IcemanG17

http://vimeo.com/15164600

I went through some of my old video footage and found my best lap at Thunderhill in the Widow of 2:09.03 and my best lap in the Estate at 2:09.870...

My good friend merged the two videos into one and sync'd them...he even managed to get the audio on the correct sides...so if you want to hear only the estate only listen to the left side...widow is on the right......pretty cool..this sound trivial, but is very helpful when comparing the two laps.....clearly I am driving the Estate very hard...as you can hear the tires howling in just about every corner and I am having to make constant little corrections mid corner to keep the car on line......vs the Widow appears to be a leisurely sunday drive...tires are barely squealing and I barely alter the steering wheel from the line......

for info here is a comparo of the cars stats:
1984 928 S automatic open diff ............1989 S4 5 speed LSD
203whp-241 torque 302whp 269 torque
245/45-16 BFG R1's all around 295-335 Toyo R888
used bilsteins with cut eibachs Koni-hypercoil 800-300 (carls kit)
stock brakes with race pads-fluid Big blacks, pagid orange-race fluid
2794lbs empty 2831lb empty

svp928

I'd say your driving has improved with age....

AO

That was cool.

jeff spahn

Super Cool. Gotta take my shark to Blackhawk Farms in Beloit, WI soon. And Road America when it is PCA day again.

anonymousagain

Dayum, that is frickin' awesome Brian!! Great editing indeed.

Your driving has significantly improved with all the seat time. It's clear you are tentative with corner throttle in the widow, but maintaining smooth early throttle to carry speed through the corner with the estate. I'm sure the lower hp requires less finesse with the pedal, but I'd bet $9.28 that you'd surprise yourself with how much better you'd drive the widow now, even with the addt'l 100hp. Nice.

btw - you were noticeably faster in the estate indeed...if only the start/finish wasn't on the straight to exploit it's weakspot !!

mark kibort

The old holbert car was the "widow". 2:01.5 was my best on DOT RA1s to. Yep, your driving is coming along. I dont know if I could push that estate to a 2:09 now

IcemanG17

While I don't doubt my driving is much better in the 17 months between these videos (April 09 in the Widow and this month in the Estate)....we won't know until I drive the widow again. The Widow will be back in norcal next month...I hope to drive it again at the Oct 22nd trackday at Thunderhill....I would guess its a 2:02 car as it sits right now...which is in line with MK's times with a similar setup...

I do think MK-Anderson-Sean could match my times in the Estate with minimal effort....I was pleasantly surprised that our lap times in the Estate at the last race were all quite similar, mostly due to heavy traffic...but MK did win the "fast time" for the weekend last time!!

My goal for the Estate without increasing HP is a 2:07 over the top....but I don't think it can get there without better aero and bigger tires....

IcemanG17

I did some stopwatch testing to see where the estate gains time vs the Widow....granted not exactly precise holding a stopwatch and watching the videos but here is what I got...assuming we were exactly sync'd at start-finish

T2 .7 second lead to Estate
T5 .8 lead to Estate
T9 1.75 lead to Estate (largest margin)
T10 1.6 lead to estate (widow is coming back with its power)
T15 .6 lead to Estate (widow gained 1 second on back straight)
start-finish Widow ahead by .8 second. (Widow recovered 1.4 seconds on main straight)

mark kibort

Thanks Brian, but you are getting a lot of track time. Its kind of how it works if you are serious about getting faster. you study, ask, practice and then guess what? you get faster. I think a lot of people can spin fast lap times. I remember tailing derek bell in his 500hp audi with the 300hp holbert car and actually feel like I was faster under braking and in the turns. In the end, its no surprise when some rookie or young buck spins a time as fast as a top pro. BUT, it is a surprise when they consistantly make great decisions on the track and keep the equipment safe, without ever putting a wheel wrong, usually ever. thats the differerence I see usually.
However, even though mark and I had the same lap times with the estate, i dont think i could match his times in the same car with 200more HP. I think that is something he is real good at, and is another goal of mine. to drive a REAL fast car, fast! Ill go toe to toe with anyone in the sub 400rwhp 3000lbs class range, but when you get into the 500 and 600hp range, lots of things change.

I still cant believe you have got that bucket of bolts to the 209 range! thats awesome. Now, get that thing in a real race with nasa, put on some big tires. Heck, borrow mine next time. Ill let you use my 275s and 305s for a race no problem, and Ill bring my bat! that should take off at least a second or two alone! 207 is doable!!

mark kibort

that was a great video. I did something like that when i was trying to match my driving at laguna vs Anderson when our times were near the same so I could see the difference in style ( mark A back in 1999 speedvision GT laguna vs the holbert car on dots and near the same weight in '04) Very cool video brian.

James Bailey

Track time makes a huge difference I see it all the time with students.....I think I will go get some track time this weekend Neat video. Low powered cars you must learn to conserve energy because it is hard to replace it. Momentum cars just do not make it up in the straights. Worst thing for a new driver is too much power can lead to lots of bad habits , overdriving , upsetting the car, power oversteer which is fun but slow....yet the high power can give decent lap times so they drive harder or buy more horsepower .

IcemanG17

I concur 1,000,000% The single best thing that improved my driving was the Widow BLOWING UP....yes it hurts to admit it, but that gave me lots of seat time in Spec Miatas...which taught me SO much about being smooth.... I think I did about 5-6 trackdays in Miatas, typically with timing...so I could see what worked and what didn't almost immediately....it really helped!!!

Life is an interesting ride....If you would have asked a year ago when we were building the Estate for the 1st lemons race if I thought I would turn a 2:09.8 in it...I would have laughed out loud... I thought it was a 2:20 car...but its gone as fast as 2:14 on street tires (lemons trim 225/50-16's at that) and and its record over the top at Thunderhill is 2:09.5.....

It would be fun to get the Lemons team back together at a trackday to drive the Estate again...it would be very interesting to see the Marks opinon of the car now....Sean has driven it on R comps already....

I might have to take MK up on his tire-wheel offer...his wheels & tires with some massaging is all thats needed.....

mark kibort

fronts will fit without fuss, rears will fit with one or two bat rolls! and the flare will look even better than it does now. (I remember we did most of it that day in Berkeley). more than likely, its a bolt on afair right now.

mk

IcemanG17

MK
You gotta make the NCRC day on Friday Oct 22nd.... $99 to race is hard to beat!!!! Plus I can try out your spare wheels on the Estate.... There is a strong possibility that the Widow will be back by then too....it would be fun chasing you around in the Widow..but I don't think I could stay close for long....too much TORQUE in your machine!! (flame suit on)

RPetty

I too am trying to get there.
Need to get the Euro to Campbell for the swap of parts.