tgavem

Thank you Dave.

Veloce Raptor

Any time, my friend!

Thundermoose

Tor:

Great driving and time on high performance street tire. Once you get on a softer tires, you'll have a good shot of breaking 1:50.

On Dave's advice from one of my earlier video's, I shift into 4th going up hill and stay there until entrance of 6. I believe that with my aero, I may be able to stay in 4th through 6 as well. But I digress.

I also short shift into 4th before 12 as Dave suggests.

I think you and I both need to hold turn into 13 a tad longer so that we can later apex 14 and get to full throttle quicker. You may have done that in other laps, but I saw you scrub some speed at 14 turning in to early in at least one of the laps.

Denis

tgavem

Thanks Denis and happy thanksgiving

TXE36

As many here know, I bought VR's car earlier this year. His best CCW lap at TWS is a 1:54.904 on NT-01s (it's 1:53 and change on Hankook Z214s). The best I've been able to eek out on the NT-01s is a 2:01.00. I've done a 2:00.7 on the 'kooks, but that's for another time.

So, earlier this month I was able to inch a bit closer to breaking 2:00 at TWS CCW due to a combination of cool temps and lots of rain driving in Oct-Nov. VR got an opportunity to take out the old girl one more time and managed a 1:59.40 on his very first green lap after not driving the car in over a year. Unfortunately he only got another lap in before the inside clip on rear view mirror popped off and he came in out of respect for my property.

I put a few videos together of his best and my best from that weekend and I thought the side by side was very interesting. VR is on the left from his run on Sat, and I'm on the right from my best on Sun. The first cross of the S/F is sync'ed. I do pretty well keeping up with VR until T6. Lose a bit more at T7, T8, T11, T12, and T15. So it's good news and bad news. I know tomorrow I'm working on T6+


The difference in driving style is interesting as well. VR grips the wheel looser than I do, but he is more frantic with the wheel movements. He also shifts a lot faster than I do.

-Mike

Veloce Raptor

Mike, thanks for letting me take a couple of laps in her, and sorry the mirror fell of just as I was getting going. As I mentioned to you, the way you now have the car set up was a lot more prone to over-steer than I had had it, and thus my somewhat busy steering as I was trying to gauge that way she would react as she is today. I really felt it in 3 and 4 especially. It's a pity that first lap was so hampered coming out of 14 & 14, as it killed my run into 1. C'est la vie...

TXE36

While I understand the disappointment with the traffic in 14 & 15, it actually helped me because it narrowed the differences between you and me and made the increment easier. Chances are very good you will get to do this again and the clip on mirror has be decontented.

I didn't really notice the looseness until you mentioned it. I did notice it more when my student rode with me earlier this month. Last weekend, my driving on Saturday sucked and I again noticed more looseness when I took my student out for a ride. My driving for the weekend was going poorly and I felt like I just didn't bring my stuff and my confidence wasn't there. It was reflected in my lap times, one hard fought 2:03 and a bunch of 2:06s despite the cool weather, sunshine, and dry track.

I was at a point where I figured my driving was just off. Didn't help when I got home Saturday night to find a leaking attic water heater with a bad overflow pan. Damage mitigation from that put my bedtime after 11PM.

Driving back to TWS Sunday morning gave me time to think. I'm loath the blame the car for poor driving results as that is almost never the case, but you comments got me to thinking that I should try adjusting the Motons and get over my fear of messing up the setup. So I strategized that I would soften the compression one click in the rear. That didn't go well. She went from being a little snippy to a drama queen. Just to make sure it wasn't me, I intentionally went into T2 and T3 really slow to see if I could get on and hold the throttle on turn exit:


At 0:25 you can hear a bit of editorial commenting that can't be made out but the jist was this setting ain't better. The car looks nervous, never really takes a set and the nervousness is communicated to yours truly.

Came off the track, went right to the grid, got out, and went two clicks on the rear compress firmer, so one click firmer from my start point and back on the track. Eureka!


Car went right back to its sublime self. The gesture at 0:15 says it all. First lap with the updated settings and it just takes a nice set in T2 and T3. No drama. By the next session my lap times had dropped to respectable for me 2:03-2:04s despite the damp track, me being tired, and me wondering how I was going to get the water heater fixed before Christmas. There was a 2:04 in there without trying, while running in a Blue session where I was stuck behind very slow traffic from T12-T15.

Your analysis of the car was spot on . I think this was the first time my poor driving was actually the car's fault. Learned a lot about myself and got more sensitive to the car. It salvaged the weekend.

In thinking about it, I think the root cause may have been COTA as I'm pretty sure I softened the rear compression one click there on your advice because of the track smoothness and more use of the curbs. That setting worked well. This was back when I first bought the car and I hadn't touched anything except to put some new NT-01s on it. Then I put the Hankooks on it, running with your recommended settings. I wrote down the NT-01 settings, but I may very well have written down the COTA settings by mistake. At the end of the summer I was running on the rains at full soft in the wet, so went things finally dried out I went back to the NT-01s and the settings I wrote down - the ones from COTA.

I'm still getting used to the differences the Moton adjustments make in the car - they are very noticeable.

-Mike

Veloce Raptor

Yes they are very noticeable, in part due to the car's stiffness and the high spring rates. They are also the Motorsport dampers, so they really work when you get them right. And yes, what I felt was a very nervous car then never fully took a set in the transitions, which was a marked departure from when I had the car. It really surprised me, hence my commentary to you when I came in prematurely with the detached mirror. Glad you got it sorted out!

TXE36

Oh, and this was how close I was to getting below 2 min the same day you drove the car:


So last weekend, at least some of what was going on was me, but at least is wasn't all me.

-Mike

surlynkid

Mike - you don't know what setting you are on with the dampers?? I keep a notebook with settings, changes, track condition, etc. I'll bring you a notebook. I track rebound and compression for every track. You know we poke at you for that slow methodical shifting, but I am pretty sure it was VR that pointed out somewhere that even 1/10 second multiplied by all the shifts is a second a lap. As methodical as you are, I think it is 2 seconds. VR is doing a lot more with the steering wheel because he is closer to the limit. Get on gas sooner and you'll have no choice. You are not going to get to 1:55 without drama. You just have to manage the drama. Car is not going to drive right with a passenger. I can immediately tell the car does not respond when I add 200+ lbs in the right seat. Turn in points change, etc. That is with my heavy pig. For you it would be way worse.

Veloce Raptor

The best I ever did with a passenger in that car at TWS was high 1:54's. This was mostly due to its 250 bhp taking a lot longer to accelerate with passenger weight, and partly due to me backing off slightly because I am responsible for someone else's life & safety. I always back off when I give rides.

+1 on the notebook. I kept (and still have) a detailed notebook. Suspension settings, sway bars, tire pressures & temps, and my reaction to the way the car drove.

TXE36

Yeah well that only works if one translates the notes into proper clicks. I did have the setting written down.

But that leads me to another question, did you find you had to use different settings depending on the day? Meaning that the tires and tire pressures remained constant, but a different suspension setup worked better at the same track?

I ask because the settings that were so bad Dec 19 were just fine Dec 5 as far as my performance was concerned. The sessions I ran on Dec 5 felt great to me and I did new personal bests on the NT-01s. Dec 5 was also the day you drove the car and made your loose comments. Dec 19 for me was terrible while Dec 20 was very good with the updated adjustment.

Dec 5 and Dec 19 were very similar days, weatherwise. Both sunny and cool, but Dec 19 was decidedly colder in the low 40s, while Dec 5 morning sessions were in the high 40s/low 50s.

-Mike

Veloce Raptor

No, not really. Got to the point of set it & forget it. Only fiddled with tire pressures here and there, usually as the day warmed and or cooled.

By the way, i found a spare foglight cover. I'll bring it next time I see you.

tvr-4

Hi,

Would you mind taking a quick look at my few laps at the Mid-Ohio earlier this year?

Sorry about the bad angle / low quality video, hopefully you can still comment based on what you can see. This was my first event in this 944 turbo so still getting used to the car, any input much appreciated.


Thanks in advance, TK

Veloce Raptor

IMO generally pretty nice. I'd like to see you look a lot farther ahead generally. Your head barely ever moves except turning in at the end of the back straight. I believe looking farther ahead consistently would smooth out some of your arm/hand inputs. In that vein, I'd also like to see you start turning sooner in a lot of places, but more slowly/less initial steering angle. Slow your hands and carry more speed/raise vMin in some of the corners.