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I did the first trackday in my Boss this Monday - thought I'd post some of my thoughts.
First my background: I actually did trackdays and raced for a season and a half back in the early 90's. At the time I drove a race-prepared (SCCA ITA) Mazda RX2, followed by a first generation RX7 - think about 150 hp, 2200 or so lb cars.
After crashing both of the cars, I took a hiatus on track events until 2007, when I got into motorcycling. I did a number of trackdays on the motorcycle, including around a dozen days at Thunderhill. My last track event on the motorcycle was in 2008, when my work schedule got more hectic and I took another hiatus.
Fast forward to this year, when I bought my Boss 302 and decided I had to get out there again.
The president of a group called the Checkered Flag Racing Association (CFRA) posted on another Boss 302 that he would invite any Boss 302 drivers to his upcoming event at half price.
This seemed like to good an offer to turn down, so I signed up.
I was quite nervous about how I'd do, so I signed up for the "B" group - which includes everybody with less experience with this club.
In terms of car prep, I didn't have time to do much, so I did pretty much the minimum: I upgraded to DOT 4 brake fluid and swapped the pads - I chose Hawk HP+ pads all around.
My first session was pretty interesting; The car feels huge and heavy compared to the bike, and the track seems considerably narrower. Also, without the lean of the bike to change perceptions, the camber of the turns was much more evident.
Add to that the fact that I haven't heel-toed in many year, and the pads were still a little green and probably not the right ones for track use, and my braking zones were quite exciting.
The trackmap for Thunderhill can be found here: http://thunderhill.com/staticpages/index.php?page=TrackMap
Overall thoughts:
- I got progressively more comfortable throughout the day, but my laptimes weren't going down by much. CFRA doesn't allow laptimers in group "B", but it's not rigidly enforced. I kept myself within the spirit of the rule by running Harry's laptimer on my iPhone, but in a position I couldn't see it, purely for post-trackday analysis.
- My best lap was a high 2:16 - about four seconds slower than my bike (my bike is not that fast, but has a slightly better power to weight ratio than the BOSS - it's a 70hp Suzuki SV-650)
- Interestingly enough, the car's handling was characterized mostly by understeer, especially in off-camber sections. There was one on-camber stretch (turn 5a, after the Cyclone) where the understeer would switch to oversteer. I was dropping tire pressures throughout the day, which brought out a little more oversteer in sections (and presumably balanced the car a little better elsewhere).
- Many of the faster cars were running DOT-race tires (i.e., race compound) and I definitely noticed the difference in grip in the twistier sessions. In general, it felt like I wasn't sticking that well on the stock tires. I may have to play more with tire pressures if I do another trackday on the stock tires.
- I started with the shocks at full-stiff but ended up going down to 4 front and 3 back based on the recommendation of a pro driver (he was one of the drivers at Ford's Dearborn event last week) who was coaching the driver who parked next to me in the paddock. This helped me a little bit through turn 7 - which is a kink which should be flat out in the Boss. In the end I was able to go through flat out, though the rear did step out on me a little bit on the exit of the turn when I went over two undulations in the track - pretty scary when tracking out to the side of the track at around 100 mph. Changing the shock settings made the "step-out" a little more controlled - at the higher settings, it seemed a little more abrupt.
- The brakes were a huge limiting factor all day. I was braking significantly earlier than I would on the bike, and the bike was going a little faster before the braking zones. In the first sessions, I was getting fade in the deep braking zones (e.g., end of back straight before turn 14). The fade seemeed to diminish in later sessions, but it still seemed that braking was a little non-linear, and I could feel the ABS just trying to come in under hard braking. In general, I just didn't have confidence in the brakes, so I was braking quite early.
- The power of the car was great. The guy who parked next to me was running a BMW M3 with a supercharger - he estimated around 570 crank horsepower for his setup. In any case, we seemed very even on the straight. I think my gearing was a little better than his for this track, but I was still impressed.
- This club gives you five 30-minute sessions, and I was reminded just how intense track time can be. By the end of the day, I was wiped out.
- I ran out of gas during the last session (noticeable by a few misses in/after left turns), even though I was indicating over a quarter of a tank at the beginning of the session.
- I had a blast, and I can't wait to do it again.
I'm not a big video editor, so I'll leave you with a couple of unedited videos from a couple of the sessions. I'll try to post more of the sessions over the weekend (including a rather lurid slide I managed to recover from in the first session).
Session 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP_yYsMT6Kw
Session 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY6xDeHxTk0
First my background: I actually did trackdays and raced for a season and a half back in the early 90's. At the time I drove a race-prepared (SCCA ITA) Mazda RX2, followed by a first generation RX7 - think about 150 hp, 2200 or so lb cars.
After crashing both of the cars, I took a hiatus on track events until 2007, when I got into motorcycling. I did a number of trackdays on the motorcycle, including around a dozen days at Thunderhill. My last track event on the motorcycle was in 2008, when my work schedule got more hectic and I took another hiatus.
Fast forward to this year, when I bought my Boss 302 and decided I had to get out there again.
The president of a group called the Checkered Flag Racing Association (CFRA) posted on another Boss 302 that he would invite any Boss 302 drivers to his upcoming event at half price.
This seemed like to good an offer to turn down, so I signed up.
I was quite nervous about how I'd do, so I signed up for the "B" group - which includes everybody with less experience with this club.
In terms of car prep, I didn't have time to do much, so I did pretty much the minimum: I upgraded to DOT 4 brake fluid and swapped the pads - I chose Hawk HP+ pads all around.
My first session was pretty interesting; The car feels huge and heavy compared to the bike, and the track seems considerably narrower. Also, without the lean of the bike to change perceptions, the camber of the turns was much more evident.
Add to that the fact that I haven't heel-toed in many year, and the pads were still a little green and probably not the right ones for track use, and my braking zones were quite exciting.
The trackmap for Thunderhill can be found here: http://thunderhill.com/staticpages/index.php?page=TrackMap
Overall thoughts:
- I got progressively more comfortable throughout the day, but my laptimes weren't going down by much. CFRA doesn't allow laptimers in group "B", but it's not rigidly enforced. I kept myself within the spirit of the rule by running Harry's laptimer on my iPhone, but in a position I couldn't see it, purely for post-trackday analysis.
- My best lap was a high 2:16 - about four seconds slower than my bike (my bike is not that fast, but has a slightly better power to weight ratio than the BOSS - it's a 70hp Suzuki SV-650)
- Interestingly enough, the car's handling was characterized mostly by understeer, especially in off-camber sections. There was one on-camber stretch (turn 5a, after the Cyclone) where the understeer would switch to oversteer. I was dropping tire pressures throughout the day, which brought out a little more oversteer in sections (and presumably balanced the car a little better elsewhere).
- Many of the faster cars were running DOT-race tires (i.e., race compound) and I definitely noticed the difference in grip in the twistier sessions. In general, it felt like I wasn't sticking that well on the stock tires. I may have to play more with tire pressures if I do another trackday on the stock tires.
- I started with the shocks at full-stiff but ended up going down to 4 front and 3 back based on the recommendation of a pro driver (he was one of the drivers at Ford's Dearborn event last week) who was coaching the driver who parked next to me in the paddock. This helped me a little bit through turn 7 - which is a kink which should be flat out in the Boss. In the end I was able to go through flat out, though the rear did step out on me a little bit on the exit of the turn when I went over two undulations in the track - pretty scary when tracking out to the side of the track at around 100 mph. Changing the shock settings made the "step-out" a little more controlled - at the higher settings, it seemed a little more abrupt.
- The brakes were a huge limiting factor all day. I was braking significantly earlier than I would on the bike, and the bike was going a little faster before the braking zones. In the first sessions, I was getting fade in the deep braking zones (e.g., end of back straight before turn 14). The fade seemeed to diminish in later sessions, but it still seemed that braking was a little non-linear, and I could feel the ABS just trying to come in under hard braking. In general, I just didn't have confidence in the brakes, so I was braking quite early.
- The power of the car was great. The guy who parked next to me was running a BMW M3 with a supercharger - he estimated around 570 crank horsepower for his setup. In any case, we seemed very even on the straight. I think my gearing was a little better than his for this track, but I was still impressed.
- This club gives you five 30-minute sessions, and I was reminded just how intense track time can be. By the end of the day, I was wiped out.
- I ran out of gas during the last session (noticeable by a few misses in/after left turns), even though I was indicating over a quarter of a tank at the beginning of the session.
- I had a blast, and I can't wait to do it again.
I'm not a big video editor, so I'll leave you with a couple of unedited videos from a couple of the sessions. I'll try to post more of the sessions over the weekend (including a rather lurid slide I managed to recover from in the first session).
Session 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP_yYsMT6Kw
Session 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY6xDeHxTk0