tytek

This is my best lap from this weekend at Putnam. I have no suspension mods, street/track alignment and 390whp at the wheels. Tires are Firehawk Wide Ovals in Z06 sizes.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHydEa3Q3g

Still learning as this is my 3rd full day at this track, and fourth overall.

jcsperson

FASTFATBOY

Looks good to me, your instructor knows what's up.

You have a good handle on what the gas pedal does for you, it's your friend.

Keep your eyes up, look ahead, your hands follow your eyes.

Whenever you get a straightaway, take a deeeeep breath, loosen your grip and regroup.

Going fast is about information processing capability, staying relaxed is the key.

tytek

Thanks JCS for embedding the video - I couldn't do it from my phone. Appreciate your input fastboy. I want to be fast one day too.

I ended up heat cycling my tires out at the session following this lap. They got progressively worse, until I was 9 sec off the original pace. Driving on tires that are incredibly greasy had taught me patience and smoothness. I think that the 50+ laps I did after the tires started losing grip made me a better driver, and resulted in me having to continuously adjust my braking points and turn-in speeds.

Since my pads were getting low, I decided not to go home for R888s Saturday night and suffered through two sessions on the Wide Ovals. It was painful to, instead of progressing through the day, end up with times that were many seconds off from what I managed to do earlier.

I have even more respect now for racers whose tires go and yet they are still managing to post competitive times.

StKnoWhere

Nice driving and good instruction. Hard to tell without seeing the wheel but based on the cars reaction some steering input looked a little quick for the turn, be lazy rotating the wheel and your tires will be happier.

FASTFATBOY

This is why I was told to stay on street tires for the first year or 6 events, and I did. Not "good" street tires either, junkers. I ran my first 5 events on Maxxis $99 each tires. Then I was on Nitto NT-05's for 2.5 years(10-12 events).


Rain days also teach you a ton, don't be afraid to do them. You will learn more in one day in the rain than you will in 3 in the dry.

DE is not about speed, it's about learning to hear the car talk to you and learning to talk back. Don't get hung up on lap times, I would not even have a timing device in the car for the first year.

tytek

Thank you. You are spot on. I did jerk the car into turns a little too much. With worn out tires, it became imperative that all my inputs be smooth. Made a conscious effort to do it for the rest of the weekend and became smoother.

Both of my instructors that weekend suggested I step up to r-comp tires, as they felt my car control and reactions are very good, and I am limited by my tires. I have a set of used R888s that came on a track prepped Vette I recently bought.

Look forward with anticipation to my next event in order to give these a whirl. Thanks for the input guys. Any and all advice is much appreciated.

StKnoWhere

I second the motion crappy tires are good to learn on, burn those puppies down to the cords before switching to race tires.

Switching too early before you've built the car control skills and muscle memory to the point of being able anticipate need to make a correction risks having a "I see Elvis" experience...

R compound is also hard on the car and wallet. You both will see an entirely new level of G force. The car should have a dry sump and be well maintained. Suspension, hubs, bearings, brakes,wheel studs, etc. need to be checked closely. Also time to get serious about safety equipment.

hellrazr

What were your tire pressures? I have spent most of my track time on the Wide Ovals and they never heat cycled on me. I always wore em down flat, and they had more grip as the treads wore down. How were your tire pressures? I always had to lower tire pressures throughout the warmer days otherwise they'd get pretty greasy, 30-32 hot was generally pretty good.

NT05s, RS-3s, etc, always heat cycled out on me.. long before treads were gone.

Not much grip to start with, but I loved them Wide Ovals!

tytek

It is possible that the tires overheated, as I did see hot pressures around 40-41 psi after the first session. I subsequently dropped them to 36 psi hot for later sessions and the following day. But, the damage must have been done, as I was off by 6 sec from the lap posted above and the car had little grip, particularly in the front. From what I hear, once the chemical process of molecules bonding together in a tires happens (high heat and pressure), it is irreversible. I suspect that the tires are done and frankly, I wasn't having as much fun on them at the end. It was frustrating, having had to adjust my brake, turn-in, and accel points dynamically through the day, and seeing my times plummet. I know, some say that I shouldn't even care about lap times; I disagree, as they were a great tool for line adjustment and consistency verification.

I recently bought a track prepped car with tons of track appropriate mods (no dry sump, however) and started a thread on head and neck safety devices -I'm considering wearing one with the harness and race seat that is in that car. It will be nice to have a seat that holds my *** in place, without having to brace myself at each turn. BTW, my left buttock is yet again killing me today, after a weekend of using it to keep me planted in the seat.

I have a set of four 18" rear wheels that have used R888s on them. Plan to test them out at an autox coming up this weekend. It will be my first time on R-comps, and at lower speeds, it should be a safe place to figure out the grip and car's behavior than going straight to a track. If all goes well, I'm a considering doing MidOhio next week (went there a couple of months ago and enjoyed the track immensely). I found MidOhio to be easier than Putnam, in terms of flow and rythym. Once you get the line right, my laps on that track felt smoother and better put together.

Thanks for all the feedback and please, don't hold back from negative feedback when required.