Wow, nice line there. I miss road course so much... can't wait to get back on the track again. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the compliments. However, I would gladly take some constructive criticism if anyone can see areas that I can do better. The only downside to MAM is the distance. The only downside to the event is that there is something wrong with my right rear brake that I can not figure out now, it squeals/squeaks even when the brakes are not applied now. I am wondering if I just warped the rotor, but there is no pulsing sensation. I have taken out the pads, they look fine. I pulled the rotor, it looks fine. I am wondering if there is something wrong with the mechanism for the parking break, but I see nothing wrong??? I am stumped. Anyway, pictures will be posted soon.
LeiboSti-I have not been at MAM for a while, and I'm not an expert, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt, and again this is just from my point view of how I would run it. Its hard to tell how the rest of your driving is doing from the video. Anyway-looks like your inputs are pretty smooth, I can hear tire noise in a few turns, which could mean, there is more track surface you could be using or your steering a little much or quickly or not looking a head far enough or as often as needed. Turn 1. Because you really have to slow the car down for this turn and its a 90 degree turn, turn in later, exit to mid center of the track and work your way back to the ouside to set up for turn 2. Turn 2. Setup exit on turn 2 to exit onto the outside border of turn 3 and follow curve till you see through the apex at the end of turn 3. You should get a really good run into the apex on turn 3 doing it this way. (the bigger the radius, the higher the speed, the slower you should turn). note: Here you want to let the car run wide. Turn 5. tricky-dont apex at the begining of this turn, enter mid track or outside track, but apex at the peak of the turn, what you want to do here is find the fastest way to exit out of turn 6. Basically I would stay on the outside into turn 5 after 60-70% and than start turning in and get on the inside coming into turn 6 making a nice straight as possible exit out of 6, this should allow you to get on the gas all the way through the turn and hard after apex. Turn 7 & 8. there are two ways to taking this turn. So depending on your comfort and setup. A. apex 7, apex 8; making this a very tight U turn. B. Run wide into 7, enter mid or outside and apex 8 track out. more speed through the turn. Turn 9, 10 & 11. Objective-finding the fastest way to exit 11. Turn 12, 13 & 14 Objective-finding the fastest way to exit 15. *Suggestion-look at this section in reverse. Like I said this is just my opinion of how I have ran MAM, you know your car's setup and driving style much better than I. My lines are a little more conservative and is aimed for the highest average mph possible. Hopefully other experienced driver will suggest some of their idea's as well. I love the MAM track, its one of my favorites. If you dont have access to a slower or less powered vechicle at an event, for practice, try driving slower in a higher gear, this will help allow you to focus more on your driving, work on balance, smooth inputs, looking ahead and listening to the car's outputs. Enjoy! Cheech
Awesome, that was what I was looking for. Actually your advice at the end is very good. I tried doing just that, cruising at 2500 RPM in 5th gear without any brakes for my cool down laps in the afternoon, and I was faster after that. The video was from the morning and I was starting to do some of the stuff that you mentioned especially turns 1-3 and 5 by the end of the day. I must admit, I tried 7 and 8 as many different ways as I could, and never felt I could hit it right. Next time will be better yet. Brad
Brad let me know next season when you're going, I'd like to try and hang w/ya at some of these events!
Great, we actually had 4 cars from Rochester, a WRX wagon, a WRX sedan, an Evo, and my car. Next year maybe we can have even more. Brad
I am 50-50 on the Boo Bash at this point. We may have company in town, if so, I am out, I should know soon.
I wish I could have made it to this event. I was at the June event this year and then the October event last year (FTL) and had a blast. The worst part is that I've had a different car for each event and just recently purchased an STi, so the next track session could be interesting. Do you know what kind of times you were putting down? In the two events that I made it to, there were only 2 or 3 wrx's. I would have enjoyed the August session with less mustangs and more wrx's and evo's. I love MAM, it's a great course for novices because it's really hard to hit anything. When we went there were so many cars off track due to rain, but no one had any damage because there was so much runoff at every turn. And Mushashi, from what I remember of the track those are great suggestions.
I FINNALLY got to see it! Looks SO FUN! I needs to make a trip down there....umm...and get my car running. lolz
LeiboSTi 1fastWagon - Thanks for the response, I am glad to help, I'm hoping next time I will be able to attend a few events with you guys and we can share some idea's. Its nice to see more Scooby driver participating in more RR events. Another great source is Daimian's site, check out some of his video's. He is a good friend of mine, and you can always ask him for some ideas.
Have you been to the FTL events before Mushashi? Just wondering if I would have met you down there or not. I'm looking forward to next years events. I had fun in my G35 coupe this year...but it wasn't quite as fun as my wrx wagon a few years ago (easier to correct your mistakes with all wheel drive). I can only imagine what the STi will be like next year. We definately have to get more mnsubaru guys down to MAM.
1Fastwagon-I have not ran with the FTL since Daimian created the new forum, but I have been around, so we may have met if not I'm sure we'll met sometime in a future event. A G35 would be an awsome machine to do Touge at MAM. LOL What's your track experience like?
Figuring out turn 3 is sooo much fun. There's always people off in the mud where it tightens up. Accelerating through turn six in the middle of a pack of sportbikes is a helluva lot of fun, too. What club or organization were you there with?
Mushashi, I've only been to the track twice, so pretty novice. I have a friend who has been driving in track events for years and before that did a lot of AutoX. I try to learn as much as I can by riding along with other drivers, but haven't done any events with an instructor. I learned heel toe downshifting out of necessity this year (I would have just smoked my clutch had I not learned quickly). My goal is to get good at MAM, where I can make mistakes without too many consequences and then try BIR. The G was fun at the track, but it is heavy and even with some suspension mods was a little unruly. Oh, and it is expensive to track. Tires alone are a painful purchase. They are directional and staggered (although a dedicated track set would not be staggered)...$1000 to replace tires is not fun every 8-10K miles. w_o_t_boy, The group is Findtheline. You can check out the website, findtheline.com.
IMO-BIR is the much faster of the two, though MAM is the more technical track. BIR looks intimidating because of the long Top Fuel straight, but honestly unless your getting out of turn 10 quick enough and have lots of HP, its not going to matter at turn 1, as far as MPH. BIR is a fairly straight forward track, only two banked turn's, one bridge and a long straight. There are four sections that come to mind that most people have difficulty with. 1.Turn 1 if you got some BIG coconuts, and know what your doing you can really take it fast and max out your speed limiter. 2. Turn 3 you can really cook your brakes and apexing early is not an option. 3. Turn 7,8 & 9 make that one nice arch and keep your eyes away from the bridge. 4. Turn 10 probably the most challenging turn of them all, its banked, and it wide, mess up 10 and you lose the drag race. LOL I have been using the long straight as a cool down section and this way you get to see how others run the course. The only problem with MAM is just the drive. If your interested and looking for Instructor seat time there are quite a few clubs that offer training at some of the best tracks around the NW area. Just check my 2006 Motorsports Calender: http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9483
