|
Just wanted to post a quick update after my track day. Changing so much suspension items definitely changed the feel of the car.
During session 1 of the day, my rhythm was off significantly since I was driving the car as it was, rather than as it is now. After I figured out my issues I went back out in session 2 and improved dramatically, really getting a feel for the new rhythm of the car. Now everything is so much more immediate and crisp that during session 1 I was consistently turning in too early on corners and was too direct with throttle/brake inputs. During session 2 I fixed my line and now that I had adapted I was shedding seconds and quickly attained an average lap time for session 2 which matched my previous personal best lap.
During session 3, I capitalized on this and started focusing on braking and shift points. I'm going so much faster now at every point around the track that I'm hitting redline/fuelcut in 3rd gear where before I would only shift out of 3rd into 4th on the straight leading into turn 4. I can get into 4th now before turn 7 and before turn 10. I think it's possible to do it before turn 2 as well, but I haven't quite got there yet. Given how much more speed I'm carrying though, I had some trouble with changing my brake zones and I'm still learning how to trail brake effectively. At the end of session 3 my 2nd to last lap was the fastest of the day, showing that more seat time yields results and set my new personal best nearly a full 3 seconds faster than my previous personal best.
I'm still crunching data logs and compiling video, I'll post some more stuff later.
Also, I'm now officially a member at H2R, paid up and ready to go. I'm going to start trying to hit H2R every weekend I'm not traveling for work, as additional seat time seems to be the thing I need the most now that I've addressed most of the weaknesses I had previously identified in the car.
Honestly, I do think I could use a little more power now, but only so I can shift sooner. If I could climb the rev range more quickly it'd move my shift points on track into areas which are much more suited. Right now I'm either going to need to short shift 3 -> 4 to avoid hitting fuel cut, or give up speed and feather the throttle to maintain close to redline in 3rd. It's probably 10ths not full seconds in difference, but I think either more revs available or higher power to shift sooner would be a big win given the track layout and gearing.
I might go ahead and bite the bullet to do a full exhaust, flex fuel, and tune. But I'd also like to prevent myself from adding power until after I've really mastered what I've got. I think given the current car I can probably shave another second or two just by improving my trail braking and could probably gain another second by using throttle more effectively and fixing my shift points, that'd have me making 1:32s-1:33s without any power adders and the current platform record on this track is a 1:27. My PR is now 1:36 when it was previously 1:39
All in all, a good day and perfect weather.
|