Armen's Track Videos
 

Figured I would start a personal track video thread since I finally bought a nice HD action cam. :icon_tup:

This POV vid is from Mazfest at Streets of Willow going CCW. Very hot day at over 100f, so you see me checking temps often and taking a cool down lap halfway. This is the first time I have ever had cooling issues on track with my Vmount. Saw max temp of 107c for a brief moment :(

I was giving a bunch of friends ride along's for Mazfest so I did get a bit unfocused and over-drive the car which caused it to push a bit. I'm adding stiffer springs to the rear to address the understeer.

The new camera disappointed me by not adjusting well to the outside brightness. So apologies for the poor visibility. Maybe its because my head is moving constantly? I tried adjusting a few settings which is why the video has a weird color to it. Next time I will mount it to my roll bar.

Start driving her hard starting lap2.


Armen Joseph Pezeshkian

13 mins of video pointed at the dash...

= P

lol figured watching the wheel work and gauges would be interesting enough. Trial and error. Next video will be much better.

What I find most people want to see are the following:

* The track
* Your hands
* Your feet

You can't really do all three with one camera (and the last one you'll need a dedicated camera), so I would focus on the first two for your videos. Mounting the camera on your helmet a little higher should do the trick.

Yes, next time ill have the camera angle and settings corrected.

I agree..ideally, having 2 cameras will be nice. Footwork + Handwork/track view.

armen, here's how i have mine mounted:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...3137a34c8607bc

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...8e1cd5fa23056c

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...68&oe=546EF2DC

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...69917756_o.jpg




as mahjik said, if you mount yours up about an inch higher it may help. i assume it would handle the light better and actually show the track, instead of it dealing with the majority of the BLACK color of your dash.

i was just comparing my pics/videos, and it looks like my camera has a slightly fisheye effect, which gives a slightly more wide-angle view. can you swap out the lenses on the contour+ cam ?

i tinkered with mine a lot to get it in the right spot. i love re-watching the videos and feeling like i'm racing :)

Thanks jacob. Im hoping that a higher mount will fix the lighting. Have to wait for the next track day to find out lol.

Weird thing is that if I set my camera to 720p 60fps it switches to fisheye. How does it do that with the same lens beats me, but it is a wider 170degree view. Ill probably set it to that next time at cost of some quality. Hopefully itll look something closer to ur vids.

Re-watching track vids is like therapy for me when I am away from the car! Videos like yours or Fritz are doing a better job tho, since you can actually see the track haha .

I've found my best compromise to see as much as possible is to mount mine on my rollbar. I can send you a link to a video of mine if you'd like to see an example as I don't want to take away from your thread.

Tried mounting the contour on my roll bar today for a sunday drive. The view is much better, however I still am really unhappy with the exposure/white balance. Its on auto, which seems to be utterly useless. The internal mic is sh*t also but luckily it has an external jack.

None the less, it was a nice day to take the car out for a spin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RFM...ature=youtu.be


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http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...pshwa5wetp.jpg
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beautiful pictures!

I agree

Beautiful car and scerery

Pics like this make me consider the 99 bumper more and more :nod:

Since other provide tips of video I'll provide a photo tip. Take pics where the wheel is facing you. Noticed pics 3 and 5 you see more tires than wheels.

Car looks good btw

Track guys like tires :egrin:

Thanks! Personally I think the 99spec bumper accompanied with a custom front splitter or even the autoexe front lip is a decent track package which looks the part also :icon_tup:



Appreciate the tip ill def use it next time.. The Dunlop zii's did come out pretty sexy though :)


Picture of the camera and mount.
Attachment 639248

If you had a GoPro, I would suggest the fuzzy wind muff which works extremely well. I'm not familiar with the Contour to know if you have any other options than the external mic.

Yea I was looking into that. Im prob going to go with a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter to put on a nice stereo mic.

New and better track videos coming soon in addition to some new parts.

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very exciting :)

looking foward to an update, armen.

After almost a year I finally made it back to the track. The rust showed as I was amost 1.5 seconds off pace! I overdrove the car a bit but still had a blast out there.

Changes made to the car include stiffer 12k spring rear from 10k (12kf/r) new alignment settings (-2.8 front -2 rear), Turblowns EFR kit with the wastegates re-routed, and the Sakebomb race dual oil coolers w/ R-magic ducts. It was probably 80f out there today and my water temp didnt go above 88c (190f). I dont have a gauge to measure the oil temps but im sure they are rock solid. Air temps were low 40c-high 30s.

Handling feels much better with 12k springs all around and added negative camber. I am still fighting the front tires however, but at this point im just going to leave it as is until I get some fancy coilovers in a year or two. My steering gets a crap load of bumper steer during turns which makes me wonder if I have worn bushing/ball joints.

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Pretty tight fit especially with the bumper. Sakebomb did an amazing job.
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R magic fiberglass duct fit realy nice. With added high temp trimming from mcmaster it sealed real nice as well without any ugly aluminum taping, riveting, etc.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-V2...ature=youtu.be

I was moving around A LOT in my chair this time and made heal toe braking in certains corners sloppy and late. I also noticed my new FEED shift knob is super slippery with racing gloves. The RE-Amemiya ball knob was perfect in that sense.

very nice. I usually watch videos of ppl drifting that track so it's weird watching ppl grip race it.

Did you get the 99 spec oil mounts from sake bomb also?

Where did you get the r magic ducts?

The R-magic ducts I bought from Rhdjapan some time back and yes I ordered the dual oil coolers with the 99spec mounting.

Yea, Streets of Willow is a pretty technical track. Its not my favorite but it is really good for diagnosing/tuning you suspension or drifting lol

Excellent stuff! Your setup is pretty much identical to what I'd like to do to mine if it were to become a track car.

Just FYI, during your down time between track events I highly recommend getting an Iracing subscription and setup. It has helped me tremendously at a fraction of the cost.

:drool:

What centercaps are those on the RPF1?

Do u really have to cut the bumper support that much for the 9i front?

Ive heard good things about Iracing just havnt really had the time to invest and learn about it. Those steering wheel/chair/pedal combos are pretty $$ also!

Cant express how good the EFR setup felt on track. I only ran 13psi this time but at 15-16psi things should make things more exciting.



No, you dont have to chop the rebar as much as I did to make the 99spec bumper fit.



For the center caps, I bought knock out washers from Home Depot, painted them black and stuck on acrylic enkei stickers from ebay. Pretty happy how they tuned out for less than $25. :icon_tup:





Here is a short footwork video (excuse my old driving shoes). It was shot wiht a GoPro Heor 3 and the sound is pretty good! Unfortunately this run ended after a couple turns due to my a coupler popping off followed by the camera battery dying.. So this is all I have. It does do a good job showing how fast and smooth the EFR spools up in relation to throttle input although knowing what gear I'm in would help also. I have my helmet cam to match this however my movie maker doesnt allow split screen anymore and I dont feel like downloading/figuring out a new program. Its the start of my warm up lap with traffic. Hot lap starts around 1:25 (up the main straight into the high speed sweeper)


Fixed link of the original long session







..

The spool is so quick and power delivery is very smooth, almost look like a big NA engine.

Aw man, I hope that's a big foam barrier and not a concrete barrier, right where the course seems to be upsetting your car.

Thankfully its a filled with Hay/Straw. Thats the chicane and which blind, bumpy and high speed. A lot people flip there and that hay barrel was put there this event help "prevent" mishaps on that section. I think its slowing me down a bit since I have to brake there where as before without the barrier i only lifted.

Very nice car and very nice driving.

Flew to LA for a weekend getaway and also for a practice track day at Buttonwillow to prepare for the upcoming Superlap Battle timeattack.

The car has received a few upgrades since my last track day.
Mainly, the Ohlin DFV Flagship series (12k/12k swift springs and corner balanced by Platte Forme ag). Took a few sessions to get them ~70% dialed in. I definitely need to raise the spring rates to 14k/14k.

For much of the morning I was running a consistent 2:00.xx flat at Buttonwillow, a far gap from my goal of 1:56 which is around where the Enthusiast class time attack record sits. Posted a 1:58.8 by the last session with the shock compression turned up. After dialing in the shocks, refreshing the brakes and shaking off my rusty driving I believe I should be able to bring the time down to 1:56.xx

Now the major hold back is my braking. The Hawk HP+ pads don't completely fade with my M2 AP racing bbk, but they are not consistent enough to confidently get deep into the braking zones. My brake points were extremely conservative. I am having a hard time finding more aggressive/quality pads for these older CP5200 calipers. My rotors are also shot.


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Just finished the Global Time Attack Super Lap Battle yesterday.

Had an interesting experience. Was not able to make it to Wednesdays test day to continue dialing in the suspension/chassis. I had originally developed my car as an "Enthusiast Class" contender. To my surprise, GTA changed the tire regulations from 140 treadwear tires to 220 treadwear. My Zii's are 200 treadwear. This bumped me up into Street Class, which allows for much more AERO, weight reduction, E85, AI, widebody, etc and 140 treadwear tires. Nonetheless, I still had a blast and managed to secure 4th place.

Edit; Forgot to mention that as per rules, I had to have a catalytic converter. I installed a high flow metallic cat in a 3 inch pettit resonated MP. It blew out after 1 session lol

Video: Only managed to get the early run which was embelished with debri and red flags. There was a bunch of dirt kicked over by Buttonhook (tight 2nd gear right hand turn) which always resulted in a slide. Jump to 7:24 to see the big slide in the sweeper :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1KY...ature=youtu.be


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The Spoon team managed to break the unlimited FWD record
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Man that sweeper looks like a lot of fun.

what make you want to get stiffer springs?

you still happy with your wheels and tire setup?

Car is still leaning a bit too much. I would like to lower the car a hair more also. I am being rather picky, I could still run a 1:56 as is at buttonwillow just by improving my driving. The Dunlops are good street track tires but not the best. RS3's should be about .5-1 sec faster and the new RE71r's will prob be 1.5-2 seconds faster.

I would like to buy 10.5 inch rims square and fit 285's all around. With wider RE71r rubber, stiffer springs I could run a 1:54ish. Still a far bit away from the 1:49 Street class record. Ill need to run a bunch of aero and drop some weight. Not sure I want to do that to this FD so I may just buy some 220 tread tires and run Enthusiast class next year.

Video looks great Armen. Running right on the ragged edge in many sections. Impressive driving!

Thanks, I managed to shed 2 seconds during the latter sessions by pushing it even more on the high speed sections. As Randy Pobst said, driving your car fast is driving on the limit of traction EVERYWHERE. :)

Great save on the right hand sweeper!!

It was fun :)
Im upset I didnt get my last session on video. I really got the car near its absolute limit

I've been struggling with the idea of making my FD a track car and ended up buying an e46 m3 for track duty. How much maintenance has been required to keep your FD competitive on the track?

Besides the usuals i.e oil change before each event, transmission/diff fluid every 4-7events depending on ambient temps, etc.. All is typical of any track car. My trans and carbonetic carbon lsd have been trouble free even without extra cooling (street tires help with that). Heat management is a big difference vs other cars. Not really maintenance but its an added cost for a quality vmount, big oil coolers, ducting. My engine has been the most reliable component and I have one of the simplest setups compared to some ppl on this board. PFC 14-15psi, pump gas, NO AI, old school bosch injectors, pre-mix. Power is not an issue. 350whp is plenty competitive for lower class but for higher street tire classes with Aero you could use 400whp to stay competitive with the vettes, supercharged/turbo s2k's or frs's. Cars are getting faster and lap records are being broken each year. I've been making 350-400whp last 5 years and ive never damaged my engine even without any fancy E85, Water/meth injection. I tune my car rich ~high 10's afr.

Tire wear on the FD will be 50% better vs your M3 and so is brake wear. I do dry out my tires before they wear to the bars and keeping your rubber fresh is key to staying competitive. The big boys at time attacks bring several sets to each event which is a bit ridiculous lol. Another plus for the FD is its chassis durability. We dont have cracking subframe or shock tower issues like many BMW's do. A simple diff brace/trans brace is all we need to protect the ppf. We also have the luxury of having high oem alignment adjustability.

You can say that again, my m3 is currently in the shop getting the floor replaced :blush:. PPI missed spring perch and trunk tears... Amazing how weak that chassis is considering its heftiness.

Thank you for the info though, I'm sure others following this thread can be more reassured about their setups with that post as well. Do you ever run at VIR?

Its on my bucket list to bring my FD to VIR one day. I do have my E39 M5 with me here in DC. Its no track car but I may sign up for a multi-day event this coming spring at VIR which is about 5 hours away. Im seriously scared to track the old BMW though, even if I "take it easy" which im sure will end up a drift session in that car.

Hey great videos!

Great vids! I used to go to BW a few times per year in the late 90s, and loved it. Same track configuration too, though I'm sure it took me twice as long to lap, lol. Please keep posting the track footage!

Appreciate the kind words everyone.


I recently converted my EWG 8374 to an IWG setup. Simply to have a more simply and durable setup given how I drive the car. Its creeping a little, im hitting 16.5ish psi on the top end on cooler days but I am tuned safely for it on pump gas. I plan on adding water injection and calling it a day. My ACT HD clutch prob cant handle anything more, but eventually ill go with the extreme clutch and try tuning for 20psi.

Car feels more responsive and faster. Sounds pretty different also.. louder on WOT (I like it) No track days for me until May/June unfortunately.

Here is a vid I took driving by Angeles Crest. Car feels good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTm9...ature=youtu.be

what made u want to go WI?

If my boost was stable at 15-16psi I wouldnt bother with WI but now I am creeping a little and its possible on a cold night it my hit 18ishpsi. Its too risky for me, even with a safe tune, so ill just throw on a basic WI kit as a safe guard.

Beautiful and BEAST.

OMG, that boost response is incredible....really makes me want to ditch my twins now :/. Very inspiring thread.

Hmm

EDIT:

In comparison, here's mine. 12 psi on stock twins, rock solid tune but maybe 300 rwhp tops and that's pushing it heat wise :/

^ nice driving. Wished i could find a rd like that around here with no traffic

Looks fun! Cars handling nice and sometimes having less power in the canyons is more enjoyable. Good driving there also