jvp

OK. Enough bitching about car quality, disenchantment with Z06s, and Nissans beating Z06s. Summit Point Raceway has another Friday at the Track coming up on May 11th. My car is heading to the body shop on Wednesday of this week (see aforementioned run-in with deer carcass). With any luck, it'll be ready to go track-terrorizing by next week.

I know Geoff will be up there, recently graduated to Group 2, in his yellow Z06. So, if you'd like, come watch the two of us send the Porsches, Bimmers, Acuras, Hondas, VWs, and anything else that dares to show up (including the instructors ), running for the hills.

Between now and then, I'm going to have a tiny change made to my alignment. I want to dial in a little bit of toe-out in the rear, to help loosen up the butt a bit. It plowed a little too much my last time out, and understeer sucks.

Hope to see you folks there.

jas

jvp

Bump, in case anyone missed this, earlier this week. Next Friday.

jas

petefias

I'll try to stay the hell out of your way, you animal.

I'll be with the other rookies (first time at FATT) with my antiquated Z (ZR1 that is). It has the fastest color, though.

jvp

Heh heh.. Well, if you're in Group 1, we won't come across one another on the track. Hopefully you won't get too frustrated in Group 1 with some of the slow(er) drivers out there.

Front clip was replaced yesterday, and I have the car back in my garage. I'm ready to go!

jas

Painrace

Everyone has a different driving style. I would not go to toe out on the rear. I suggest "0" toe at most. I recommend about .030"-.060" total toe in. I also suggest you play with tire pressure to reduce understeer. I always liked understeer because as I went faster the understeer goes away and throttle oversteer is much easier. Use a pirometer and set the camber. You are probably already doing this but having different camber setings on each of the four wheels will help a lot.

Good luck.

jvp

I always appreciate suggestions from others. Fortunately, the alignment isn't set in stone, and is relatively easily changed. So if I don't find this setup to my liking, I can change it again. :-)

We'll see how it goes on Friday. Long-term weather forecast is looking promising, so far (though WAY too early to bank on it).

jas

jwg2

See you there. I'll be in a black 01 Z06 in group 2

catbert

Sounds like fun.

Painrace

BLOW 'EM AWAY jvp!

jvp

Heh heh. I sure hope to. Stay tuned for after-action video, as always.

jas

ALMS21

Are you guys still running at Summit today? If so, what time? I want to come out and observe. I'll be in a silver '03 996tt. I want to see the Z on the track so bad.

sothpaw2

They start those at 8:00 am so if you are going to go, go now to catch the end.

jvp

Hey folks -

Yesterday's Friday at the Track went significantly better (for me) than the previous visit. I hit no deer carcasses, no one shot any gravel into my windshield, and my engine didn't snorfle up any oil.

There were Corvettes everywhere, yesterday. Bunch of C5s, couple of C5 Z06s, a C6, 3 C6 Z06's (mine, Geoff's, and one other silver.. all of us were in group 2). Even 2 ZR-1s (one owned by petefias). It seemed like a club of some sort, but none of the Corvette owners knew anything about a club day. So it was just a matter of coincidence. I can dig it. :-)

Our classroom visit was short, but I managed to stir up a little "discussion" in it about turn 4. AKA, the chute. Folks in group 2 should know better NOT to hit the brakes going into the chute, or anywhere around the chute. And it never fails: people continue to do it. The chute is a downhill right-hander that should be taken with your foot on the gas. Not on the brake. The weight of the car is already mostly forward due to the hill. Hitting the brakes does little more than shift even MORE weight forward, which loosens the rear end up. If you turn like that, you risk oversteering right into the embankment. Your foot should be on the gas (not floored) as you go down that hill and around the corner.

The challenge with 4 is that it's one of the fastest corners on the track (I usually take it north of 100MPH), immediately followed by the slowest corner on the track. Turn 5 is a 180-degree left hander at the bottom of turn 4's track out, and it's completely blind. There's a large embankment on your left as you're going around 5. Very slow corner. I think people prepare for turn 5 long before they get to turn 4, which just screws everything up.

Geoff and I lined up for the first session WAY early so that we were the first cars out of the pits. I got one clean lap in (under standing yellow) before I ran into traffic still exiting the pits. Unfortunately, I had to go another 2 laps before they lifted the yellow, so that was a wee bit frustrating... (Geoff actually passed someone under the yellow in the 9-10 straight, but we won't tell anyone.. right? ;-)) As always, the first session was tough. People aren't watching their mirrors enough, and long trains of cars form. It's frustrating when it happens, but it happens every time.

Our session was black flagged because a Corvette went off in the 9-10 straight and bounced off the tire wall. I didn't see the car, but heard that the damage was very minimal, and that no one was hurt.

During lunch, I met Stewart20 who wanted to watch my car on the track. I pointed a couple of different spots out to him, and off he went. Never did hear from him the rest of the day. Did you find a good vantage point?

Group 2 drivers were called into an impromptu meeting at 12 because the head instructor wanted to bitch at us for a couple of things. All safety related. It was a quick meeting, he said his piece, and then sent us back out to enjoy lunch.

Session 2: I met up with an old co-worker named Joel Gallun, who is also an instructor. I hadn't seen Joel in a few years and was pleasantly surprised to see him there. He asked if he could ride with me during the session, and off we went. Joel tried to point out a slightly different way to take the carousel (turns 6 and 7). I typically come out of 6, breathe off the throttle for some TTO, and then hit 7. Joel suggested I try rotating the car WITH the throttle instead. I tried it a few times, and I could see what he meant when I did it right. But, I didn't do it right too often, and the car felt very unsettled through 7 and into 8. I'll keep working on that, though.

In the 2-3 straight, we came upon a red C5 Z06 being driven very aggressively. The car in front of the C5 pointed both of us by, so we passed. I noticed that the C5 was charging WAY too hard into 3, and I pointed that out to Joel. "He's going way too fast." Sure enough, he nearly wiped out going around 3 because he was carrying way too much speed. I had to back off a bit and tap the brakes so that I didn't end up along side of him. Joel was reasonably happy that I'd spotted that before it happened.

I followed the C5 around the rest of the track and was hoping for a point-by. I can't remember (I haven't watched the vids yet.. they'll be coming) whether I finally did get the point-by from him. After he and his instructor recovered from the turn 3 incident, he started driving the **** out of that car again.

Third session didn't happen. I was out for a whole lap when we got black flagged. Geoff will be able to shed some more light on part of this disaster, as he was there to see some of it. But, he let a Mustang pass him. While the 'Stang was passing him, it blew something and started spraying oil everywhere. Down the main straight, into and around turn 1 and 2, etc. Geoff had oil all over his car because of it. But that wasn't what black flagged us.

Someone else, in a WRX STi, came down into the braking zone of turn 1 and hit the oil. Went sideways, and rolled his car past the gravel trap. He landed shiny side up, and I didn't see the results of his car. He was OK, fortunately. But it did take the rest of the session to clean the track and pull the car out.

Fourth session, found me spent, and driving like ****. At some point, that zame C5 Z06 found me and I let him by. I tried to stay behind him, but he was taking turn 3 way faster than I felt comfortable doing (and, quite frankly, I don't think he was comfortable doing it, either, from the looks of his car). He was a good driver and he stayed ahead of me. When I did catch him, he decided to pit on. He later told me his car is stock except for Kumho 710s. And that he only went out there to pass me, and then pit in. Well, good for him. We won't mention that little almost-off-track-excursion in turn 3 the previous session, will we? ;-)

Geoff ended our session a little early. He'll share more, but we found him parked in the chute, off in the grass. Sounds like his engine went into limp-home-mode for some reason. After we all got off the track, he tried to drive it to the pits, and it eventually told him it had 0 oil pressure. So he stalled it right where it was and got towed into the pits. He checked the oil, and it was WAY low for some reason. So he added another quart, fired the engine up, and the pressure was fine. Geoff, did you make it home?

Overall, a very good day. It was hot as hell, but the track was nice and sticky (when it wasn't covered in oil). The car ran like a freight train, and I had a ton of fun. I'm not sure when the next FATT is, because BSR has changed their website format. They're not listing which FATTs are at the Shenendoah circuit. In June, there's one the 8th, and one the 22nd. I think one of those is on the Shenendoah, which I won't go to. So, we'll see.

Vids to follow.

jas

ALMS21

JVP - after I met you at lunch I drove down to the big set of bleachers past the esses so I could see you coming through those and then your exit out of 9 (I think its 9??) to the straight. I gotta tell you man, your car was so damn strong especially coming out of there. Each lap you took at the 1:30 session (save maybe one or two laps) you got a "pointby". I wanted to see you and the red GT3 get together. He was pretty strong as well. Appeared to be pretty experienced driver. You both were hitting your points pretty damn good. You must have passed a ton of cars over the rest of the track because each time you passed by me there were two or three cars now behind you that were in front of you on the previous lap.

I was damn impressed and the Z looks right at home on the track. Thanks again for taking the time to talk to me and thanks to Geoff for pointng you out and making the introduction. The speed yellow looks hot guys!!

Geoff - what exhaust do you have on your car? Sounded sweeeeeet.

Congrats guys on two awesome cars.

jvp

Glad you enjoyed the show. :-) 1:30 is a little slow for me, so it appears as though I need to do some more work, refining my line a bit. Hm..

I tend to eat up a lot of cars in the big straight. But my favorite place to pass is the short 2-3 straight. That's the only time on the whole track my engine sees redline.

It was my pleasure. Geoff actually joked with me after you left. He said to me, "Hey man, can I have your autograph?" Heh heh. I'm glad you enjoyed watching the runs. I normally find it painfully boring to sit and watch cars go around the track. But if you got a kick out of it, then, cool. :-)

Once again, hopefully Geoff made it home safe and sound. He has a set of LGM headers (and the free-flow cats) on his car. That's what you were hearing.

jas

Geoff17

Jason, you were smoking out there as usual. I too saw the agressive C5 and smart of you to give him the passby. Just so everyone knows, Jason and I started on the grid together but he was gone before a 1/2 lap (the warm up lap no less) was over. He is a very very fine driver.

Well it wasn't the best day at the track for me. As Jason said we were black flagged on session 1 (but not before I dodged a muffler falling off an orginal Austin Mini), then we hit the train for session 2 (it's amazing to me that supposedly advanced drivers don't give the passby). For session 3 Steve, who has a 550hp mustang, and I decided to have a little fun. I was going to let him pass me on the straight and then I was going to dog him around and watch his line (he only has few more sessions under his belt than me but is a better driver). All went well until the pass. Steve got about 5 car lengths in front and then something blew as he showered my car with oil. My car hit the oil and immediately got loose but I went off line where there was no oil and all was fine. Ralph, also with a C6 Z06, was behind me and really got loose but saved it. He never knew about the oil and asked me later if he had his tire pressures correct!
I told Steve to wait until the 4th session was over and I would give him a ride home. Well as Jason said I never made it through the 4th session. The original issue seemed like the oil ingestion issue that I had experienced once before. But then the oil pressure went to zero & I immediately shut down and pulled off track (unfortunately resulting in a session ending black flag-sorry Jason and everyone else). After about 20 minutes I started the car and all seemed fine. We drove about 30 miles toward home and the same situation happened again so I parked it and had it towed to Silver Spring (about 60 miles-can't wait to see that bill??). My wife picked us up and we got home about 930. The cool part was as we were waiting for my wife about 20 police cars passed us without stopping but a ton of people from FATT pulled over to help-even the Porsche guys. At one point we had 4 Corvettes lined up on the side of the highway.
Oh well, I'll see what the problem is and let you guys know. In the meantime I hope to be ready for the next FATT and work on being more like Jason!

Geoff

Stewart-my exhaust is LG LT's, with high flow cats, X pie and CORSA catback-thanks for the compliment.

Geoff17

I just looked at the information on my Traqmate-first time I have used it so I haven't figured out yet how to down load data and look at my lines etc but I was surpised and pleased to see my times. My best lap was a 1:29.3. I think Jason says when he is smoking he does 124's so I figure with my stock runflats and only my third session I did okay. I had 4 other laps at 1:30 to 1:31 but also some in the 1:137-1:38 range. For whatever reason I only had one session recorded so I need to figure out what I did wrong. Anyway it is supposed to be a great training aid as you can overlay your laps and even overlay other drivers. Bad part is it is expensisive ($1,000) and is not discounted anywhere.

ALMS21

[QUOTE=jvp;1560220974]Glad you enjoyed the show. :-) 1:30 is a little slow for me, so it appears as though I need to do some more work, refining my line a bit. Hm..

Sorry....I meant the session you ran at 1:30 in the afternoon. I hear that your lap times are in the low to mid 1:20's.

jvp

Thanks for that. I appreciate the compliments. Just be careful. I may not be able to get my helmet back on next time... ;-)

I don't know who was causing worse traffic: the guy in the Mini (which couldn't get out of its own way), the guy in the white Mustang (roll bar, etc), or the various f'ing Neons in the session. ARGH!

As I told the Mustang driver at lunch time: be more like yourself. Don't worry about trying to match up with someone else who may be a lot faster than you. If you find someone who's a little faster than yourself, then you can spend time trying to learn from him.

Keep focusing on the basics. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Go slow to go fast. I assure you, that's ALL I do. Keep at it. Listen to the instructors like Klaus that emphasize smoothness. You listen to Klaus and follow his instructions, you'll be faster than me in no time.

What?! Huh?! Can you speak up? I can't hear you!



jas

jvp

Ah HA! A simple case of misunderstanding. Got it now. 1:30pm. Not 1 minute, 30 seconds.

Had me worried there... ;-)

jas