Solo_S14

Nice - so turns out he picked one up, has it all in pieces on stands with go fast bits ordered all around - and he’s joined the forum. Yup, through poor advice as a friend, and at least some amount of an exaggerated depiction of track junkiehood? I’ve managed to help contribute to the happiness and financial ruin of yet another, otherwise normal, contributing member of society 😂 👍👍

Cross-posting from FB here. Don’t know if I got the pricing right or not, trying to recover some of what I spent on the sets. I bought these all as a set, but upon inspection, one or two of them are damaged. (8ea) 205/50/15 Hoosier SM7’s with 4 Heat Cycles. 6 of them look like they’re in great condition. 1 looks like it has a small chunk, and 1 has a small cord I assume from dragging a braking zone. Everything in the pictures. They look to have TireRack heat cycled stamps on them. Taking a stab here - 6 look great, 1 questionable, 1 maybe junk or spare only.... Call it (1.5 sets) of SM7’s for the price of (1.5) new SM7’s? And take the other 2 for “free”??? So $400 for all of them? (3ea) Federal RS-R 205/50/15 - I bought a car with “brand new 500 mile tires”, and when I got home I noticed a sidewall out of one of them. So I had them removed, the one disposed of, and these 3 remain. $200 for the Federals.

Lol so don’t take that the wrong way, despite the Miata in my profile pic, I spent a few years in autox then on track in a similar weight Evo X. And at some point back in the day, a full sized Maxima. You can still be plenty fast, and faster than those Miatas for sure - get out there and get some seat time it’ll all come together!

Hey man, welcome. The best way for you to get started (and honestly, the easy button to pick up some track time) is to sign up for one of the HPDE’s. Chin, The Drivers Edge, NASA, PCA, Edge Addicts....there are a bunch of them. They’ll usually have a Tech form / checklist that they’ll send you to have completed ahead of time - but honestly as long as you have good fluid, pads are in good shape, and you have tires on all 4 corners, (and no mechanical issues) you’re good to get started. They all have “classroom” sessions in addition to having an instructor ride with you to teach you all of the basics and how to be safe / aware on track. Just turn up with a goal of having fun - ignore your lap times for now, and by the end of the weekend you’ll know whether you’re hooked.......the first hit really should be free, they’d end up filling their rosters after that, but anyway. Once you sort out that you’re hooked, you’ll sign up for the rest of the events on the calendar, you’ll get tired of hearing about how fast “the Miata that caught you in the corner” is, how you’re not here for the straights, etc - but honestly yeah it is all about min speed. If you have a commute, and listen to podcasts, make it the Ross Bentley podcast. Google his books, and the rest of his Speed Secrets content, and from there you’ll find a bunch of ways to go out and find other interesting content / knowledge. So, there you have it, the next couple steps toward happiness and financial ruin. 🤣

What’s on your list?

Was fun to watch.....they seem less accepting to slipangle than the MX-5 races? (Many more people looking backwards).....or is that just an application of throttle thing?

Exactly what you’d expect a habitual croc wearer to say...

How much for dem sweet crocs?

A friend of mine, not on the forum, is looking for a clean MK1 Audi TT to use as a dual purpose weekend car / track day car. The want list is that 99-05 generation, Coupe only, Manual, in the 225bhp trim (I guess they also came in 180bhp). Ideally without any exterior mods (or easily reversible / replaceable), handling mods are a plus. Anybody happen to know of something they’d recommend?

As one of the referenced “buddies who tracked it”: Oh wait, that might have been the wrong meme....

Week 8 of lockdown is really getting to some of you blokes, eh?

P2 in the final 👍

Happening now:

I feel you - always been (identified as? 😂) a seat of the pants guy as well. Always had trouble jumping behind someone’s wheel and pedal setup, and getting it to do anything. I didn’t even have a PC, lol - built one, and took the usual garage evening time and put it into computer evening time - one or two solid weeks of building / setup / etc to even get to the point of turning laps. One major thing that I can’t seem to figure out yet is - when the rear end steps out - it’s always been “never lift” - whereas in Assetto Corsa, the only way to not go around is to lock up the brakes. Maybe that’s because I’m not “feeling” it come around early enough, but it currently a minor source of frustration. That, and everyone piling into you on L1T1 lol

Again, noob (newb?) here - but here’s an opinion. Once you accept the fact that you’re not in a car, and won’t feel any g’s, then there are other visual and auditory cues that help you sense what’s going on. I think maybe the first thing that people need to get used to is slowing early enough, and enough, to place the car in the corner. For me it was something Ross Bentley or some other guy said about picking / working with the “stop braking point”, rather than the “braking point”. So brake early to practice that, then start adding min speed, and adjust from there. Then, longer corners (with the car “set”) help you start to sense things like onset of understeer - you’ll “see” yourself drift away from the inside curbs, hear the tires start to complain. Mugello in a Spec E30 was a really good place to see that. There are a few high speed entry / long straight following corners where you want to carry min speed, set the car on your line, and “see” when to pick up the throttle earlier and earlier. Being a light, low power RWD car, it was forgiving in brake / throttle application - but also well balanced enough, that once you got your line down, you could actually trail brake into a corner and sense the rotation. Or lift / brush brakes mid “long-corner” if you got too hot, and sense the car grip up again. In that car in particular, after spinning a bunch, I could start to “sense” the limit even on track-out on power in higher speed chicanes / throttle application zones like turns (3, 5, 9, 11, 13) - and really start to “throw” the car into full throttle downhill left turn 7, then negotiate your way through the complex into 9 just using throttle. It’s not seat time on track, and I’ve only been playing for a couple of weeks, but once you get a “flow” going on a track, it is immersive and a ton of fun. Mosport, Laguna Seca, Spa, and Imola have also been a lot of fun in various cars from GT86’s to their FA01 formula car.