I headed out to High Plains Raceway (HPR) in October to catch one last lapping day before winter. I was joined by Jonny V in his M Coupe, Frank in his M Roadster, and Casey in his E36 M3. It was a good crew to spend the day with. HPR divides drivers into two groups during open lapping days, a fast group and a slow group. The are no restrictions or qualifications to go in either group and open passing is allowed.
Pre-Dawn Drive to High Plains Raceway
High Plains Raceway Track Layout
Two other track days combined with a fair bit of go karting this year has really helped my driving. The karting, especially, has done wonders for my car control. A cold track on worn tires made the early sessions "dynamic", but I was able to keep the M Coupe on the track and the tail-sliding-hoonage to a minimum. Speed is the result of driving the proper line, smoothness, turn exit, turn entry, braking and acceleration. My speed has markedly increased at HPR, but there is always room to improve. Shifting needs the most improvement, partly because the steering wheel blocks my knee from a proper heel-toe angle and partly because I'm inconsistent in matching revs under varying degrees of braking. Turn 8 is the worst because it's the deepest braking turn. My turn-in and entry speed on the slower turns could also use some improvement. I'm entering too fast, provoking understeer and over-wearing my front tires. A more aggressive suspension would allow a more neutral set up and faster turn-in, but until that happens the fastest technique is slower turn entry.
Killing Tires
Random Tow Hook Cam Footage
In the last driving school I learned a lot about telemetry and how to interpret it. A GPS / OBDII Race Box type unit would be ideal, but I would have to settle for a high end iPhone app called Harry's Lap Timer. It features OBD II input, GPS, mapping, lateral and lineal acceleration, and video overlay. I recorded the data with my phone oriented vertically, so my friction circle is canted 90 degrees to the right, i.e. 12 o'clock which would be braking is at 3 o'clock, 3 o'clock which would be left turning is at 6 o'clock.
iPhone Held Perfectly Still for Accurate Data Recording
Max / Min Speed Data Overlay
Lateral G Overlay
One Lap w/ Data Overlay
(G Circle is rotated 90 degrees to the right)
As always, one of the best parts about open track days are the other cars. If you are a sports car enthusiast the paddock is just as exciting at the track. There were Spec Miatas, Vintage Race Cars, German Touring Class Race Cars, Formula Fords, Ferrari F430's, a Porsche 911 Turbo, Ford GT, and a slew of BMW's, and more.
Ferrari F430 Coupe and Convertible
Porsche 911 Turbo
Nissan GT-R
Ford GT
Well Prepped Acura NSX
V6 Twin Turbo Charged VW Beetle
Vintage MG Midget Race Car
Ferrari 330 P4 Replica
From what I can tell this is a Ferrari 300 P4 Replica. The Ferrari 300 P4 was a race car that duked it out with Ford GT40's in Le Man's in the late 60's. There were only 4 original race cars built by the factory. They command an incredible premium, which spawned a market of very high quality replicas made from original Ferrari parts.
The View from the Pits
GTS E36 M3
(my next car)
Expensive Gas
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