CoffeeBoss wrote:I love the way you analyse the data - it's great to see how telling it can be on how your car and your driving are actually performing on any given day.
Would you be able to provide a breakdown of exactly what you use to trap and collate all the data? Are you manually inputting everything into Excel to output your graphs?
Ummmm, manual input to Excel, yes. To get those minimum corner speeds, I loaded a few laps at a time in the PerformanceBox software, selected the region either side of each turn, and then the software displays the minimum speed for each lap (amongst other things). Typed those values into Excel, and then continued with the next turn. So that's 9 turns x 4 runs x 3 laps = 108 measurements. It took me about an hour to compile the data for that second graph shown above.
(Which he carries on his iPhone to might add, everyone. Now that's dedication!)
Hey, not ALL of it! Just the important bits.
Bryan, you're going to run my race team when I rich and can afford one, haha!
Yeh OK, I'm an analysis junky.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
Haha - all good, was just wondering if you had some elegant hardware/software solution. If such a thing exists within the price range of casual trackday people?
Nice video and analysing. On corner 6 (the tight left just before you see the "sydney" bridge) try 3rd gear instead of 2nd, you're slowing down too much for corners and thats why you have slow exit speed and a slow turn 7 speed. Otherwise looks good, just need to refine your lines a little bit, brake later and hit those apexes! Unless its the camera you look well wide on every corner. Dunno when I'll see you next, too broke to go to track, need to finish sorting out the turbo first.
I agree that I'm not approaching that corner with the correct speed (I've been calling it turn 7, since I count the little righthand dog-leg as turn 6). I was nowhere near the limit of grip after the apex, which is a sure sign that I was doing it wrong. I've just done a few measurements of the Google satellite map, and got a corner radius of 85m for turn 5 and 58m for turn 7. Assuming a lateral grip of 0.92G and no banking in the corner (which is not 100% correct), my car should be able to cope with 99km/hr in turn 5 and 82km/hr in turn 7 (high school physics calculation). I was doing that sort of speed in July last year. Top speed in 2nd gear is 94km/hr (at 7000rpm), so I definitely need to be in 3rd for those two corners.
As for the apexes, the camera gives an offset view because it was mounted towards the driver's side (attached to a vertical plastic spar in the front intake). But yes, I was typically about half a metre or so off the ripple strips. I was a bit worried about shredding chips off the shoulders of my new tyres (like at at EC last year), otherwise I would have been aiming to hit those ripples. So there's another area to improve.
The brakes also felt a lot different with the new pads and fluid, and I was striking a balance between locking up and not braking hard enough - so I tended to err on the side of braking early (again, to avoid flat-spotting the new tyres). That will get better now that the pads are well bedded in.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
After a fairly quiet start to the year with only a couple of Supersprints to show for it (Oran Park GP and Eastern Creek), things are about to hot up.
First of all, I'll be treating myself to a 40th birthday present of my first ever trackday at Phillip Island when I head down there for the next MX-5 Club Vic round on 11th April. Pleased to see that this one only costs $185 including Dorian hire - and the numbers are limited to 100. That'll make up for the cost of getting down there and then staying for a couple nights. BTW, I'm booked to stay at the Hotel Hollywood in Cowes. Sounds glamorous !
A few weeks later, I'll be doing Round 3 of the NSW Supersprints at Wakefield Park on 2nd May ($175 with Dorian hire), and staying overnight at The Bakehouse Motel for the club trackday on the 3rd May ($120 - bargain!). If anyone needs a bed for the Sunday night, I will have one spare and it would be good to share the room cost.
And two week later, I've got Round 4 of the NSW Supersprints at Eastern Creek on 16th May ($215 with Dorian hire). This time I'll definitely be fitting the RE55s!
Looking further ahead, I've yet to book in for three more trackdays at Wakefield Park in June (two Supersprints and a club trackday). June will also be made extra busy since I'll be watching EVERY match of the World Cup on TV!
By the time I get to Wakefield in May, it will have been five months since my previous visit ... I'm really keen to get back out there, especially in cool weather. And I'll have five visits in quick succession!
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
The Great Adventure to Phillip Island 10-12 April 2010
I passed a major milestone on 8th April - my 40th birthday. Some months ago I decided that I'd treat myself to something special (apart from all the cool pressies from family and friends), and as it so happens, the MX-5 Club Vic were due to have a trackday at Phillip Island on 11th April. Perfect! Or so I thought ...
So on Saturday morning, I packed all my gear into Little Reddy, brimmed the tank at the local Shell, and hit the Princes Highway for the long but delightfully enjoyable solo drive around the coast to Phillip Island. I left the servo in Albion Park Rail at 9:15am, stopped for lunch at a rest-stop at Quaama (just before Bega), refueled at Cann River, and finally arrived in Cowes at 8:45pm. That's around 11 hours of solid driving. The road between Morwell and Leongatha was particularly entertaining. I had a crappy night's sleep because the wind picked up overnight and was rattling the windows and doors of my motel room.
Sunday morning, I arrived at the GP circuit at around 7:45am and joined the queue awaiting the gates to open. Once inside, I met up with some of the guys from MX-5 Club Vic and was made welcome. Registered, prepped and scrutineered, then the waiting began. And didn't we wait! The rain and wind kept coming in waves, cars kept sliding off the track (and it was only meant to be a practice run first time out). I finally had my first outing on the Phillip Island track at around 11:30am.
Run 1: My warm-up lap started inauspiciously with a 180 degree spin at Siberia. Man it was slippery out there! No problem, I easily got going again. The same couldn't be said for the Honda Accord that speared into the tyre wall at Lukey Heights on the same warm-up lap. So that run was red flagged by the time I got to MG and we returned to pit lane. Restarted and after another warm-up lap, we were allowed only two flying laps. Well you'd not really call them "flying" in the sense of being fast. My times were 2:34.7 and 2:42.9 with a topspeed of 167.0km/hr at the start of the first one. I was nearly blasted off the road exiting turn 12 by a twit in a 911 Turbo, who decided to overtake me on the outside of the corner. I only saw him a fraction of a second before he passed at ~40km/hr quicker than I was going. Could have been very ugly!
Back in the paddock there was more waiting while the officials got through the other five groups of cars, and the inevitable vehicle retrievals from gravel traps. And then the sun came out, so of course the officials stopped proceedings and took a one hour lunch break. Oh dear. They also had to clean-up an oil spill around half the circuit, so we'll forgive them a little. Finally at 2:30pm, I got back on the track for my first officially timed run.
Run 2: Very wet. Damn it was wet. We had hail while waiting in pit lane. Warm-up lap was 3:00.19, followed by two flying laps at 2:54.26 and 2:54.57. Slow but at least they were consistent times. And to rub salt into the wounds, I got the checkered flag after only two flying laps. The conditions were so bad that I wasn't really enjoying it out there anyway and returned to the pits frustrated.
Another hour and a half later, the clouds had lifted again, and the track dried out just in time for my next run at 3:50pm. Rejoice!
Run 3: Warm-up lap was 2:27.76, followed by four flying laps (2:15.16, 2:15.47, 2:17.90 and 2:20.55). Lap 1 was my only one that was completely free of traffic. I was held up by a WRX on lap 2, and then lots of traffic for the rest of the run. So there it is, my personal best at Phillip Island is officially 2:15.1604. I reached a topspeed of 175km/hr (via GPS) which is now the fastest I've had Little Reddy.
I was all ready for a fourth run, waiting patiently in pit lane with everyone else in group 5, when group 4 was red flagged and then the marshalls called it quits because they had to be off the track by 5pm (it was 4:55pm). Bugger! Maybe I should have jumped the queue straight after my previous run, just like several others cars seemed to do. That was it for the day and all I got was eight laps. Strangely, a lot of other drivers managed to get ~20 laps! Not exactly great value but you can't help the bad weather. With better organisational skills from the WRX Club, I've no doubt they could have squeezed in at least one more run for each group.
I met so many great people from the Victorian club. I was made to feel really welcome and enjoyed the conversation during the long intervals between runs. Thank you all. Most especially I'd like to thank Sam Gumina for his excellent track tips. It's just a shame that I didn't get much opportunity to try them out. But I'll be back someday!
Prior to this trackday, I had set myself a personal goal of getting within a few seconds of the previous lap record for a standard NA of 2:13.091 which was smashed in December 2009 by Teruo (2:09.856). So to land a 2:15 with my first dry lap was very pleasing. Well done to Robert Downes for posting a new standard NA record with a 2:08.833 in his NA8!
My best lap viewed from the front intake
... and another view of the same lap from inside the cabin
Goodbye Phillip Island!
The drive home on Monday was even more enjoyable than the trip down. I left Cowes at 8:45am, refuelled at Traralgon, had lunch at Oberon and arrived at Cann River by mid afternoon. For something different I then detoured north towards Bombala. After being extremely careful to keep my speed in check the entire time I was in Victoria (hundreds of unmarked cameras, 3km/hr tolerance, and no cruise control!), it was a pleasant relief to cross the border into NSW where they're not quite so manic about "the war on speed". I then discovered a blissful road between Bombala and Pambula - ~30km of twisty corners on a gentle mountain descent with almost no traffic at all. I refuelled at Bega and then got on the tail of a Ford Focus that was being dríven enthusiastically all the way to Narooma through some wonderful flowing corners. What a fun drive! And the view of the setting sun over Corunna Lakes was simply stunning. The rest of the drive home went smoothly and I arrived at 8:30pm. Fuel economy for the entire weekend was an average of 7.6L/100km (including the trackday).
Three days alone with Little Reddy and I have to admit that the love affair has not faded at all. In fact, I have discovered an even deeper respect for the old girl's abilities.
Last edited by Guran on Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
Guran wrote:Three days alone with Little Reddy and I have to admit that the love affair has not faded at all. In fact, I have discovered an even deeper respect for the old girl's abilities.
Good cars are like good albums. They stand the test of time, and you can keep rediscovering and revealing them for years to come.
Great write up Guran! Might I suggest future interstate trackday outings you might consider the EXE Crew or Circuit Club. EXE are based in VIC, and Circuit Club often do interstate meets with them. Both are quite adept at running a track day.
CoffeeBoss wrote:Great write up Guran! Might I suggest future interstate trackday outings you might consider the EXE Crew or Circuit Club. EXE are based in VIC, and Circuit Club often do interstate meets with them. Both are quite adept at running a track day.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind. The next time I head down to PI won't be for at least another 12 months, and at the moment I'm favouring an AROCA event. The Victorian MX-5 guys assure me that they're much more capable of putting on a good show. Plus you get lots of tracktime after all the Alfas break down.
Still toying with the idea of going to Winton - maybe for the interstate challenge if it happens this year.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
CoffeeBoss wrote:Great write up Guran! Might I suggest future interstate track day outings you might consider the EXE Crew or Circuit Club. EXE are based in VIC, and Circuit Club often do interstate meets with them. Both are quite adept at running a track day.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind. The next time I head down to PI won't be for at least another 12 months, and at the moment I'm favouring an AROCA event. The Victorian MX-5 guys assure me that they're much more capable of putting on a good show. Plus you get lots of tracktime after all the Alfas break down.
Still toying with the idea of going to Winton - maybe for the interstate challenge if it happens this year.
Bryan Come up and race on a proper race track(COW). Lakeside is an absolute blast and one track that everyone should do at least once. The QLD club hold track days at both Lakeside and QR and while you can't guarantee what the weather will be like, you will usually get 4 to 5 runs in a 1/2 day and heaps in a full day. Something to think about and accommodation is just 10 mins up the road
Terry
"Racing shouldn't be for rich idiots, but for all idiots"
Thanks for the invitation Terry. I'd love to get up to Lakeside someday - it's on my TTD list. Though that track doesn't quite have the same attraction as PI! Didn't realize the Qld MX-5 Club did trackdays. Just checked the website and got all the details.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
Thought I'd share this short video which highlights the worst of what we had to deal with at Phillip Island last weekend. Just lovely. Thankfully we got a little dry weather in the last hour of the day.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
Back in March, when the exchange rate was really good, I took the plunge and bought myself a replacement soft-top from Prestige Autotrim in the UK. I got the fixed rear window version since it was the cheapest and I rarely bother unzipping the window anyway. Cost was £210 for the top, plus £58.16 for shipping, which came to $443 total.
Removal and installation all went fairly smoothly, although I spent the whole day on it and had to remove and reinstall the BD rollbar too. I followed the instructions provided by Prestige Autotrim and in Rod's workshop manual which both called for removing the entire frame and replacing the soft-top on a table. Had I found the alternate instructions on Miata net, I might have tried it with the frame still on the car and saved myself the job of removing the BD bar. Ah well, and I can still see the advantages of the method I used. The supplied rivets were next to useless (I used regular pop rivets instead), and the B pillar retaining plates had holes in the wrong places (drilled new ones).
After installation, I tested for leaks and found I was getting a few drips coming through at the rain rail behind the driver's seat. I had reused the old rain rail and the hard plastic bit was a bit brittle and cracked in a few places - repaired it with tape but obviously not perfectly. Looks like I'll have to spend a bit more time on it before it's completely leakproof. I also found that the sides of the roof are a little loose, which seems to be a common problem with aftermarket soft-tops according to Miata net, and easily fixed by pulling the top a little tighter at the corners of the retaining plate (haven't tried it yet). Otherwise, the new roof is tight as a drum and looks great. Very happy with this product!
BD bar and softtop removed.
Naked softtop frame. Was surprised at how heavy that thing is.
I'm yet to get some decent photos of the finished product but will add them soon.
Last edited by Guran on Thu May 13, 2010 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
It'd been five months since my last trackday at Wakefield and I was keen to get back out there. I was booked in for both the Supersprint on the Sunday and the MX-5 Club trackday on the Monday, so there would be plenty of opportunity to enjoy Wakefield again, and spend some time socialising with MX-5 Club members who also stayed over at Goulburn on the Sunday night. Unfortunately I couldn't squeeze in my set of track wheels, so I had to leave them at home and run with the the Adrenalins. That way I could stay in Class 1 at the club trackday. I did fit the CF hardtop though and it would be the first time I'd used it at Wakefield.
Arrived at the track right on 7:30 only to find that every garage spot was already taken! So much for gates opening at 7:30. I don't seem to have much luck with the scrutineers at Supersprints. They always find something to grill me about. This time, they weren't happy with the eyebolts I use to hook my harness to. They were attached to the BD rollbar just like the dozen other MX-5s that were there, but I had to pull some clips and lift the carpets to show how it all worked. Grrr.
There were 94 drivers entered and 13 of them were in MX-5s. Mike Hicks and his team of MX-5 Club volunteers put on an excellent show. Very slick management! We were using Dorians for timing which meant a full warm-up lap, four flying laps and a full cool-down lap. I still managed to get in six runs! Lap times were based on the conventional start line on the main straight.
Run 1: A nice heart-starter although I found I was short of breath during the run, the result of pulling my harness up too tightly! As the tyres came up to temperature and pressure I finished with a 1:18.846 on the last lap.
Run 2: Started with a lap of 1:19.060 and then caught up to a procession of cars that were stuck behind a red MR2 turbo. The guy was a newbie and was lapping in 1:23-1:25. The infuriating thing was that although he was driving Miss Daisy in the corners, his car was quick on the main straight. So everytime one of us managed to get past on the back straight, he'd blast past on the main straight only to hold everyone up again for the rest of the lap. It totally ruined the run for half the cars in this group.
Run 3: This was a fairly clear run although I was caught by a few faster cars and slowed to let them past. Best lap was 1:18.665.
Run 4: Started this run behind Keith (KRM) and managed to pass him on turn 10 before the 1st lap started. That gave me a slow run onto the main straight, and then I could see my "old friend" in the MR2 fast approaching from behind. So I gradually eased to the middle of the track to make it clear to the MR2 driver that passing me would not be a good idea. A bit naughty but I wasn't weaving or anything serious like that, and the marshalls were not concerned. I didn't see the MR2 again after that, although he continued to cause trouble for those behind me (isn't that right Keith?). My best time on this run was 1:18.473 on the second lap following Glenn Thomas (NB8B), before we caught up to a pair of white Commodores. I almost had a Suzuki Swift GTi run up the back of me in the braking zone for the fishhook. The young bloke had started to overtake me on the outside of the corner, then changed his mind and had a lift-off oversteer slide as a result. Very exciting! Anyway, the rest of the run was a slow procession behind the Commodores.
Run 5: I didn't get any video of this run because the batteries died on both of my cameras. A shame because the third lap was my quickest of the day with a time of 1:18.279. That was half a second off my PB but I was still pretty happy with the result considering the volume of traffic I encountered.
Run 6: After my 5th run I returned to the garages thinking that would be it for the day since everyone was packing up. Thought I'd try joining the queue again anyway and, wouldn't you know it, I managed to tack onto the last run for the day. No video again and there was lots of traffic, but I had a best lap of 1:18.548.
The final wash-up (1:18.279) was that I finished 5th in class 1B (ie last!) behind Stewart Temesvary NC (1:15.416), Tony Chan Celica (1:16.090), Ian Vickers NB8A (1:16.302), and Glenn Thomas NB8B (1:18.059). Watch out next round because I'll be running with semi-slicks. My PerformanceBox indicated that my best lap timed with the start line in the fishhook was slightly better at 1:18.2 and I lost time on turns 4-5 and the fishhook. Pretty happy with the day's effort.
Ironic moment of the day? The bloody MR2 driver pipped me with a time of 1:18.145 - looks like he finally figured out how to take a corner at more than parking speed!
After three rounds, the MX-5 Club is still leading the club championship on 328 points, followed by NSWRRC on 297 and ARDC on 239.
Last edited by Guran on Thu May 13, 2010 3:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
After the drivers' briefing at the Supersprints on Sunday, some trophys were handed out for Round 1 at Oran Park GP. I was amused to be awarded my first trackday trophy ... for finishing 1st in Class 1A. I was the only entrant in that class!
Standard 2006 NC - YouTube WP 1:11.89 | SMP-S 1:05.90 GP 1:54.93 N 1:18.09 L 2:22.49 | PW 1:02.52 PI 2:00.55 | W-S 1:12.44 W-L 1:43.36 | SR 1:33.25
To get those minimum corner speeds, I loaded a few laps at a time in the PerformanceBox software, selected the region either side of each turn, and then the software displays the minimum speed for each lap (amongst other things). Typed those values into Excel, and then continued with the next turn. So that's 9 turns x 4 runs x 3 laps = 108 measurements. It took me about an hour to compile the data for that second graph shown above.
!
Didn't realize the Qld MX-5 Club did trackdays. Just checked the website and got all the details. 
