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.
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.
posted by FredRoy at 6:10 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home