What does your car look like, if you don't mind me asking, I think I may have seen it before??

 

Hey Jeff!

I was pissed i didn't get a chance to talk to you this past weekend at MT. We had an absolute blast. I think i was more concerned with where we were going out at night than tire pressures and oil temps! We had a beautiful condo with a view over the lake with some really great friends from COM. We stayed an extra 2 days just to chill in the village.

When i saw the other FD i looked at Pete and said WTF is that thing?! I haven't seen one at a COM event in a while. Then 2 showed up! I was really impressed with the driving Jeff. You came up behind me in turns 10 and 11 like i was broken down. I thought we were gunna have to replace Pete's rear bumper!

I wanted ot chat a bit about suspension with you. I have very little experience with Mazda, speceifically the FD. I was totally psyched about the stock components. Great design- fancy bushings - aluminum wishbones - big sway bars - the works. I didn't want to change anything before MT so i could get a feel for what were were working with. In my experience, a lot of times when these guys are developing a trackday/time trial suspension they end up spending a bunch of money to screw it up.

The stock r1 suspension felt great. Turn in was good on medium - fast corners. A little understeer in the slower corners. Mid corner felt pretty good. Corner exit was spectacular i think. Especially in medium/fast corners.

It looks like we need more neg camber for better tire wear. The outside of the rear tires are wearing too fast.

We need a huge wing too!!! That thing was rediculous Jeff. i bet it helped through turn 1 and 7-8

-Paddy

 

Here is a photo from the start of the Road Atlanta Mitty Saturday qualifer race for GTU and GTO cars. Mine is the blue #79 1st gen GTU car in the middle of the GTO cars. We are entering turn one several cars wide at well over 100 mph.

 

With a name like that...I'd expect nothing else!!!

My wife and I did the same thing... Tremblant is easily one of the best overall venues in the country (well technically it's not in the in the country...when are we annexing Canada anyways?)

Back in the mid to late 90s you'd get 5-7 FDs at each COM event...ahhh the good old days. I know there are a few in the area, hopefully we can develop some sort of critical mass and we'll start seeing more in the paddock.

Talk about sandbagging! You go out there and put around trying to fly under the radar and then you roll-out a :56! I'm not buying that routine! Come to think that I actually felt bad for crawling up on you like that when you were just playing me!!!!

Going to Mosport?

Ahmen to that! No surprise, but people to tend toward a the herd mentality...if enough people do something than it must the right thing to do... There are certainly a number of things that really should be done on your suspension if still stock...we'll have to chat


What are your settings? Generally speaking I find that you want to run as little negative rear camber as you can get away with... allows for you to get the power down sooner...

Great for the track...although it stops me from ever driving the car on the street...total cheese...

Thanks for the kind words, I look forward to seeing you guys @ the track more often!

Btw, if you keep-up your learning curve on the car, I'm afraid I won't look forward to seeing you on the track any longer

Jeff

 

We'll have to get Jack and Zumspd out to the track with us. Paddy and I are planning on going to Watkins Glen with another club (TBD) and skipping Mosport with COM.

Pete

 

Hey guys, 1:20 chicane,chicane nhis, 1:17 south oval, 1:21 north oval,best for me was 1:31 chic,chic, in a cold rain at NH,tons of on the edge fun with no rain tires!! Jeff to bad i missed your return,we met up at Rockingham autocross with bmw club in 98ish?? John Bradshaw and i are friends. Still have the blue 93. Hope all is well. Jim

 

Pete

Would have been at Temblant however still waiting on rollbar delivery...Got in on the back end of the group buy 5/15 however still waiting.. Who are you running with at the Glen? and what is the the date of the event..

Jack

 

We dont know who we'll run with yet, hence TBD (to be determined). We're not going to run with a BMW club, since we don't want to go for a track tour or a Sunday drive. Paddy said something about Track Masters on Sept. 4/5 Have you ever done an event with them?

Pete

 

Paddy said something about Track Masters on Sept. 4/5 Have you ever done an event with them?

Pete[/QUOTE]


I Instruct with them...

 

Is there a club you don't instruct with?

Lets not have this thread go too OT. PM me with your impressions of them vs. COM. I'll be dual driving with my brother and we're both licensed with COM, but it will be our first time at the Glen.

 

Porsche, BMW, SCDA, COM, Trackmasters are the clubs... Trackmasters are a great bunch of guys, chief instrutor is Tony Funichello, is an ex diplomat so he charming, smart and easy to work with. TONS of track time and a fabulous track. If my roll bar ever gets here maybe I will join you guys there.. Compared to COM, more layed back non/competetive club, with some very fast drivers though..

 

Jack,
Just sent my opentrack app. for the Sept. Trackmasters event, at Tony's OK. Hopefully see you there.

 

If my rollbar comes in I will shoot for the 5th. I can't do both days I have a gig on 9/3 in RI. BTW my site www.backbayent.com.

 

Just for some reference. I have been racing for well over 15 years at both professional and club events. I have had the pleasure of racing all over NA, so I do have personal knowledge of a lot of these tracks.

I turn low 1:38's at Mosport with my stock port stock ecu S4 6 port Touring GT T1 class FC on Toyo RA1's. Prepped like an ITS car with more aero. With my new BP 4 port I expect to be in the 1:35's.

At the old Tremblant, before it was emasculated, I turned a 2:04.5 in my Firestone Firehawk stock drivetrain Suzuki Swift on Firestone Firehawks. I thought I was going to die each time I went through the Turns 1,2,3 section as I was off the ground in 1 and 3. I expect that to be competitive in the Quebec Touring Car series I need to do a low 1:53 in the RX7.

At Thunderhill, in our (at the time) stock Mustang Cobra R (340 hp, 3500 lbs) on Goodyear slicks, I pulled a 1:59 out of it at the NASA 8 Hour race in the 2001 practice. Granted it was like driving a sailboat without the control, ROFL.

At Portland (without Festival Chicane) I have pulled a 1:14 in the Cobra R. The cars owner has pulled a 1:12. The mustang now is generating well over 500 hp and is down to about 3200 lbs and the tires are now over a foot wide. LOL

My times will tend to be faster than most as I don't have to worry about driving the car home after the day. The times being spoken of here are great for street cars. WE have some pretty fast guys on this thread. My hats off to you guys.

Eric

 

Looks like I will be at the Glen with Trackmasters on 9/5, Larry from the Race Shop said my Rollbar is on it's way. So..... who are all the hot shots who will be there??? I just spoke to No Cones who else??? Lots of talk about track times let's see who's walkin' the talk....

 

Thunderhill w/bypass......1:55.5........ex pettit racing, rolex endurance car., fresh hoosiers...still on twins. More time in her though as the double koni's only leak oil when I lay them on the garage floor. In car camera at youtube....search for thunderhill rx7.

N

 

Shpnout- nice lines at Thill and you were hanging it out when you got loose decending the bypass. Pucker factor 1:55 is hauling serious ***.

I assume you are making about 350rwhp and weigh around 2300lbs? Can't wait to check out that car in person one day.

-Mark

 

Hey Mark,

HP about that and 2400lbs. +-......Hows the new car coming? Sell the old one?

 

At Nashville Superspeedway Labor Day weekend, I ran 1:06.1

 

The LS1/FD is still for sale. I haven't really formally advertised it. Not really wanting to sell it actually.

Your lap times are insane bro. Nice job. I want to be there with an additional 200rwhp+ and 305/18 fronts 335/18 rears.... on a street alignment too.

Project LS7/FD is still waiting to be formally started...... the LS7 engine has yet to be built/completed. Still deciding on a camshaft. I have a modified LS1/FD Kmember en route and need to modify my LS7 oil pan for clearance of the steering rack with an LS1 I have on an engine stand. Not looking forward to that solution as I'm pioneering that one.

 

WOW, best ever w/ an IT7 car was a 2:23 on the full course.

 

Had a great event at Trackmasters WGI last mon./tues. What happened to everyone who was going to show up?

 

Hey Pete, nice meeting you, hope all is working out with the car now that the wheels are pointed in the right direction...

 

I could not get "no cones" on the Instructor list (he has trailer for back up) so opted to go to Lime Rock on the 9/25.

 

I'd say you saved the week, I don't think any amount of screwing around with washers would've fixed that! Thanks again!

The thing hauled once I got the track wheels on. An early look at the few sessions I taped indicate that I should have a 2:14 or lower in there. My first flying lap on the first session I taped was as quick as my quickest from last year!