Jefferson Circuit HPDE Summit Point 5.30.08
My driving season is split into two parts: there’s the first half that starts once the snow melts and ends when summer swimming starts. The second half picks up after summer swimming and ends around Thanksgiving. This past weekend with the NCCBMWCCA at Summit Point marked the end of the first half. And what a great way to end it. The video shows about a lap and a quarter in the counter-clockwise direction. (The camera mount is too low and it’s a bit overexposed, but it is good for recording corner entry and exit speeds.) It starts mid corner in Turn 7 and ends just after the start finish line a lap later.
Since I started in the Instructor Academy in March, I’ve been taking a day of vacation on Friday and making it a three day weekend at the track. The Friday sessions are great because you effectively double your track time and you get as much time on the skid pad as you normally get in a year of driving events.
I like driving on the Jeff. It’s a very short track and laps tick off rapidly at around 1:04 a lap (counter-clockwise, not that it’s officially timed either way….). You can pick one or two corners and really concentrate on getting them right. Before you know it, you right back at it again.
Here’s what I need to remember for next time. Counter-clockwise:
- Exit the pits, stay off-line to the right, enter turn 1 on the inside and rejoin the line. It’s good practice for when you’re tired and you don’t check that someone is storming down the straight.
- Left-foot brake from turn 2 to through turn 5. Tap the brakes between 2 and 3, try to accelerate in a straight line, but stay to the inside of 3. Don’t swing to the right like the RWD cars. Let the car drift to track center on the exit but don’t go too far out.
- Come in for turn 4, but don’t force the car to the left. Speed is more important than clipping the apex. Don’t get on the apron for the entry to turn 5, there’s a dip and it upsets the car.
- The turn-in to turn 5 is faster than you think. Tap the brakes to begin the turn, don’t bleed off too much, and get on the gas early. Track out but watch the bump on the apron at the edge.
- Stay middle-right on the set up to turn six and carry more speed in to seven than you think at first. You want enough speed so that you don’t have to come off the brakes to make turn in to turn 7.
- Go deeper into turn 7 and trail-brake to get the car to start to rotate. Get on the gas as soon as you’re pointed at the apex. Your best chance to pass is coming out of turn 4 and turn 7. Stay to the left, check gauges and relax. Rinse and repeat.
Clockwise:
- Exiting the pits, stay off-line through turn 7 until you’re sure no one is closing rapidly on you. Turn six is a throw-away in this direction.
- Go deep into turn 5. Use all of the road to the left. Trail-brake when comfortable with speed. Since you’ll be heading up hill out of 5, you can carry more speed than you think. Look through the apex to track-out. Stay off of the apron.
- Tap the brakes to settle the car to turn-in to turn 4. Stay further to the left on turn in and try to straight line the braking zone and make it parallel to the dirt patch at the start of the curb.
- Trail-brake to rotate into turn 3. The braking is hard-medium-hard. Try to straighten out to set up entry into turn 2.
- Straight-line turn 2 as much as possible but don’t ride the curbs. Don’t go all the way to the right to set up for turn-in to turn 1.
- In this direction, turn 1 takes patience, especially in the wet. There isn’t much grip in the dry and you have to be patient. Get the car to turn, get to the apex then get on the power. Turn in too early or power on too early and you’ll have to lift on exit. Your best chance to pass is coming out of 1. Pass on the left.
- Turn 7 is a double-apex with no grip in the middle. There is good grip at the turn-in and about 3/4 of the way through. Hit the first apex, drift out to the middle but hold a steady arc, and come back in to the second apex and that sets you up for turn six. Get the arc right and you’re on full throttle as soon as you’ve made it through the slippery part mid turn. There will be puddles at the second apex in 7 and at the apex in 5 when it rains. Turn 5 has the most grip in the wet. Don’t use it to judge the rest of the track.
Some notes on car set-up:
- I ran F39/R36 lbs cold pressure. This got me 41/38 hot and even temps across all four tires. The outside tires take much more of a beating on this track, but the fact that you can change direction and run both ways really helps with tire wear.
- Tire temps were much closer front to rear than in the past. I take that as a sign that I’m working the rear tires harder and getting the car to rotate more. Some of that is probably due to the increase in front downforce from the splitter. Some (hopefully) from better driving and more trail-braking.
- By effectively doubling my track miles and the increase in speed with the move up to A group, I’m going through a set of brake pads in the weekend. Rotor temps were as high as 650 degrees in the front. I’ve opened up the front to try to get more air in to the wheel well, but I’m going to need to go to a higher temp pad next time. I didn’t notice a lot of fade, but I used 80% of the pad in three days. The once green pad plates look like they’ve been sitting in the gas grill for a while.
- I am going to have to get a RWD car if I ever want to graduate from the skid-pad though. There’s just no way to sustain oversteer as long as they require for the program.
MINI Front Splitter DIY
I’ve been thinking about making my own front splitter ever since I read this article in Special Projects Motorsports. This got me thinking that a good splitter should be: a). disposable and b). cheap. I then came across this thread about building your own splitter for the MINI. So I got the template and set about to make a splitter out of (mostly) found materials.
Here’s how I made it:
Start with this template.
Rough out the splitter out of light-weight plywood or ABS plastic. I used some spare under-layment that I sandwiched together with some waterproof glue. Cost: $3 for the glue.
Next I covered it in some resin and fiberglass I had from a previous project. Then I sanded it smooth. Cost: $0.00.
When the resin was dry, I used some automotive spray paint to paint it black and then cover with clearcoat. Cost: $0.00.
Since you have to think of the splitter as disposable (and your bumper cover not) I wanted the mount to support the load forces to be applied, but break away under shear force. I made some T-brackets out of spare metal stock and connected the splitter with snow-blower shear-bolts. Cost: $3.50 for the bolts.
At this point, the mount was strong enough for highway speeds, but it still had quite a bit of flex. It certainly wouldn’t be good enough for track speeds. I ordered some slick splitter turnbuckles, but they won’t be available in time for the track this weekend, so again I headed back to the hardware store.
This took some creativity to piece together. I started with a turnbuckle used to support a sagging gate. I replaced one end with an eye bolt. I attached it to another eye bolt attached to the splitter. At the other end of the turnbuckle, I heated and shaped the rod to form two 90-degree angles like a zig-zag and I cut it off about 6 inches from the threaded end. I drilled a hole in the bumper and threaded the zig-zag end like you do a tool hook in a peg-board — if that makes sense. Once I put tension on the turnbuckle, it pulled out the gap under the chin spoiler and would now support my weight when I tried to stand on it. The pair formed the most expensive parts of this whole project. Cost: $27.
Total Cost: $33.50 (and the better part of a 4-day weekend.) Now that I have the template, I’m going to work up a couple of spares.
Quaife & New Tune
I finally saved enough to get a limited slip differential installed at Behe Performance. Here’s what it looked like the day after I dropped it off:
I was able to get the Quaife LSD through a great group buy on NAM. The price was almost $700 less than I’ve seen it listed at some (unnamed) major online catalogs.
In the past week I’ve had the pulley belt replaced; control arm bushings replaced (boy were they shot); and the oil pan gasket replaced. Along with the Quaife and dyno tune, I’m getting the shifter cables replaced and a new clutch. I should be good for another 90K miles….
John’s tuning work is really impressive. He was able to get almost an additional 10 horsepower over my previous (non-custom) tune from MTH. That brings the total to 197 hp at the wheels on a relatively humid day, no less. More impressive, however, is the increase in low-end torque. Peak Torque is now almost 167 ft lbs, with 166 ft lbs at 3250 RPM. This with no work to date on the head or header. On average it’s about an 8 percent horsepower gain, and 9% torque gain over the MTH “tuner file” tune, (that’s an incremental gain over a fairly strong tune to start with.) John’s tune (with pulley / intake / exhaust) gives me a 23 percent increase in torque and a whopping 32 percent increase in horsepower over stock. More power, ho-ho-ho.
Test Drive: R56 Cooper S Automatic
The car is a R56 2008 Cooper S Automatic. The color is Sparkling Silver, not my favorite, but not as bad as most of the press has made it out to be. It seems like a color that belongs on a Camry, not a MINI, but it sort of fits a theme: the Camryzation of MINI.
I should put my review in context: My car is a 2004 Cooper S (R53). It started with the Sport Suspension to which I added stiffer springs, camber plates, and a beefier rear sway bar. The net result is a car with almost no body roll. Contrary to popular belief, none of my passengers has (yet) lost a filling riding in my car, but the ride might be considered harsh. I consider it properly sporting. (I like that phrase, I’ll have to use it again elsewhere.) The supercharger screams like the dickens at red line; and the Alta exhaust has a throaty growl without drone. To ride in my car is quite a visceral experience. Most of these characteristics where present to a lesser degree before modifications were made — and now they’re gone from this new car.
The Specs. This car has over 10,000 miles on it, so it’s been in the loaner fleet a while. It’s titled so there isn’t a spec sheet in the window, but a quick comparison to the MINI configurator, puts the car out the door at about $25,000. For that you get a Cooper S; Convenience Package; Winter Package; dual pane sunroof; automatic transmission with Agitronic paddle shifters.
To start the car, first insert the key fob thing into the slot and press start. I’m not clear on how this is more convenient than having an honest-to-goodness key, but my nine year-old daughter got a real kick out of pushing the start button so at least someone appreciates it. That got me to wondering: how do you get into this car when the battery is completely dead? There must be a real key somewhere. (No manual in the glove box either.)
The interior is a mixed bag. The seats are much wider and don’t have as much lateral support as the old ones. I suppose this is to compensate for the ever widening Arses of Americans. The interior is more spacious — I noticed I no longer hit the pillar with the knee of my right leg. The back seats have more legroom as well. Driving position and visibility are good. There’s even room for two decent sized cups in the cup holders.
The redesigned center-stack seems like a half-baked concept you’d see from a school of design. The speedo is over-the-top large and the radio/computer controls are not intuitive. Most of the other controls are more or less where you expect them, except the turn indicator lever. All I want in a turn indicator is for it to click and stay on until I complete my turn. I’m not sure what this thing was doing, but it wasn’t what I wanted.
From the exterior, 90% of the population probably cannot tell the new and old cars apart unless they were parked right next to each other. The new car is like that cousin you have that looks just like you; only 20 pounds heavier. The higher hoodline for pedestrian safety has lead to a higher hip line. Those hips are also a bit wider. BMW designers saved some money by not including curved side glass and have added a bit of an aero flare to the C-pillar to deflect the air moving around the side of the car to the back.
The front end is also an evolution, though the factory hood scoop is vestigial now. The boot seems about the same, though the cargo nets are interesting.
The Agitronic paddle shifters provide a fun diversion while driving. Shifting is smooth if somewhat delayed, but you quickly learn to anticipate and shift a moment sooner than you would manually. If you come to a complete stop and forget to downshift, it will drop back into second for when you pull away again. Hit the “sport†button near the main shift lever and your shift points and throttle response change for the better. The electronic display at the bottom of the tachometer lets you know what gear you are in and if you are in manual or automatic shift mode.
The ride is very compliant. On the interstate, I’d say this is a big improvement over the previous generation. When you get to the twisty bits, there is quite a bit more body roll than the old car. I didn’t feel as connected to the road or that I was getting as much feedback through the steering wheel. Hit the gas at the apex and you get lots of torque steer. Braking seems improved over stock. The suspension is still biased toward understeer, but it’s manageable.
The engine has an amazing amount of torque from very low RPMs. (I’d like to take this engine and drop it in an old E30 318is if it weren’t driving the wrong end of the car.) It might even have too much torque. Torque-steer is much more pronounced than the old car. I found myself starting out in sport mode using the paddle shifters and once I was cruising on the interstate, I’d shift over to D and turn off sport mode. The car would shift into 6th and still have enough grunt to accelerate when needed. Interior cabin noise is low.
It was while I was playing with the paddle shifters (and tried unsuccessfully for the fourth time to turn down the radio) that I realized who they created this car for: It isn’t for the sports car enthusiast, it’s for the great motoring masses. It’s for the 95% of the population who want a transportation appliance, but want to have some fun with it. They want a Camry (reliability, build-quality, convenience features, comfort) but they want paddle shifters. They don’t want a Scion because they aren’t twenty-somethings.
As a commuter car that’s fun to drive, this car gets high marks. As a premium sports-car that gets good gas mileage, I’d have to say look elsewhere. It maintains some of those go-cart characteristics that made the original new MINI so much fun, but this is no longer a hang-on-for-dear-life go-cart ride. This is one of those safe-for-all-ages de-tuned go-carts the kind that has those bumpers that go all the way around.
NCC BMW CCA HPDE Summit Point 03.18.08
The new driving season got off to a very good start this past weekend. I participated in the Spring driver’s school with the NCC Chapter BMW CCA at Summit Point, WV. It was my first time in the fastest run group (Group A) and first weekend in the instructor training program. By the end of the weekend, I was holding my own in the run group, but it was a big step up in the beginning.
Since they repaved the main circuit last Fall, it’s a fundamentally different road course — tons of grip and much smoother, but devoid of many visual cues to help with turn-in points and brake markers. They also paved over most of the aprons so there’s very little warning before you run out of road. For me lap times were down almost 10 seconds. About half of that is due to the paving along. Hopefully some of the rest is due to improvements in driving.
Here’s what I need to remember next time I go back so (hopefully) I can pick up where I left off:
- Main Straight. Relax. Check gauges. Remember to tap brakes during the first lap out of the pits. Stay to the right after pit out; left when at speed. Don’t get too close to the left edge due to strong cross winds. Watch for deer. Shift into 5th before the pit out. Top Speed about 120 mph right before the braking zone.
- Turn 1. Brake at about 200 foot mark. Corner entry speed is about 50 mph. Go deep and turn past 90 degrees by the apex. Apex is very late. Look for seam in pavement past the red and white apron. Let the car unwind into turn 2. Don’t think of turns 1 & 2 being a 180 degree turn. It’s more like a 130 degree turn followed by a 50 degree turn.
- Turn 2. Let the car drift toward the dirt past the exit road. Shift into 4th. Line up toward the flagging station at turn 3. Stay to the right of the straight after the turn. Stay on the gas until reaching the braking point for turn 3.
- Turn 3. Fast lefthander. Turn in point is between the two access roads. Look through the apex and turn in when it lines up with the exit point which is in the right kink before the gravel trap. Steady gas through the apex. 70-75 mph in the corner.
- Turn 4. Act of faith. Crest the hill leading into turn 4 around 85 mph. Don’t tap the brakes. May have to lift to get the car pointing toward the apex. Steady gas through the apex. Gas up to braking point, then hard on the brakes. Downshift into 3rd. Trail brake if needed to get tight into turn 5. There’s more grip than you think after turn 4.
- Turn 5. Tight apex. Get left front wheel into the slot between new and old pavement. Let car push to the outside after the apex under steady gas. Then hard on the gas and brake hard in a straight line before turn 6.
- Turn 6. Tight apex and let car drift all the way to the other side of the track. Steady gas. Point car toward the silo.
- Turn 7. May have to lift to get the car tucked into the apex, but have to get the right line or else will blow 8 and 9. Steady gas. Shift into 4th as the car transitions right to left. Steady tire noise.
- Turn 8. Watch for standing water on the left. Steady gas. Set-up for 9. Smooth transition.
- Turn 9. Watch for mud on the inside. Steady gas. Let the car drift out, but in the damp don’t drift too far to the left. The left is off-camber and will throw you off track if you lift. Line up to cross under the bridge on the right third of the road. Steady gas to the top of the hill, will be on the rev limiter in 4th gear, but don’t shift. Top speed 100 mph.
- Turn 10. Watch for water at the braking zone and turn-in. Light on the brakes in the dry. Slow car to 70 for the turn-in. Look for scallop in paving on the left, that’s the turn in point. Full gas through the apex and stay on it. Let the car drift out to the exit and stay on full gas to the braking point for turn 1.
- Rinse & repeat.
