July 7th all day tracking at grand prix, no experience required.

I am really glad to hear the positive feedback for the day. I know Arnon, Chris, and I wanted to keep the day fast paced and moving. We have all been to track days were there was a LOT of waiting. Our goal was to get you maximum track time for your money. I've heard several people went home tired....GOOD! Goal accomplished. Would love to hear how people from the other forums, Lotus, Porsche, Honda felt about the day. Really wish I could have stayed longer, I was having fun too!!! Was rewarding to see drivers improving as the sessions went. Having Rick there was invaluable.
I really wonder what my car would do out there, some of those turns looked so tight, I am not sure my big car could make it around, maybe sideways:cool:
I enjoyed meeting everyone, hope it was fun for all.
Bill
 
Awesome Peter!!!:biggrin: wow! We should do more Lotus and NSX next time.

Big thanks to everyone who came out and play with me and Chris :biggrin:....Thanks for all the instructors and flag persons. Bill you are the right man for the job. :biggrin: Rick, you're the man...guys were still looking for you after you left. Between you and Brian, we managed help to a lot of people. Fowler(chairman) you have such great friends, we need to see them more often. Farran, please stay off the edge of the track..:tongue::biggrin:. Doc, thanks for coming out...you missed the new GTR drive. Dan, you caught up with Rick...whats up with that? We were going to put you in the first group you know :-) Do you guys agree w/me 'Jered' S2000 was the fastest guys yesterday??

All in all, we saw a LOT of big smiles. We shall have this type of event again soon.
Pictures...
http://marvinalone.com/gallery/v/washington/pacificgrandprix/2009-07-07/
 
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Didn't know this guy's (Dan) name but he did a great job as I was learning the limits of your car (overdriving it to find the limit) without completly spinning it out. He proved that being smooth is faster than sliding a car around kudos for him and another guy that will do well in road racing!
Rick
 
It was nice to test out my suspension yesterday. All in all I had a great time with everyone been so courteous to one another. Plenty of comaradery at the event. Much thanks to Arnon for setting this up. Hopefully next time I can refrain from staying up too late the night before.
I still think my tires aren't any good for this kind of driving (but it's great for Blvd. pimping with Ravi though).;)
What do you guys think I go out and get a set of OEM 15"-16" and put some slicks on?
 
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It was better than I could have imagined. Way too many people to thank, but I have to single out Bill for his awesome volunteer work as morning track marshal, and Paul &co for building such an amazing racetrack and letting us use it.

I also want to thank Ferrand for giving me a chance to use the black flag. :biggrin:

DSC_6329.JPG
 
Arnon, I forgot to tell you what you asked me about how to improve your car, first do you have stock sway bars on your car? Second under application of power I was getting some wheel hop under hard cornering this is usually shock settings, do you have stock shocks on the car?
These are the first things I would look at for improvements to your car and start with the least expensive mod first probably the sway bars. If there are an adjustable version of the bars available then this is the best way to go to allow you to tune the bar settings for the amount of weight transfer (body roll) you want to control (minimize) if you can't find adjustable ones that is ok as I can show you how to turn them into adjustable ones or look in the Carrol Smith book "Tune to Win" or "Prepare to Win" either way I can help you make the mods to the bar, if you already do not have your car lowered that will help a ton to get the CG of the car lower.
Rick
P.S. one mod at a time and learn to optimize (tune)that mod before you move on to another mod.
Also if I start tracking my NSX it will compete for money against my atlantic and that is self defeating for my racing effort only so much money to go around and the race car has to be first as this is the cost effective solution and the biggest bang for my buck as long as I'm racing cars.
Rick
 
Chris, thanks again for pointing it out.... I knew I asked for it... :biggrin:
I have to say that's pretty stylish the way I go out of the track. :wink:

Rick, Arnon already has the R suspension on his car if I remembered right. His car is even lowered than mine, so it's not stock suspension. I think he does want to learn driving faster but he's not that committed. I'm not sure if he read that racing book you gave him either.... ;) Arnon, when you done with it, I want it. I read through Speed secret 1-4 but then since i rented it, I probably forgot most of whatever I read by now.

If you are going to track the nsx, if i have a chance to do it again, just some expensive shocks. (i'm running Koni 2812, night and day difference on anything I had ever driven.) There's some double adj. good shocks there too. But then again, you will need more $$ to keep it the car's balance. Better solution is to show up with us on track days so you can drive our cars and show us how it's done.:biggrin:

By the way, Eric you lost one of your tail light bulb, I keep forgetting to tell you that.
 
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I remember when the 2812's first came out and yes they are very good shocks for a street/track car that are contained in a single canister. Since Arnon's car already has the suspension mods of the NSX-R then we need to check and verify the corner weights to see where the car is at today before attempting to tune the car. The corner weights will give us a good idea of what to expect with the polar moment of the car and see what settings will provide the grip level required. I like to start with a symetrical car that has corner weights equal left and right (as close as we can get them) the shock settings for compression I start as soft as possible and then increases the level of compression until the car starts to get to rough on the driver and then back off a click. Then I go for rebound to keep the tires on the tarmac this way I can find interaction in the adjustmentents if any. Arnon has his sensor (butt) tuned a little better so he should be able to feel the changes and provide feedback. I also like to (after we have the car tuned) remove the settings from one shock on the car to allow the driver to experience a dead shock so he can recognize this when it happens on the track. My crew chief does this to me once a year to level set my sensor (butt) and reboot my O/S (head) the control system for my sensor (butt).
 
I remember when the 2812's first came out and yes they are very good shocks for a street/track car that are contained in a single canister. Since Arnon's car already has the suspension mods of the NSX-R then we need to check and verify the corner weights to see where the car is at today before attempting to tune the car. The corner weights will give us a good idea of what to expect with the polar moment of the car and see what settings will provide the grip level required. I like to start with a symetrical car that has corner weights equal left and right (as close as we can get them) the shock settings for compression I start as soft as possible and then increases the level of compression until the car starts to get to rough on the driver and then back off a click. Then I go for rebound to keep the tires on the tarmac this way I can find interaction in the adjustmentents if any. Arnon has his sensor (butt) tuned a little better so he should be able to feel the changes and provide feedback. I also like to (after we have the car tuned) remove the settings from one shock on the car to allow the driver to experience a dead shock so he can recognize this when it happens on the track. My crew chief does this to me once a year to level set my sensor (butt) and reboot my O/S (head) the control system for my sensor (butt).

i didn't replace my last shock (Tein RA) until I saw the puddle on my new garage floor. :tongue: I'm sure I had driven the blown shocks a few times on the track... Once I'm happy with the setting of the car, I seldomly touch it anymore. Arnon's R suspension can't be adjustable. so we can't do that for him.
 
Arnon and Chris, thanks again for setting up the track day. It was a blast and I can't wait to do it again.:smile:
 
Arnon's car doesn't have NSX-R suspension! I believe he has coilovers.

Thanks Dan I hope i'm correct on the name! Since Arnon has coilovers we can adjust the corner weights! This is the first step in tuning his car or any car after the alignment is done and we can trust John at Acura of Lynnwood to adjust the car to the settings. I tend to like to drive my street car halfway between a track setting and the normal street settings it is a bit aggressive on the tires but they don't last a significant time on the NSX anyway. My digital scales have a capacity of 1000lbs. per platform and I also have castor camber guages to verify we have not drastically altered the baseline setup and to know where we are when we make changes. Getting the corner weights as close as we can get them is the start to properly balancing the car. I have a setup platform also but it was custom built for the weight of a formula car and will not take the NSX's. Arnon, Bill and I will start there to record his settings so when he goes to the track he can make quantified adjustments and always get back to his baseline.
 


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