One full week at Laguna Seca
08-27-2019, 02:45 AM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
One full week at Laguna Seca
One of my goals for 2019, was to run 7 days across the year at Laguna Seca, met that goal this past Sunday, 25 August 2019, running with the Porsche Owners Club of CA. My other goal was to get better at this track with my stock 2004 GT3...looking for a 1:41....still not there, but I'll get there....I was focused on attempting to drive the line illustrated by Ross Bentley and Peter Krause in their Speed Secrets Virtual Track video. As I watch the video of my last session, I do need work on Turn 2, the other turns are OK until I get to Turn 9, I am cutting it off, not going out to the right as Ross and Peter recommend. Less than $50, a huge bargain. I may actually get back to Laguna Seca a few more times this year...some local cubs are offering mid-week rack days.
Here is a little video of last weekend for anyone interested:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i2nletqcnt...D0046.MOV?dl=0
Tires: Ran Nitto NT-01 245/40 on the front 305/35 on the rear...the 315/30 just wont fit with the offset of my O.Z. Allegritta wheels, do have -2.75 degrees of camber on the rear, -3.0 on the front. The tires had 10+ heat cycles on them....up until now I wasn't 100% sold on this tire, now I am. I wanted to run Hosiers but was compelled to burn up this set first. Damn they were good, predictable...hooked up, did the job. About a month earlier, I had run a 1:44.8 on Hoosiers....on the Nittos I was in the low 1:45s, and it was a hot day on top of it. Really surprised how well they work, so surprised that they are now my tire of choice, and affordable too.
One thing holding me back was my seat, a Euro GT3 seat...it just doesn't have the bracing of a race seat....bracing and applying the gas can be a bit of a hassle, especially in key corners such as 5, 6, 9 and 10. I knew I was bracing at the time, but confirming evidence was the soreness I felt in my butt and quads.
I do have Schroth 5 point harnesses holding me in, but that's just not enough. Back in the day, the adage was, a race seat is good for about 2 seconds a lap. I am inclined to believe that, and will have a race seat in place for my next track event to test this proposition.
For driver aids I had the APEX Pro, about $500 for the unit and the mount. It worked incredibly well...enabled me to come in, and after checking my hot tire pressures, I could immediately review my data using the APEX pro app on my phone. I first looked for my lap times time and then looked at the speed trace, comparing the latest lap to an earlier lap. I am really loving this unit, so elegantly simple and easy to use. With the APEX pro their is no excuse not to look at your data, see your strengths and areas of potential improvement.
Video and more data was supplied by an AiM SOLO 2 DL, connected to my car's CAN-bus, and SmartyCam connected to the AiM. This is a great combination. The AiM gear had an auto on/off feature...so you'll never forget to turn it on. Video is stored on a SD card, easily downloaded to my MacBook ProTo top it off, I won my class on Sunday, on the out lap, gridded #5 out of 23 cars, passed #4 within a lap...victory is sweet.
Here is a little video of last weekend for anyone interested:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i2nletqcnt...D0046.MOV?dl=0
Tires: Ran Nitto NT-01 245/40 on the front 305/35 on the rear...the 315/30 just wont fit with the offset of my O.Z. Allegritta wheels, do have -2.75 degrees of camber on the rear, -3.0 on the front. The tires had 10+ heat cycles on them....up until now I wasn't 100% sold on this tire, now I am. I wanted to run Hosiers but was compelled to burn up this set first. Damn they were good, predictable...hooked up, did the job. About a month earlier, I had run a 1:44.8 on Hoosiers....on the Nittos I was in the low 1:45s, and it was a hot day on top of it. Really surprised how well they work, so surprised that they are now my tire of choice, and affordable too.
One thing holding me back was my seat, a Euro GT3 seat...it just doesn't have the bracing of a race seat....bracing and applying the gas can be a bit of a hassle, especially in key corners such as 5, 6, 9 and 10. I knew I was bracing at the time, but confirming evidence was the soreness I felt in my butt and quads.
I do have Schroth 5 point harnesses holding me in, but that's just not enough. Back in the day, the adage was, a race seat is good for about 2 seconds a lap. I am inclined to believe that, and will have a race seat in place for my next track event to test this proposition.
For driver aids I had the APEX Pro, about $500 for the unit and the mount. It worked incredibly well...enabled me to come in, and after checking my hot tire pressures, I could immediately review my data using the APEX pro app on my phone. I first looked for my lap times time and then looked at the speed trace, comparing the latest lap to an earlier lap. I am really loving this unit, so elegantly simple and easy to use. With the APEX pro their is no excuse not to look at your data, see your strengths and areas of potential improvement.
Video and more data was supplied by an AiM SOLO 2 DL, connected to my car's CAN-bus, and SmartyCam connected to the AiM. This is a great combination. The AiM gear had an auto on/off feature...so you'll never forget to turn it on. Video is stored on a SD card, easily downloaded to my MacBook ProTo top it off, I won my class on Sunday, on the out lap, gridded #5 out of 23 cars, passed #4 within a lap...victory is sweet.
Last edited by Martin S.; 08-31-2019 at 01:08 AM.
08-31-2019, 01:14 AM
#2
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
One more confession on Tire Pressures.
I started in the morning cold TP at 27 psi. As the day wore on the track temps kept rising and as a result, after a few laps my NT-01s went greasy in a few spots and I went down to
25 PSI cold, tires still a little greasy. I did the unthinkable, lowered the cold temps to 20 PSI....the tires really woke up and the greasy thing was all gone.
It mat be because the tires had about 15 heat cycles....
25 PSI cold, tires still a little greasy. I did the unthinkable, lowered the cold temps to 20 PSI....the tires really woke up and the greasy thing was all gone.
It mat be because the tires had about 15 heat cycles....