yellowss7

Honestly, it sounds more like a circus than a nice track day. Michael, how many cars on track for a usual session in the past? Tom

Thanks, DR. Since as Mike says only 2 turns on TBolt are possible at 100+mph, the benefit vs cost may not be worth it. As there is usually a drag penalty too, it may actually be a real negative as my 195bhp is no where near the SUPER Powerful engine that the driving gods like Mike and Mike and Karl have.:puke:I'll wait for Croc and Karl to test them out before I join the Carbon Tart club. :jester: Tom

Just curious, since I don't drive at F1 speeds like Croc, what effect would the front wing have on front end downforce on a normal lap at TBolt at NJMP? End of Front straight top speed of say 120mph into a right hand 65-72mph turn and the right hand turn onto the front straitght at say 100mph. Maybe turn 4 at Tbolt, say entrance at 80 mph. Other than that most speeds are sub 100 going into turns of 60 or less. I find it hard to imagine that the downforce at those relatively low speeds would enable significantly higher speeds in the turns or I am wrong? Of course my Clamshell front wing would certainly create way more lift than any size wing could offset.:ack::rofl: Tom

An excellent present:driving:it is. I'm looking forward to the 2012 season. As for the keeping up portion. I'll have to try driving harder not to let you lap me. Tom

Mazda, I certainly hope that you will make the effort to get it done in time for our Spring Trackday event. Hopefully, you and Al will both have your cars ready by then. :driving: Tom

Went to the Cars and Coffee today here in West Chester, Pa. Not a huge turn out, mostly Ferraris, Porsches and three Loti, an old Elan, an Esprit and an Elise. ( I left my 7 home, as it was only 32F when I went) The new McLaren made an appearance. After the initial buzz, almost no one even bothered to look at it twice. Price tag $288K. Not as sexy as a Ferrari 458 IMO. Engine bay is blah, interior is spartan. Front view is eh. Scissor doors are the only attraction. It better be a great track car because it reminds me of how bland the NSX looked next to the Ferraris of the day. Just my opinion. Tom

This year was the last year for the SA2000 helmets. I have to get a new one as mine was a 2000 too. SA2005 or SA2010 are required. Must be full shield too if I remember correctly. Arm Restrainst aren't required but recommended. Brake lights must work. Battery tie down secure. They will check that the tires aren't corded. They will check that you don't have any leaks, that your wheels/bearings don't have any play. I don't belive they check on the date of your harnesses but may check that they aren't frayed. You are responsible for the general tech of your car. Brake pads and Fluid. Bonnet catches must be secure. Long pants are required. That's about it. Tom

If this is your race car, there is NO WAY I'm getting on the track with you in my 7. :willy_nilly: That's waaay too much metal around you. Can you say MAD MAX. :driving: [/url]

Great premise, and I too would be seriously distracted, but watching it I noticed that every guy wore his watch on his right wrist, which would signify that they were left handed, but all of them were holding the beer with their right hand. Probably a set up, but who cares.:drool: Tom

Dermot, we will certainly try to get another Day on the track in the spring, hopefully with alot more 7s this time. Of course you will be included in our esteemed group. We'll have to see how many are interested as we could have the option of renting the track ourselves if we can get suffienct numbers. Otherwise, we will probably run with the SCDA group again. Hope to see you in the spring. Tom

A new set of Hoosier slicks, a new2010SA compliant helmet, a HANS device. It's all for my safety honey, honest!:driving: Tom

Despite all the claims about lift with the clams, I've never thought that the car felt like it was unstable due to lift. Although on the Sunday session at lightning, there was a little wind kicking up and coming down the straight the wind actually turned my head/helmet and the car definately moved a bit sideways. But that was due to a crosswind gust. The Slicks were definately at the end of their useful life as I felt like I did 4 wheel drifts thru some of the tighter turns. That being said though, Mike and Mike both have Waaaay bigger balls than I do. They are fearless, while I on the other hand have no desire to actually find the limit of my car's capablilities. I'm just out there having fun. :cheers: Tom

Very nicely done Mike!:hurray: It's amazing to see how much speed you carry thru turn 4 on TBolt. You definatly have that corner nailed. Your car also pulls really strongly up the hill on the back straight, Much faster than I can get there. Yeah, one or twice a year is not enough. We have to do this more often. This only shows the driving. The banter takes the experience to a completely different level. :party: Tom

After 4 trackdays this year following Kitcat and Croc, both of whom use everybit of the track, and throw up copious amounts of dust, grit and stones,:smash: plus about 10 or more other days, I just spent about 2 hours changing out the slicks for the street tires and cleaning off all the accumulated rubber and crap that covered the nose, bonnet, sides, front clams and rear wings. Now in full discloser, my 10 inch wide slicks probably were a big contributing factor to alot of the stuff on the rear wings, but the nose cone and clams had a fair share of other peoples rubber marks on them too. The nose and front edges of the clams took a fair peppering, resulting in quite a few chips. I am positive the clear gaurd would have prevented almost all of them as the rear wings and the carbon stone guards, which I had the 3m stuff applied to, were in really good shape comparatively. Tom

Croc and Kitcat are very good drivers and their cars are capable of staying with or being the fastest out there. However, when we watched the advanced group run, the comments from all of us was, "Holy Crap" !!! I don't think any of us would have enjoyed being out there with that run group for too long. The pace and the much later passing manuevers were intimidating to me. Make sure you run in a group/level that matches your skill and car's performance capability. Just my opinion. Tom

Excellent new avatar Mike:hurray: For those of you who can't make it out. After one of Mike's offs, he came back in with several clover leafs sticking out from between the rim and the tire. Obviously a souvenir from his gardening adventure. Lessons learned, if you want to run on the track with us you have to have a great sense of humor and thick skin as the wit is unrelenting.:jester: Tom

Karl, I may be interested in the avon slicks. What width rim are they speced for? I assume it is tires only not already mounted on rims, right? Tom

Mike as I came around that corner I saw the Flagger waving a yellow flag and I lifted off, There was some debris on the track from where someone had gone off, so they must have just pulled back on. Yeah I saw how close you got, Sorry. Being that the turn is extremely sharp, I had know Idea what was on the other side. Probably was Kitcat. ;>)

Mike, I just put my video clips in the mail to you. You should have it in a day or so. I have some footage similar footage of that green cayman as well. I like the GPS/Data overlay on your video. I didn't think my Clamshelled, little 195 hp car would hit 120 down the strait at TBolt. Cool. Glen does nice work doesn't he. Tom

Michael, I think they said it's about $9700-$10,000 or so to rent the track on a weekday. He quoted 8 thousand plus and then you have to have the flaggers etc. So for arguments sake round it out to $10K for a day. $20K for 2 days, one on each track. Yes Camping is allowed and there are hook ups for trailers/RV's at resonable rates. By my estimate, we would need about 40 drivers or so to make the cost reaonable, i.e. around $500 dollars for the two day track event per person. That's 40 7 owners who want to put their cars on the track. Of course we could do a Novice group that has a pace car to lead them around and no passing to start their first time track experience. I count about 20 in the area that either have done track days with us or who expressed interest in doing so. If all were able to make it we would still need at least 20 more. Do you think we can find 20 more that are up for it? As for dates, I'd have to check. But they did mention that they were doing a winter, $4999.00 special that if the weather looked good and there was no one else on the calendar we could do it. That makes the nut a lot easier, but we would have to do it on really short notice as the weather would be the key factor. I'll be glad to help pull it together if there is interest. Tom

Yeah, we are at lunch and sitting with one of the principle owners of the track, who says " I was in the tower watching as you went off in turn 7", and Mike replys, " Which time" :smilielol5::smilielol5:And then procedes to tell him of his other offs on the prior day. Meanwhile, I'm trying to kick him under the table to make him shut up. :deadhorse: Pretty funny. I'm sure they can't wait for your return Mike. :jester: Tom

We had a great weekend at the track. The weather was just about perfect. A little chilly on Saturday morning for the first session, but clear blue skys, about 60 by the afternoon. Mike had a little bobble on the first session that resulted in a bent rim and flat tire, (on the cool down lap no less:svengo:) Croc managed to stay out of the dirt both days, as did Karl, Ron and I. Mike on the other hand, had us covered as I think he made at least 2 or more surveys of the brown and green stuff at each track..:willy_nilly: Have to say that Mike is fearless and drives at 10 10ths most of the time. Mike disappered on the first yellow flag warm up lap. His response, I was going hard to get the tires up to temp:toetap05:. Ron, got a good two days of private lessons, and was really going strong by the end of today. Karl, Croc and I had a great last session where we chased each other for about 5 or 6 laps. We had one other track member with an R500 show up today, so we had 6 7s on track all day today. I'm whooped. Lots of fun. Now I just need to find another 75 to 90 horsepower so that I can hang with these big boys. My Little 1.8 liter motor is running hard to keep with them. That and some bigger balls and I might be able to keep up with them in the future. :jester: For the afternoon sessions, they combined the Intermidate and Advance groups and shortened the wait between runs, allowing us to effectively double up and run both sessions. Michael, at the year end party last night, we were already discussing our next BIG Seven's track event. Renting the track for our own group is possible, Maybe we could get another group to join us to help defray costs. Maybe a cobra club, or some other marque. Croc has some Video that I'm sure he'll post once he get's home. Kitcat headed back to Cincy, around 2:30pm so probably won't get in until midnight or so. Croc was driving his car back up to NYC and probably is still on the road. And Ron wins the diehard award. While the rest of us had had enough, and packed up. Ron headed back out for one last session. He should be about an hour so more on the road as he too drove his car to and from the track. The Banter at lunch dinner and between sessions is just as much fun as running together on the track. Can't wait for the spring!!! Tom

We had a great weekend at the track. The weather was just about perfect. A little chilly on Saturday morning for the first session, but clear blue skys, about 60 by the afternoon. Mike had a little bobble on the first session that resulted in a bent rim and flat tire, (on the cool down lap no less:svengo:) Croc managed to stay out of the dirt both days, as did Karl, Ron and I. Mike on the other hand, had us covered as I think he made at least 2 or more surveys of the brown and green stuff at each track..:willy_nilly: Have to say that Mike is fearless and drives at 10 10ths most of the time. Mike disappered on the first yellow flag warm up lap. His response, I was going hard to get the tires up to temp:toetap05:. Ron, got a good two days of private lessons, and was really going strong by the end of today. Karl, Croc and I had a great last session where we chased each other for about 5 or 6 laps. We had one other track member with an R500 show up today, so we had Six 7s on track all day today. I'm whooped. Lots of fun. Now I just need to find another 75 to 90 horsepower so that I can hang with these big boys. My Little 1.8 liter motor is running hard to keep with them. That and some bigger balls and I might be able to keep up with them in the future. :jester: For the afternoon sessions, they combined the Intermidate and Advance groups and shortened the wait between runs, allowing us to effectively double up and run both sessions. MichaelD, at the year end party last night, we were already discussing our next BIG Seven's track event. Renting the track for our own group is possible, Maybe we could get another group to join us to help defray costs. Maybe a cobra club, or some other marque. Croc has some Video that I'm sure he'll post once he get's home. Kitcat headed back to Cincy, around 2:30pm so probably won't get in until midnight or so. Croc was driving his car back up to NYC and probably is still on the road. And Ron wins the diehard award. While the rest of us had had enough, and packed up. Ron headed back out for one last session. He should be about an hour so more on the road as he too drove his car to and from the track. The Banter at lunch dinner and between sessions is just as much fun as running together on the track. Can't wait for the spring!!! Tom

Bad news Mike, the track said that since all of your trackday experience is with lower powered cars, they think that your new beast it too much of a quantum leap for you, so you will have to have your revs limited to 3500rpm and they want you to come in after each lap to check that you haven't crapped your pants. :willy_nilly::smilielol5::smilielol5: Yeah Croc, he's on a mission. I hope he doesn't get me kicked out for bringing a hooligan. Car looks very nice Mike. Can't wait to see it. Tom

Does it have a remote to start and stop it? If it's mounted to the rollbar It is not really accessible to reach up and turn it on when strapped in. Does it accept a Lanc remote? The new Plus has a 170 degree field of view, I wonder if it gives a fish eye look to the video. That's a pretty wide angle. Tom