My track day journal. new update 11/20/2017

[AriuSen]

Originally Posted by The HACK

There's a trick to turn 9 I picked up in iRacing and in real life. There's a dark, repaved patch at the entry to the turn, If you aim your passenger side front tire for that patch after you clear the corkscrew, you can continue to apply throttle all the way to the patch, then brush the brakes so you set the front suspension, but not necessarily slow down, and you can squeeze right back on the throttle without having to sacrifice entry speed.

The key is to be able to set up the front suspension to turn in hard into the apex, otherwise you run out of exit this way because you're not scrubbing off too much speed. That momentary brush of the brake doesn't slow you down much, but gives you the ability to crank the car way into the turn since that part of the track lacks camber.

Look for that dark patch the next time you go. It's pretty obvious. Night and day difference for turn 9.

I don't know if this helps or not, the "patch" is hard to see. It's right past the bridge, I circled it on my screen grab. You can see just ahead of the patch that there's two distinct "lines" resulting from all the racers and race cars driving over the same spot, more rubber is laid down here on this particular part of the track, so it's got more grip. If you hit the patch, brush the brakes to set front suspension, it's natural to laid down more rubber here. Those marks came from cars under braking, just as the entry to bus-stop has some heavily marked tire marks from everyone brushing the brakes at the same spot (you know what I'm talking about) even though bus-stop at Buttonwillow is not a heavy braking zone.

You can see another arrow pointing to another patch mark on the ground, that spot indicates when you'll have to be back on throttle, because if you're not, you'll end up getting a little squirrel-y. Plus if you're not back on throttle there, it defeats the purpose of using this particular "line" through turn 9. You'll end up cruising all the way past Apex.

That's actually a really great tip because I was analyzing my data with other friends and I was slow turn 9 but I didn't know why. It's such a hard corner to nail. Before I would try to apply more throttle earlier and the track would just push me off. Thanks for the tip. I will try to practice that next event.

[AriuSen]

The HACK

man thats a great tip....i want to go out again just to test that lol....i always wondered why race cars would take smaller radius because i used to feel so hard to hit the apex if I stayed in the middle of the track...i was going wide, cruising a little and then aim for apex.....i will try that next time...im pretty sure its faster doing your way.
stay in middle full throttle, brake hard turn and shoot for apex....thanks for that!

[AriuSen]

a quick teaser of a documentary about bimmer challenge and few of my friends at laguna seca.
Will share the full video once its ready.

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by AriuSen

The HACK

man thats a great tip....i want to go out again just to test that lol....i always wondered why race cars would take smaller radius because i used to feel so hard to hit the apex if I stayed in the middle of the track...i was going wide, cruising a little and then aim for apex.....i will try that next time...im pretty sure its faster doing your way.
stay in middle full throttle, brake hard turn and shoot for apex....thanks for that!

I don't know who taught me that line, might have been a club racer that I dragged out to ride with me, but over the years of instructing there I can tell it makes a huge difference in turn 9 from the passenger seat. The key is timing and the fact that you're only using the brakes to set up the front suspension, so it's a brush, feel the front end bite, then right back onto the throttle as you turn in. It's tricky, I suggest going through it at least once or twice at a slower speed just to get used to the sensation, because it's FUNKY.

I don't know how to describe it. You'll know when you've timed it right. It's spooky because that momentary brush of the brakes will allow your car to dive right back into the apex of 9 just when you thought the car is going to push wide. IF you can left foot brake, you'll catch a ton of people here because you can stay in throttle and never lose speed.

Plus if you ever go wheel to wheel here, it is pretty much the only way through turn 9 that allows you to defend your position against a faster car.

p.s.: You don't want to be full throttle there, because you WILL still run out of room at the exit. But you won't have to coast or cruise as long, since you can accelerate all the way to your turn-in point (the dark patch on the track) and then stay mid throttle from your turn-in to about 6 ft before the apex and continue to feed in more throttle through the entry of the turn.

[dschultz]

Alex, your turn by turn analysis is spot on and gave me new insights. You figured things out in a day that I’ve been working on for, ahem, longer than that. Mad skilz!

Hack, looking forward to trying your tips through T9. Thanks!

[AriuSen]

Originally Posted by dschultz

Alex, your turn by turn analysis is spot on and gave me new insights. You figured things out in a day that I’ve been working on for, ahem, longer than that. Mad skilz!

Hack, looking forward to trying your tips through T9. Thanks!

thank you!...i hope i could help a little...not the best explanations lol.

[Rick F.]

Originally Posted by AriuSen

a quick teaser of a documentary about bimmer challenge and few of my friends at laguna seca.
Will share the full video once its ready.

Alex,

Really nice job on the documentary--I'll look forward to seeing more!

Rick

[dre99gsx]

A while back you had a thread running regarding front wheel lift on a turn. Did you ever resolve the issue? You had found your front bar was a stiffest setting, but never reported back your findings.

[AriuSen]

Originally Posted by dre99gsx

A while back you had a thread running regarding front wheel lift on a turn. Did you ever resolve the issue? You had found your front bar was a stiffest setting, but never reported back your findings.

Yes I fixed it.
I had front sway bar in medium I believe and no rear bar. That causes the rear to lean too much compared to the front resulting in a lift on front tires

I was searching for more rear grip, but sacrifices a lot front grip

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by dschultz

Alex, your turn by turn analysis is spot on and gave me new insights. You figured things out in a day that I’ve been working on for, ahem, longer than that. Mad skilz!

Hack, looking forward to trying your tips through T9. Thanks!

Great stuff here! I wish I'd seen it before I was there on the 6th. I found several things to try here T9, T3, and others. And surprisingly a few places I thought I was screwing up I was doing ok. Particularly T11 where I was thinking braking earlier rather than trailing as much might be faster. Scratch that!

I hope to see more of you guys at Laguna. In the summer it sure beats Thill on temps!

[Mantazini]

What a fantastic thread with loads good points and advice regards setup . Here in UK it's not a very popular track car and ive been struggling a little bit to find the sweet spot with mine. There is a company that tunes them , but as you'd imagine they don't share too much info for non customers . Keep on the good work Alex have read all of this with a huge interest

[AriuSen]

Originally Posted by Mantazini

What a fantastic thread with loads good points and advice regards setup . Here in UK it's not a very popular track car and ive been struggling a little bit to find the sweet spot with mine. There is a company that tunes them , but as you'd imagine they don't share too much info for non customers . Keep on the good work Alex have read all of this with a huge interest

Thank you!!! Hope I could help some

[Vanne]

Thanks Alex, lots of good little info in this thread mate. I also look forwards to more of that documentary that you guys are making.
Top stuff!!!

I also noticed that with my rear bar loose, the rear bites harder. Ive added a new rear bar, first session was nearly a second faster than my old PB at my local. Lol its either that or the corner balancing I had done at the same time.. lol..