Well I did a track day at Laguna on Monday, boy it was fun, here's all my rambling thoughts..
First off, previous time out I did a best of 1:55.33, this time my goal was get down to 1:53. Going into Monday the only 2 updates was changing from the APR Stage 1 tune for 87 octane to 91, and ditching the Ferodo DS2500 front pads to Hawk DTC-60's. First session of the day it was immediately clear that the brakes pads were going to be a big help, no overheating the compound at all, they just worked no matter what! During the first session I hit my goal for the day with a 1:52.17! After coming back in I bled off some air pressure as they were super high after getting hot first session and that's about it. Our second session was cut very short from a S2000 spinning off at turn 5 and into the wall, luckily driver and passenger were fine, and what looked to only be body damage to the car. For the rest of the day I was experimenting with lines and while I got a few more laps under 1:53, no better than the first session. As I got to grid for the last session, the organizers told us we would get a bonus session at the end of the day as we lost most of our second session due to the S2000 crash. I almost decided not to do that last 5th session, and almost decided against the 6th bonus session, but boy am I sure glad I did! As I started my first flying lap I immediately felt really dialed in, and with still cool tires my first lap was a just under 1:54, followed by 2 1:51.34's in a row! The next few laps I had traffic, till finally on the second to last lap everything clicked really well and I did a 1:50.55, which kinda surprised me, I was not expecting to improve this much that day!
See that 1:50.55 lap below.. As well as too much speed through turn 6 in the video after..
When I started down this track day path, my stretch goal was matching the 1:50.11 Randy Pobst did in a GTI w/Performance Pack and a DSG at Laguna, and while I certainly hope I don't like a overconfident ass, I actually feel pretty confident I can do it, and maybe even get into the 1:49's! As it stands now, I think I still have some time to gain in the turns 3 through 6. I think my line and speed through 3 could be improved, which setups up better for 4, I think my line through 4 is decent, but might be able to hold a bit more speed, same goes for turn 5. Turn 6 is a trippy one! This time out I started with turn in, then back to power before the dip and the apex, definitely helped, but my entry and speed through the turn could use work. That second video getting loose through turn 6, I unfortunately don't know how fast I was going as I went into the pits that lap and hit the "end session" button on the Garmin Catalyst, and data overlay doesn't save on your in lap. based on other laps and watching the video, At the point I lift off at about the 2 board, I usually am hitting about 86mph, then turn in around the 1 board, then back to gas. I think on that lap off track excursion, I didn't really lift at all and was probably low 80's at the apex. On a different lap earlier in the day, I turned in at 82mph, and held 78mph through the corner and used all of the run out to stay on track, whereas on my 1:50.55 lap, I was at 79mph at turn in and down to 72mph at the apex. I think after going off in the same corner I was being a little timid and if I can hold a bit more speed through there, that should help.
Setup wise, I think I've got a couple things I can try. When I was at Laguna in January, I had a slide in turn 3, which led me to think I needed to dial out some oversteer, which I attempted to do with tire pressure. This time out I think I've realized the slide in turn 3 was mostly a combo of a bad line, and too much speed for said line. I think next time I'm going to go from a touch more pressure in the front than the rear, to a touch more in the rear than the front, to see if that helps to get the car to rotate more. Before this time out, I'd gotten a OBD Eleven, and did some of their adaptations and now can actually turn stability off, though after this time out, it seems it's still interfering, and would pull power after the tiniest bit of a slide, which is super frustrating.. I don't know if I need to see about any long coding that will truly defeat it, or if I just have to resort to pulling an ABS fuse..
In case anyone was curious, this is what the RS4's look like after 3 track days and around 2000 miles of street driving
And how about a few photos on track..
