Will_s Night Blue GTI daily turned track build

[Will_]

Nice driving, fun read! Want to know what the rest of the story was with the hybrid Camry. Lol

Idk, from what I was told from people watching in the pits, he was just going really slow all day. I lapped him each session and generally he was not only slow but kinda all over the place. Didn’t even give me a point by on the main straight at one point, like wtf dude. He makes an appearance in one of the “lowlight” clips above.

For the record, usually I don’t care about people tracking slow cars, but when there are so many cars on track and you’re consistently holding up everyone it really kills the session, not to mention how dangerous it is.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Your driving looks good to me. I have about 100 laps at LS now. I'm far from an expert, but here's my input.

Line up as early as possible. I try to get there 15 minutes early. If there's someone who is clearly faster than you line up behind them or let them by on the warm up lap.

Hug the left side from the start bridge to the green paint at turn 1. Don't lift. Yes it's a little scary at first.
On turn 2 I try to be about 1/3 from the right edge, brake hard at the 3 and then really try to double apex.
On the Corkscrew turn in later so you're taking a straighter line through the corners
Read this for 9: https://rennlist.com/forums/attachm...-spin-laguna-seca-laguna-seca-turn-9-sbrs.pdf

My advice is worth exactly what you paid for it, but there it is.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Slow cars are fine as long as the drivers are courteous. The biggest issue is people not paying attention to what's going on around them or driving erratically.

For the record, usually I don’t care about people tracking slow cars, but when there are so many cars on track and you’re consistently holding up everyone it really kills the session, not to mention how dangerous it is.

 

[Will_]

Track day at Thunderhill East on Saturday. Conditions were pretty tough as it was over 100F the whole day and very smoky from some nearby fires. This was my first time running the east course (3 miles), I've only run the 5 mile east/west combo before, which omits a section of the east course.

I ran in the Novice group, as such the first two sessions were lead-follow and quite boring. Thankfully I will be in point-by group from here on out. There were 5 sessions for the day but I only ran 4, as I had about a 2.5 hour gap between session 4 & 5 and temperatures were approaching 110F.

Session 3 went pretty much as well as I could hope for. I was the first car out and didn't see a single person in my mirror until the last lap of the session. The only issue I had was with heat. Starting on lap three I felt a little heat soak, and my oil temps had reached 265. I backed off and ran around 80% for the rest of the session, trying to keep oil temps below 260. With the temperatures today I'm not sure if a bigger intercooler or oil cooler would've helped too much. On previous track days when it was 70-80F I had no heat soak or oil temp issues.

Session 4 was similarly good but I was in an M3 sandwich the whole time. I went out first but pointed by an E92 M3 after the first lap. He got caught behind an F80 M4 coming out of the pits late and I quickly caught both. The F80 M4 pointed the E92 M3 by but not me. Then, the F80 M4 proceeded to pass the E92 M3 on the front straight, only to have both of us catch him after the first two corners. In this time, ANOTHER white F80 M3 had caught up and was now waiting behind us. After a lap at good pace I was pushing to keep up when I got the white smoke of doom coming out of the twistiest section of the course. My oil temps were again surging north of 265F so I decided to back off and point the white M3 behind me by. The rest of the session was at 80% just managing temps. Good fun though. You can see the white smoke at about 50s in the below video:

Overall it was a good day, I thought the car held up pretty well despite the tough temperatures, and I was happy with my preparedness in getting out on course first so I could get some quality laps in. Tracking again in a month at Laguna Seca and hoping to put down some good times. Below is my best lap from the day.

Unfortunately the way home was a bit rough. I hit a nail on I-5 and got a flat tire for the second time in two months. As it was my front left tire, I had to swap the spare onto the back left and put the back left tire on the front in order to clear the brakes. Was like 110F out while I was doing this and felt like I was going to pass out. At least I had all my tools with me from the track.

Next up is 40k service this week. I've already ordered the newest revision (BL) of the PCV valve to try and remedy the oil surge issue. Should have that installed before next track day.

 

[Cliff]

Track day at Thunderhill East on Saturday. Conditions were pretty tough as it was over 100F the whole day and very smoky from some nearby fires. This was my first time running the east course (3 miles), I've only run the 5 mile east/west combo before, which omits a section of the east course.

T9 is my favorite turn at Thunderhill, and that's the turn you lose with the 5 mile configuration, along with a really fast run down the hill. If you haven't already figured it out, there is a water tower that becomes visible as you cross the ridge at T9 and that's your aim point. If you pull up a satellite view in Google maps you can see it just beyond the skidpad (and in a very small yellow highlighted oval in the screencap I attached).

I'll be heading up there a week from Thursday to do TH West with TNiA, which will be the first time I've been on the west side since 2014 when I did the 5 mile track with the BMWCCA. I hope it's a LOT less smoky than it was for you.

 

[tpellegr]

Track day at Thunderhill East on Saturday. Conditions were pretty tough as it was over 100F the whole day and very smoky from some nearby fires. This was my first time running the east course (3 miles), I've only run the 5 mile east/west combo before, which omits a section of the east course.

I ran in the Novice group, as such the first two sessions were lead-follow and quite boring. Thankfully I will be in point-by group from here on out. There were 5 sessions for the day but I only ran 4, as I had about a 2.5 hour gap between session 4 & 5 and temperatures were approaching 110F.

Session 3 went pretty much as well as I could hope for. I was the first car out and didn't see a single person in my mirror until the last lap of the session. The only issue I had was with heat. Starting on lap three I felt a little heat soak, and my oil temps had reached 265. I backed off and ran around 80% for the rest of the session, trying to keep oil temps below 260. With the temperatures today I'm not sure if a bigger intercooler or oil cooler would've helped too much. On previous track days when it was 70-80F I had no heat soak or oil temp issues.

Session 4 was similarly good but I was in an M3 sandwich the whole time. I went out first but pointed by an E92 M3 after the first lap. He got caught behind an F80 M4 coming out of the pits late and I quickly caught both. The F80 M4 pointed the E92 M3 by but not me. Then, the F80 M4 proceeded to pass the E92 M3 on the front straight, only to have both of us catch him after the first two corners. In this time, ANOTHER white F80 M3 had caught up and was now waiting behind us. After a lap at good pace I was pushing to keep up when I got the white smoke of doom coming out of the twistiest section of the course. My oil temps were again surging north of 265F so I decided to back off and point the white M3 behind me by. The rest of the session was at 80% just managing temps. Good fun though. You can see the white smoke at about 50s in the below video:

Overall it was a good day, I thought the car held up pretty well despite the tough temperatures, and I was happy with my preparedness in getting out on course first so I could get some quality laps in. Tracking again in a month at Laguna Seca and hoping to put down some good times. Below is my best lap from the day.

Unfortunately the way home was a bit rough. I hit a nail on I-5 and got a flat tire for the second time in two months. As it was my front left tire, I had to swap the spare onto the back left and put the back left tire on the front in order to clear the brakes. Was like 110F out while I was doing this and felt like I was going to pass out. At least I had all my tools with me from the track.

View attachment 185142


Next up is 40k service this week. I've always ordered the newest revision (BL) of the PCV valve to try and remedy the oil surge issue. Should have that installed before next track day.

Nice driving! That course looks awesome.

Bummer about the tire. You have some bad luck. Let us know how oil temps are with the new PCV. I'm planning to run the Spulen V2 catch can at some point to deal with the blow by.

 

[Will_]

Had the day off work so signed up on a whim for an autocross day with SpeedSF at Sonoma raceway. Unlike normal autocross, there was no timing, classes, schedule or really much organization at all. Course was mildly chalked and, as the organizer put it, "dynamic" (aka hit cones just become the new course unless it really gets in the way). The plus side of all of this was you could get a ton of runs in. I did 9 runs in under three hours and took several 20/30 minute breaks in that time. That was enough for me but had I stayed all day I probably would've gotten >25 runs.

Below are two of my better runs, although I felt like I was pretty unfocused and didn't really drive that well the whole day. I did notice that when there are no outer boundaries on the course it is difficult to choose the fastest line. On some corners I played around with going super wide or staying narrow, but hard to tell which was faster due to lack of timing. Also, apparently I peaked at 1.3Gs in some corners. Not sure if that's good or bad but seems high.

Helmet cam:

Gran Turismo roof cam w/ data:

 

[Will_]

Some more things to add this week. Picked up a set of Austin’s with new tires for winter use.

Need to grab some 15 and 20mm spacers to have a nice flush setup and clear the front brakes. I plan on selling the Enkeis and buying a 18x8.5 or 18x9 wheel, likely the coming Apex wheels, APR wheels or some Neuspeed’s. Not sure yet.

Also picked up secondhand an 034 Motorsports P34 intake. Installed today along with the “BL” revision PCV plate I recently got. The intake was just for fun but I’m hoping the BL plate resolves the smoke issues I had on track last time.

Next track day is in one week at Laguna Seca! I’ll probably call it quits for the season after that but may look for one more event, we’ll see.

 

[Diggs24]

Picked up a set of Austin’s with new tires for winter use.

 

[Will_]

One day they too may end up another Diggs refinishing project

 

[Diggs24]

Keep the faces clean this time, wouldja!

 

[Will_]

Track day at Laguna Seca yesterday. My second time at the track. I decided after my last track day here to set a goal of eventually beating Randy Pobst's 1'50.1" stock GTI time. I ALMOST got there today. My best lap was 1'50.32". I think my next time there I will go sub 1:50. I struggled to carry as much speed through T3 and T4 as I did my last time here. I think my tire pressures (32 cold all around) may have been slightly low. Last time I set everything at 34 cold and the car felt a bit more taught. On the upside, I felt I took better lines today and my braking was much improved. I also didn't have any white smoke/oil surge issues like my last track day, so looks like the BL PCV revision is doing it's job. Overall I'm very very happy with how the day went.

Videos below:

1. Helmet cam, 1'51.839"

2. Window view, 1'51.890"

Transponder confirmed 1'50.352" (GoPro died unfortunately)

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Your driving looks good.
I'm comparing your lap to my best here:

Don't brake so early for 2 and 5. Try to brake closer to the 3 marker.
Tighten up a little on 2. I shoot for just off the first apex and on the edge of the candy cane for the second.
You can carry a little more speed in 3, 4.
5 looks good.
You might be able to brake a little later into 6 but you got everything out of the corner and carried more speed than I did.
Maybe brake later into 7.
Corkscrew looked good to me.
9, 10 looks good. You carried more speed than I did.
11 looks good.

I think you can get into the 1:50.XX range with a little more practice.

We really should try to meet up at LS sometime. I'm taking a break for a with but I'll probably start back up in February or March.

 

[Will_]

Your driving looks good.
I'm comparing your lap to my best here:

Don't brake so early for 2 and 5. Try to brake closer to the 3 marker.
Tighten up a little on 2. I shoot for just off the first apex and on the edge of the candy cane for the second.
You can carry a little more speed in 3, 4.
5 looks good.
You might be able to brake a little later into 6 but you got everything out of the corner and carried more speed than I did.
Maybe brake later into 7.
Corkscrew looked good to me.
9, 10 looks good. You carried more speed than I did.
11 looks good.

I think you can get into the 1:50.XX range with a little more practice.

We really should try to meet up at LS sometime. I'm taking a break for a with but I'll probably start back up in February or March.

Appreciate the feedback. I was able to run a 1:50.352 in my final session doing a lot of what you recommended. Braking later into 2, 5 and 7/8 were the main areas I gained time. I also noticed that I wasn’t carrying a lot of speed through 3 and 4, which I’m not sure was just due to a lack of confidence or setup. I did have my tire pressures about 2psi lower than last time I was here and I swear it cost me like 2-3mph in those turns.

I am confident I can go sub 1:50 my next time out. I think the car honestly has 1:47 or 1:48 in it. Watching Randy Pobst’s 1:50.1 lap makes it look so easy.

I would be totally up for meeting at LS one day. I will keep you in mind next time i plan on going down there. I think I will only do 1 more track day this year though which will probably be Sonoma or Thunderhill. We’ll see though.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I missed that this video wasn't your PB lap. Picking up 1.5 seconds sounds about right.

Of course Randy makes it look easy. His PB is 20+ seconds faster than ours (~1:28.XXX). ;^)