[Der ABT]

Originally Posted by BMAN

I think the new curbs that will get used a lot will be the exit of T3 and Oak Tree and they are not very penalizing, so it's going to be a free for all there.

I was afraid this would be the case....t3 is goign to be divebomb central now and most likely will see people pushed way wide and then 4 will be the new squeeze point.

thanks for the updates guys

[vranko]

Originally Posted by ausgeflippt951

Thanks to Vranko for letting me "calmly" drive his car during the charity parade laps; gave me the opportunity to drive the track (couldn't spare the entire weekend unfortunately).

And thanks so much to Collin for traveling down to visit us on Saturday and help me sort out my new suspension. On a positive note my car ran great after the work I had done on it over the winter. Nothing fell off and nothing was leaking . I now have a lot more power thanks to the Fabspeed exhaust and headers and a lot more immediacy of power application thanks to the firm transmission mounts.

But, the new suspension setup really set me back for a while. My driving skills were rusty and the car felt totally different to me. I've been driving the same car with the same setup for so long it took me a while to get comfortable. Moving to a more aggressive alignment (more front toe) and the new shocks created a very twitchy car at high speed (the cross winds on the backstraight didn't help either). The steering also felt very "light" at times. For the first day or so the car also had a lot of oversteer. We eventually maxed out the bars (full firm front, full soft back) and the car started to feel better, closer to neutral and barely understeering. Based upon the limited feedback I was able to give Collin he made some minor shock adjustments Saturday afternoon (I'm sure I continued to frustrate him with my vague answers about how the car felt, what "different" isn't enough info for you ). With the additional hp/torque the front end was lifting some under acceleration. I think increasing the front and rear rebound really helped plant the steering more under acceleration. The car finally felt "familiar" to me on that run. Unfortunately I only got one more run in on Sunday morning. If I had more time I think I really could have started to drop my lap times to where I would have been happier (I was doing consistent 2:14s Sunday morning). I also struggled with ice pedal on Friday so I turned off all the nannies (disabled yaw sensor) for the rest of the weekend and had no issues.

Now I can't wait to get to Summit Point. On a track I'm more familiar with and do more tuning there. So, not a great weekend for me but the suspension is now starting be dialed in better and the car ran great.

Karting was excellent as always. I love the VIR track. About 8 of us headed over to the VIR kart track after our last run on Saturday. What a blast!

[CanAm]

Did anyone else besides me find T9 to be bumpy?

[ausgeflippt951]

It was a bit skiddy in Vranko's Cayman.

Karting was a blast. Hilarious pileup in the Death Corner.

[Vicegrip]

More toe ?

[vranko]

Originally Posted by Vicegrip

More toe ?

Sorry. I was a little vague . I was running with 0 deg of toe on front in the old setup. Now running a total toe of -.9mm front and +4mm back. Camber -2.6 front -2.0 rear.

[Eric S]

So what did the new surface provide in the way of course records at the recent NASA event, and how was the new runoff used?

Based on initial feedback, it sounded like class records were in serious jeopardy, and by significant amounts.

[good hands]

Originally Posted by Eric S

So what did the new surface provide in the way of course records at the recent NASA event, and how was the new runoff used?

Based on initial feedback, it sounded like class records were in serious jeopardy, and by significant amounts.

Jose ( Josh ) Smith did a 1:59 in GTS3 . That is about 5 seconds faster than the GTS3 track record ? Peter Krause ( VIR coaching guru )says based on his data with clients he is seeing a 1.5 to 3.5 seconds per lap difference depending on driver and car.

[Carrera51]

Josh's fast race lap was 2:00.??. The track slowed down a little when it got warmer. All the drivers seemed to be experimenting with using the extra pavement in places.

The track is faster pretty much everywhere. More so in 3,10,11, 12 and Hog Pen. All the additional pavement is on the exit and outside of corners where it was done.

[Eric S]

Originally Posted by good hands

Jose ( Josh ) Smith did a 1:59 in GTS3 . That is about 5 seconds faster than the GTS3 track record ? Peter Krause ( VIR coaching guru )says based on his data with clients he is seeing a 1.5 to 3.5 seconds per lap difference per lap depending on driver and car.

Originally Posted by Carrera51

Josh's fast race lap was 2:00.??. The track slowed down a little when it got warmer. All the drivers seemed to be experimenting with using the extra pavement in places.

The track is faster pretty much everywhere. More so in 3,10,11, 12 and Hog Pen. All the additional pavement is on the exit and outside of corners where it was done.

Thanks for the updates. Congrats, Josh! Not that I'm all that surprised; but 5 seconds, wow!

The new surface sounds great, let's hope it holds up well.