2008.08.08/09/10 Track Days 5 - 7: Tremblant

Back a few days later the Le Circuit, this time with Phil, Fred, Vince and the girls. BMWCCA Boston hosts the event in cooperation with BMW Quebec. Friday is a advanced/instructors only day, which meant a lot of track time... Hour long sessions were fun, but killed the brake pads (I'm finding out that Tremblant is particularily tough on pads).

After doing 2 days at Calabogie and a day earlier in the week at Tremblant, I ran out of pad at the end of the back straight during Friday's second afternoon session (Note to self, an Audi R8's brakes are better suited to track duty than my car :). I ended up chosing going in the grass rather than roughing it through turns 10 and 11. I lost the rest of the day changing out the pads and then using thwe last session as a bedding run. It was a pain to lose the time after upgrading the front calipers/rotors for this specific purpose! I then learned that the issue was worse that I thought when I went through a second set on Sunday! The backing plate paint of the pads had turned completely white, and discussions with the folks at Carbotech revealed that the issue is due to my brakes not being able to dissipate the heat.

So we spent a lot of time changng brakes... but the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun too! I worked on new lines, and especially tried braking earlier during the front straight in order to climb the hill under power (more stable). Two rides with different instructors showed me without a doubt that they do not agree on lines (2-3, 5, 7), so I'm at a point where I need to find out what suits the car (and myself) better. There is not only a single approach to a (combination of) corner(s).

I also completely removed the rear sway bar Saturday evening, in an attempt to figure my next F/R roll couple. I will be changing my suspension setup next winter, and I'm sick and tired of buying inefficient pre-made kits that DO NOT WORK, so I've go through the personal design route. Rear sway bar removal produced an even more healthy setup, allowing to apply power on corner exit a lot easier. I'm beginning to figure out one of the reasons why the miata has had a steep learning curve! :/. My new suspension setup will be very close to this tested roll couple, but with a lot higher spring rates.

2008.08.04 Track Day 4: Tremblant

Back to LCMT for a single day with COMSCC. I knew that I was going to run at the end of the week with the BMW club, but I decided to do a "low cost" event anyway. Got up early, drove up to Tremblant, and then drove back down at the end of the day. The objective was to smoothen out the lines by racking up some more miles, and also make sure the car was 100% ready for the 3 day event a few days away.

I spent most of the day driving solo, and got my COM license at the end of the day (which is a LOT harder than the BMW solo sticker).

The car did not run well at all... I was still overheating, which was of great concern. Not as bad as Calabogie, but I could not run the car at full power for more than 2 laps. Pretty concerning.

The other major point was I could finally try out the car with its new settings:
1) Rear sway bar was put on full soft, and a bit more toe was put in at the beginning of the year and the car did feel more comfortable! t is a LOT easier to drive, especially through 1-2-3 and 8. I can put more power down earlier in the turns, but I need time to adapt to the new limit.

2) New gearing is proving to be certainly different. I do not hit the rev limiter going into 7 and 8 (last year I was at max revs for a long time going into 8). The reason is that I put the Mazdaspeed differential back in the car after all (5% longer gearing). In this case, we're talking about 4th gear, which means 10km/h faster (ie. I don't expect to hit the limiter over the next few days :). The car doesn't feel faster on the long straights, but my shift points have noticeably changed, and data collection has showed that I shift like a granny into 5th. I need more time to adjust.

3) Tried the car with a hard top over the last few weeks in order to asses how I'd like the car with a cage. Street driving is certainly different, but the car should be significantly more slippery through the air and consequently faster in the long straights. I have no clue as if it's the case since the car has undergone too many changes.