QR Sprints

[Timm]

Took the old girl out for her first sprint of the year at Queensland Raceway. It was a lovely cool day and she performed very well, managed to beat my old PB by over a second!

The telemetry isn't very accurate, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

[333pg333]

By over a second on the short layout is good going Timm. Well done! 

[Timm]

By over a second on the short layout is good going Timm. Well done! 

Thanks Patrick!

Here's some more footage from yesterday at Lakeside Park. This was my first proper sprint there, and I am really loving that track. Very challenging, but rewarding to learn.

 

 

[Rob]

Nice one Timm.  Make sub-60sec your target and see how you go.  Was that convertible you were about to swallow an MX5 with a wanker wing?

Edited 7May, 2017 by Rob
update

[Timm]

Haha, yeah big wing on the mx5 in front...but it was probably functional, being a track car. Sub 60 at lakeside is gonna be out of reach for a while I think. Would need a lot of practice, proper semi slicks, big brakes, less weight and a little extra power I reckon. For reference, these are the times the Porsche Club were doing in the morning. The fastest transaxle being a track prepped supercharged S2 on semi slicks with a 61.57. Only a couple of real race cars got under 60 secs.

 

[clutch-monkey]

that IROC car is pretty serious- it has a 58 sec lap in it for sure.

i reckon good semi slicks, some practice, and you'll easily get low 62s tim!

[Timm]

that IROC car is pretty serious- it has a 58 sec lap in it for sure.

i reckon good semi slicks, some practice, and you'll easily get low 62s tim!

Yeah, that thing was awesome!

62's are a realistic goal for me at the moment. I can't afford good tyres, but will get there with practice!

[Rob]

A few years ago, I seem to remember a club member, Craig Woodman, doing 60's in his supercharged 968.  He was pretty serious...

[333pg333]

Good going Timm. Yes, you're atop the slippery slope many of us were back when we had more hair and money! 

I can remember starting at a similar smallish track Wakefield Park and I think I did a 1:16 sliding around in the shiny stock but hard leather seats. Had bruising on parts of my legs just trying to wedge myself in there. But great fun too. Then it's "I need bigger...well...EVERYTHING!!" and so it began. Best time I've done is a 1:02 on the same track although the car has done a 58.7 so tread wearily while you still can!! 

[Timm]

Good going Timm. Yes, you're atop the slippery slope many of us were back when we had more hair and money! 

I can remember starting at a similar smallish track Wakefield Park and I think I did a 1:16 sliding around in the shiny stock but hard leather seats. Had bruising on parts of my legs just trying to wedge myself in there. But great fun too. Then it's "I need bigger...well...EVERYTHING!!" and so it began. Best time I've done is a 1:02 on the same track although the car has done a 58.7 so tread wearily while you still can!! 

Haha yes, that is so true. There is a lonnnnggg list of things I want to upgrade on that car. Proper race seats, 5 point harness and rear half cage are near the top. As you say, the stock seats are terrible for going fast in, at the moment the steering wheel is half for steering, and half for hanging on to  

[thumperson]

Very cool. Nice driving Tim. The clubman track at Ipswich is so much more fun than the big track but both pale in comparison to lakeside. 

Decent seat and lots of lightness might be a good first step maybe?

[Timm]

Very cool. Nice driving Tim. The clubman track at Ipswich is so much more fun than the big track but both pale in comparison to lakeside. 

Decent seat and lots of lightness might be a good first step maybe?

Thanks mate. Yeah I agree, we were on the national configuration for the Lemons 24hr and I much prefer the clubman. The sprint configuration is pretty fun too, but I haven't been on that since way back when I first got the car and it was still running narrow tires on the stock wheels.

Proper seats are a must at this stage I think, though unfortunately the 951 is at the bottom of my financial priorities at the moment, so further upgrades will need to wait a couple months. Also on the cards is a nice new after market turbo (not too big), standalone ecu with fuel pump and injector upgrades so that I can run e85 and more boost at the track. I also want to get some bigger sway bars and 928 GTS brakes. And yes, can't go wrong with adding lightness, at the moment she weighs in at right around 1300kg with a quarter tank of fuel and the spare tire and rear carpet removed. I reckon I could easily get that down to 1250 or less with some race seats, carbon fibre bonnet, manual sunroof conversion and a couple other little things here and there.

 

[thumperson]

Please excuse me as no offence intended at all but have you also considered some driver training? I have been around lakeside with a trainer and on some BMW track days and their lines are a bit different to yours. Is this when you tell me your real name is Dick Johnson? ?

[Timm]

Please excuse me as no offence intended at all but have you also considered some driver training? I have been around lakeside with a trainer and on some BMW track days and their lines are a bit different to yours. Is this when you tell me your real name is Dick Johnson? ?

None taken, im definitely no Dick Johnson :-D I did do a Paul Stokel day at QR and had Matt Campbell in with me for a couple laps. He showed me a good line around the clubman and helped me improve a fair bit. The lakeside video is from my first and only sprint there so far, so yes there is a fair bit of room for improvement on almost all of the corners, in particular coming down out of the eastern loop onto the main straight, and through past the bus stop.

[stress8all]

None taken, im definitely no Dick Johnson :-D I did do a Paul Stokel day at QR and had Matt Campbell in with me for a couple laps. He showed me a good line around the clubman and helped me improve a fair bit. The lakeside video is from my first and only sprint there so far, so yes there is a fair bit of room for improvement on almost all of the corners, in particular coming down out of the eastern loop onto the main straight, and through past the bus stop.

Not bad for first time there. I think your biggest chance to gain time is at Karussel. Enter from the middle of the track, use the first apex to push the car outward and line up for a late second apex up the hill. It'll net you a half second or more by the time you hit Hungry corner. One tip, be very careful hitting the crest before Hungry. Your line needs to keep as straight as possible when the suspension unloads, so that the back end doesn't suddenly snap out from under you. It's caught many, many people out.

For what it's worth, my PB around there is 61.55 in my NB MX5. It's got a wanker wing, DIY splitter, coilovers and Hankook Z214 twin groove tyres. It's still making factory power, even with a RacingBeat exhaust from headers back I expect it's just making back a few lost ponies from 18 years of wear and tear. Since it's only 106kW, getting lines as smooth as possible is the only way to get around the circuit quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzAQUpyB0k


I'm looking to buy a 987.2 Boxster S as a weekend car, at my wife's insistence. I don't know that I'll ever get permission to take it around Lakeside, but I will be interested to see how differently QR has to be approached with more power and less grip than the MX5.

[Timm]

Not bad for first time there. I think your biggest chance to gain time is at Karussel. Enter from the middle of the track, use the first apex to push the car outward and line up for a late second apex up the hill. It'll net you a half second or more by the time you hit Hungry corner. One tip, be very careful hitting the crest before Hungry. Your line needs to keep as straight as possible when the suspension unloads, so that the back end doesn't suddenly snap out from under you. It's caught many, many people out.
For what it's worth, my PB around there is 61.55 in my NB MX5. It's got a wanker wing, DIY splitter, coilovers and Hankook Z214 twin groove tyres. It's still making factory power, even with a RacingBeat exhaust from headers back I expect it's just making back a few lost ponies from 18 years of wear and tear. Since it's only 106kW, getting lines as smooth as possible is the only way to get around the circuit quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzAQUpyB0k


I'm looking to buy a 987.2 Boxster S as a weekend car, at my wife's insistence. I don't know that I'll ever get permission to take it around Lakeside, but I will be interested to see how differently QR has to be approached with more power and less grip than the MX5.

Nice! You're really hammering around the whole back half of the track, I love it. I see you have a  much quicker exit out of the karussel than me, so definitely room for improvement there for me. You also take a much tighter line through the eastern loop. I'm keen to give those things a shot next time I'm out there. I imagine a stock 987 might be a fair bit slower than your mx5 through the corners, until you put on some track tires and after market coilovers.

[stress8all]

I don't think the boxster will ever be in a state to corner as quickly as the NB. No plans to modify it, certainly no plans to push my luck at Lakeside lol. That's what the NB is for Back when I had semislicks on before the twin grooves, I used to chase Steve's 981 Boxster S at mx5 club days. The differences are pretty evident in this video:

 

I intend to bring the 987 to an mx5 club day at QR so I can chase him with a bit more power on tap. No amount of corner grip can make up for power at a straight line track like QR, so he always gets away from me there. 

[Timm]

Had my first sprint of the year last month. My driving was a bit rusty, but new tyres and bigger brakes made up for it, and I knocked 0.3 seconds of my PB. I also had a lot of fun trying to keep up with a very quick Evo 8 MR...here's some video.

 

 

[brian in buddina]

good work Timm

How was the car going?

Did you make any chassis adjustments for the track session? 

What is the limiting factor, besides hp? What did you come away with thinking that needs attention - to the car?

 

[Timm]

17 minutes ago, brian in buddina said:

good work Timm

How was the car going?

Did you make any chassis adjustments for the track session? 

What is the limiting factor, besides hp? What did you come away with thinking that needs attention - to the car?

 

The car is going great. I don't make any adjustments for the track...I have a slightly aggressive alignment that is a compromise between track and street settings.  The PO installed some bilstein coilovers, but I feel they are too soft for the grip that I now have, so the car rolls a lot and I feel that that is limiting my handling at the moment. So, suspension wise, I'm planning to get some stiffer coilovers, and at the same time I'm gonna give my all my bushings some attention as well. Before that though, I want to install the VEMS ecu and bigger turbo that I recently acquired....which should give her a little more poke on the straights.

 

[brian in buddina]

 

Timm

Are you refering to your front coil overs? do you know what your existing front springs rated? and what are you thinking of going to?

Do you have coil overs in back?  

What have you got for sway bars front & rear? Are they stock?

[Timm]

2 hours ago, brian in buddina said:

 Timm

Are you refering to your front coil overs? do you know what your existing front springs rated? and what are you thinking of going to?

Do you have coil overs in back?  

What have you got for sway bars front & rear? Are they stock?

I have coilovers front and rear, though the rears are working in conjunction with the stock torsion bars. Unfortunately I don't know the springrates, but I'd guess they are around the 5kg/mm in the front, and whatever balances that in the rear. They are awesome for street use, but they are a little to soft for track work with big sticky tyres. I'd like to upgrade to 8kg fronts and 12.5kg rears (with torsion bar delete) as I think that is about as stiff as you can go and still have some measure of comfort on the street. Currently I have a 26.8mm front sway bar and 18mm rear...I'd love to upgrade to the 30/19mm combo, but the pricing on those is insane. Here's a video from my mate following me at a track day last year, to give you an idea how much my car rolls. You can see it also dives and squats quite a lot under braking/acceleration.

 

 

 

 

[brian in buddina]

Timm

How do your front spring rates compare to whats listed on Clarks Garage? Are your front springs what came stock on the car? Do they have the white dot or dots painted on them?

Do you know if its possible to modify the existing sway bars to increase their stiffness? Either by changing the mounting points, different drop link, or adding a section of material to the lever arm? 

Build your own stiffener bracket for the front sway bar mounting points, which are known to bend under loading.I'm not sure if its an issue in the rear.

I'm sure all this would have been all done before.

A home made solution as opposed to big dollar cost buying.

[Timm]

2 hours ago, brian in buddina said:

Timm

How do your front spring rates compare to whats listed on Clarks Garage? Are your front springs what came stock on the car? Do they have the white dot or dots painted on them?

Do you know if its possible to modify the existing sway bars to increase their stiffness? Either by changing the mounting points, different drop link, or adding a section of material to the lever arm? 

Build your own stiffener bracket for the front sway bar mounting points, which are known to bend under loading.I'm not sure if its an issue in the rear.

I'm sure all this would have been all done before.

A home made solution as opposed to big dollar cost buying.

Nah they aren't the stock springs, they are stiffer than stock, just not as stiff as I'd like. The suspension stuff on Clark's is a bit old school I think...you can get better coilovers these days that are adjustable and are valved in such a way that they can still be comfy with much stiffer springs.

Not sure on the diy sway bar stiffening...I'll look into it. I do know of the stiffener brackets for the mounting points though, I will definitely be putting those in at some point.

[symsy]

On 3/4/2018 at 4:26 PM, Timm said:

Had my first sprint of the year last month. My driving was a bit rusty, but new tyres and bigger brakes made up for it, and I knocked 0.3 seconds of my PB. I also had a lot of fun trying to keep up with a very quick Evo 8 MR...here's some video.

 

 

Nice work