race911

http://www.gofastvideo.com/video/184...derhill-121208

Title pretty much says it all. DE day last Friday, fired the Radical up for the last two sessions of the day for the benefit of my student and his dad who brought up an '06 MX-5. Was their 4th track day, and they had no idea what they were in for.

Ambient of under 55F, and this was laps 3 and 4 of the session. Relatively unobstructed run. First lap is about 1:56, second about 1:54. (Personal best is 1:50, and I'm sure a talented driver could coax a :47 out of it in ideal conditions on fresh rubber.) These tires are 4 years old, but only have about 10 heat cycles. Pretty bad push, which you can see with the apexes I (grossly) miss.

All in all, I didn't want to scare the passenger silly. If you're familiar with Thunderhill, you'll note: 1. how early I'm braking (1, 10, 14), and 2. that I'm nowhere near flat through 8.

Feel free to critique away!

FLA997

Good GOD, that Cayman almost ran ya over!

mark kibort

That doesnt seem fair. (even with the exta weight)
how much does the 1.3L version weigh?
I can only imagine what the big HP version would do out there!

race911

Cayman dude is known for not exactly being a mirrors checker guy...........

1.3L isn't any different, weight-wise than a 1.5L stroker (or 1.4L overbore). We were probably ~1450 lbs. total there, with about 350 lbs of passenger weight.

Don't need a big engine, but certainly more sophisticated chassis helps! DSR lap record on a 1.0L is a 1:43 or so?

333pg333

Looks like a whole lot of fun! You could actually feel the tyres being old somehow and this looked to affect turn in quite noticeably. I'm sure with fresh rubber and no one beside you, it would have been pushing past your best time.
Good picture clarity too. What setup do you use?

Mike K.

Nice drive. What is that video set up, it looks like you have a viewer on the dash? You can't hear the whine from the gears, that is my favorite part about an sr3.

race911

Tires aren't that old/heat cycled; it was more the 5-7F degree drop in temperature from the session an hour before that got into my head. All my best times are on much more race car friendly open testing/private rental days where the track is more deserted. No way was I pushing the envelope around that traffic/skill level. (Even though Cayman dude is an experienced racer.) I'm going to post the whole session (for the benefit of my passenger and his son mainly), and if you care to see how you have to PARK IT when around the slow traffic.

Video cam is a basic Go Pro. First time I used it. Seems to work fine. The video display in the center is just a wireless backup camera I use for..........backing up! Since I'm mostly solo in the garage, and the guy next to me has a bike shop and dyno, there can be people around at the most inopportune times. And it's not like you can turn your head around when you're belted in and helmeted.

StoogeMoe

Ok, I'll critique. You SUCK! Because you have a Radical and I don't.

I got to get to drive one of those one day. Heck, I'd even settle for a ride.

race911

If you're ever out in California............

Anyway, here's the full 12 minute session, including warmup lap. Only reason you want to take a look is to see how, ummmmm, interesting some of the lines are. And the etiquette. But anyone who is wandering around here knows that already.

http://www.gofastvideo.com/video/184...l-Full-Session

Carnerd

Great vid Ken! Was this with TMR? I really like that the organization put a cone at the apex of T7. With the set up of that corner it's hard for us newbs to see the line sometimes. Such a different line compared to the GT3, especially through T11 and T12. Very cool

JackOlsen

I didn't watch the full session but the two laps are pretty amazing -- it's like looking at the world through a hummingbird's eyes.

The footage looks great, probably in part because the solid state video recorders seem to do best on overcast days. The new surface looks great, too.

mark kibort

It looks like your video, but faster.
Just point and shoot. got to love the sequential gear box. like a video game.

someday, someday!

Mk

IcemanG17

Ken
Sweet ride....damm thats cool.....hopefully I can get a ride with you one day next year!!! I plan on making most of TMR's thunderhill dates!!

The cayman......WOW...what was that guy thinking (or lack therof)....I'm guessing you were in the advanced group....I hope I am more aware than that once I get to the advanced group!! Especially knowing there's a sub 2:00 car out there!!!

mark kibort

no lift upshifts? what about downshifts, do you have to heal toe, or just brake-clutch downshifts? it sure looks like fun!

mk

Circuit Motorsports

It was a combo of bad things that made that happen.

It looks like Ken was pretty far back from teh Cayman at the beginning of a string of corners and was right on him at the very end but was very far left and in spot that was very likely blind to the Cayman. Combine that with a relatively slow overtake by Ken that time and it wasn't that shocking to see the guy get left for the next turn.

Racing a small car and having been in a big car when other sports racers were on course the best place for a sports racer to be is just slightly offset behind a car it is overtaking. It puts the car square in the side mirrors. The rearview mirror isn't very good for seeing those little cars once they are on your tail.


Nice stuff. It's fun to watch the passengers head slowly lean more and more as the laps went on. Which dash is that in the car?