Willow Springs in the wet ... any recommendations
 

I am heading to Willow Springs this weekend and it looks like it might be wet and cold...any recommendations for how to adjust the car , tire pressure, driving differently?...any experiences at Willow Springs? Any here going?

Big willow or streets? if u are doing streets of willow and wet day, you guys should be doing counter clock wise which is a lot safer for the front straight.

If you are going to attend to a big willow event, oh man that high speed track is going to be deadly in the rain. I have never done it in the rain before. Good luck and have fun.

Big Willow....I have only ever done SOWS and only ever in the dry.

The Sunday is a rear/mid-engine coaching clinic with Carl Rydquist...might be good to get instruction in the wet!?!

The only good thing is I just got new tires (R888) and ROW M030 is being installed friday so I guess the car will be as good as it can be...now it just comes down to me.

Relax... Driving in the rain at the track is just like driving in the dry, only slower.

Be smooth, smooth, smooth... ease into the brakes, and ease off them.. same with the gas.. smooth on, and off... look way ahead and slowly build speed.

A good day in the rain will teach you tons, since the limits are lower it is safer to explore them. I love being at the track in the rain, you can learn more in a wet day then 10 in the dry.

Marc

The wrx in the sig is taken at big willow. You better break in your new tires as soon as possible... SOW in the rain is actually fun because you get to drift around and the staffs won't get upset because they wouldn't know you were doing it purposely. big willow in the rain is probably gonna suck IMO... It is all about high speed on that track but you wont be able to push your limit.
drive safe.

http://www.willowspringsraceway.com/...nine_turns.gif
Turn 8 I did 95mph and then I hit 135 in the front straight. I am sure I could go even faster if I was driving my 986S w/ S03 tires since this car is so smooth at high speed.

How do I break the tires in? I won't be getting my hands on the car until Friday with new tires and suspension and will be driving to the track with the track tires on. Is there something I should do to break them in?

Thanks marc...I will take your recommendations and do things slower. Your perspective is good...I might learn a lot more when I am forced to do it smoother and slower.

by the way...dexter is my middle name (saw your link. :) )

Good advice. AWESOME picture of your box in the sig, looks like its gripping hard.

With M030 and R-comp tires it's going to feel like a whole new car. Don't try turn 8 at 120mph :eek: . Just take it easy, pay attention and drive safe. Getting coaching in the rain should be great.

should I run the same tire pressures as on a dry day or lower? I would assume since cornering speeds will be lower that you can run lower tire pressures (less tire roll to worry about). I generally try to run 40 hot (start at 34ish cold) on a dry track.

J,

Ask your instructor. Generally the rule is to run a little higher cold pressure in the rain to prevent hydroplane. Also the tires don't really heat up much so warm tires don't gain a lot of psi over cold. It really depends on how wet it is that day.

Don't over think set up issues... set normal tire pressures and go from there. Putting a pound more or less pressure into the tires isn't going to make a big difference when you are learning. I don't put pressures up or down for the rain at the track, the tenth of a second difference that it might make in my lap times isn't worth it for a DE IMHO.

Marc

thanks guys...I really appreciate the responses.

Put about 50-100miles on them.

sweet...it's 122miles to the track (so gmaps tells me).

you are from Redondo Beach.. nice. reminds me of crab.. i am hungry!

hopefully you meant crab.

http://www.redlinetrackevents.com/BigWillow.mpg

This should help a little.

My MCS w/ light mods vs E36 M3 @ willow spring 2 years ago:

http://racingflix.com/getvideo.asp?v=804

miss those days.

I've been watching this for the last few days...hoping I'll know the line by the time I get there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REu6SkTbx6E

2 laps and you will be good!
Have fun and be safe.

how did u do?

It was awesome!! :D

The first day was completely dry and I managed to pull a 1:40.444. I met some guys that run in the Spec Boxster class with POC so they gave me a few pointers.

The first two sessions of the second day were dry then the rain hit...and it hit hard. The third session it was bucketing down rain but the car handled well and we just had to adjust our braking points and driving style (ie. brake, then turn, then accelerate...no overlapping). I spun a couple of times but nothing too exciting. It continued to rain on and off for the day so you would sometimes get a dryish track for a bit...then puddles again.

The track was surprisingly good at getting rid of the water...the scariest standing water was on the front straight..each time I would hit a puddle the car would shimmy and I'd get some wheel spin...at 100mph that is a bit freaky.

The second day I also did a drivers ed with a porsche race driver from europe. He was really good and had some good tips for dry and wet driving. I was really stoked when he got in the car late on Sunday and after three laps told me he had nothing really to say...just to keep doing exactly what I am doing and just push a bit harder (he actually thought the organizers were playing a trick on him and sticking me in as a joke)...that was a real ego boost.

Thanks to everyone here for giving me more confidence to go up there. I am glad I have now driven in the rain....next time it won't even phase me.

Glad to hear you had a good time. Willow Springs is like Disneyland for Porsche drivers. How did you like your new tires/suspension?

It really felt like a new car. The suspension was much tighter and was noticeable especially when going through turn 8 .. it was quite bumpy on the inside line but the car felt very stable and solid. It has been set-up as aggressive street...not quite at full track setup.

The R888's were quite good...I was able to outrun a stock 07 corvette that was running street tires...he actually came up to me later to ask what I was running because he couldn't believe that I smoked him in the boxster! :) The instructor also commented that they were really grippy tires.

I would like to have a run at SOWs to really see how much better it feels. I have never run Big Willow before so I can't do a true comparison.

I knew you would say that. I have ordered a lower stress bar for my car, next will be M030. With these mods I can still run street stock for a while. No Toyo's til I cord my PS2's.

I can't agree more!
Isn't Big willow is the home course for the porsche club?

Im jealous, i want to goto Big Willow now!

photos at the link below if your interested.

http://caliphotography.exposuremanager.com/g/willow_springs_raceway

I'm not sure but I know that they race the spec boxster there. POC had an event at Streets of Willow on the weekend also...it was a GT3 convention. I went over and had a wander around the cars and there were 2 brand new turbos, one cab and one with carbon fibre wheels...unbelievable.

There was GT3 cup car up with us on Saturday and it was absolutely flying...I am not sure what times it was pulling but it always looked fast.....

The biggest difference I noted was how much easier it was on the car compared to streets. Streets is much more technical with harder braking, turning, downshifts etc...whereas Big Willow has bigger corners. straights and all I needed was 3rd and 4th.

Yes. Between the PCA, POC, and Speedventures you could run there nearly every weekend on one track or another. Just remember June, July, Aug. and Sept. are way too hot and are car killer months.

which boxster are you in the photos?

This is me.

http://caliphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/11am/cp__970540

I ran in the blue group both days...there was cayman, a couple of boxsters and 911's and a RUF Supercharged Cayman....the driver wasn't pushing it hard though so I don't know how well it could do...I passed him a couple of times.

I like the background says
"The fastet road in the West"

I watched both videos on youtube made by the instructor at Willow Springs for both the Big Willow Track and the Streets of Willow track and i have to say, While Big Willow seems nice, its got too many long wide turns (seems boring after about 6 laps), and Streets of Willow looks like it WOULD be a great track if it wasnt so GD'd f**ked up, i mean bump and cracks are all over that track.

Has anyone here tried the Buttonwillow race track up near Bakersfield?

I've been there and been only a co-pilot but never driven. Anyone here been to both Willow Springs and Buttonwillow and could offer a compairson and feelings about both tracks?

Big Willow is a good fast track.....the big wide turns are taken quite fast and you have to get good at being able to brake / turn / accelerate through faster corners. Turn 2 is a bit boring since it is a bit of a "waiting" corner but otherwise it was still really good. Although it doesn't look technical there is definitely some skill it getting good speed through turns 4 and 5 so that you get a good fast run at 6, 7, 8 and 9 for a front straight top speed.

Streets of Willow is a great technical track...very tight...with a lot of hard acceleration and hard braking (especially in CCW direction). The esses are freaky in the CW direction! This track is much harder on all components of the car though.....you will go through tires / brake pads and other suspension / steering components much quicker with this track than any other. Colin video is a bit old and there have been quite a few improvements to the track since then. I don't remember it being that rough.

Buttonwillow (I did config #13, CW) was a lot of fun. It was a much faster track than streets (I hadn't done big willow yet) but still has a few technical sections especially with Magic Mountain (completely blind apex) and the sweeper and following turn. Again, there are some tricks to doing it fast and the obvious racing line is not necessarily the fastest.

The best thing about all three tracks is that there is plenty of run off and in the majority of cases you can come off without much damage (just lots and lots of dust).