Buttonwillow Track Day Dec 29th!, GTR Owners READ THIS if you want to get on the track. Options

[illpayne]

going to buttonwillow

can someone embed this please

This post has been edited by illpayne: Jan 1 2009, 08:46 PM

[Kunani]

[Sharif@Forged]

Once again...fabulous pics, vids, and commentary.

We are working on a Nagtroc East Coast track event, and thankfully, you guys have set the bar SKY HIGH! Either VIR or Road Atlanta.

[Neoseven]

Glad to see all of these great pictures and video of the event. Thanks to everyone again for the great participation, and to all of the talented photographers out there. I am seeing some incredible shots. That one with Jon drifting in the dirt off the carousel is classic, although I am sure he didn't intend to do that.

I still have several more in car videos to go through. I also have data files from my Racelogic with track times, including a 1:57.7, several 1:58's and a 1:59. Of course most of the laps where in the 2:03 to 2:04 range, especially as the day wore on a fatigue set in. I am going to take the time on the long flight to Toyko to try to figure out how to tie the Racelogic data in with the corresponding video, if I can find which video lap goes with which data file.

Again though, great event. Can't wait till the next one.

Kunani: no making fun of my jack holding prowess.

[Kunani]

Congrats on your sub 2 minute times! I know you wanted to hit that!

I know none of my personal times were even close to that, I look forward to trying on round 2. Next time I'll prewire and test all my traqmate and video cam toys before I goto the track!

BTW John check your email, I sent you a YT link.

[Neoseven]

Congrats on your sub 2 minute times! I know you wanted to hit that!

I know none of my personal times were even close to that, I look forward to trying on round 2. Next time I'll prewire and test all my traqmate and video cam toys before I goto the track!

BTW John check your email, I sent you a YT link.

I only dipped below two minutes twice it looks like, once early morning before we remembered to set the Racelogic to lap timing (that one was timed by someone else the track side), and once shortly later in the day, that one caught by the lap timer and data logged. That was the goal though, to see if a GT-R without power mods, on stock street tires could really go under 2:00 on 13CW, and it was proven without a doubt. Andrew Gillis is the one who was able to go sub 2:00 consistently. He is the one who set the 1:57.7 time which is a full second faster than my best, that lap was also data logged.

I'll have to wait till I'm at the work computer to check that link you sent.

This post has been edited by Neoseven: Jan 2 2009, 03:14 PM

[illpayne]

Andrew Gillis driving my car



This post has been edited by Chuck_H: Jan 2 2009, 02:48 PM

[Kunani]

This post has been edited by Kunani: Jan 2 2009, 06:38 PM

[prov1]

you guys are fantastic

thanks for sharing

as Sharif says lets hope the east coast can do the same

[Greg S.]

I drove that track, and I learned more from this clip than I did in the seat.

Nicely done, Darin.

(Payne's clip before yours was cool, too, esp since it featured me drinking "courage" water at the head end.)

[LeeD]

Congratulations on the the awesome event!

That Traqmate sure is pretty to the eyes. Not like some of the other data collection and overlaying equipment I've seen.

[Neoseven]

Following big bird. Nice driving James.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3fGuyMP1OM

This post has been edited by Neoseven: Jan 2 2009, 11:45 PM

[Kunani]

I drove that track, and I learned more from this clip than I did in the seat.

Nicely done, Darin.

(Payne's clip before yours was cool, too, esp since it featured me drinking "courage" water at the head end.)

Yeah I learned a lot too! LOL! Gary was amazingly consistent. I had a hard time matching video to data. I also forgot to plug in the tach line. Next round I'm mounting it all before track day!

The software is really slick, seeing the speed and the line on the side of the car is really going to help optimize next round at this track!

[Kunani]

Following big bird. Nice driving James.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3fGuyMP1OM

James is a really good driver, much respect to you and James. I'm excited for round 2 here!

[mcm]

Can any of the attendees comment on what modifications helped the most on this track? Where were the guys with the downforce, or fuel, or tires, or suspension bits, brakes, etc, doing significantly better?

What was the endurance of consumables (brakes, tires) like?

I like the look of that wing on a few of the cars shown, I think it balances out the car's body a lot better than the stock wing from an aesthetic perspective.

Lastly, what is the general consensus from those who attended on Millen's 1:56 effort in a stock car during spring last year?

[gp900bj]

Can any of the attendees comment on what modifications helped the most on this track? Where were the guys with the downforce, or fuel, or tires, or suspension bits, brakes, etc, doing significantly better?

What was the endurance of consumables (brakes, tires) like?

I like the look of that wing on a few of the cars shown, I think it balances out the car's body a lot better than the stock wing from an aesthetic perspective.

Lastly, what is the general consensus from those who attended on Millen's 1:56 effort in a stock car during spring last year?

I know at least one car saw a 1:57.7 with no power mods except an exhaust and using factory Dunlops.

That's about 0.8s behind Millen's 1:56.9, it's definitely achievable.

This post has been edited by gp900bj: Jan 3 2009, 12:27 AM

[Kunani]

Can any of the attendees comment on what modifications helped the most on this track? Where were the guys with the downforce, or fuel, or tires, or suspension bits, brakes, etc, doing significantly better?

What was the endurance of consumables (brakes, tires) like?

I like the look of that wing on a few of the cars shown, I think it balances out the car's body a lot better than the stock wing from an aesthetic perspective.

Lastly, what is the general consensus from those who attended on Millen's 1:56 effort in a stock car during spring last year?

I think the upgraded aero on Big Bird, Neos, and My car helps, no doubt in my mind. With the new settings we were using and having the wing lock down after a certain speed I can tell the car is much faster. In some of the video you can see my car pulling away once it got up to speed.

Cobb also did a custom 100 octane map for me, it performed amazingly and the car stayed cool all day. I'm even guessing that somehow the aero mods on my car both front and back and helping with cooling as we did not experience braking issues or transmission heat issues. I was keeping an eye on my trans temp and never went past 230ish after the hardest runs.

Neo has custom brake ducting and he noticed significant decrease in heat from last time he was at the track (By the way, Neos brakes are wild, its like an air brake, it just stops the car!).

My Yokohamas didnt stick as well as I was hoping but still managed 2 minute lap times with Gary in the seat.

I think I went through 3 tanks of gas total on the track...

From watching the cars that day, I can tell you for sure that the current record will be beat next time we hit that track, no doubt in my mind... and it should be beat considerably.

This post has been edited by Kunani: Jan 3 2009, 12:45 AM

[Neoseven]

Can any of the attendees comment on what modifications helped the most on this track? Where were the guys with the downforce, or fuel, or tires, or suspension bits, brakes, etc, doing significantly better?

What was the endurance of consumables (brakes, tires) like?

I like the look of that wing on a few of the cars shown, I think it balances out the car's body a lot better than the stock wing from an aesthetic perspective.

Lastly, what is the general consensus from those who attended on Millen's 1:56 effort in a stock car during spring last year?

The GT-R, right out of the box, just as it is delivered from Nissan is a superb handling track car. As we all know, it likes to push but this is a road car, not a full out race car. Nissan had to set this up to keep people on the road. If you just intend to do a casual, one or two a year track day and want to daily drive your car etc. I don't know if I could suggest modifying anything. Keep it the way it is and enjoy it. The more you orient the car towards the track, the more you are going to dislike it as a daily driver.

Now, if you are going for a track beast. Modifications that I see helping this car for the track, if you intend to run stock tires, start with the suspension and lower it. It's too soft stock and there is not enough dampening control. We all know the car pushes bad. Increasing negative camber did help this as well as running stiffer springs. Even better, full coilovers which is next for my car. Another aid to eliminate that push is going to be stiffer sway bars. Adding downforce doesn't hurt anything, and can only help. Even with increased downforce front and rear on my car, it still gets extremely light coming into Bus Stop.

Power mods, well I haven't done them yet, but cars like Kunani's and James, I get the feeling, no I can tell in the straights they are pulling an additional 50-100hp on me. It's noticeable. I can say, as fast as the car is, I wouldn't mind a little more juice down the front straight on this track or coming out of the esses. I am going to be looking closely at what Turbo kits are available at TAS this year.

Get a Harness bar (or even a half cage) and a good set of harnesses to secure yourself into the seat. This car spends a lot of time on the track subjecting you to high lateral g's. May as well be comfortably and securely strapped in to enjoy it.

Stock brakes when the car is pushed hard start to fade at about 4-5 laps in. Start with ducting to increase cooling and that should improve the stock brakes. Stock Bridgestones tend to get slippery as they go past there peak temp range in about 4-5 laps as well. If you don't want to install ducting, you could push hard for four laps, then do a cool down lap, then push again. This will give both the brakes and tires a chance to cool. The Dunlops are good for about twice this number of laps before they start getting slippery on you.

The stock pads have fairly decent life in them. Stock rotors started to crack after about 5 track days and 12,000 miles, but even so, there was still decent life in the pads. That really isn't bad considering what I put those stock brakes through. One thing I noted on the stock pads, even though they still had decent life, they were starting to loose small chucks of material which I noticed when I changed them out to the Carbotech pads.

The stock Dunlops have better traction and are good for faster laps, this has been mentioned a few times. They also have correspondingly shorter life in them. Equal use on both Dunlops and Brigestones, and the Dunlops show twice the wear.

I got bout 10,000 miles out of the stock Bridgestones but once I started tracking the car, and really, once I started really pushing the car, tire life became very short. Fresh Dunlops from this track day at Buttonwillow are half gone. Fresh Bridgestones from this trackday at Buttonwillow are 1/4 gone.

I can bet Millen's 1:56 was done on the Dunlops. That is a fully obtainable time for a stock GT-R on the stock Dunlops, just takes a good driver and practice on the track to get there. Unlike you previously believed about this car, it does not drive itself. It is a very capable car, but you still have to take the time to learn it and how it drives.

All of my laps were done in triple R mode. VDC off was not required, although I can't help but wonder if it's faster with VDC off.

I predict a new track record on Buttonwillow this year.

[Neoseven]

James is a really good driver, much respect to you and James. I'm excited for round 2 here!

Your not kidding about James, he's fast. At this point, he has me beat as he was much more consistent from what I was seeing, consistently faster. He really needed the Dunlops. Can't wait to see how much we can improve next time out now that we have all had some practice on this track.

[gp900bj]

Here's a vid of Millen's BW13 lap with his commentary, it starts at about 6:20.

It'd make for an interesting comparison now that you guys have actually
been out there and experienced the track first hand with your own mods etc.