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Hooked On Driving Laguna Seca June 20th Track Day

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Early check in for this event is at the Monterey Hyatt. Knuckles Sports Bar 6-7:30 PM. When you pick up your packet you will get a coupon for 20% discount on all food purchased at Knuckles.....See you there
 
Great to meet some of the Boss crew at Laguna.....I had to leave early but wondered if there were any sound issues.... everyone is concerned about sound and often it is not as big a deal as feared. See everyone at the "Do the Screw in your 302" in August.
 
l8te apx said:
Great to meet some of the Boss crew at Laguna.....I had to leave early but wondered if there were any sound issues.... everyone is concerned about sound and often it is not as big a deal as feared. See everyone at the "Do the Screw in your 302" in August.
No issues with sound but it was a warm sunny day with no overcast in the morning. I was running GT500 mufflers with stock exhaust discs, Ron had 1/2" discs and I believe Andy had stock discs. I think 3/4" with stock mufflers would be fine. There were three other Bosses there besides us and one of the cars had wide open side pipes and had no issues. Personally I'll play it safe with the stock discs in August but I'm certain you can get away with larger.

A few photos of the BMO crew and another car I got to drive. You can read about it at the below link.

https://trackmustangsonline.com/index.php?topic=5485.msg83275#msg83275

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Here is a lap following Andy and Rick. I had my Wife with me for this lap and I didn't get my overlay data on this one...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIdDfu_XLrY[/youtube]
 
1,482
408
I don't know how accurate Harry's Lap Timer is, but this is what it shows for my 3 fastest laps.

1:48.44
1:48.68
1:48.92
 
Fat Boss said:
I don't know how accurate Harry's Lap Timer is, but this is what it shows for my 3 fastest laps.

1:48.44
1:48.68
1:48.92

I'll believe it, unless it's running on my phone, which cut half the track and gave me super fast 28 second lap times!

Nice job
 
Hey Neema -

I believe we met last weekend at Laguna Seca. My name is Mike, I was driving a silver 2013 GT and was inquiring about your brake and suspension set-up. How did you get on?
 
MrAngry said:
Hey Neema -

I believe we met last weekend at Laguna Seca. My name is Mike, I was driving a silver 2013 GT and was inquiring about your brake and suspension set-up. How did you get on?

Hey Mike. Everything ended up working well. I was a little worried with all the new equipment installed all at at once, but there wasn't a hiccup all day. I changed up to the black run group (I think your group) to be with more experienced drivers and felt much better in there. Average laps times stayed in a three second window, which was much better than the 15 second window in the purple group. More than anything else, I was confident to drive the car hard for the whole session.

Now I just need more practice!
 
Very cool to here. I'm still trying to figure out which way to go with suspension. I've read just about every post on here, but most people kind of piece together their own kits. Best lap on Friday was 1:50.63, which I was pretty happy with since the car is literally bone stock. I'd really like to be down in the 1:45 range at LS. Maybe Cortex or Maier Racing... not sure though. BTW - they're having another 105db day in Sept. Let me know if you're interested as we're going to head down there again.
 
MrAngry said:
Very cool to here. I'm still trying to figure out which way to go with suspension. I've read just about every post on here, but most people kind of piece together their own kits. Best lap on Friday was 1:50.63, which I was pretty happy with since the car is literally bone stock. I'd really like to be down in the 1:45 range at LS. Maybe Cortex or Maier Racing... not sure though. BTW - they're having another 105db day in Sept. Let me know if you're interested as we're going to head down there again.
Good point on mixing aftermarket suspension pieces. I'm not sure if I'm going to do much of anything else to my Boss but the pieces I have are all Ford Racing and I'm happy with them. I really like the offerings from Cortex, relatively local to me, and Kenny Brown. My friend just installed most of the KB package on his Boss (plus Koni Sports) and he's happy with the results. I helped him install some of the pieces and I'm impressed with the quality of the components. KB's products are well proven. My friend and I met KB at Sonoma last August during the WC race and spent about an hour talking to him about his theories on roll center and overall suspension dynamics. He was very friendly and helpful. Cortex also looks to be making some nice components and they are setting up a lot of the cars for the new SCCA Spec Mustang class.
 
MrAngry said:
Very cool to here. I'm still trying to figure out which way to go with suspension. I've read just about every post on here, but most people kind of piece together their own kits. Best lap on Friday was 1:50.63, which I was pretty happy with since the car is literally bone stock. I'd really like to be down in the 1:45 range at LS. Maybe Cortex or Maier Racing... not sure though. BTW - they're having another 105db day in Sept. Let me know if you're interested as we're going to head down there again.

Here's my $.02 regarding suspension. A hotlap of 1:45 is possible without too much modification. Wide/sticky tires and (really) good piloting will get you there. Some modifications can be a detriment if taken too far (i.e. lowering too much without geometry correction), so have some discretion when purchasing suspension. The lower you go, the more geometry correction you need (Cortex/Griggs/KB all take this into account).

If I could go back in time and give myself pointers, I'd save a lot of brain damage if I knew a few things from the get-go. In my mind, there is a rite of passage that changes a street mustang to one that can "tolerate" staying on track for the whole session (ticking off consistent lap times). Suspension can improve the behavior of the car, but that won't do anything for you if you're boiling oil or cooking brakes. Don't overlook addressing the following:


1. Oil cooling. There isn't sufficient oil cooling for a hard 20 minute session. Set aside some money and get something (anything) to cool the oil if you want to use the whole powerband for the whole session. A boss cooler is better than nothing and is cheap, but look into an air/oil cooler.
2. Brakes fluid/pads. Flush the system with nice brake fluid and use race brake pads. Warping or baking pad deposits onto rotors (including brembo rotors) isn't that hard to do. Get pads/fluid that can survive the heft of this car. LS is particularly hard on brakes on turn 2
3. Diff breather. Check the axle breather to make sure diff fluid it isn't spewing everywhere. Throw some sort of catch can on there to catch what burps out. The turkey baster add-on isn't sufficient.
4. Camber adjustment up front. The shoulders of your front tires will thank you

Look at the difference from my lap times from pre-track prep goodies (no oil cooler, no race pads/fluid) to post-track prep goodies (oil cooler/radiator, race pads/fluid). Also, the pre-track prep lap times are best laps from all 4 sessions mixed together. The post-prep lap times are from one session (except for the 1:43.855).

Pre:
Lap Time
1:45.415
1:46.188
1:46.707
1:48.656
1:49.574
1:49.792
1:50.109
1:50.250

Post:
Lap Time
1:43.855
1:44.144
1:44.433
1:44.624
1:44.724
1:45.236
1:45.481
1:45.741

I signed up for the HOD August 25 event at LS and I'll have to figure out how to tiptoe around at 90dB. Don't know if I'll make the Speed Ventures September event yet.
 
NEEMA / NFSBOSS -

Thanks for the responses - and greatly appreciated.

My car is a track pack GT, so I've got the BOSS 302 oil cooler, radiator, 3.73 rear diff and Brembo's but I'm definitely thinking of upgrading my cooling to the next level - this goes for brake cooling ducts and a dedicated rear differential cooler. Right now the car exhibits way to much roll for my liking and yes, pads, fluid and lines are must. Obviously wider rubber is a must have as the stock 255 series tires simply aren't doing it - I'll be dropping down to 18's sooner rather than later. The Cortex stuff intrigued me because with their set-up they're saying running a 315 squared set-up is the way to go. I need to speak with them at further length though.

My goal was to baseline the car before the mods to determine what I need, which I think I've got a pretty good handle on. The car is not a daily driver, but a weekend track toy. 70% track / 30% street so I can live with taking it further than most if need be.

We'll see. Still have more research to do!
 
MrAngry said:
NEEMA / NFSBOSS -

Thanks for the responses - and greatly appreciated.

My car is a track pack GT, so I've got the BOSS 302 oil cooler, radiator, 3.73 rear diff and Brembo's but I'm definitely thinking of upgrading my cooling to the next level - this goes for brake cooling ducts and a dedicated rear differential cooler. Right now the car exhibits way to much roll for my liking and yes, pads, fluid and lines are must. Obviously wider rubber is a must have as the stock 255 series tires simply aren't doing it - I'll be dropping down to 18's sooner rather than later. The Cortex stuff intrigued me because with their set-up they're saying running a 315 squared set-up is the way to go. I need to speak with them at further length though.

My goal was to baseline the car before the mods to determine what I need, which I think I've got a pretty good handle on. The car is not a daily driver, but a weekend track toy. 70% track / 30% street so I can live with taking it further than most if need be.

We'll see. Still have more research to do!
Hopefully you can join us on August 25th.

https://trackmustangsonline.com/index.php?topic=4378.0
 

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