So I had my second track day event yesterday , Even though I signed up as novice they had a shortage of instructors and kind of threw me into intermediate , I had an instructor come with me on the first round to show me some lines and what not . and then let me off to go play By mYself .. Initially I was honestly hoping I wouldnt get in people's ways

my temps were great . no overheating issues at all . But I did boil my brakes every sessions hahah after the first session I started braking very early and using engine braking to minimize the use of the middle pedal , BUt I still managed to keep a decent pace

Also .. looks like one of my turbos Died .. oh well Its a good thing the twins are cheap!!

lines werent text book , as I tried to keep some runoff area incase my brakes decided to not be there at all

PLaying With a GTR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAW...ature=youtu.be

At the end of this session my brakes are done and I had to nurse the car into the pits


CHasing down a Lambo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgV3...ature=youtu.be

P.S. if you watch to the end .. ( doubtful no one is THAT bored ) but I catch up to the mustangs that passed me in the first couple of laps

 

I cant recommend enough this $20 microphone. It changes the gopro sound quality SOOO much.

I know it's not the same car...but you can tell. here is the built in gopro microphone.

Here is the external mic attached to the license plate.

Said microphone:

notice the lack of wind noise, no "vibration" noise. very clear. It's well worth the money spent.

 

Looks like a lot of fun! What tires, brake fluid, and pads are you using? A lot of times braking earlier and kind of dragging the brakes ends up heating your brakes up more than getting on, then off. That said, we've all seen that the stock brakes can be a weak point.

Agree on the microphone, but it's just a pet peeve of mine. It may not bother you. I do love a good sounding engine/exhaust note. It can also give you a little better idea of when you are or are not on the gas. I did a comparison video earlier in the year in my M3 with my gopro:
https://www.rx7club.com/race-car-tec...gopro-1057280/

 

Nice!

That track is clearly brutal on brakes.

Brent is right if you are having brake issues don't drag the brake go in slower or control your straight away speed and then use the brake for the shortest amount of time or shorten your brake zone as much as you can turn a little earlier get on the gas a little later etc...etc...

However with that said there is no reason you should be having brake issues with stock brakes at those speeds so something is amiss. Probably just bad fluid.

I'd recommend completely flushing your system and trying some Castrol SRF.

What pads are you using?

Also your seat is moving a lot what kind is it and what sort of rails do you have?

 

I wasn't dragging I was using engine braking until the end when I would slow down the rest of the way using the brakes

But I did find out why my brake fluid reservoir cap is cracked and with the recent monsoons in fl the new fluid more then likely got contaminated

Pads are hawkblacks brake fluid is ate super blue changed a couple months ago

Also tires were 245/40/17 toyos r1r which are supposed to be terrible track tires because they get greasy and bad when hot and honestly they looked abused after each session haha but they held up great for the speeds I was doing

 

Blue doesn't absorb water

I wonder if you have air in the lines

Is the pedal firm when the brakes are cold?

 

Yes very firm I tested that after last event thinking maybethe master cyl was bad but brakes were firm and grippy and as the track event went on they got gradually worse after every boil

I thought blue was very hydroscopic that's why they recommend it gets changed often

 

This will be my last hurrah if I get boiled brakes again at the next event I will be harassing fritz for a bbk lol

 

Here's some good info on fluid: brake fluids

I got you

 

Regardless later on I will be getting a bbk from you if you have one braking is one of my favorite things and it sucks not being able to.

Also http://www.photosbyjuha.com/2014-Eve...20/i-ntXSVjw/A

 

 

Tomuch body roll?? MAZDA\SILVER\120 - PhotosByJuha.com

I can stiffen my shocks no problem the car felt very neutral but after looking at some pictures maybe I have tomuch body roll . and could do with a bit of stiffening .

Also dont use hte bumper as a refference its slanted downwards on teh driver side , needs to get removed and fixed

 

I think you are overly obsessed with roll. Your suspension has to work in concert with your tires. i.e. would you have the rubber (size and tact) to support less roll? In general, some roll is not a bad thing. You have to study your tires to know for sure.

 

I'm running street tires , narrow ones at that 245's But they are 140 Tread wear .

the car felt great and I cant say I had complaints about it .. no oversteer , I think the car was great . I wasnt driving it as hard as I could of been though .

and I know some travel is good since the car is double wishbone and some suspension travel = more camber .

but I am running quite the soft setup , 650 / 500 and the shocks set at mid

This is the setup the car liked the best when iwas running some old cording tires . so I was asking if maybe the new tires had more grip and may of warranted a bit stiffening .

but screw it like you said .. needs some travel , I'm not on R comps and I dont have MCphearsons so screw it I like the way it is now . if need be I can always stiffen it later on .

 

i wouldnt consider 650/500 "quite the soft setup". that's ~11k and ~9k ? that's not terribly hard, but not soft. i'm wondering what you're comparing these to, and why you think they're so soft. and why do you need to stiffen it later on? these should be plenty of spring for some sticky wide-ish street tires. why do you want it stiffer? these are probably TOO stiff for your level of grip.

i was running 12k F and 10k R and i thought they were a little hard, but i was also driving my FD on weekends and driving to work occasionally. it was too hard for the street. and this was with 265/35/18 bridgestone RE-11s. i think a 12k/10k setup would be ideal for some wide rcomp tires.

i'm running 8k and 6k now for a dual purpose setup.


also, your FD should be neutral but have a hint of oversteer. most people combat this by running their front shocks near 50% dampening and the rears at almost full soft.

 

Well I got a whole lot of people telling me I had alot of body roll form the pictures ( other racers )

I concider it quite soft because for some reason my car is still comfortable in the streets LOL and some of the guys I race with run much higher rates on miatas , and BRZ (BRZ I know they use MCphearsons so suspension travel = less camber and I imagine thats why it probably corners flat compared to mine since they run a stiffer setup )

and hmmm I think my car has a very slight understeer tendency ( probably due to big racing beat swaybar )

 

Here's a shot of my S2000:

http://mahjik.homestead.com/files/ho...tt_IV-1649.jpg

Different car yes, but similar. You can see it still has quite a bit of suspension movement. Granted, I'm running tires with tread rating of 40, but you can still see quite a bit of longitudinal and lateral movement.

I'm not suggesting you don't have things to adjust to improve on your car, but I am suggesting making changes when the car isn't doing what you want it to do. Don't go off pictures, go off data and driving.

 

+1 to all this




Ignore the pics. They are mostly meaningless IMO. Just a moment in time w/o context.

also, If you are at an HPDE, there are very few 'racers' so take what people tell you with a grain of salt since not everyone knows what they are talking about. Sometimes they mean well and think they know but sometimes they don't. In life "we only know what we know". It isn't until we come across someone with more knowledge than us in a subject that we realize there was more to know. Keep asking questions until it makes sense to you.

your inputs look pretty good, although, if you aren't able to use brakes properly then your inputs at turn in aren't being accurately represented in the video.


The best advice I can give you is to find yourself a GOOD HPDE organization with excellent instructors. I'd probably skip that last org you mentioned that didn't have an instructor for you. You can progress much more quickly and safely with less frustration and head-scratching if you have quality instruction. That is what made a huge difference for me in my progression over the years. Maybe somebody on here can suggest a good organization in your area.

If Hooked On Driving runs events in your area, definitely check them out. They've been consistently good on having well trained instructors in the various regions I've run with them.

 

This is true the guys that do do any racing do spec miata and they kind of have a set suspension setup so spring rates aren't exactly a hard choice for them

And thanks alot for all the advice . I think I will leave the car alone for now .

As for instructors . I will be doing an HOD event ironically next month . And I know of a very good instructor that works with them .

 

your pics do *look* like a lot of body roll, more than mine did in pictures anyway, but i'm with the other guys. that would be the least of my concern.

how is your front swaybar and swaybar mounts? i could see a bent swaybar and/or broken/bent mounts really messing things up, particularly in the weight transfer department.

 

All of that is good .

checked it just the other day . Also the stiffness variation on these shocks is pretty big .

I set the shocks up using old tires . which ended up being corded . put some new tires on , and they definitely seem alot stickier . so I could leave the car as it is for now .

Or stiffen the shocks up a notch to account for the extra grip the new tires are giving me .


shocks are in the middle . and THE CAR HONestly feels like it has soft suspension right now LOL . BUt I know one click up all around will make the car noticably stiffer .