fleadh

If you're bored at work, here's a little video I made that might kill a minute of your time.

Was out at the Sears Point open-test day last week. My normal driving coach was there, but was helping someone else for the day. He was nice enough to jump in the car and do a quick 4 or 5 laps as a barometer for my pace (been working hard at it the last few months!).

The conditions and car setup were nearly identical for both of us. He did his laps about 10 minutes after I did mine, we both had fresh tires and brake pads (mine had laps #1-4, his #5-10).


Car is a stock IMSA spec 2011 Cup w/ Yokohamas and the auto-blipper removed. He was faster by .135.

-mike

mcongleton

Very nice, you must be very happy with .135 of JvO. Great video, your work is obviously paying off!

Mark

Veloce Raptor

+1 !!!

Just curious, Mike: why did you remove the auto blipper?

mark kibort

awesome job Mike. You got it!

interesting to see some of the subtle style changes that , in the end, produce the exact same lap time.
your on the left, right?

1:37s! wow, thats getting down in the real fast times now!

fleadh

Thanks guys.

Basically, I saw no need for it. I'm very comfortable driving the car without it and like the flexibility of adjusting my blips based on the conditions at any given moment. Even with it maxed out, it wouldn't do a big enough blip to allow me to downshift as early as I do without it. My braking zones are no different w/ or w/o the blipper.

I also can't stand the little lift of the throttle it does on up shifts when it's adjusted to the biggest blip level. It probably doesn't effect performance, but I bust my *** to have as much WOT as possible!

I don't buy the fact it increases longevity of the gearbox either. My 2011 Cup had I think 12 or 14 hours on it when I bought it and I had to refresh the motor and gearbox in the first 90 minutes of usage (it came with the blipper). If you can't drive the car or have nobody to show you the proper way to do it, the blipper isn't going to help.

Here's a picture of the 3rd gear that came out of the transmission during the refresh:


-mike

Veloce Raptor

Yeah, if you're really good on the heel/toe thing, you don't need it. I just haven't encountered anyone who had it but removed it.

The little upshift lift would drive me nuts. I guess by doing smaller blips it is encouraging later downshifts, where wheel and engine speeds are not so disparate, as the alleged way to increase tranny life?

fleadh

Perhaps... at the expense of going slower! :P

-mike

jrgordonsenior

Synchronized driving: Is it too late for the London Olympics?....

mark kibort

dont get technical, you might confuse yourself.

Yes, sometimes skill helps things last a little longer!

mark kibort

my theory is that could actually make you faster, but you will be the best judge of that.

great stuff. thanks for posting

Carrera GT

I'm curious to hear Johannes' feedback on the car setup if you don't mind sharing.
That tenth you need to match his "customer car" time is right there in your hands (literally, I think.)
It would be great to have the throttle position and brake pressure data -- I'm guessing he's a little earlier on brakes and less "stand it on it's nose" and yet carries a bit more speed through the apex on the important turns, finds the traction limit and then "maintenance" if that makes sense.
Anyway, thanks for putting that video together, it's not as easy as it looks to finally get everything set up so it works out that neatly.
Now I'm itching for the weather to clear so I can get over to Sears without needing a rudder and sails.

KaiB

Mark, one more personal attack here and I will personally start a petition to have your *** finally removed from these boards.

Mike, thanks for a great post and video.

Veloce Raptor

Just click on the little red triangle with the "I" in in at the lower left of his avatar. Simple.

KaiB

Done! This is a first for me, anywhere, on any board I've ever visited.

fleadh

He thought there was a little too much oversteer on entry. We had been messing with the ride height in the front of the car the last time we had it out so it wasn't optimal. We made some front sway bar adjustments and rear ride height changes but couldn't really improve it. The track was getting hot and the tires old, so I didn't want to spend all day chasing a good setup for bad conditions.

We've also been fighting some high speed understeer, but it sounds like it's pretty normal for these cars with the Yokohamas. Haven't been able to figure out a way to dial it out without screwing the car up everywhere else.

Thanks! The data is pretty close. I was actually a little faster through the first half of the track, then he got me in T7 and T10. Here's the time variance/MPH/throttle graph for those 2 laps:



-mike