So

1. Yeti (Fox)

2. Fabia VRS (Jabo)

3. Octy VRS Estate (Noisy Dave)

I think Noisy Dave might dispute that order

Good session. I was surprised how fast that stock (apart from RARB and RS-R's and no clutter at the back - have to compensate for my fat derriere somehow) vRS went. I was faster with RARB by 4

.3 secs roughly notwithstanding the fact the track is supposely 1.5 secs slower... Bit annoyed with my my adrenal glands running waay too rich during timed laps (i could not even count to 2 and di 3 laps!) which resulted in really scruffy laps with a mountain of mistakes - I almost went off at the new shikane! With littel bit more cool 1.30's are there no problem. With half decent (and working) brakes I can cut another 2-3 secs off. Car did not miss a bit and did not burn any oil at all! Whiteline RARB transformed the car immensly. At the hardest setting it is handling brilliantly, no indersteer at all but pretty four wheel drifting when too much speed carried meaning good balance. No lift off oversteer (did not lift off much I must admit). One strange thing I noticed was a tyre hop on the acceleration phase out of the back long left hander. When I applied full throttle it felt like loaded tyre hopped once or twice - must play with pressures. Pity the training session is not 2hrs, would give me some time to do thongs like tyre pressures instead of trying to sort out the lines through the new layout.

I am desperate for a braking system which works. I think there is something not right there as the behaviour is completely inconsistent - it locked the wheels once which made me brake meters too early and on other ocassions pedal went to the bullhead and there was next to nothing there - I never knew if I was going to stop!

I enjoyed following James during practice session, good fun and I am glad the much lower tyre pressures had such a pronoinced effect. Few turns on collies must have made it more stable as well.

I have not checked but I think I had a better lap time this time then my Z370 fried the last time .

No amount of power is going to compensate for a well handling car.

I had a great day. Although I would have definitely been slower in the Alfa, i would have liked to have been in it.

messy laps but im happy that i was about 1.5 seconds faster than last year again aith the Slower track i guess that makes me 3 seconds faster than last year.

Shows how much of a difference the LSD makes. Even with my messy laps thats still 3 seconds faster.

Shame they didn't do trophies or anything but i was surprised when one of the guys arranging the venue remembered me from last year haha

How did you get all those dials,

speed recordings & GPS position on your video?

Thats cool

Harrys laptimer app on iPhone. It works without external GPS but is more accurate with it, I've got a XGPS150 Bluetooth GPS and I timed 1:28.8 fast lap. I'm pretty sure my MSV time was exactly that, will have to check when they are posted. I've also got a wifi ELM327 obd reader to give RPM/boost/gear/coolant temp info. Brilliant piece of kit and not too expensive.

Agreed. Harry's lap time is a nice price of kit. You can even use go pro for footage.

I had a great day. Although I would have definitely been slower in the Alfa, i would have liked to have been in it.

messy laps but im happy that i was about 1.5 seconds faster than last year again aith the Slower track i guess that makes me 3 seconds faster than last year.

Shows how much of a difference the LSD makes. Even with my messy laps thats still 3 seconds faster.

Shame they didn't do trophies or anything but i was surprised when one of the guys arranging the venue remembered me from last year haha

Probably as he saw the cone mark

Haha after my first few laps i did swipe a cone on one of the back chicanes.

After that i pulled in to cool off, went and asked for my times so far ans got chatting

I admitted that i had just hit a cone. He said "yea a marshal just radio'd in, try not to swipe them out like last year" hahaha

my first vid... sadly my front camera failed again so only rear camera..... here is when I overcook it into one of the chicanes... I knew i was never gonna turni in, so went straight on

 

got it sideways when way tooo fast out of a chicane, and n/s wheels on the kerb

 

Anyone found a link to the official lap times yet

this one is for the white yeti, incase he hasn't had track vid of his car before (from someone else)

 

Dave, @30-31secs you went wide, was it understeer you mentioned or too much speed carried in? I am asking as I was washed out there but it was because I carried too much speed into the corner and slid all four wheels.

Dave, @30-31secs you went wide, was it understeer you mentioned or too much speed carried in? I am asking as I was washed out there but it was because I carried too much speed into the corner and slid all four wheels.

yes, power understeer..... with the XDS switched off, it will wheelspin the inside wheel and push wide, (it will also hold max revs and not change up if one wheel is spinning) , it was my mistake putting too much power in on the exit....

 

the reason I like the XDS off, is so i can control it on the throttle, rather than the electronics do it..... if I was a better driver and modulated the throttle properly, I would have had a better exit to the corner !

As you know my car has a different 03-ABS-Brakes controller and I do not have an XDS off option. The lowest is weak. Still, I did not feel it kicking in anywhere really.

Throttle modulation is a key but in my case, with whiteline RARB on max setting I was not getting any noticeable power indersteer and was literally flat in those corners. Engine did not have enough power to overcome grip there. It would not up**** as there was not enough juice to reach the redline :(. I will not be however adding any power, just more handling mods and brakes, brakes, brakes!

lol. @ your brakes you mentioned a "stepping" of the tyres on power exit, are you sure thats not the XDS operating? thats what it felt like when I had it turned on (which is why I didn't like it!)

after checking my rear tyres, I'm now down to 2mm!

 

just ordered some new RSR's from mytyres with a discount code I was sent by email..... £69.54 each delivered bargin!

Do we have a new cheap price for the 215/40 R17 Federals then?

Dave, @30-31secs you went wide, was it understeer you mentioned or too much speed carried in? I am asking as I was washed out there but it was because I carried too much speed into the corner and slid all four wheels.

 

 I was experiencing understeer in the Golf, I think it was a combination of entry speed to high, poor choice of tyres I also think with hindsight a jab on the handbrake would have brought the rear around to sort the understeer issue out.

 

 I am watching rally cross and that is what they are doing, stand on the brakes, turn in whilst the front axle is loaded up and a quick jab on the handbrake and around it goes.   Just a little jab to create a little oversteer though not too much.    

 

 What do you think?

you could do what Haydn does and put track tyres on the front and road tyres on the back! lol...

Anyone found a link to the official lap times yet

 

They will go up here when MSV get round to putting them on.

Hopefully today as it's the first office working day after the event.

 

http://www.msvtrackdays.com/car/how-fast-leaderboard.aspx

lol. @ your brakes you mentioned a "stepping" of the tyres on power exit, are you sure thats not the XDS operating? thats what it felt like when I had it turned on (which is why I didn't like it!)

 

Yup. brakes are a joke but the more I think about it the more I am convinced it is not because of the pads or rotors. I think there is something wrong there but I have no clue what. I will do one more thing with the electronics and see  what the result is. As for XDS being to blame for the "tyre hop"... I am not sure. My thinking is that XDS brakes individual wheels when the rear tries to overtake the front and I had it in the wet previously  when I was on cheap crap Chinese tyres. The feeling was completely different and I could tell which whee had brake applied. This one felt like the tyre did not have enough pressure and the was almost coming off the rim  if you see what I mean as it was at the very exit of the corner at high'ish speed with strong lateral forces and max acceleration in 3rd just before redline - it felt like I was hitting a "depression" in the tarmac almost.

 

 

 I was experiencing understeer in the Golf, I think it was a combination of entry speed to high, poor choice of tyres I also think with hindsight a jab on the handbrake would have brought the rear around to sort the understeer issue out.

 

 I am watching rally cross and that is what they are doing, stand on the brakes, turn in whilst the front axle is loaded up and a quick jab on the handbrake and around it goes.   Just a little jab to create a little oversteer though not too much.    

 

 What do you think?

 

I believe you have coil-overs all around? If so I'd start from putting the car on the corner weights and adjusting the load distribution so each corner balance your car.

This website is about S2000 but at the beginning of the article there is plenty of very good links. This will make a world of difference to your handling.

Then, having oversteer I'd look at your RARB. I am not sure what you have installed but if you have both FARB and RARB it might be the FARB is too stiff in comparison to the RARB so either get a stiffer RARB or softer FARB.

 

Not sure what differential setup you have but you could also move more power to the rear, but that would be after the above.

 

And the cheap stuff i.e. tyre pressures (you tried it and it worked quite nicely) and suspension geometry - toe and camber. Your car is a track toy so you can afford a proper track setup

 

With regards to driving technique and using hand brake IMHO this is not the way to go for us. Rallycross guys straddle 600bhp all wheel driven fire breathing monsters weighing 600kgs and they drive on dirt half of the time. With this amount of power and short track it is paramount to get the car straight as soon as possible to get rid of the lateral load component on the tyres so all the grip can be used for acceleration.

For us and generally track driving hand brake is not something I'd use at all, If you look at any other dedicated track racing sport most of them don't even have handbrakes and if they do they do not use it at all. Simply put when you are sliding you are not going fast as you lost traction which otherwise could be used for carrying more speed into the corner and then accelerating earlier past the apex.

 

 

That's just my twopence 

this one is for the white yeti, incase he hasn't had track vid of his car before (from someone else)

 

Thanks for that !

 

Pity I couldn't stay in shot a bit longer

a remap, and a bit more track time

a remap, and a bit more track time

 

ARBs helped a lot with mine as it stopped the ESP coming on too early, you could get a much better exit from corners.

They will go up here when MSV get round to putting them on.

Hopefully today as it's the first office working day after the event.

 

http://www.msvtrackdays.com/car/how-fast-leaderboard.aspx

I just had a bit of a moan by email about the fact I didn't know I could check my laptimes during the event....then when I found out I could and asked what they were, they'd been taken down and the printer was broke....

 

Anyway, they said they'd be on the website..... in 7-10 days....