Check another one off the 2020 Goals list

"WRXforScience" (WRXforScience) 02/26/2020 at 14:41 • Filed to: Track Day, BRZ

3

12

For the last few years, my top 3 goals at the beginning of the year are: don’t break anything, track more, and to reset my personal best (PB) at the all the tracks I frequent. This past weekend marked my 4th and 5th trackdays of the year and 3rd unique track, I had already managed to set new PB’s at 2 of my first 3 events and both of the configurations that those events used so I was on a bit of a roll (I even managed to improve on the course that I thought would be the toughest to improve on!).

The challenge was that last weekend’s course is the longest circuit that I run on (3.1 miles) which means that you get the fewest laps during a session and there are the most opportunities to make mistakes or lose time to traffic. I was expecting to find some time though since the long course is made from combining the two short courses and I had dropped time on each of them since the last time I ran the full 3.1 mile course. I managed to lop off 2.5s from my previous PB and get well below the “2:30 barrier” (the delineation between fast times and slow ones for that configuration). I was able to put down a 2:28.7 on my best laps both Saturday and Sunday, which I was more than happy with.

Not the car my student signed up with, but not a bad place to spend the weekend

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was giving my Blue (intermediate) student a ride in the Yellow (advanced) group. He was struggling with getting anywhere near the limits of his Viper and was painfully slow for the first day, but after his ride he started picking up the pace. But what really impressed him was when we passed a GT3 RS in my 178whp BRZ (earlier we took an entire straight to pass a Spec Miata, straight lines and power are not the BRZ’s specialty).

It was a great weekend, the rain held off until just before the end of the day on Sunday and the spittle was just enough to turn one of the expansion joints into a slip and slide. Not the best way to end the weekend but nothing was broken and the only damage was to my ego.

Occasional_raptor > WRXforScience 02/26/2020 at 15:14

0

What are you using for video and data overlay? Been trying to find something that is not too terrible to use or setup at the track.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > WRXforScience 02/26/2020 at 15:29

0

The test came back official, based off your dash cam gauges it’s confirmed - you are a G.

or at least you pull some serious G’s.

WRXforScience > Occasional_raptor 02/26/2020 at 16:12

0

I’ve got a Garmin Virb with an OBDII bluetooth adapter that sends all the car data. The Virb Edit software is free to use, so you could use it with another camera (just download it from the garmin website).

WRXforScience > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/26/2020 at 16:12

1

Thanks, that’s all on street tires (Hankook RS4's).

Occasional_raptor > WRXforScience 02/26/2020 at 18:26

0

Thanks for the info, it looks a bit flaky on pedal inputs but hopefully speed and overall GPS is pretty spot on.

WRXforScience > Occasional_raptor 02/26/2020 at 18:30

0

The GPS is 10Hz, so it’s pretty great. The brake is just from the accelerometer but the throttle is from the OBDII (the 80% as max is due to the ecu tune, not sure why though).

Jarrett - [BRZ Boi] > WRXforScience 02/26/2020 at 19:08

0

*takes notes*

Longtime Lurker > WRXforScience 02/26/2020 at 19:09

0

Damn that looked fast.

WRXforScience > Longtime Lurker 02/26/2020 at 19:17

1

Thanks, I’ve been working on keeping my minimum speeds as high as possible (pretty important for low horsepower, momentum cars).

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > WRXforScience 06/04/2020 at 15:58

0

Hey man, please keep this completely to yourself (I’ve shared it privately with their planning group). I did a to-scale comparison of Hallett with the proposed track at Salina. It’s pretty comical - they clearly need a pro to come in and help.

WRXforScience > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 06/04/2020 at 19:28

1

Hmm, Hallett is pretty tight and technical, so a tighter course with such close counter traffic is a bit worrying. There are a number of design and engineering considerations that need to be taken into account when building a track. If the track doesn’t meet safety requirements, groups like the SCCA won’t run there. Hopefully they are doing the required work and don’t cut any corners.

The Salina track looks like a gokart track.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > WRXforScience 06/04/2020 at 20:57

0

Yeah, I hope so, too.