Guran's NA6 "Little Reddy"

[Guran]

23rd October 2011

MX-5 Club of NSW track day - Wakefield Park - NSW/VIC Interstate Challenge

After the success of the 2010 Interstate Challenge at Phillip Island, this year's visit from the Victorians was hugely anticipated. There was much friendly banter in the lead up. We had a total of 69 drivers competing, and 21 of them were Victorians. Game on!

Goulburn turned on a pretty decent day with a cool overcast start of around 14C, but it rapidly climbed to a maximum of 28C. The atmospheric pressure was favourable in the morning (1023hPa), but soon fell to a pretty ordinary 1018hPa. No rain in sight, but considering how hot it was, I wasn't really expecting much in the way of fast times. It was bloody skatey out there.

There were no first-timers for this round, but I sat in the passenger seat of Ben Sale's NA6 to show him the way around. It was impressive to see Ben's aggressive debut on this track and he went on to finish second in Clubman class (1:15.94), after leading until the second-last run. Yes, the competition would be very tough today.

On my first run, I was very pleasantly surprised to lock in a flyer. I did a 1:16.89 on my third lap - only 0.09s slower than my PB! Then the temperatures climbed, atmospheric pressure fell, a westerly blew in and my times fell away. On runs 2 to 7, I had best times of 1:17.10, 1:17.16, 1:17.22, 1:17.21, 1:17.24, 1:17.17. Consistent much? The last run was so close to a new PB too! On lap 2 with only the fish-hook to go, my split time was on target for a 1:16.7 - then I hit the brakes and they wouldn't pull up. It was like they were glazed over or something - about 25% less deceleration than usual. Very strange! So I sailed off onto the dirt and ruined a near thing. Lap 4 was looking good too, as my split was level at the top of the hill - but I ran onto the dirt exiting turn 4 ... and eventually returned to the track at turn 7. Close, but no cigar . Still, I was thrilled to have managed a 1:16.89.

Meanwhile, my Victorian challengers in Class 1, Robert Downes, Noel Heritage and Tony Harper, were learning the track, while Philip Christie was there to represent NSW too. Rob set the pace with a 1:19.01, then Noel got ahead with 1:18.20 in run 3 and 1:17.56 in run 4. Much to Noel's disgust, Rob pulled out a 1:17.22 in the last run after getting some tips from watching my approach in turn 2. My former class 1 rival, Allan Cruz, finished with 1:17.46 in class 4 to split Rob and Noel. The final results in Class 1 were:

1st Me 1:16.89
2nd Robert Downes 1:17.22
3rd Noel Heritage 1:17.56
4th Philip Christie 1:19.99
5th Tony Harper 1:23.76

So that was a victory to NSW in class 1 (standard NA). We also took out class 2 (standard NB - Glenn Thomas 1:16.84), class 3 (standard NC - Bob Pimm 1:16.45 PB), and class 7 (mod NC - Phil Ashton 1:10.80). Class 8 (turbo - Cameron Macarthur 1:11.86) also went to NSW as there were no Victorian entries. The visitors had five class wins: class 4 (Clubman - Peter Phillips 1:15.72), class 5 (mod 1.6L - Brendan Beavis 1:14.16), class 6 (mod 1.8L - Russell Garner 1:13.41), class 9 (racecars - Owen Boak 1:09.81), and class 10 (slicks - Steven Cook 1:07.63).

In the net score, VIC triumphed with 168 points versus NSW on 137 points. Congratulations to the VIC team for their excellent result - the first time a visiting team has ever won this interstate challenge.

Turn 10 (photo by Tony Maxwell)

MX5 Track Day Oct 2011 432 by Guran5, on Flickr

Turn 3 (photo by http://www.mx5pics.com.au)

IMG_2009 (ZF-4839-44957-1-010) by Guran5, on Flickr

Turn 4 (photo by http://www.mx5pics.com.au)

IMG_1988 (ZF-4839-44957-1-007) by Guran5, on Flickr

Turn 8 (photo by http://www.mx5pics.com.au)

IMG_2719 (ZF-4839-44957-1-017) by Guran5, on Flickr

"No brakes" incident at Turn 8 (photo by http://www.mx5pics.com.au)

IMG_3056 (ZF-4839-44957-1-019) by Guran5, on Flickr

Off roading around turns 5 and 6 (photo by http://www.mx5pics.com.au)

IMG_3076 (ZF-4839-44957-1-020) by Guran5, on Flickr

[honki3rider]

Got any plans to turn this into a rally car?

[PaulF]

Careful on that Turn 10, Bryan. I hear it can bite you hard.

In all seriousness though, congratulations. Very impressed by your consistency too.

[Guran]

Got any plans to turn this into a rally car?

Some would say it already is! Sideways in most corners, SUV style wheel gaps, and often in a cloud of dirt. Loving it.

You're dead right about turn 10 Paul. A bit of oversteer early in the corner is manageable, but something that should be avoided here.

[Apu]

What amazes is how consistent your times are! Can't be much of a challenge anymore, Bryan...one arm behind your back from now on, eh?

[Guran]

Now that would be a challenge, Bryan!

In truth, I'm enjoying myself more than ever on the track. Pushing the absolute limits is a lot of fun, especially when you get a sequence of corners exactly right: start wide, slide across the apex, and straighten up at the outer edge of the track. Doing it on street tyres adds to the "degree of difficulty" because there's much less grip to play with. It's also a great challenge to string together the perfect lap, and I'm still some distance from achieving it. I'm losing 0.3-0.5s compared with my "optimal" lap in any one run, and as long as that gap exists, I'll continue to have a goal to shoot for.

[Guran]

On my first run, I was very pleasantly surprised to lock in a flyer. I did a 1:16.89 on my third lap - only 0.09s slower than my PB!

Looks much the same as most other clean laps I get in, although I had a pretty decent slide through turns 4 and 5 this time. Bit of a lock-up into turn 8 at the start too.

[manga_blue]

You left a meter of track unused on entry to the fishhook. There's black stuff on the other side of the white line.

Stuffed if I know how you can brake so much later.....

[floda]

Thanks for the update, I was wainting for this. Did you work out what happened to the brakes, when you ran off track?

[Guran]

Nope, no idea about the brakes. They worked fine for the next stop (turn 10), and every other stop since then.

Phil, are you saying I brake later than you do? I usually average around 0.8G deceleration which is nothing special. My limit is front tyre grip as you can tell from the slight lock at the start of the video.

[manga_blue]

Yeah, it's interesting. You look like you're getting 10-15m deeper into the last turn before braking than I can and if you look at our respective car setups then you shouldn't be able to but it's obviously working for you. I'm maxing third there at 140kmh and squeezing the brake pedal from 90-85m to pull 0.87g. It's got me thinking.

[Hellmun]

I'm averaging about 1.25G long (Peak 1.3G at T10), not as good as cornering G (up to 1.55G on T3 during sub 1:10 laps) but the camber doesn't help braking and I have lots of it. I bet Bryan does a similar thing to me on T10, there is a line that's smoother through the bumps on T10 and it really helps you stop if you nail it. On hot semi's Phil you should be able to get higher than that, maybe you brake balance is out if you seeing lock-up early. Or you actually need more pad.

[Guran]

Phil, I've just emailed my PBox files from 23rd October. You might like to check them out compared with your logged data.

Mark - I seriously believe those braking figures. The brakes on your car are simply stunning . You've done an amazing job of setting them up properly.

[manga_blue]

I'm averaging about 1.25G long (Peak 1.3G at T10), not as good as cornering G (up to 1.55G on T3 during sub 1:10 laps)

Yes, pretty stunning figures, Mark. I'm maxing 0.90 longitudinal, same as Guran everywhere, and 1.20g lateral, typically through turns 2 and 6. Not a grippy day at all tho. Pretty impressive that Guran's pulling up as fast on old 185 Adrenalins as I am on 205 R-specs.

[Hellmun]

Dataloggers are brilliant things, with the brand new V70A's I was down to 1.35(peak) lat G and 1.15 long G at the NSW/Vic challenge. Wouldn't have been helped by my alignment either. Also found out I was 8kph slower by the end of the straight (due to slightly lower entry speed and high heat). I don't feel so bad for only doing high 10's last trackday thanks to the logger. The heat and new tyres really made a measurable difference for me.

Both of you are still to take my car for a hot-lap too at Wakefield too. Your welcome to it if we can ever get some time at a clubday, maybe we should organize that hat of names for a relaxed car swapping SOTS day. I loved driving Steves/Tony's car this year, can give you some inspiring ideas to modify the car with just how significantly different the same model cars can be... Tony's car had turn-in I couldn't believe. Has me considering getting a little toe out to test because my car feel numb compared. I'm still tossing up skipping the PI in Decemeber and instead spending the time putting another motor together ready for boost. I doubt I'll pass the keys around so easy once it starts getting potentially fragile