting item is that when drag racing, I rarely see 840C and would actually lean the car to get my EGT's up. On a road course where you are full-throttle for 20 or 30 seconds at a time, you need more fuel to keep things cool.
My buddy in his TransAm (1994) was unable to pass me on the straight and I was unable to pass him too! We were quite equal. He had a slight advantage, but it wasn't much. I think I actually pulled on him a little at the beginning of the weekend when I was running 16 PSI, but at 13, I think he had a slight edge.
On one session, I started chasing this 1997 Cobra Vert and we had good time for 6 or 8 laps. He would pull about 5 or 6 car lengths on me by the end of the straight, but I would out-brake him and catch up to him in the corners. I would hang right with him through the corners, right up on his bumper--I was just chasing him. It was so much fun! It is really amazing how evenly matched many of the cars were. I couldn't shake stock BMW 325i's from my tail. Or Miata's for that matter.
I had a great time and cannot wait to do my next track event. Anyone thinking about doing this, I strongly encourage you. I learned so much about my car and how to drive it better, driver awareness, thinking ahead, etc. It really was an education. Get your car ready and go sign up for one.
I wish there was a track that was just a little closer because I could see myself becoming addicted to that quick.
