Thanks Mike and Nige for the video, good job catching that Elise. I missed your comment earlier about it being preferable to release one hand to keep the other in place. Now to work on smoothness
Glad to be of help, this might also help you gav. Back in 1999 i was testing a single seater formula ford at pembrey. I spent some time with an instructor working on my driving and his motto was 'smoothess generates speed' Slow it down to go faster. Even to this day when i find myself 'overdriving' i remember what he said. Also i would advise at every track day you do get one session with an instructor, money well spent and worth at least 20bhp.lol
Sorry for the octuple post... Page timed out every time I posted and none showed up when I force a refresh.
Ok so i had a bit of time this weekend to look at the car. I have cut much more of the front arch away, However i cannot go any lower on the front or the inside wall of the tyre will start rubbing on the adjustable cup of the strut! Im not sure why this is so close. I have changed the top camber bolt to the smaller VW one and am getting about -2.8-3.0 on the front now according to my spirit level applol. It really looks like there is more camber on there. I adjusted the suspension damping from soft to hard and i have 10 settings, It says each setting is half a turn so i get 5 full turns on the knob. Going with your 35% soft rule i have set these to about 2 turns in. They were quite hard before. I dont see that i can do much else with the front The rear i have lowered by about 15-20mm. It now looks like it sits better and i have made it stiffer on the suspension. I have a track day on friday (Weather permitting) so lets hope its all ok!
Rain wouldn`t be a bad thing.. Try and concentrate on your hand positioning as discussed and those smooth steering inputs. Along with the increased camber, you should certainly notice a difference. Try and get some incar video again please. Have a great day. Where are you going ?
Looking forward to reading the report. As an idea start jotting down your settings and how it feels with changes, what adjustments your making etc. Also forget its a 'track day'. Use it as a 'test' session. Start concentrating on your technique become smoother, think what the car is doing more and try and become one with it. Get yourself free space, work on braking points, turning in points, loading up the suspension smoothly. Work on the balance of the car through corners. Also use the diff to get the nose turned in by getting hard on the throttle. Try to put in consistant laps, use every inch of the tarmac dont be afraid to really push it and if you dont come off your not trying hard enough. Air field days are there to push the limits without the threat of having armco in your teeth. As Nige mentioned get some Vids up and if there is an instructor available use him. Also if its wet go full soft on the damper settings. Enjoy It...
Cheers guys Is the same track as the video above, Hullavington. I have not booked yet as im looking at the weather... I will video it all if i do go thats for sure! I never really fiddle with the car once im there but this time i will make lots of changes and see what happens. Talking of changes, What do you say for tyre pressures? Last time i was at 28 cold so about 32ish hot all round. Sound about right?
All tyres vary on pressures, i have no experience of the ones you are running on. To be honest the next set of tyres you buy needs to be slicks then we can really get your car set up right and work on developing it. But remember when setting up cold pressures all 4 tyres heat up differently. If its a clockwise circuit then the RR will need to be higher than the LF usually by 2-3psi as the LF will do more work, generate heat quicker and increase pressure more. So the RR will do less work and take longer to generate heat and will do less work so pressure wont go up as much.
I`m get them all to 32hot and keep that for the day, check when you come in after a session and adjust as necessary. Its a constant and something to look at another time. You`ll have enough to think about as it is. Take a notebook, it you do decide to try the damper tests I suggested, WRITE DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS. Don`t need war and peace, you can add to it after the day, but "understeered lots, rear was lively, rear felt slow" etc. Just so you know what it felt like. You`ll think "ah, I can remember that", but trust me, you`ll get home and think "what I had the front hard and the rear middle, what did it feel like ?..." I disagree with Pascal. Slicks can hide many driving sins, save them until you`ve got the basics right.
I`ve been in cars with sticky tyres where the driver is taking liberties, either too much lock, piling mid corner, entering the corner too fast for his abilities, but the tyres let him get away with it. Rather than highlighting his total lack of understanding of weight transfer and car dynamics, the tyres let him drive like that and not understeer / oversteer off. Matt (my son) has recently started trackdriving, he has been on road tyres. We`ll move up to sticky tyres later. The feedback from the tyres has helped him understand the things I`m saying. "you are on the power too soon, the rear will step out..." just as the rear steps out. If he`d been on warm slicks or even R tyres, it would have gripped and not happened and he wouldn`t even have noticed, but as we were on kung-fu ditchfinders, he could experience it and is hopefully getting an understanding of what the car is doing. He drove my Golf at Donington last time out and I could feel the rear was starting to go through craners (he was lifting just as you go over the crest and turn left at the bottom), the car DIDN`T slide, but I could tell it was close. Back in the pits, we discussed the sessions and he had no idea it was close to letting go. He just doesn`t have the seat time to feel when things are going to happen, he is still reacting to them. That being said, at Blyton last week, he was almost as quick as me in the same car. Youthful reactions. Damn him...lol
I understand what Nige is saying. Slicks would be pointless for me at the moment as i would not learn anything about the car, I need to try and make use of what i have at the moment. Once these 595's have gone i wont be getting another set, Maybe slicks and R888's...
An interesting view Nige cant say i agree, but everyone is entilted to their opinion. I wouldnt put my gran out on the road on kung-fu ditchfinders let alone my son on track lol
