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Streets of Willow CCW

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1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Hello everyone! I’m Anthony from Los Angeles. I’m new the forum thing and I just wanted to share my first time out with my Mustang at the track. Hope y’all enjoy it. And I wouldn’t mind some feedback. Thank you 🙏🏼

Welcome to the site Anthony! Too bad we didn’t connect on Saturday - seeing your car now i didn’t realize there was another gray S550 other than Tommy Seth-Hunter. The Mustang Driver Club is just getting started and is already proving to be a great way to meet other Mustang track rats. If you ever see my car in the paddock, make sure to stop by and say hi.

When you get a minute, complete a car profile for your car. This will let everyone know what mods you’ve made, tires you’re running, etc. The more detail the better and cuts out a lot of back and forth. For instance, I will be really curious to know what tire/size you were running. Lots of understeer in entry and midcorner, along with oversteer on corner exit. It doesn’t appear to be from over-driving the car, so I would guess you’re running stock size tires. Thanks for sharing the video - I’ll post one of mine up here a bit later tonight for comparison.

Again, welcome to the best forum on the internet and looking forward to connecting at a track day soon!
 
15
12
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Los Angeles
Welcome to the site Anthony! Too bad we didn’t connect on Saturday - seeing your car now i didn’t realize there was another gray S550 other than Tommy Seth-Hunter. The Mustang Driver Club is just getting started and is already proving to be a great way to meet other Mustang track rats. If you ever see my car in the paddock, make sure to stop by and say hi.

When you get a minute, complete a car profile for your car. This will let everyone know what mods you’ve made, tires you’re running, etc. The more detail the better and cuts out a lot of back and forth. For instance, I will be really curious to know what tire/size you were running. Lots of understeer in entry and midcorner, along with oversteer on corner exit. It doesn’t appear to be from over-driving the car, so I would guess you’re running stock size tires. Thanks for sharing the video - I’ll post one of mine up here a bit later tonight for comparison.

Again, welcome to the best forum on the internet and looking forward to connecting at a track day soon!
Thank you, I just made a car profile. Take a look and let me know what you think.

I’m also planning to go Streets CCW again on December. Would appreciate some advice for the next go around. Trying to get sub 1:20’s
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Thank you, I just made a car profile. Take a look and let me know what you think.

I’m also planning to go Streets CCW again on December. Would appreciate some advice for the next go around. Trying to get sub 1:20’s
Perfect foundation to start with. The Nitto’s are not the most sticky, but nothing wrong with that when you’re learning the limits of the car. Sub 1:20’s is an aggressive goal, but the platform is capable. I wouldn’t recommend chasing Sub 20’s on your next track day - work up to it with some intermediate goals so you don’t get frustrated and more importantly so you don’t push too hard. This is a great developmental track - I wish that I would have driven it earlier on in my learning curve.

Here’s one of my laps from Saturday. This is later in the day so I’m attacking the corners and carrying much better corner speeds than the morning. Not my fastest times of the day because top end speeds on the straights were down 4-5 mph with the afternoon temps. My mental notes for improvement - I need to shift down into 2nd into the last turn, and at the end of the long straight coming into the skid pad. This will allow a better drive out of the corner onto both of the straights. I also need to apex the first corner into the bowl instead of staying out wide. Drive through the apex, use the banking to rotate the car back down into the 2nd apex and into the esses.

 
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Welcome to the site, Anthony. Nice car and good driving. It looks like you are going pretty quick. You are good at keeping your hands at 9 and 3 without a lot of shuffle steering.

Be sure to check out the Lap Time Thread if you want to see how you are doing compared to other Mustangs at a particular track. Since you asked, here are a few things that might help you go faster:

I've never driven Streets of Willow but you look too early on a number of corners. Especially on corners leading on to long straights, be sure to turn in and apex as late as possible so you can be unwinding the steering at the apex and getting on the gas as soon as possible. In your video at 0.01 and 1.22, the corner going on to the straight, you are having to hold steering angle coming off the apex too long, which is preventing you from getting on the gas and then you are going that much slower all the way down that super long straight.

Smooth out your inputs as much as possible. Abrupt turn ins cause understeer into the corner and abrupt power causes oversteer coming off the apex. Quick jerky inputs blow off the tires and you lose a lot of speed. Look at .09, 1.00, 1.10.

Remember friction circle basics. You can't ask a tire to turn hard and accelerate or brake hard at the same time. If you do, bad things happen. Look at 0.59 for example, if you do that with a big square setup or stability control off you will eventually loop the car.

All these things improve with eyes up. Make sure you are looking as far down the track as you can, all the time.

Again, nice video and thanks for posting, and welcome!
 
303
371
CA
Perfect foundation to start with. The Nitto’s are not the most sticky, but nothing wrong with that when you’re learning the limits of the car. Sub 1:20’s is an aggressive goal, but the platform is capable. I wouldn’t recommend chasing Sub 20’s on your next track day - work up to it with some intermediate goals so you don’t get frustrated and more importantly so you don’t push too hard. This is a great developmental track - I wish that I would have driven it earlier on in my learning curve.

Here’s one of my laps from Saturday. This is later in the day so I’m attacking the corners and carrying much better corner speeds than the morning. Not my fastest times of the day because top end speeds on the straights were down 4-5 mph with the afternoon temps. My mental notes for improvement - I need to shift down into 2nd into the last turn, and at the end of the long straight coming into the skid pad. This will allow a better drive out of the corner onto both of the straights. I also need to apex the first corner into the bowl instead of staying out wide. Drive through the apex, use the banking to rotate the car back down into the 2nd apex and into the esses.

This is a great lap, other than what you mentioned above, I think you lost quite a bit of time in the braking zone for the bowl. The crazy fast time attack-y videos have people starting far right, turning into the bowl and basically making a straight line out of it, and getting their braking done during that straight line. See red markup. It also gives the advantage of placing you really high up on the bank of the bowl, which is a huge aid for hitting the apex consistently. I can send you a video on ig of how I take it.

1667417027525.png

Also also, you should probably be able to use 2nd gear for right hander leading into the back straight. My buddy brent who was there (red 3v mustang) was able to hit 116mph on the back straight in his 340whp 3v for the afternoon sessions. Using 2nd gear. Still bummed I wasn't able to make this. Hoping to be there for the december buttonwillow event.
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Also also, you should probably be able to use 2nd gear for right hander leading into the back straight.
Agreed, this is what I was implying with downshifting into 2nd going into the skid pad. I can stay in 2nd all the way through that section until entering onto the back straight. Redline in 2nd is 80ish mph, which even the mid-teens laps I’ve watched aren’t hitting 80 before that right turn.
Thanks for the feedback - you’ve turned way more laps on Streets so I’m all ears. Please send me your video on IG - I definitely want to figure that bowl section out.
 
15
12
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Los Angeles
Perfect foundation to start with. The Nitto’s are not the most sticky, but nothing wrong with that when you’re learning the limits of the car. Sub 1:20’s is an aggressive goal, but the platform is capable. I wouldn’t recommend chasing Sub 20’s on your next track day - work up to it with some intermediate goals so you don’t get frustrated and more importantly so you don’t push too hard. This is a great developmental track - I wish that I would have driven it earlier on in my learning curve.

Here’s one of my laps from Saturday. This is later in the day so I’m attacking the corners and carrying much better corner speeds than the morning. Not my fastest times of the day because top end speeds on the straights were down 4-5 mph with the afternoon temps. My mental notes for improvement - I need to shift down into 2nd into the last turn, and at the end of the long straight coming into the skid pad. This will allow a better drive out of the corner onto both of the straights. I also need to apex the first corner into the bowl instead of staying out wide. Drive through the apex, use the banking to rotate the car back down into the 2nd apex and into the esses.

I was under the impression that the Nitto NT555R2 were sticky as they are 100 UTQG rating and are considered a racing tire.

And I am in 2nd gear on the last turn (turn 12/13) and on the 1st turn.
 
15
12
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Los Angeles
Welcome to the site, Anthony. Nice car and good driving. It looks like you are going pretty quick. You are good at keeping your hands at 9 and 3 without a lot of shuffle steering.

Be sure to check out the Lap Time Thread if you want to see how you are doing compared to other Mustangs at a particular track. Since you asked, here are a few things that might help you go faster:

I've never driven Streets of Willow but you look too early on a number of corners. Especially on corners leading on to long straights, be sure to turn in and apex as late as possible so you can be unwinding the steering at the apex and getting on the gas as soon as possible. In your video at 0.01 and 1.22, the corner going on to the straight, you are having to hold steering angle coming off the apex too long, which is preventing you from getting on the gas and then you are going that much slower all the way down that super long straight.

Smooth out your inputs as much as possible. Abrupt turn ins cause understeer into the corner and abrupt power causes oversteer coming off the apex. Quick jerky inputs blow off the tires and you lose a lot of speed. Look at .09, 1.00, 1.10.

Remember friction circle basics. You can't ask a tire to turn hard and accelerate or brake hard at the same time. If you do, bad things happen. Look at 0.59 for example, if you do that with a big square setup or stability control off you will eventually loop the car.

All these things improve with eyes up. Make sure you are looking as far down the track as you can, all the time.

Again, nice video and thanks for posting, and welcome!
Thanks for the tips! I will try these methods on December!
 

Dave_W

Cones - not just for ice cream
984
1,275
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Connecticut
And I wouldn’t mind some feedback.
Smooth is fast. On several of the corners, you're yanking the wheel on corner entry instead of smoothly increasing the steering angle as you head towards the apex. Before you enter a corner, you need to either see or imagine where the exit is, so you can plan how much steering angle you need to use through the corner. Eyes up, look ahead. Good luck on your progress. You've already gotten good feedback from others here; next time at the track see if there are more instructors or experienced drivers willing to ride shotgun with you and/or take a ride with them (if allowed).
 
Last edited:
15
12
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Los Angeles
Smooth is fast. On several of the corners, you're yanking the wheel on corner entry instead of smoothly increasing the steering angle as you head towards the apex. Before you enter a corner, you need to either see or imagine where the exit is, so you can plan how much steering angle you need to use through the corner. Eyes up, look ahead. Good luck on your progress. You've already gotten good feedback from others here; next time at the track see if there are more instructors or experienced drivers willing to ride shotgun with you and/or take a ride with them (if allowed).
Thank you! I did not realize I was doing that. And that’s a great idea. I’ll try to ride shotgun or have an instructor to get some instruction. I appreciate it!
 
303
371
CA
I was under the impression that the Nitto NT555R2 were sticky as they are 100 UTQG rating and are considered a racing tire.

And I am in 2nd gear on the last turn (turn 12/13) and on the 1st turn.
Although the compound itself is sticky (as you point out), the actual architecture of the tire carcass was designed for drag racing. Usually this means a softer sidewall to get more "planted" on a launch. This is the exact opposite of what you want for a track tire.

You should see a huge increase in steering response and overall feel of the car going to a road course specialized tire (AO-52, RT660, RE71RS, Continental ECF, etc.).
 
15
12
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Los Angeles
Although the compound itself is sticky (as you point out), the actual architecture of the tire carcass was designed for drag racing. Usually this means a softer sidewall to get more "planted" on a launch. This is the exact opposite of what you want for a track tire.

You should see a huge increase in steering response and overall feel of the car going to a road course specialized tire (AO-52, RT660, RE71RS, Continental ECF, etc.).
I wish I had known that, which tire of all of the ones you mentioned do you recommend? Since I will be going with a square set up after this set.
 
303
371
CA
I wish I had known that, which tire of all of the ones you mentioned do you recommend? Since I will be going with a square set up after this set.
It's all good! Tires is something that took me awhile to learn "the players". Now, I can tell which tire a person is running just by looking at the tread pattern. LOL

Watching your video, you seem pretty comfortable with driving the car "hard" so I would say you are ready for a 200TW tire. That was a really nice lap for your first time.

What is the use case for the car? Do you street drive it? Daily drive it? Do you have two sets of wheels and tires?
 
15
12
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Los Angeles
It's all good! Tires is something that took me awhile to learn "the players". Now, I can tell which tire a person is running just by looking at the tread pattern. LOL

Watching your video, you seem pretty comfortable with driving the car "hard" so I would say you are ready for a 200TW tire. That was a really nice lap for your first time.

What is the use case for the car? Do you street drive it? Daily drive it? Do you have two sets of wheels and tires?
Thank you! I daily drive the car and I just want something that I can also take to the track. I will be buying a second set of wheels as I will be going with a square set up.
 
334
352
One more thing... one of the best pieces of advice I got was to start by figuring out the exact track tires you want to use and then get wheels to make them work. A lot of people go the other way around. Apex has good fitment guides. Good luck!
 
303
371
CA
Great! Thanks 🙏🏼 looks like I’ll be getting the Hankook RS4’s
After having used both, I would highly recommend the Continental ECF over the hankook RS4. The ECF was recently released, and was benchmarked against the RS4. In other words, it's better in every way (which has been the case for me as well). The only con to the tire is the high initial purchase price, but there are way too many pros which outweigh that in my experience.
 

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