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Thunderhill raceway event - Data and video

razorlab

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#1
For those that don't visit my build thread, posting this here as well.

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Another track day under my belt in the FiST.

Weather was amazing this time around. Mid 60F as the high, 50's in the morning. Sunny. What a difference from the 98F day last time.

Slowly getting my track legs back and getting used to the car. I went six seconds faster this time around, getting there, slowly but surely. The car still has a good amount left in it but I'm taking it slow as I still have six years of track cobwebs to clean out. Tried a couple different ways to drive the car this time with different success. I can tell once I get fully comfortable with car I will want to loosen up the chassis. Right now it's pretty darn stable but I can tell it will be faster with the chassis set up looser.

Now that I'm going faster in it I can predict a LSD could be in my future if I keep tracking the car. It would do some really weird hopping stuff in hard third gear corners on power and I would even get some wheel spin in 4th on track out in some places. That and not being able to put power down in off camber corners started to get a little frustrating, especially coming from tracking an AWD Evo.

I also think I need to get an exhaust of some sort as the car is way too quiet on track with a helmet on, hard to judge the RPM.

I used the GoPro for the first time this event too. You can see from my video I didn't mount it in a great spot to see all the track. You get to see my mug though. ;) I will try another angle next time. Scroll down to the end of this post for the video if you are interested.

Now, more data!

First, some engine data logs. Here is an overlay of a session from this event with an overlay of a session from last event. It's fairly obvious it was a much cooler day by the charge temps. Huge difference! The interesting data to note is that coolant and oil temps show a much less difference. They are obviously cooler this time but not by much!

Blue plots are from last event in 98F weather
Red plots are from this event in 65F weather



Next up is G-force. One lap. Lateral and Lineal. You can tell pretty quickly from looking at this overlay that I was much quicker this time and that is shown in the offset. Also note higher Lateral G's of 1.02 max compared to .99 before.

Left and right Lateral G's are shown as positive/negative.
Accel and Decel Lineal G's are shown as positive/negative. Note much harder braking this time.

Blue plots are from last event
Red plots are from this event



Here is the video. Unedited. One session. As noted camera position sucks and the car is way too quiet. First lap is my warm up lap so you can forward to the start of the second if you wish.

[video=youtube;qOuo34n9hcs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOuo34n9hcs[/video]
 


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#2
What organization do you do your trackdays through. I've been wanting to go up to thunderhill.
 


OP
razorlab

razorlab

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Thread Starter #5
Very nice video. That blue Impreza at 14:29 was pulling away pretty hard.
Actually I was pulling on him pretty hard until I let off the throttle to let him stay in front, which is the part you are seeing. He had pointed me by to pass there but I decided I didn't want to. ;)

Although I wish I had, you will notice I almost run into the back of him coming out of turn 1 just after the above.

If you could hear my damn car in the video you could tell when I was off or on the throttle haha.

It was one of the few cars the FiST could pull on in the straights so I remember it well. ;)
 


me32

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#6
Thunderhill is an awesome track. Ive ran there in my gt500. Its a nice fast pace track.
 


FocusMike

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#8
lol ok that makes more sense. I originally thought that guy must have had some serious mods done.

Actually I was pulling on him pretty hard until I let off the throttle to let him stay in front, which is the part you are seeing. He had pointed me by to pass there but I decided I didn't want to. ;)

Although I wish I had, you will notice I almost run into the back of him coming out of turn 1 just after the above.

If you could hear my damn car in the video you could tell when I was off or on the throttle haha.

It was one of the few cars the FiST could pull on in the straights so I remember it well. ;)
 


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razorlab

razorlab

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Thread Starter #9
lol ok that makes more sense. I originally thought that guy must have had some serious mods done.
It was a GC8 with a STi swap. I was actually surprised it wasn't quicker in the straights.

Video from him:

[video=youtube;rQRhzuJSgr0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQRhzuJSgr0[/video]
 


FocusMike

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#10
Seems like he's not pushing the car too hard.

It was a GC8 with a STi swap. I was actually surprised it wasn't quicker in the straights.

Video from him:

[video=youtube;rQRhzuJSgr0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQRhzuJSgr0[/video]
 


OP
razorlab

razorlab

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Thread Starter #11
Seems like he's not pushing the car too hard.
WOT in the straights is WOT in the straights but you are right, wasn't driving that hard yet on the rest of the track.

Wasn't a race so it doesn't matter really ;)
 


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#14
I am indeed. Are you?
I most definitely am. I signed up for their driving school. It'll be my first track day event. I'm super pumped. Any words of wisdom before I head over? Have you done anything to your car to keep coolant temps down?
 


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razorlab

razorlab

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Thread Starter #15
I most definitely am. I signed up for their driving school. It'll be my first track day event. I'm super pumped. Any words of wisdom before I head over? Have you done anything to your car to keep coolant temps down?
Awesome! Glad you are bringing the car out, you will have tons of fun. First track days you are going to have so much sensory input I would just say relax and have fun out there, there will be plenty time later to get fast.

For sure come find me in the pits.

No issues with the temps on the cooler days so far, I wouldn't even worry about it.
 




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