MAM on 18 May

[drano38]

I went to Mid America Motorplex for Fast Friday.
Overall, was a good day. Not many cars in the morning, so easy to run clean laps.
Its a clockwise course, but tire temps showed my right front tire hotter than my left front.
A driver who's Audi broke on the first session rode along, and we determined I was taking the left hand corners harder than the rights. So I started driving harder on the rights. ;D I think I was over-breaking or simply not accelerating as hard on the right handers. Best lap of the day was my last, a 1:53.376.

Mid afternoon, in 2 places the asphalt broke up, so they stopped to clean it up and cone it off. First was in the middle of the brake zone off the front straight, and the second was just past turn 4's apex--both "on line". Made for interesting corners with the cones up since the lines had to be different.

Still having problems with Carbotech RP2 front pads transferring compound onto the rotors. Their input was I'm probably over-temping the pads. Guess its time to step up to XP12 or XP16, or switch brands - PFC is getting lots of good comments lately.

Pulling the trailer home with a 30 mph tailwind sure beat driving there in a 40 mph headwind.

And my NT-05 285/35 showed up, so they'll be next when I shred my 275/40 on my black wheels.

 

[2012YellowBoss]

Tried a set of PFC's yesterday. One day is not enough to tell but first impressions were very positive for me.

I take it you liked the NT05's since no complaints there. Very predictable tire, that is one thing I love about them, when the Conti/Hoosiers break loose you are already in the spin. How did they wear?

 

[drano38]

Yes, so far NT-05 are treating me well. They give lots of warning before they let go, and even then its a simple throttle lift to straighten out the car (traction control off). The harder we corner, the louder they squeal, so its easy to know how their grip is doing--I think we'd need to try to spin with these tires.
This was the second day on the set on my black PF01 wheels, and they still look good--I rotated them to the opposite side/corner so Friday the tires were running backward. Even wear across the face, and not to the wear bars yet. I get temps as soon as I stop in the paddock, and they're pretty even across the face, or I make slight pressure changes. About 42 psi hot seems to work for me.
My stack of unmounted NT-05 285/35 are 2.5" taller than the stack of mounted 275/40 stacked up beside them, so I'm looking forward to shredding the first set of 275/40 so I can try out the 285/35. Driving them on the same course back to back would be nice to see how the 2.5" total width difference shows up on the lap timer.

 

[2012YellowBoss]

Good deal, if I ran them over 31 hot I tore the middle up - go figure - same car big difference.

 

[cloud9]

So I started driving harder on the rights. ;D I think I was over-breaking or simply not accelerating as hard on the right handers. Best lap of the day was my last, a 1:53.376.

That's interesting. I always feel like I could drive harder on my left handers. I wonder if it's because I'm left handed? Are you right handed? Maybe it's just because I'm left-brained ;D

Mid afternoon, in 2 places the asphalt broke up, so they stopped to clean it up and cone it off. First was in the middle of the brake zone off the front straight, and the second was just past turn 4's apex--both "on line". Made for interesting corners with the cones up since the lines had to be different.

I wonder if that's a result of the flooding last year. I hope it doesn't continue to come apart and they get it repaired soon. They really need a capital infusion there......

 

[drano38]

I'm right handed--maybe I can have the fine higher education institution I work for do a research project on the right vs left hand corners.
Yea, I hope the track breakup is normal wear, and not the beginnings of last year's flood damage. They've already got some patches in various places from years gone by, so lets hope its normal wear.

Talked to Carbotech this morning, and he said I need to step up to XP12 pads, which can take more heat. He said the XP16 and XP20 need an R-compound tire because he feels those pads can brake too hard for NT-05 and similar tires.

Scott, here's a couple tire pics. They have 2 days on them--one forward at Brainerd on a cool day, and one running backward at MAM last Friday in the 90 degree heat.
The middle looks good, but the outer edge of the middle is scuffed off--I'd guess that's expected since that edge is doing a lot of work in corners.
The photo doesn't show it, but the edge wear is at the triangle tips, so I'm in the tire pressure ball park.

 

[06GT to 13LS]

My guess is that we feel more comfortable turning to the drivers side than opposite, easier to tell where the edge of the car is.

 

[drano38]

One of my theories is I was over-cautions going into the first turn (right), then realized I could drive harder so rolled into the following left hander with more speed and more aggressive acceleration. And turn 5/6 is a left U-turn with opening radius, so easy to push hard once roll in is complete.
I'll be back there second weekend of June for a BMW school, so I'll be able to try some new things and see how it affects my lap times.

 

[2012YellowBoss]

Wayne, that is the same thing I was doing to the tires. That is when I went to the lower pressures as recommended to me by a local expert. When I lowered them I was not in the wear marks on the side and had no center edge wear. They wore less and wore even all the way across the thread plus my lap times improved. I was very apprehensive lowering the pressure to the point I ended up at but it did seem to work good for me.