Hallett Motor Racing Circuit - Novice laps clockwise

[78F350]

The part where the R8 blasted past and made me feel like I was sitting still, and the part where I left the track in turn nine didn't make it through the final cut. ...just not enough time to show everything. I also may have adjusted the speed of the video a bit (slightly) to give you more of a feeling of how fast it comes at you when you are first learning to drive on a track.

https://youtu.be/Urqbs1kb3KE

[steved0x]

I posted a sped up video once and people from my work thought it was the normal speed and wondered how I could go that fast. Then when I showed them a real-time speed video, they wondered why I was going so slow...

[78F350]

No kidding, watching some segments of the video at 1x speed it looks slower than regular street driving. I didn't have a transponder, but looking at my time on the videos, it was not very impressive. Every session felt better and smoother than the one before. It won't be hard to improve. I know that I can delay my braking a lot later and accelerate a bit sooner.
...and Steve, Thanks for the great deal on those tires. I ran the worst pair of 17s most of the day and they will still be good for another track day or some AX. The old "Federal" all-season tires that came with the car don't have near the grip.

[itsnotanova]

Sounds like you have a blower on your car at that speed

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by 78F350

Every session felt better and smoother than the one before. It won't be hard to improve. I know that I can delay my braking a lot later and accelerate a bit sooner.

Each session feeling better and smoother is a definite improvement!

In my opinion (standard disclaimers):

Originally Posted by 78F350

I know that I can delay my braking a lot later

Later braking doesn't help me so much in terms of gaining extra time from going the higher speed before applying the brakes, but it helps me enter the turn at the right speed. When I brake too soon, I find that I am then going way too slow when I enter the turn. Then when I hit the gas on the way out of the turn, it feels like nothing is happening because I am often down low in the rev range.

This past weekend I was at Sebring and it was the first event on my new Carbotech XP8/10 brake pads. (I've been using EBC Reds for the last few years, worked great and great on the street, but they were worn out and it was time for new pads and rotors anyway so I tried something new). They are a "more powerful", for want of a better word, brake pad, and when I braked at my usual braking points, I was going way too slow by the turn in point. So that took some adjustments...

The other thing I have been working on is trail braking more into the slower/tighter/more car rotation corners. So I have had to move my braking points up for those types of corners as well.

Originally Posted by 78F350

and accelerate a bit sooner.

The style of driving I have been working on is to setup my corners so that I can go smoothly to full throttle at the apex and very gradually unwind the wheel as the car "drifts" out to track out. So for a tight corner I am hard on the brakes, make any downshifts required, then trail off the brakes as I turn in to the apex, and then smoothly go to full throttle at the apex and then track out. For faster corners I may be doing a very tiny bit of light trail braking but I try to be on maintenance throttle for the majority of the turn.

I don't know if this is the best approach because this past weekend, using the techniques I am describing, I was totally smoked by a stock 2003 Boxster S that blew my doors off. I mean I was left in the dust... It was both awesome (in that it shows me how much progress I might expect to make) and also kind of embarrassing...

Here is one clip. Disclaimer: I had lifted to let a bunch of cars by that had caught the train I was in, but still... Dang.

https://youtu.be/vxbMpz7qLlU?t=3m41s

Skip to 3:41 to see the other Boxster.