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Early Spring Track Days
In between early Spring snow squalls, GeorgeCo found some time to go to the track with the local Audi club. They needed someone to instruct on the skid pad, and GeorgeCo always needs more track time. Win-win.
With temperatures in the 40s and the GeorgeCo Porsche still wearing all-season Conti tires, we weren’t out to set any lap records. This was all about shaking the cobwebs and making sure the car is running well. The track temperature was very similar to the last day at the track last November. The work to clean our the radiators resulted in lower operating temperatures by about 10 degrees. Oil pressure was consistent, and the car is handling well, even if the suspension is a bit tired.
I’m still working on the ideal camera placement. I like having the camera between the front seats like in the MINI, but in the Porsche, that’s not an option. I tried it mounted to the windshield but that’s too far forward and between the rear seats, but the lens is too wide.
On the skid pad, I attached the camera to a cone and tried putting it on the passenger window. The telematics system doesn’t know what to do with the loss of traction. The revs and the gear indicator go nuts in the video.
Low Cost Video Telemetry Solution
GeorgeCo was at the track again mid-November for the NCC BMW CCA Fall HPDE at Summit Point Motorsports Park. GeorgeCo drove the MINI on Friday/Sunday and the Porsche Saturday in between. This was GeorgeCo’s first drive of the Porsche at the track. The car is larger and heaver than the MINI, but really accelerates well out of the corners, even on the not-so-grippy full-tread summer tires that came on the car. We still have some issues to sort out, but the car is progressing nicely. More on that later. First the MINI.
We’ve been working on a (relatively) low-cost video telemetry system and have finally worked most of the bugs out of our set-up. The video above uses an iPhone 4, Optrix-HD iPhone Mount, Harry’s LapTimer software, External GPS sensor, and a PLX-Devices data-interface. The iPhone is used for video capture and accelerometer function. It captures OBD-II data from the PLX-Devices Kiwi WiFi and combines it with 1 meter accurate GPS data from the external GPS device via Bluetooth. Ho, ho-ho, ho…. The iPhone does the post-processing and overlays all of the data on the video. In this video, I’m tracking down my friend John who is in the red E30 which is prepared very similarly to the old GeorgeCo E30. I like this video because you can see the driver’s hands, whether he’s looking ahead into the corners, and the telemetry shows revs as well as how much of the lap is spent on full throttle (less so in traffic.) I need to work on getting a brake sensor.
The second video was filmed in the Porsche 996 Carrera using a ReplayXD camera mounted on the sunvisor. This is an example of how you can combine video from external sources. The initial video was exported to an iMac and then uploaded to the iPhone via iTunes. It was then imported to LaptimerPro for overlay with Laptimer data. We didn’t have the OBD-II data connection working on this day, so the only data sources were the accelerometer and external GPS. The key to this process is to find the key video frame at the end of the timed lap so LaptimerPro can match the data-stream correctly. In this video, the Porsche is on Summer Street Tires which have no grip on the cooling track.
This third video shows the value of video as a learning aid. I followed my friend (and newly minted instructor) Dave for a few laps. He eventually went off in turn 1 when his tires gave out, got a nice mud bath, then almost went into a tank-slapper when he came back on. Fortunately he got his act together and we had some distance between us. The final shows what it must have felt like from his point of view…
NCC BMW CCA HPDE Summit Point, September 2012
I can tell you exactly when summer ended this year. It was at 3:23 PM on September 8th when this photo was taken. Friday at the track was hot and humid. Saturday was miserable, wet, and wonderful. And Sunday was a gorgeous autumn day.
There were some really cool cars at this event, including this beautiful blue Ferrari 458 Italia seen below. It was good to see that the owner of this car a.) drove it to the event; b.) drove it at the event; and c.) drove it home. The previous owner drove this car only 750 miles in two years of ownership. The current owner drove more than 3,000 miles just bringing it home after purchasing it. I never really appreciated the styling of the 458 until we got out on the track. Even at 100 MPH, we were able to have a conversation with the windows down. That says something for aero efficiency. (You listening MINI?)
The inside even smells good. It smells like that brand-new baseball glove you got when you were a kid. The one you put a ball in and slept with it under your pillow to break it in. (OK maybe not everyone has that memory….) I took some video from my helmet cam as we lapped the course. I was fascinated by the speed of the gear changes and the great display graphics that emulate analog gauges. Unfortunately, you can’t see the gauges very well in the video.
If you look just about 6 inches to the left of the “458 Italia” logo there’s a depression in the leather. It is sort of forehead shaped. That got me wondering about the survival rate of previous passengers. This car accelerates so quickly, just holding my head off of the headrest gave my core a workout.
The GeorgeCo MINI powered by Beano was of course in action as well. In this photo, it’s powering through turn 7. The suspension work paid off and the car was very well balanced, level, and had tons of grip, even in the rain.
The telemetry system is still a work on progress. The GPS is not very accurate with the iPhone in its current position so the track map is all over the place. (It looks like I’m taking a grand tour of Delaware.) The corner and straight speed indicators seem to be off too when you compare them to the large central speedo. G meter, throttle position, and RPM seem to be working, but the gear indicator doesn’t seem to go above 3rd. So there’s some work to be done, but the technology is cool. Fast forward to the session time of about 11:50 and again at 13:17 and you’ll see why we spend so much time on the skid pad in this program.
In case you had $229 to $295K sitting around and were wondering what you would get for your money. The answer is at least 3 seconds a lap. That’s the difference in two laps chosen at random from my video of this past weekend. Both were on Friday as we refamiliarized ourselves with the track. The only difference is that in my case, I’m pushing the MINI about as hard as I’m willing to go. There’s a little bit left, but not much. The Ferrari is going maybe 6/10ths on the straights. Alternately, you could take $13-$27K, buy yourself a low mileage 2006 MINI Cooper S, and buy a house with the rest. Just saying.
If you can start the two videos at the same time, they both start at the same point on the track. You want to have the sound playing on the Ferrari video however. (I’m working on editing them into one feed that shows both side-by-side but haven’t figured that out yet.)
All Autumn in a Day
Somebody must have hit the fast forward button on Autumn. We had our first winter snow storm yesterday — much too early in the season. It was a great day to get caught up on watching movies, sorting photos, and editing videos. Much has been happening at GeorgeCo in the last three months. Let’s get caught up.
Labor Day weekend brought the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. (Click the photo above for the complete set.) The three days of racing got off to a slow start as the track was about half a day late opening up to practice, but once it did open, Balmer put on an excellent show. Crowds were strong all three days and the racing was solid. The local BMW club had a hospitality tent and a car corral which proved great fun and also gave GeorgeCo an audience to advertise the GeorgeCo E30 powered by Beano for sale. GeorgeCo even got to meet Bobby Rahal (he signed my hat.)
At the end of the day, we even got to drive the track. (GeorgeCo thought he was in a traffic jam to leave. Much to his surprise, traffic turned left instead of right, and we found ourselves on the track.) Pratt Street was bumpy at parade-lap speed, I couldn’t imagine what it was like at 185 MPH.
The beginning of October brought the final NCC BMW CCA Drivers’ School of the year. This time we were on the Jefferson Circuit. Rain turned most of the driving into one big skidpad exercise. But even at super low speeds with no grip, the Jefferson is tons of fun. Mid-day on the last day, the sun came out for a while and we got to take the new GeorgeCo MINI out for a spin. The video below shows the GeorgeCo MINI wearing regular old street tires, chasing down a certain Red M36. I still haven’t mastered getting the helmet-cam on straight, but this video is better than most.
The big news of the month, however, has to be that the GeorgeCo E30 Powered by Beano has been sold. The buyer is an enthusiastic autocrosser who will give it a good home and the attention it deserves. Scuderia GeorgeCo has now gone from a high of five cars, down to a more reasonable three.
NCC BMW CCA HPDE Summit Point, August 2011
After a bit of a summer break, GeorgeCo was back at the track with the National Capital Chapter of BMW Car Club of America to instruct for 3 days at the Summit Point Main Circuit August 5-7, 2011. We ran the GeorgeCo E30 Powered by Beano on Friday and the GeorgeCo Blue MINI on Saturday and Sunday. I had two students this time out. My A Group Student was in an E36 M3 and my B Group Student was in an E30 much like mine. Both accomplished GeorgeCo’s Objectives for any Drivers’ School: 1–Have fun. 2–Learn Something. 3–Return home with your ego and your car undamaged.
The MINI is sporting a couple of new mods designed to improve brake cooling and reduce flex under braking. For the brake cooling we took a trip to the local Ace Hardware to get some ducting. Having previously removed the fog lights from the bumper cover and cut a hole in the wheel liners, we connected the two with some ducting to improve air-flow behind the wheels. At the Shenandoah in similar weather in June we saw brake caliper temps in excess of 650 degrees. This weekend, temps stayed below 600. Tough to say if it was from the improved ducting or just the differences in the two tracks, but $15 for a little insurance is well worth it. To firm up the chassis you will notice the red convertible chassis braces in the photo above. Not seen is the lower stress brace that reinforces the link between the sub-frame and frame. This was on sale a few months back so we snapped one up. Install is dead easy and can be done in about 10 minutes.
We got a break in the harsh summer weather we’ve been having here in the Mid-Atlantic and took full advantage of it with 3 glorious days at the track. We had a bit of rain on Saturday afternoon which spiced things up a bit as seen in this first video.
But once we came to grips with the lack of traction on the transitions to the patches, lap times dropped down to within a couple of seconds of our times in the dry. After the rain, the track never had the same level of grip as it did on Friday, but it did give us a chance to try out a new camera angle with the GeorgeCo RePlayXD camera.
We’re also still perfecting the Helmet-cam, but this video gives you bit of an idea of what is meant by keeping your eyes ahead of your hands. Watch for the head to turn before the turn-in point in the corners.
