This clip about 10 minutes into the 2nd session. I'm not driving very smoothly and the tires are suffering for it. I tend to always end up driving wildly like this on TC1000. Not sure why. It feels like a safe environment to do so in. Perhaps that is why. In the first session, I'd done a couple of 43 second laps but in this session I think I only managed one. Most of the others were 44 and some of these are worse.
Anyway, this video is interesting because when I mess up on the hairpin, Kanepee-san (Party Race champion) is behind me and I let him past so I can hop on his tail and have a look at his driving for the first time. Of course, my eagerness to follow and my tires being in the state they are in doesn't help much. Hence, madness follows. Sorry tires!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
TC1000 - 2007/10/21
Yoshida-san (Cayman s) and John joined me at Tsukuba TC1000 today. The lineup was 1 x 20 minute session followed by 4 x 15 minute sessions. Long day then...
The first session I was actually quite amazed at my driving. I was silky smooth for the most part and really did some nice braking. Unfortunately I forgot to video that too. Hmmm, Maybe there is a connection there. I suddenly became able to do the inner hairpin where as before I would more than like be very slow or spin out. I got a few 43 second laps in the first session. Wow. My best previous time was 44. My best was 43.81 in that session. Things were looking up.
I actually managed to get 43 seconds in the first 4 sessions. I had quite a few problems getting around the last corner though for a good run at the straight. Just never really turned the car enough and had to curb hop to get any sort of speed down the home straight which is not so good.
For the last 3 sessions I had problems on the first corner with under-steer. I just couldn't take it at speed for some reason. I think its something to do with my front tires (Neova) having only 2mm of thread left. Time to change me thinks. The final session was my worst session in terms of rounding that corner and I just couldn't dive under the 44 mark.
Still, what a fun day! I got to follow Kanapee-san around for a while which was great as he is the Party Race champion. He actually spun in front of me on the last corner which was rather cool. Even champions spin! He was using 255 tires today so can't directly compare times but he was running low 43s which makes me pretty happy with my 43.8 efforts :-)
After my last run, I asked Kato-sensei to show me some magic driving and he took my car around in 44s with 2 up which is pretty cool. He really hooked together the first and last corners better than I had done all day. Wish I knew how he did it! I think I was faster on the inner corners though, but thats hardly surprising considering its my car. The large time is gained on the first and last corners on this circuit. As always, deeply impressed by his driving.
I'll try sort out some video footage later on. Too tired now. I hope I can stay up to watch the F1 tonight. Its gonna be a great race!
The first session I was actually quite amazed at my driving. I was silky smooth for the most part and really did some nice braking. Unfortunately I forgot to video that too. Hmmm, Maybe there is a connection there. I suddenly became able to do the inner hairpin where as before I would more than like be very slow or spin out. I got a few 43 second laps in the first session. Wow. My best previous time was 44. My best was 43.81 in that session. Things were looking up.
I actually managed to get 43 seconds in the first 4 sessions. I had quite a few problems getting around the last corner though for a good run at the straight. Just never really turned the car enough and had to curb hop to get any sort of speed down the home straight which is not so good.
For the last 3 sessions I had problems on the first corner with under-steer. I just couldn't take it at speed for some reason. I think its something to do with my front tires (Neova) having only 2mm of thread left. Time to change me thinks. The final session was my worst session in terms of rounding that corner and I just couldn't dive under the 44 mark.
Still, what a fun day! I got to follow Kanapee-san around for a while which was great as he is the Party Race champion. He actually spun in front of me on the last corner which was rather cool. Even champions spin! He was using 255 tires today so can't directly compare times but he was running low 43s which makes me pretty happy with my 43.8 efforts :-)
After my last run, I asked Kato-sensei to show me some magic driving and he took my car around in 44s with 2 up which is pretty cool. He really hooked together the first and last corners better than I had done all day. Wish I knew how he did it! I think I was faster on the inner corners though, but thats hardly surprising considering its my car. The large time is gained on the first and last corners on this circuit. As always, deeply impressed by his driving.
I'll try sort out some video footage later on. Too tired now. I hope I can stay up to watch the F1 tonight. Its gonna be a great race!
Friday, October 19, 2007
1'09 - the video
Right so, here are 5 laps of my 3rd session at Tsukuba. I tried pretty different lines than my usual particularly on the last corner. Things I noticed: Still steering too late. Still doing far too many steering inputs (although sometimes required). Way too slow on the 1st hairpin. Under-steering like a dog through Dunlop (although its worse in later laps). If I can clean some of these things up, I should be able to do 1'09 pretty consistently and perhaps attack 1'08.
Lap times are: 1'10.857, 1'10.354, 1'09.774, 1'10.006 and 1'11.781
I left the 5th lap in for a mate who was driving his NSX. I caught up to him when he was taking it easy. Great looking machine. Pity I didn't capture it roaring.
Enjoy!
Lap times are: 1'10.857, 1'10.354, 1'09.774, 1'10.006 and 1'11.781
I left the 5th lap in for a mate who was driving his NSX. I caught up to him when he was taking it easy. Great looking machine. Pity I didn't capture it roaring.
Enjoy!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Finally! A 1'09 is mine!
Only one 1'09. I guess that makes it very special! Today was cold in the morning but it was actually quite hot in the sun when I did this run near midday. Its great that its a little cooler again as its not so hard on the car. It was quite hard to get space on the track today. A lot of cars were fast on the straight but slowish on the corners so I just couldn't pass them. Even hanging back a bit, they seemed forever to be in my way. I did have space for the first few laps though and you can really see the difference in the lap times. Gotta try different strategies for this me thinks. Its a pain wasting valuable lap time braking early because someone braked in front of you also. Good racing practice I suppose...
Today I really wanted to crack 1'10. I tried a few different lines in different corners and I feel that some of them worked so need to review my video footage again to see what I did differently. I'm still either understeering or oversteering around the corners though and my tires still scream for mercy.
Today again I felt that I'm turning too late into a corner. I felt that I was very slow around the 1st hairpin sometimes it felt that I was almost stopped. Definitely loosing too much momentum there. I did better on the last corner in the 3rd session by trying a wider line. I glanced down at the speedo in the middle of the 1st corner once and saw it at 80kmph which quite surprised me. I also noticed that its really hard to brake and change down into 3rd for the last corner without dropping the speed under 120. I guess I haven't looked at speeds like this in a while as I remember back in April entering the last corner at around 135 or so. So going to have to try something else there to keep my speed up. Perhaps, I should try just going around in 4th at different speeds and see what feels good. Take the whole gear change variable out of it. Maybe my next first session at TC2000 I'll do that. 4th for last corner, 3rd for all other corners. I wonder what the lap times would be like.
Taking into consideration other sessions my top 5 times today were:
Including all sessions, top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'09.774 - 28.278 28.752 12.744 - 153.649 km/h
2. 1'10.006 - 28.522 28.841 12.643 - 155.083 km/h
3. 1'10.176 - 28.899 28.757 12.520 - 152.910 km/h
4. 1'10.210 - 28.833 28.577 12.800 - 153.474 km/h
5. 1'10.335 - 28.959 28.621 12.755 - 153.105 km/h
Hmm. A virtual best of: 1'09.375. Again, best sectors are not pieced together into the best laps. 1'09s will hopefully become more common after today. I'm even eye'ing up 1'08 now.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Foiled again batman
Drat and double drat! The rear left light is half full of water again! Can you believe it?! I'll order a new gasket from Mazda I think and see what that will do for me. Hopefully that will fix the problem.
Was out driving yesterday around Hakkone with my mate in his NSX. Fantastic car. Sounds incredible - especially the super charger winding up. Another friend took his Cayman S out. He let drive it. Very nice car, but it was hard to use the stick on the right hand side. I guess you get used to it. Its very much hunkered down on the road and sounds fantastic when you rev it. Very different sound to the 8. Thank you Yoshida-san!
Was out driving yesterday around Hakkone with my mate in his NSX. Fantastic car. Sounds incredible - especially the super charger winding up. Another friend took his Cayman S out. He let drive it. Very nice car, but it was hard to use the stick on the right hand side. I guess you get used to it. Its very much hunkered down on the road and sounds fantastic when you rev it. Very different sound to the 8. Thank you Yoshida-san!
Friday, October 5, 2007
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