133 MPH at NASA Kansas Speedway

[husker boxster]

Thanks for the input. I'll write your suggestions down as my DE season looks like it's done for the year and I'll certainly forget them by next yr. They are good suggestions and I'm always open to listen to experts.

The tire wall made it thru the 2 days w/o being smacked by anyone. There was a Coke sign in turn 4 that was my line indicator coming off the straight. I think I got a bit braver and didn't take it as deep before I turned out as the sessions progressed. Kind of became like a slalom skier trying to get close to the gates. In hindsight, that may not have been a good idea. You could tell by the sound how close you got to the barriers. The red mist can blind you sometimes.

My home track MAM only requires a 1 gear downshift at various places on the track. Laguna's turn 2 & 11 were my first real experience with multiple shifts before a corner. Turn 1 at KS required 3. It was a learning experience to get all the shifting done as well as hit the brake pts. Was very happy how it worked on the last Sun run. Think I'll need to learn to heel-toe if I'm running courses other than MAM. Why is the slowest corner always after the longest straight?

I wasn't hitting the apex right on turns 2 and 3 and that was my take-away from the event. Your suggestion about apexs & exits will be taken to heart. It's funny how you can naturally do well in some corners and have trouble in others. At Laguna, I felt like I did well in 2, 8A-8B, and 11, which I would consider the hardest corners on the track. My trouble corners were 3 and 9, which are rather benign. Guess it's like golf where you have trouble on certain holes and others don't bother you a lick even if they're hard.

I had 2 students tell me their instructors told them to follow me since I appeared to be running the proper lines. I felt good about that. But maybe they wanted to follow me since I was the easiest car to locate. IDK...

It didn't make sense when I did it, but I put the Pelican version of the X51 in my CSS after I did Laguna Seca. I had too much going on to do it before that DE. I had some fitment issues but thought I got it in properly after some modifications. Had a thread on here about my adventures putting it in and I think you said it was a good idea to have it. Unfortunately, I hadn't been driving my car after I put it in, so the trip down to KC was the shakedown run. After a couple of runs on the track, I didn't worry about something failing that I'd done and blowing it up.

I've found myself cursing the Porsche marketing of keeping the Cayman underpowered to the 911s. I could way outbrake 911s at turn 11 of Laguna, but they'd motor off down the straight with their 50-150 more HP. I thought I'd be bringing a knife to a gun fight at KS since I'd be going against a wider variety of cars with potentially more HP. This track didn't seem like a "handling" track. There were several high HP cars in my group - a GT3, an M3 in the novice group and an LT1 Camero (alum 427) and a Cobra replica in the rookie group. But I was holding my own. Just wish I had 50-75 more HP. Ahhh, the slippery slope is calling.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

Think I'll need to learn to heel-toe if I'm running courses other than MAM.

Yes, learning to heel and toe will help quite a bit in improving your corning abilities as it keeps the car better balanced. It helps to ease the wear on the transmission too. Just practice in your car on the street and then perfect it when you get time at the track.

Originally Posted by husker boxster

I had 2 students tell me their instructors told them to follow me since I appeared to be running the proper lines. I felt good about that.

You should feel good, you drove very well. My comment was meant to get you thinking about that next 10% improvement in performance.

Once I hired an ex-Indy car driver as an instructor and he complained that I left about 1 foot of track unused on turn entry and exit. A foot? Seriously? But when I used those extra feet, I found that my times dropped by about 0.3 sec per lap. Do that in 3 or 4 corners and you'll pick up ~2 seconds per lap (you also get the additional speed down the straights that come with a higher corner exit speeds).

Originally Posted by husker boxster

I've found myself cursing the Porsche marketing of keeping the Cayman underpowered to the 911s. ...... Just wish I had 50-75 more HP. Ahhh, the slippery slope is calling.

LOL! Yes, welcome to the "We're Sick of Being Underpowered" Boxster/Cayman Club!