Thunderhill Skid Pad
 

Looking for 2-3 others to share the Thunderhill skid pad with for car control practice. This is my last thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117624. We went mid May. This time it'll just be 3-4 of us without an instructor. You will run out of energy before seat time, believe me.

My goal is to practice oversteer with my new suspension settings. Last time I went, I could not get the car to oversteer without weight transfer. I'll probably go at least a couple more times in the upcoming months. We can discuss the course setup, I think circle and figure 8 are good. It costs $675 to rent the skid pad and they require half for the deposit. They can also wet the skid pad for $800

I'm up for it if you guys will be ok with me drifting the course and if it will be after Jul 7th.

I'll technically be drifting the course as well (attempting to :P). Does circle and figure 8 work? What other courses do you want to try? After July 7th is not a problem.

I'm interested. I could fill one whole day with doing just donuts. Donuts may look silly but the same skill needed to maintain the car in a donut is needed to control the car when it starts going sideways on the track. If I can't trust myself to do donuts reliably this means I can't trust myself to control the car when things go wrong in a turn.
Anyway with the skidpad just for us we'll have flexibility to do pretty much whatever we want. And different people can do different things, no problem. I'll try more than just donuts.
But not this month. I have another track day coming and I need to find some cheap drifting tires 'cos the two sets of rears I used last time on the skidpad are totally done.
Florin

Interested, hopefully a day I can take off.

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One possible alternative would be to water the skid pad. I think that it will not only reduce wear in the tires, but the suspension and power train as well. Do you think it's worth looking into?

If its after july 23rd i would be in for sure. Can put a deposit down anytime.

@overlookedx @PMok @kakacarrotcake @Pwolf and I rented the skidpad a month or so ago. It may be a tad too hot during the summer, but would be interested to do this again come fall.

If we're looking at mid august or later I'm interested.

Yes, this needs to be emphasized. It's going to be really damn hot for the next three months. Last time I went was May 3rd and it was 93F outside. I think I'm fine with any temperature around that, but I'll definitely be exhausted by the end of the day.

You can at least hang out in the container for some shade, but I have a feeling that thing is going to turn into an oven.

Anything that involvs car going sideways works for me! I'll show other possible layouts on their skidpad when get back home later today.

If you need another body, then count me in! Depends on the day of course, just need enough advance notice to inform work.

I wish we did stuff like that up here in Berta LOL


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Depending on which day of the week i'll be down. Prefer it to be wet skid pad as i dont want to wear down my tires that much.

With our power you won't wear down much thread there. I am going to speedsf drift events every month and 1 pair of new tires is good for at least 3 events.

Hmmm maybe i'll throw my stocks back on then

stocks will work just fine.
I'm running on 17x9 Rotas with 225/45 Federal RSRs in front and 17x7 RPF1s and some cheapest 215/45 Velozza tires that I got from Les Schwab for like 70 bucks each in the rear. Soft fronts are wearing out with same speed (or maybe even faster than rears) on the events.

I would advise not to. You won't learn the limits of the tires that you DD/track day on, which I think is worth more to know. But totally up to you!

Well my new tires will be much grippier than the stocks so if anything i wont ever be driving up to that limit as a DD. I'm not an agressive driver at all.

I'm reserving spots for @hpde_addict, @svolo4, @marusteri, and @xero404. Would you guys be OK with mid July? I think weekends will probably work best for most. Send me your email addresses over PM and we can start an email thread for discussion.

If anyone changes their mind, I'll just pick the next person based on who replied first. I'll probably go back to the skid pad multiple times in the next couple of months.

mid july works fine for me. I would preffer weekend, but can try to do business days also, just need a heads-up so I'll notify my boss.

And BTW, I'll post possible layouts and videos from those layouts in next 20-30 mins

1) This is an easiest layout. I drifted it on my very first event on FR-S on a completely stock car. You are going downhill most time on this layout, so it's better for our underpowered cars.
https://cs14028.userapi.com/c637124/...JN45ly3O-c.jpg

vid1
First time drifting FRS, some super sticky rear tires (I think nitto nt05, not sure, got them with used RPF1s that I bought as a drift spares, almost bald):
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7UW-DA7RYE"]almost drift - YouTube[/ame]

vid2
My 5th event, I think. RPF1s with cheap Velozza on the back, 17x9 rota with Federal RSRs in the front, Tein Flex Z -2 deg all around, Megan tie rods (bigger angle), Tomei 2way LSD, PBM LCAs, Megan Toe arms, stiff rear sway bar, K&N drop in, OFT stage2, full exhaust (Tomei UEL, Milltek O/P and F/P, greddy Evo3).
Huge difference for same layout, but 90% of it is skill that I got over a year. I believe I can do very similar on a fully stock 86, it will be just a bit harder to do transitions with stock diff and suspension.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUKfC9t1evA"]Thunderhill skid pad with SpeedSF April 29th - YouTube[/ame]

2) This is a fun one, but you can hit a wall or go over drain grill and it rips off pieces of tires pretty bad
https://pp.userapi.com/c637124/v6371...Gg8FYnL9Y4.jpg
vid3
stock suspension on tein springs and stiff rear sway bar, stock catback, stock diff, OFT stage2 UEL Tomei, Milltek O/P and F/P
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgme2LHXQvc"]winter thunder - YouTube[/ame]

vid4
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFLQKSuvbs"]Winter thunder with speedsf - YouTube[/ame]

vid5
Similar layout, but last turns are tighter, instead of donut, so it's more fun. You also start going uphill and to go through first turn entry speed should be at least 40 mph. Car had same config as on 2nd video

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53PkzHNgQqg"]One of my best runs today - YouTube[/ame]

And just to be clear: those vids are my best runs and it's like 1 out of 10. I'm spinning out a lot, just don't publish bad runs on youtube, so I would appreciate a chance to do figure 8, clover leaf and other simplier layouts to train transitions from one side to other, because I really need it.

I'm down if its on a weekend. Just let me know in advance so the lady doesnt plan something under my nose.

I did the open test at Buttonwillow last Friday, 238 track miles on max temp 108. I survived but I can tell that if we do the skidpad when it's very hot we won't get the maximum out of that day. I'll do ncracing on Jul 8 and 9 so mid Jul is probably ok with me. I'll need to find 2 cheap but not unsafe drift tires to buy before that.
I hope you guys are still interested to also do skidpad on rain, because we can get much more out of it for much less money. I would definitely like that. The catch is that we won't have advance notice, we can only schedule it the day before (after we confirmed the chances of rain are very high for next day). And probably needs to happen during weekdays because weekends are frequently booked in advance.
Florin

I did a SpeedSF skidpad event last Saturday. It was hella hot out there, but with oil cooler and 5-30 oil engine survived it just fine. Car wasn't overheating or anything, but it was hard for myself to be out there in this 105-108 degrees heat. Two used and worn out stock Primacy tires (I think about 1/32 or even less) were good for drifting on dry surface since 9 AM till 3.30 when I blew up one of them. I had plenty of seat time (my gopro ran out of space at ~3PM and usually it's good till 5 PM).

If anyone wants to drop out due to hot weather, NP for me. I'm going anyways and will definitely want to go again when the weather is nicer or its raining.

What do you guys think of July 15 or 16?

I can do both 15 and 16. Would preffer 16th since it's a Sunday and I'm always doing last minute oil change before the event, so it'll give me more time to do it on Saturday.

I just ordered two 215/45ZR-17 KUMHO ECSTA PS31 XL from TireRack so I should be good to go on either Jul 15 or 16. For the first time I'll be doing skidpad on new tires but at only $71 a piece I think I can afford it.
I'm ok with any of the days. Driving home to Bay Area on Sun evening will take longer than on Sat evening but it isn't a big difference.
Florin

Just checked the website, Jul 16 is booked so July 15 it is.
If there are at least 3 of us I'm fully committed for Jul 15.
Florin

There's you, me and @hpde_addict at least.

I just checked, July 16 is open

@xero404 dropped out, so we're looking for one more for July 16th skid pad. Priority will be given to:

1. @dixoncox
2. @Xxyion

@GenRuleAThumb, @BigFatFlip, @kakacarrotcake are interested in the skid pad, but not for this date.

Before i say yes or no. Is a helmet required? What else is also required besides payment? If helmet is required i might have to pass.

Yes, it requires a helmet. It costs $35/day to rent a helmet and they have around 50. It's $162.50 per person for four of us to share the skid pad, and 50% deposit to reserve. There's lots of recommended stuff to bring (like tire gauge, etc) but not required.

Supermoto West had Jul 16 taken when I checked. Now I see Supermoto west moved to Jul 15 instead, so Jul 16 is left for us.
While we are talking other folks are reserving the skidpad.
hpde_addict and svolo4, are you ok if tomorrow I reserve the skidpad for Jul 16? This means you commit to paying your part no mater what because it isn't refundable. $650/3 or less if we add more people. You pay me only on Jul 16 when we see how many we are and how much is for each.
Florin

@marusteri
I'm ok with it. Can pay you on this Friday if you have paypal.

I have my own helmet and neck brace, so I don't need a rented one. You can actually get a motorcycle helmet or get an auto one with SA2010 cert really cheap. I got mine from some store on sonoma raceway for like 100 bucks and it worth it if you are going to attend more events in future.

Hey guys, gonna pass on this one =(. Financial shit came up...again...*le sigh*