Teesside Autodrome - Evening Trackday 06-07-2020
Due to the new Covid19 rules, the track stated that the gates open from 4pm and will be closed off approx 4:30 once everyone who's registered online has entered the paddock before briefing at 4:45pm
I normally finish work at 5pm but asked boss to finish at 4:30 tday.
It's been an unusually busy day at work delivering stuff to garages due to the relaxed lockdown in July and with a spike of orders all over Middlesbrough near 4:15 I was getting stressed at how late I'm gonna be.
Jamie from "Lets Torque Cars" was meeting me outside the venue gates, I told him to ask if the guy could hold the door till I get there bout 4:45 and guy said he'll hold it till 4:50 before briefing.
I got back to the shop at 4:35, jumped in my car and shot off to the track!
arrived at the track just in time, collected Jamie and unloaded my stuff in the pits. ?
There was soo much stuff to prep/setup but there simply wasn't enough time before we had to goto briefing and begin the sighting lap.
I didn't have time to swap to the semi-slicks, the track started off as slightly moist and was curious how these normal tyres cope with the heat compared to the rubbish T1R's, so I decided to leave them on and set their pressure similar to the T1R to begin with.
I only had enough time to replace the camera AA batteries, lower the tyre pressures, stiffen the dampers and lock the seat belts. rush rush
Car setup / changes
Since my last trackday in march 2019 with the turbo Micra, the differences tday are:
- 2.25" N/A exhaust
- normal open-diff
- normal GTIR disc & pad compound
- stiffer 6/5kg front/rear spring rates
- 2.0deg camber
- 0.0deg toe
- longer lower suspension arms & ball-joint extension to correct the geometry
- stiffer upper strut brace
- lighter solid bucket seat
- deleted sunroof
- total weight 825kg
The purpose of tday is to gather data about how she performs running N/A, lighter & stiffer compared to when she ran turbo,
and see how these Falken ZE310 eco tyres perform compared to the previous Toyo T1R.
#17:00 Warm up lap
15/30 dampers
60/40 brake bias
75% fuel
Falken ZE310 tyres
2.35/2.7bars cold pressure
Initial steering entry with 0deg toe feels sluggish, it needs more toe-out.
@1:10 check steering ain't loose, tyre feel
@1:27 trolley jack clunking in boot
@1:30 check steering is centered
@3:05 realising jack is in the boot
With the car warmed up, the new welded longer lower arms hasn't snapped, the rerouted throttle cable hasn't jammed, removed the trolley jack out the boot, fitted all the cameras with 8 new AA batteries for each run which is a PITA, checked the setup, 30min later we were finally ready for the first run with these Falken tyres.
#17:30 Run 1
Falken ZE310
2.35/2.70bar cold
2.70/2.90bar hot
15/30 damper
60/40% brake bias
dry warm track
75% fuel
Riding with Jamie
@1.22 cold rear tyres locking up
@1.47 braking too early at 100m, 3rd gear rpm through the 180 bend is too low for NA
@2.05 3rd gear rpm too low
@2.19 very bumpy hairpin
@2.23 locking rear wheel again
@2.35 moved brake bias forward
@3.25 less rear wheel lock up
@3.30 low speed understeer, lack of LSD traction at exit
@3.45 letting faster Clio pass
@3.50 2nd gear at 180 bend gives better corner exit rpm
@4.07 2nd gear at first bend helps turn-in & corner exit rpm
@4.50 braking later at 50m
@6.20 little flick to help turn-in at hairpin
@6.50 overtaking clio that's pitting-in
@7.20 allow caterham to pass
Lap Times:
1.03
1.02
1.02 allow clio pass
1.01
1.00
1.00
The Falken ZE310 tyres performed really well and surprised it hasn't degraded neither shredded it's rubber as badly as the T1R but began to slip more near the end of the run after 7mins, excellent tyre
Time to swap over to the Federal semislicks, should've brought oven gloves to handle to toasty hot wheel nuts ? ?
#18:38 Run 2
Federal 595 RS-R
2.20/2.40bar cold
2.70/2.70bar hot
15/30 damper
67/33% brake bias
dry warm track
70% fuel
Riding with Jamie
@0.24 cold & old semi-slick rear tyres were a bit slippery
@1.34 cold semislick tyre wheel spinning
@4.52 left foot braking hard at 180 bend but 3rd gear rpm is too low
@5.41 move brake bias back to 60/40%
@7.24 braking after the bump crest reduces wheel lock up
@8.34 passing white integra
@9.19 stuck behind boxster
@10.22 loose glovebox
@11.34 black octavia wheel spinning
@11.55 black octavia taking a slow odd wide line?
@12.21 black octavia doesn't understand the "overtake on left" rule
@12.59 black octavia cornering very wide?
@13.41 loose glovebox
@14.01 black octavia cornering too wide and too deep
@14.31 again black octavia incorrectly indicating left to overtake ?
@14.47 loose glovebox again
@17.14 backing off from slow octavia
@17.59 resume catching the black octavia
@18.34 already caught up to octavia ?
@19.44 cool down
Lap Times:
1.03 allow pass
1.01 allow pass
0.59 allow pass
0.58
0.59
0.59
1.00 allow pass
1.00 traffic
1.03 traffic
1.01 traffic
1.03 traffic
1.03 traffic
1.02 traffic
1.02 traffic
1.01 traffic
1.03 traffic, back off octavia for space
1.03 back off from octavia
1.00 traffic
The standard GTIR front discs & pads were starting to get abit spongy when hot compared to the Black Diamond Predator FT pads
#19:25 Run 3
Federal 595 RS-R
2.70/2.70bar hot
15/30 damper
60/40% brake bias
dry warm track
60% fuel
Riding with Jamie
Notice the rear wheels no longer lift as much through the corners due to the corrected suspension geometry & stiffer springs
@3.43 abit too close to the apex
@4.39 braking later at 50m, cornering at 50mph
@5.38 brake much later at 45m
@5.53 beginning to go full throttle at 1st corner
@6.33 left foot brake at 50m, forgot to downshift ?
@7.49 throttle too early into the chicane
@8.46 3rd gear WOT through 1st corner is more stable
@9.43 sliding the rear after trail braking into chicane
@9.58 passing green jag
@10.23 naughty jag passing & braking on the right hand ?
@11.40 left foot braking understeer at chicane
@12.53 jag exiting too wide
@14.20 braking really late at 35m, pedal feel slightly soft, cornering at 55mph
@14.47 jag exit wide again ?
@15.03 passing Citreon
@16.23 passing Boxster
@16.38 passing MX5
@16.58 jag wanting to pass
@17.13 jag overtaking on right side ?
@21.13 tyres getting hot
@22.26 Clio going abit wide at chicane
Lap times:
0.58
0.59
0.58
0.58
0.59 allow pass
0.59 missed gear
0.58
0.57
0.58
1.00 jag undertake
0.57
0.58
0.57
0.58
0.59 traffic
0.59 traffic
1.01 traffic
0.58 traffic
0.59 traffic
0.59 traffic
0.59 traffic
0.59 traffic
Overall it's been a very successful evening testing Kassandras new setup,
she hasn't broken anything,
was quite economical on fuel,
Falken tyres were gr8,
solid bucket seats held me very firmly but the sides were bruising my thighs/knee and needs more cusioning,
but most of all me & Jamie had a lot of bloody fun thrashing through the corners ????
It took me a few days to fully recover from the exhaustion & aching whilst still going to work ?
Here's a quick summary of how the trackday evening went
