Gobble, for the benefit of others on this forum, can you tell us about the differences between your car and your friend’s car, e.g. tires, brakes, suspension.
As you know, tires can make a pretty big difference in terms of corner exit speed and are probably the biggest factor in terms of lap time after the Nut. Could it be that his tires grip better than yours and therefore his corner exit speed is higher than yours? What brand and size tires are you running compared to his?
A few years ago, at my local track there was a gentleman who was faster than me in almost every corner. Our cars were almost identical: same tires, same model (’91 and ’92 NSX) and same color. Other than tires, his car was stock: my car had H/E and dali street bars. We decided to spend the rest of the day driving lead/follow and then discuss our lines and braking points after every few laps. By the end of the day we were both faster and I was able to learn his line in several corners which made our lap times almost identical. Point: he was faster because he was driving a better line and if I were on the bottle then I would have missed an opportunity to learn a faster way around the track.
For an example of how the nut behind the wheel can make a difference, here is a link, 2001 NSXPO at RA:
www.nsxprime.com/Gallery/multimedia/multimedia.htm (fourth video down). Here, I’m driving my ’92 NSX with stock tires, stock engine H/E and big brakes. The car in front of me is a heavily modified NSXes with supercharger, big Hoosiers, suspension, and a bunch of very expensive weight reduction. It is no contest in the straights, but in the corners is a different story. On second lap I have to lift to remain safely behind. I am not saying that one driver is better than the other, neither of us had any previous experience on this track and it was early on the second track day. One driver just felt comfortable pushing the car harder than the other. But it shows that a “faster” car is not always faster. This leads to my last point:
This is a public forum. A lot of people with difference experience read these threads to help make informed decisions and to learn about our cars. Our responses are not intended solely for the benefit of the thread originator. I understand that you did not want a discussion about driver skill and I understand that very well and I apologize for going outside your terms. My response was aimed to benefit those who are reading this thread and also want to get faster at the track. These people need to know that there are lots of ways to get faster at the track and NOS might be a good option, but only after a certain skill level has been achieved. In ’97 I wasted 3k installing short gears because a few skilled track guys had a narrow discussion about how the shorties made them faster. I wish someone else had let us lurker novices know that for us, short gears wouldn’t make us better drivers or make much difference at the track. Fortunately, we have that counterbalance on these forums.
Have fun,
DanO
