2014 Asphalt Auto FRS

[kavanagh]

Lisa's first event at the Wild Horse Pass Mortorsports Park West Track. Her first session was slightly abbreviated as I think her and her instructor were a couple minutes late getting to staging. Ultimately she ended up pulling together about 5 laps in the first session and then followed it up with two more sessions with some really good laps in each one.

Her instructor was stoked to see her improving her lap times by about 10 seconds each session!

At the end of the day she took a ride in his record-setting Miata (the next day, he broke the lap record, which had previously been held by my instructor - man we got lucky with our assignments!). He said she is one of only two people that have successfully ridden a full session with him at race speed without getting sick or asking him to stop. Yeah, sorry guys, I won the wife lottery already. Hopefully there's another jackpot out there for you too.

Here are her first three sessions from 4/5/14 at WHP West:

Day 1 Session 1

[ame]http://youtu.be/6Zo1XMhMGwk[/ame]


Day 1 Session 2

[ame]http://youtu.be/rg0pUaKglTY[/ame]


Day 1 Session 3

[ame]http://youtu.be/fTKhIKvh-Oc[/ame]

[kavanagh]

screwing around with an idea in Paint. I may need to do some actual Photoshop stuff with this idea. It's growing on me.

[kavanagh]

Finally got the locking lug nut off that I lost the key for. I put the key in a 'safe' place. God knows it must be safe, wherever it is...

So that led to:

New Muteki SR35 lug nuts in blue (not our first choice, but they were available right now)
post-track day tire rotation
popping off the stupid chrome center covers from the wheels
Berk Dual Tip muffler delete

Any other automagic tranny owners out there with a muffler delete? In manual shift mode there is this glorious pop from the exhaust between up-shifts. And of course the symphony of auto-blip downsifting means I will now get 11 miles per gallon...

pics and vids to follow as soon as we finish chapter 3 of my wife's dissertation.

[Tye300]

Great build thread boss! Glad you and your wife are enjoying your car. The AT is a very potent weapon in the track. I've been going against a lot of MT 86s here and they admit that the difference is negligible at best. Always great to see couples enjoying themselves at the track!

[kavanagh]

OK, some updated photos of the wheels without the stupid chrome center caps, and with the new blue Muteki lug nuts. We weren't sure if we'd like the blue and only grabbed them because they were immediately available since I lost the key to our original locking black Mutekis. Color me stupid.

We actually like the blue lugs - they're subtle because they sit deep in the rim enough that it's not super ricey. One of our goals with the car is for the casual observer (non-car folken) to think it might have come from the factory as it is. Or at the very least to keep it looking classy and upscale (nevermind the big white racing numbers on the driver's side, LoL . They'll come back off after the next track day).









We added the Berk Dual Tip Muffler Delete to give her the voice she deserves. It also filled in those huge diffuser cutouts.

[kavanagh]

Some notes about alignment and tire temps/pressures for me to reference later when I forget to take my notebook to the track or alignment rack...:

Start with -3.0 front, -2.0 rear, zero toe front, 1/16" total toe-in rear. Adjust toe based on how the car feels to you, and camber via pyrometer.

The actual temps will go up as you drive, the goal is to make the spread of temperatures as small as possible.

Outer edge higher = need more camber. Inner edge higher = need less camber

Center too high = lower pressure. Center too low = lower pressure

Inner higher than outer and center = need less toe (if you can manage it)

38 hot is a good guide; adjust to taste and by temp


Credit to Mike at Counter Space Garage! Thanks man!

Read the track questions thread here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38926

[cornstar1234]

I have the same color and tranny! how are the berk muffler delete doing for you? I was thinking about getting them but don't want to get pulled over for having annoying sounds. how does it sound around 2000-2500 rpm?

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by cornstar1234

I have the same color and tranny! how are the berk muffler delete doing for you? I was thinking about getting them but don't want to get pulled over for having annoying sounds. how does it sound around 2000-2500 rpm?

We love the muffler delete. At first it was pretty loud, but after a few thousand miles, it's broken in and toned down quite a bit. I doubt we'll ever have any trouble from Johnny Law about the volume.

I happen to like the sound at around 2-2.5k rpm, but I also ride a CBR1000RR with a titanium race exhaust when I'm not in the car, so my tolerance for exhaust noise is pretty high.

This video is probably the closest to how it really sounds even though it was filmed with a tiny microphone. And I'm sure this is right after his install, as ours is a little smoother sounding now.

We're thinking about painting the tips black since I don't usually wash her every weekend, and the exhaust flow is not evenly split between both tips - the right tip blackens faster than the left. That's just the nature of the design.

[ame]http://youtu.be/yv4QwEQlaA4[/ame]

[sklimo]

So fuckin gross/clean!!!!

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by sklimo

So fuckin gross/clean!!!!

Keepin the family tradition alive!


Sent from a secret volcano base using trained sharks

[kavanagh]

Finally got around to posting some video from the April track day for Kevin... Lisa drove on Saturday, but then overnight hurt her hip and back so she couldn't drive Sunday. NASA AZ was awesome and said they would let her drive free at the next event, or I could drive this event as her replacement - so that's what we did.

We both really like this track. It's Wild Horse Pass West, formerly Firebird Raceway West. It's not very fast, I think mid-high 80's mph top speed, but what it lacks in outright speed, it more than makes up for in technicality - which suits both of us just fine.

I left traction control on most of the day - it actually saved my ass once coming out of turn 5 which is at the end of the straight. I probably could have recovered, but that's a pretty big off right where I was, and if I didn't catch it super quick, I would have railed the right side undercarriage. In the second session I put it in VSC sport mode for a couple of laps, but I actually think that mode sucks worse than just leaving traction control on. During the last part of the session I disabled traction control fully via the five second press. I didn't bother pulling off to do the pedal dance this time.

My favorite part, and the part that actually feels the slowest but is most technical, is the back oval section - turns 8, 9, 10, 11.

8 is a sharp right. In the auto we can shift down to 2nd here in order to keep the RPMs high and tight for turn 9. The guys in manual 86s were staying in third because they lose too much time shifting and it disrupts the balance just enough if they don't get the rev match just right since the 8-9 transition is so quick.

9 is an increasing radius 180 degree left that is off camber and has no inside curbing you can cheat onto. I was either miles away from correct on this or spot on - I never really had an in between. Lots of marbles on the outside and off camber, so you can really practice throttle steering and getting your exit speed spot on. Just a hair too much and you'll push wide and end up even more off camber, plus buried in the marbles with even less traction. I love this corner for making me keep throttle modulation smooth which is the biggest thing I need to practice. Exiting 9 in 2nd gear means I'm hitting redline just as I enter the braking zone for 10.

Entry into 10 is really fun when you get it right because it's a double apex left that runs into a slow right at turn 11. Entry to 10 is right at the rev limit in 2nd gear, so what I do is upshift to third and brake hard. I don't need a ton of power through 10 since I have to slow even more for 11. Being in 3rd makes throttle steering and input a super smooth affair. The turn is long enough (and also about 180 degrees) that you can really use the pedal to shift weight smoothly in order to nab that second apex late and downshift for turn 11. Turn 10 is also super wide, so you can experiment with different lines and setup turn 11 in different ways since 11 sets you up for a flatout sweeping right

11 is a pretty tight right hander with an odd shaped apex. I don't know really how to explain it, but maybe you can see it in the videos. I struggled a bit getting this turn in a single smooth arc. I seemed to be adding steering input near the end to try to exit correctly, and fucked it up more often than I got it right. That's a bummer because the exit of 11 sets you up for this real butt-pucker sweeping right that almost everyone crashes out of at the end of it, trying to dive into the left. Rather, I should say that people who do go off, typically go off entering 3, and in a big way. That's where the photographers hang out if that's any indication for you.

Camber is all over the place on this sweeper - it starts out flat, then positive, then negative (depending on the line you take), then positive/flattish again and back to negative right in the braking zone for turn 3. It's pretty awesome when you get it right, and super exciting when you fuck it up.

Anyhow, here's footage from the day. First video is Noz driving to introduce me to the track. He was my DE1 instructor and is awesome. Second video he rides along with me, and last video, I go it alone. This is my third day overall on a track and first time on this one. I tried to focus more on smooth driving, but like always got excited about trying to 'go fast' instead of 'go smooth', so I screwed up in a bunch of places until I told myself to knock it off.

Ridiculously fun track - we can't wait to go back for more!


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AqW5m6LJbc"]Kevin HPDE 2 NASA AZ WHP West 4/6/14 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAMGXFqBOW8"]KevinS2 HPDE 2 NASA AZ WHP West 4/6/14 - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQou3aM8iU8"]KevinS3 HPDE 2 NASA AZ WHP West 4/6/14 - YouTube[/ame]

[kavanagh]

Yellow DRLs and headlights tonight.




















Sent from a secret volcano base using trained sharks

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by Kodename47

Reset ECU, turn car to accessory. Slowly depress the accelerator 5 times fully to the floor. Turn on car. Its just so the ECU can register 100% pedal movement. That is also why you get dead pedal for a while if you don't. Doing it with the car off is pointless as the ECU isn't powered up.

This works, 20 times is a waste of your energy!

Just putting this in my own thread so I don't have to search for it every time. Thanks @Kodename47!

[kavanagh]

Testing a canned tune for a vendor this weekend for automatics.

Super excited! There's a ton of power in the top third, and we're working on drivability now.

Stay tuned!


Sent from a secret volcano base using trained sharks