COTA, Cold and Wet

[xcarguy]

Cold, wet weekend with Chin Motorsports at COTA on the 15th and 16th. The track remained damp and slick the entire weekend (rained every session) with temps on Saturday never rising above 45ᵒF. Sunday wasn't much better with temps topping out at around 50. Fog, mist, rain, cool temps and overcast kept the track moist and cold; getting heat in the tires was pretty much an impossibility. During session three of my run group on Sunday, we had a couple of descent laps when the wind picked up a bit and the track began to dry. This lasted till around mid-session as the rain returned and track conditions deteriorated rapidly. :cuss: I ran the entire weekend on Avon A11 compound slicks; cold tires and a wet track made for some interesting laps for all. Lots of spins during the weekend; surprisingly, I wasn’t one of them. :ack: I also had some data logging and sync issues with my Traqmate setup; as the video progresses, the blue dot on the track map steadily outpaces my car a bit more with each lap.

 

Despite the rain and Traqmate issues, COTA was a blast. The track and facilities were superb, to say the least, and the folks from Chin were excellent hosts. Being that it was two weeks after F1, lots of temporary structure was still being disassembled (you can see some of this throughout the video in the way of viewing stands, portable buildings, etc.). I have a new-found appreciation for what it takes to 'ready' a track for F1.

 

In the end, lots of bench racing was done, many lies were swapped and multiple pots of coffee were consumed all while new friendships were forged and memories were made.

 

:cheers:

 

Edited December 25, 2014 by xcarguy

[MightyMike]

Excellent driving Shane! My Storker likes to get sideways at those temps.

[yellowss7]

Shane, it looks like once again you were the Big Dog on the track. Those Porkers didn't look like they wanted any part of you. Well Done! Tom

[toedrag]

Great video, Shane! Sorry about the poor conditions. I like how you edited in the rear-facing views near the turns.

 

What a glorious sound!

[Croc]

....as the video progresses, the blue dot on the track map steadily outpaces my car a bit more with each lap.

 

This is the predictive lap feature of Traqmate. Its showing how fast you would be if you were any good!

 

Good video to watch. Having seen it I am disappointed in the track. It really comes across as point and squirt. It does not flow to any great degree. This is no criticism of your driving but really is criticising the way Tilke designs shit road courses these days. All the challenge seems to be taken out of them. What do you think Shane since you drove it?

[S1Steve]

Hi Shane,

Nice driving on your part, thanks for the Video.

 

Steve

[xcarguy]

This is the predictive lap feature of Traqmate. Its showing how fast you would be if you were any good!

 

 

LOL! Now I’m really confused. Don’t know if I was getting slower or better.

 

 

Good video to watch. Having seen it I am disappointed in the track. It really comes across as point and squirt. It does not flow to any great degree. This is no criticism of your driving but really is criticising the way Tilke designs shit road courses these days. All the challenge seems to be taken out of them. What do you think Shane since you drove it?

 

 

Mike,

 

In short, I have to agree; the track just doesn’t flow. However, for the sake of discussion, let’s divide the track into two distinct sections and do a bit of dissecting. I’ll refer to any combination of turns within a section as a segment.

 

Think of section one as the momentum section, with it beginning at the corner-exit phase of turn one and ending at the corner-entry phase of turn eleven. While some might want to argue my choice and say that the momentum section truly begins somewhere around turn two and terminates at turn nine, I’ll leave it as is for the sake of simplicity.

 

Although not without its technical challenges, section one is, in my humble opinion, the most fluid portion of the track and the friendliest to drivers of small, lightweight cars. In this section—with the exception of the downhill run from turn one to turn two and the doglegged straight defined by turns nine, ten and eleven—momentum pretty much rules. On this section of the track, turns three through nine ended up being my most favorite segment, especially the esses (turns three, four and five along with the beginning of six). The most technical segment of this section is found in turns six through nine. Along the apex-to-exit of turn nine, there is a slight dip (drops off to the left) and then a slight hump (off camber to the right). Negotiate this area wrong and you upset the car (revisit 17:15 to 17:23 on my video). Get turn eight wrong and you will more than likely will get turn nine wrong. Get turn seven wrong and you’ll probably botch eight. Get turn six wrong and you will most assuredly screw up seven. Negotiating turn six properly, therefore, ends up being very crucial to the transition from the exit of turn eight to entry of turn nine. And turn six can be somewhat tricky; you’re just coming out of the esses and have a good grove going on and all of the sudden you come off the first apex of six and the track drops away to the right. I think of six as having a double apex with the second requiring the driver to tighten up the turn in order to set up properly for the entry into seven. Turn eight can be a bit intimidating, especially when the track is wet. It’s a right-hand uphill 90 degree off-camber turn. The best turn eight-to-turn nine transition is to stay close to the rumble strip until the very top of turn eight (end of the rumble strip). Because of turn eight being off-camber (and the track, wet), I had a tendency to transition too early (again, see video clip) which resulted in upsetting the car in, and on the exit of, nine.

 

I’ll define section two (again, for the sake of discussion) as beginning at the mid-corner phase of turn eleven and ending at the mid-corner phase of turn one. This is definitely the point and squirt section of the track where torque and horse power are much more likely to dominate. On this section of track, I found turns twelve, thirteen and twenty to be the most deceiving. While the rain and lack of traction perpetuated the problem, I seemed to try and carry too much speed (for the wet conditions) through these corners. It was never intentional; these three corners simply seemed to tighten up quicker than expected, no matter what entry and/or exit I used. As for turn fifteen, I think it was designed on a Friday evening at five-o’clock by a disgruntled engineer who had one too many beers the night before. Turns sixteen, seventeen and eighteen remind me of the bowl at NJMP Lightning; although not banked, you can carry a lot of speed through this trio of turns. On this section of track, turn nineteen ended up being my favorite single turn; slightly downhill of-camber left-hander. I’d heard/read about drivers having trouble finding grip in nineteen, but my car seemed to set up fairly well which left me feeling relatively comfortable all the way through the turn. Coming off the straight and running uphill twelve stories to turn one allows for really late braking (obviously). However, at the top of turn one is a crest which was the cause of many a spin on the exit. During my last session, I exited out of turn one to find a Radical sitting off to my right with his nose pointed back at me. If a car hasn’t finished taking a set prior negotiating the turn one hump, the result will pretty much be a spin, especially if the track is wet.

 

Where the segments of track between turns one and two and the dogleg (nine through eleven) in the momentum section are torque and HP friendly, the segment of track defining turns fifteen (exit) through twenty (entry) in the point and squirt section are somewhat momentum friendly.

 

When it’s all said and done, I’d like to revisit COTA and run the track under better (dry) conditions.

 

 

I suppose a track map might help :banghead:

Edited November 23, 2014 by xcarguy

[xcarguy]

Hi Shane,

Nice driving on your part, thanks for the Video.

 

Steve

 

 

Steve,

 

How are you and the orange beast? I still want my ride.

[Croc]

In short, I have to agree; the track just doesn’t flow.

 

That was a really good write up and helped me put the video into some context with the track map. Some of the bumps you mention are not obvious on the video unless you know exactly what you are looking for. Also because you avoided certain parts of the track I did not understand why but I do now.

 

I guess I would change turn 11 to make it less of a hairpin and something more interesting, graduated transition. Turns 12 to 15 are the biggest problem. I guess what works for Formula 1 does not work for everyone else. I would scrap those corners for something completely different if I had my way.

 

But alas I do not have my way so are left to see the folly that is a modern formula 1 circuit in these days. I guess this is why drivers love places like Spa, Monaco, Hungaoring, Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and hate the modern circuits like Abu Dhabi, Sochi, Korea, COTA where a formulaic approach to circuit design proves boring.

[xcarguy]

. . . . the folly that is a modern formula 1 circuit . . . .

 

 

Mike,

 

You truly summed it all up with 'formula 1'. :iagree:

[xcarguy]

Excellent driving Shane! My Storker likes to get sideways at those temps.

 

Mike,

 

With the LS3 under the bonnet, I don't think your Storker cares what the temps are outside; sideways is an expected standard when you tickle the go pedal. :Chevy_anim:

[xcarguy]

Shane, it looks like once again you were the Big Dog on the track. Those Porkers didn't look like they wanted any part of you. Well Done! Tom

 

Tom,

 

Me thinks the roll bar fairings worked.

[xcarguy]

What a glorious sound!

 

A sound you will soon be experiencing. :Chevy_anim:

[xcarguy]

......any or you guys who ran at NJMP in July (USA7's) know this car? It was at the NJMP event that weekend and was also in my run group at COTA.

[Croc]

I have seen the Porker before but no idea as to the driver. Wondering it if it is the one that once left 3 laps of coolant on Thunderbolt once and shut down the day? It was a 930/935 type of thing with a wing too big for itself.

[Mondo]

Man, gotta luv that V8 for the reduced amount of shifting