Daytona Track Day
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:16 pm
I did a track day at Daytona last Friday. It sure is an impressive place to be when you are a car guy.
The morning was nice a little cloud and a nice breeze to keep the heat under control. This was only my second trip to the track so it is still a little intimidating.
The new motor has around 400 miles or so on it so I figured it was ready for a track day (didn't really matter if it was ready or not I was ready). The new motor performed very well. I could tell it has more HP than the old one. Even thou I didn't push things to the max (read that as not holding it to the floor on the banking) it got to near my 6000 red line in 4th gear lots faster than the old one. I'm sure that if I had the nerve it would have pulled in 5th gear overdrive but I left it in 4th.
The group of cars was diverse with good road race cars practicing for race day and lots of Miata's the Miata's were quick in the corners but no go on the banks. I have to admit that I was a little timid in the corners, more so that my other trip to the track. Don't really know why I just didn't feel comfortable attacking the turns. I have the iRacing sim program on my computer and I had been playing with it all last week. And I crashed in the turns trying to push the Sim car deeper into the corners a lot. I think that by crashing in the Sim it made me more gun shy of going hard in the Cobra other than helping me go faster. It did help me with the track lay out as I didn't get lost while on the track and knew what corners were coming up next.
I was a good sport and let most of the Miata's go on by even thou I had to back off in the banking to keep from running them over.
The first 2 sessions went by easy. It clouded up and had lightning before the 3 session. They held the session up for about a 1/2 hour. The lighting passed but the rain was still out there so they let the session go out. I looked at the radar and the storm just over the airport and decided not to go out. Not having a roof and not wanting to be on a wet track I choose not to try it. As it worked out they got in the session even thou it was a little short, but I loaded up came on back to the house. Still a good day and nothing broke or crashed.
I do have video but I mounted the iPhone clamp to the windshield, that turned out not to be the best spot so the video is very shaky. Here is one of the laps. Top speed is showing 139 but I think I will call it 140....sounds much cooler. As I go thru the laps and find another one that looks good I'll post it.
Ken
As always click on the "gear" in the lower right and chose 720HD resolution
https://youtu.be/-UpNAEoe7NA
The morning was nice a little cloud and a nice breeze to keep the heat under control. This was only my second trip to the track so it is still a little intimidating.
The new motor has around 400 miles or so on it so I figured it was ready for a track day (didn't really matter if it was ready or not I was ready). The new motor performed very well. I could tell it has more HP than the old one. Even thou I didn't push things to the max (read that as not holding it to the floor on the banking) it got to near my 6000 red line in 4th gear lots faster than the old one. I'm sure that if I had the nerve it would have pulled in 5th gear overdrive but I left it in 4th.
The group of cars was diverse with good road race cars practicing for race day and lots of Miata's the Miata's were quick in the corners but no go on the banks. I have to admit that I was a little timid in the corners, more so that my other trip to the track. Don't really know why I just didn't feel comfortable attacking the turns. I have the iRacing sim program on my computer and I had been playing with it all last week. And I crashed in the turns trying to push the Sim car deeper into the corners a lot. I think that by crashing in the Sim it made me more gun shy of going hard in the Cobra other than helping me go faster. It did help me with the track lay out as I didn't get lost while on the track and knew what corners were coming up next.
I was a good sport and let most of the Miata's go on by even thou I had to back off in the banking to keep from running them over.
The first 2 sessions went by easy. It clouded up and had lightning before the 3 session. They held the session up for about a 1/2 hour. The lighting passed but the rain was still out there so they let the session go out. I looked at the radar and the storm just over the airport and decided not to go out. Not having a roof and not wanting to be on a wet track I choose not to try it. As it worked out they got in the session even thou it was a little short, but I loaded up came on back to the house. Still a good day and nothing broke or crashed.
I do have video but I mounted the iPhone clamp to the windshield, that turned out not to be the best spot so the video is very shaky. Here is one of the laps. Top speed is showing 139 but I think I will call it 140....sounds much cooler. As I go thru the laps and find another one that looks good I'll post it.
Ken
As always click on the "gear" in the lower right and chose 720HD resolution
https://youtu.be/-UpNAEoe7NA