Interesting thread. Not sure what I can add, but here goes...
I have GT3 LCAs along with Tarett monoball bushings, thrust bushings, and rear toe arms. I have my camber set to -2.5 F & -2.1 R. The track alignment has helped prolong the life of my tires on the track. I run street tires (Conti Extreme Sports) along with stock rotors and Stop Tech Street / Track pads. Since my CSS is both a street and track car, my goal is to keep it as streetable as possible, knowing I will give up some performance on the track. I drive my car to and from the track. My original plan with the track alignment was to set it in the spring and leave it in place during track season, then set it back to stock when I put my snows on and use it as my "winter beater". During the track season, I drive my LE as my daily driver. However, life got in the way as 2 yrs ago my new boss decided I'd become a bad employee and let me go after 35 yrs at Mutual of Omaha. So I decided to just leave the track alignment on full time. I don't drive as much now that I'm "semi-retired", so I don't worry about burning off the inside edges of my snow tires. I discovered the insides haven't worn off very much, even on my summer tires, so it hasn't been expensive to leave the track alignment on.
It's not easy for me to compare times with others. Most of the cars in my local DEs are different than mine. And if there are similar cars, you don't know if they have tunes, or race tires, bigger brakes, etc. It's hard to compare accurately.
I left Indy last mo thinking I had driven it about as well as I could - that I'd reached the limit of my car. I thought about what I could do to reasonably take it mechanically to the next level. My first thought was to improve the brakes. Last summer, a friend of mine let me drive her 2014 CS and the brakes on her car were order of magnitude better than mine. I'm living on a tight budget until Apr next yr, when I turn 60 and will start taking my pension. At that time, I'll think about improving my brakes. That should fit my plan of keeping my car usable on the street while better on the track.
But then I started studying my videos. I've already seen several places I want to do different next yr. I've also studied my bonsai lap to determine why I was faster on that lap vs others. I did make an effort on that lap to set a hot time, so it might have been a 90-95% effort vs my normal 85-90. So maybe it won't be possible to run like that every lap, but there are things I learned, like I could accelerate earlier in certain places w/o kicking in the PSM. The other thing is I can be more consistent with hitting apexes. I will never be a machine and conditions of ea lap dictate where you drive, but being more consistent is a goal. jsceash's suggestion to view track segment data is a good one. I have the data from Indy but haven't run it yet. Have to add that to my To Do list. Bottom line is I thought I'd driven as well as I could, but it didn't take long to find some things to try next yr.
Keep the dialog flowing. Interesting thread.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 09-19-2018 at 05:50 PM.
|