mobonic

I have been dreaming of driving Laguna Seca for a long time and this week, the dream was made into reality!

The RennTrack team made the 450 mile trip to laguna Seca from San Diego.

Left San Diego at 5:00am and arrived at Laguna Seca at 6:00pm (damn LA traffic!)

Well it was worth every second and every $.

Pictures tell a better story!





Mobonic tackling the corkscrew!




Mobonic, Ryan, and Burt all in a line down the screw!














Here is a video of my fastest lap of the weekend.

It was my first time there and the track was a bit wet... had to stay off the rumble strips or you would spin : o !!

1:44 in traffic.... I know I can knock at least 4 seconds off this time with drier conditions and now that I have been to the track.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H4DMfxm26o

jrgordonsenior

Are you guys going to make Pahrump with POC?

mobonic

Not sure... but will be going with PCA in May

just dont know if I can make the POC event with work travel

mobonic

John,

any input from the video would be appreciated if you have the time.. im a sponge for experienced information!

80shilling

Mobonic.. Nice to see you there.. It's always more fun when a gaggle of Porsches show up to Laguna.. Somehow the Porsche drivers are the ones that can actually drive their cars to their potential.. Come up again, as it was great to see some new faces from the Southern part of CA.

Great pics by the way.

Cheers.....

jrgordonsenior

Hard to really comment based on video but..... Other than your late turn-in in T9, your lines looked pretty clean. BTW you were late in opening up the wheel in that particular turn. The line itself wasn't what caused the car to get squirrely....

Tires and setup are the most important part of the equation. So what were you riding on and what sizes, what pressures, and how were your sway bars set? In order to go faster you have to feel confidence in the car. Little burps like T9, or the front end squirreling around previously in T3 and T10 can zap your confidence quickly.

We all occasionally need to be reminded that we can brake a little later, get back on the throttle a little sooner, and unwind the wheel a little quicker especially when you feel the rear end start to slide while trying not to lift (well not too much anyway).....

I think you're on the right track and did well for your first time at Laguna. T9's a bitch, I've gone off twice there in my Cup and Spec Boxster. Laguna requires more mechanical grip up front than other higher speed tracks like WSIR. Many folks set up their car incorrectly for that particular track and find themselves fighting the car and cleaning out kitty litter....

Seat time, a great setup, and good tires all combine to build confidence which is mandatory for faster laps......

Antonov

Nice, not bad times at all given circumstances.

80shilling

I want to point out that the track was horrible for the two days we were down there.. Possibly the least grip I have ever experienced at Laguna. It was 39 degrees when I got to the track on Thursday morning and didn't get much above 55 degrees all day, to add insult to injury, the track was wet. Friday was dry, but still cold and the track never got much temperature in it. I had to run 3 psi more pressure than usual in my tires and even then they never really worked at optimum levels..

The first day, you had to stay WELL clear of the kerbs, as they were wet all day and touching one was going to end badly. Second day was better, but the kerbs held little pockets of water still.

I think we all had a freaking blast...

mobonic

Tires: Toyo Ra1's with about 6-8 track days on them (still felt good!)
Sizes: 245 & 305
Hot Pressures: 32º front and 34º rears
Sways: were mid front and back (set to neutral)

Feel: The car was under-steering a bit ( a lot in the mornings when the track was wet, especially at #2 turn in)... so next time i will set the car to slight oversteer

Overall i was happy with the car and how it was handling.

The MAIN issues was brakes.

I just installed a new set of PAGID Yellow front and Black rears, and had the fluid bled (super blue).

After 3-4 laps I had very bad pedal fade... almost lost brakes going into corkscrew and scared the **** out of me... (all I thought was ferrari crash at historic's race this year!!!!!)

I have no idea why this was happening as I put the pagids in instead of stock pads for better braking at laguna!

I bled the brakes after the first day and still got brake fade after a few laps. My thought was that the new aggressive pads were thicker than stock and not allowing to dissipate heat as well and boiled the brake fluid.

I will change to Motul brake fluid and see what happens at Spring Mountain!

mooty

no wonder you are fast. that turn scares me, and sliding over my own car's coolant into the left side dirt was not fun at all.

absolutely correct (especially T2) when i raced POC i saw many BSR literally just get pushed off track.

mooty

try RA1 at 38-40 hot.
i would run front bar full soft and rear one from full stiff (only at LS)
dumb question: were your new pagids bedded in well? LS is probably the hardest track on brakes of any calif track.

911/Q45

Thicker pads will insulate the calipers better, so less likely to boil fluid.

mobonic

I did not bed in the brakes... I was told no need too

mobonic

The problem looked liked the pads were always touching the rotors.... ...

also after 1 session the front yellows (pagid yellow pads are yellow in color) turned completely white.. like ash and they were like that the entire time!.. (is that normal???)

the rears still looked black in color

jrgordonsenior

Use Castrol SRF and you'll never worry about brake fluid again. Expensive, but worth every dime. I've gone a full year in my cup without ever bleeding and yes, I brake the living bleep out of it. Your RS29's shouldn't be touching the rotors...

80 Shilling brings up a valid point about weather conditions and their impact on driving. Obviously you have to adjust your driving and setup to accomodate wet conditions.

6-8 tracks days computes to how many heat cycles? I would guess at least 24 and probably more like 30. Regardless of how much tread is visible, those tires have long since seen their most productive sessions. When you consider understeer and it's causes, it's hard to make setup adjustments if the tires aren't up to the challenge. Try on a new set and you may lose the understeer completely. I've never run RA1's so I can't comment on pressure other than I ran my R888's at 32-34 hot....

Now about those sway bar settings... I'm not surprised the car was understeering. You call it neutral, I would surmise it was setup to understeer. I would suggest stiffening the rear 1 notch first, then if that's not enough soften the front 1 notch closer to Mooty's setup. The reason I'd move the rear bar first is the front bar is thicker and adjustments there make a greater impact. Plus, I'd rather make a car stiffer than softer. Also hopefully your shocks are non-adjustables so you don't have to address that can of worms....

Tires, tires, tires... Want to go fast, you need good tires....