Nice what helmet did you go with?

 

SafeRacer had a nice sale on Bell Star GP Matte Black Special SA2010 Helmets, so I snagged one. I have a Shoei M-rated helmet I've used for a while that fits me perfectly, and is matte black, but I figured it was time to step up to something that wouldn't immolate my head in a fire.

 

Those are *****in helmets. Saferacer did have a sweet deal on them.{thumb up}Post pics when you get it!

 

Yup! Will do.

 

It's been a while since posting, but things have been crazy at work, plus I got the stomach flu, now followed with regular garden variety plague flu. FML. I'm hoping I will be nice and healthy next weekend which is my first HPDE of the year.

Last weekend I got the car cleaned up, and dropped off at Agile Auto for final preparation (adjusting seating position, heavier weight oil, mounting my fancy new custom billet tow hook). I got all my safety gear in as well, so I have a full set of CarbonX underwear, Sparco Sprint 6 2-piece suit, Nomex socks, Carmyth hood, HANS, and a brand new SAH2010 Bell helmet which to my delight came with HANS post holes. No need to use the baseplates or pull the interior padding up, you just screw the posts right into the side of the helmet. Done.

 

Cool helmet, bout time they started doing that. I have a VERY wide/large head so I have to try on one before I buy it. Currently using one of the XL SA2005 Pyrotecs with the "fancy" paint jobs and no top padding in order to fit my headsock and head in there comfortably. Make sure you wear it with the sock, sun glasses, and a pair of headphones/ear muffs cause all that stuff will eventually want to make it's way in there.

 

Yeah, I was playing around with it last night... hood, glasses etc on with helmet and HANS. My -only- complaint is something about how the front is designed it seems to funnel some of the breath up towards your glasses. Which sucks if you wear glasses that fog up and then you cannot see. It was really the hood that was causing the problem though... the only way I could get it to NOT fog my glasses is pulling the hood down to my lips leaving my nose uncovered.

 

It's been a busy season already, and I have been so slammed I haven't been putting much down in the thread. I'll try and give some better updates soon, but in the meantime, here is a quick video of one of my sessions at NJMP last weekend. I'm being trained by Frank Hart, a Grand Am driver with 3+ years of experience at Thunderbolt in everything from a B-Spec Mazda 2, to a Porsche Cayman Cup car. This was my first time at the track and we had a lot of sessions between us so I turned the wick way down to about 21 psi (normally run at 26). I'm running on NT05 street tires which is the main thing (intentionally) neutering the car right now.

http://youtu.be/OCXi6wgrMUQ

 

damn, thats one hell of a guy to have ride along with you.

 

very nice run. interesting how that lotus in the begining didnt stand a chance even in the tight turns area. but that civic in the end was pretty quick, wonder what it was running.

BTW, those are the loudest brake pads I have ever heard, lol

 

Yeah, its a huge advantage to learn from someone at his level instead of one of the usual club racer instructors. Even better, I've worked out a deal with Frank where he is co-driving the car this season and I ride shotgun to watch what he does. I can't tell you how much it improves my driving to see exactly what I'm supposed to be doing in my own car. It also keeps my ego welllllllll in check because I know for a fact right where my speed/skill level is lol.

Yeah, the biggest thing is that I was following the school/hpde line and focusing on being smooth and precise at 7-8/10ths partly because I want the correct habits and partly because I thought it was going to be my last session of the day and I wanted to bring the car back home right side up. The guy in the Civic was running his car to the edge and using something closer to the race line, using all the curb.

Frank wanted me to learn the school line first and show I could hit that consistently lap after lap. That means using all of the track, up to the first level of curbing, but not going onto the raised curbing which unsettles the car if you aren't hitting it exactly correct. Now, on his later laps on Sunday he was running the race line, using all the levels of curbing (and dirt in some cases :P) and was ludicrously faster than me. I'll post a video on YouTube later today of him running a session on the same day in the same car using the race line running down car after car in the instructors group... all of them on slicks. As I recall he got passed twice... one of them was a ******* Rolex Porsche Cup 911.

The other big thing in my laps that cut my laptime down a lot is there were a couple of corners I intentionally left the car in a lower gear. Turn 12 onto the front straight for example. That is a 5th gear turn. I know the car will easily handle that as Frank was hitting it at 115 mph during his sessions. I was closer to 100-105 on the limiter in 4th. The reason I intentionally left off a crapton of speed per lap there is turn 12 is a lot like turn 10 at Summit Point (my home track). I'm pretty comfortable with the turn and needed the least work there. It's also the fastest corner on the track, so its high risk if you really screw it up. When I go back to Thunderbolt I'll be much more comfortable with the course and turn it up a few notches and see what I can do when I'm hitting the curbing and pushing it a bit more through all the turns.

 

LOL, yeah, they quiet down a bit when you are really abusing them, but they are noisy as hell. DTC60s with DBA5000 rotors are definitely a bit screechy.

 

NIce video and congrats on getting such a good coach. What kind of times were the two of you putting down out there?

 

I will have to review the video actually, I'm not sure. I doubt my times were anything to write home about, but my biggest goal was to learn so I'm happy with my progress. I bet Frank's times were pretty reasonable considering the amount of traffic he had to plow through in the instructor group.

 

Also, one of Frank's friends is a media guy / photographer who was covering the event. He came over to the paddock to hang out with us and I decided to let Frank take him out for one of the instructor sessions. Mike (the photog) had only been for a ride-along once before, and Frank and I thought it would be cool to have him experience the real thing. I lent him my HANS and helmet and sent them out. It was a really weird experience watching your baby zoom by at 135 mph from the timing tower, but I trust Frank more with the car than I trust myself so I knew he would bring it back to me. Mike took some amazing pictures of the car through the weekend, and also wrote up this great article about his experience in the car.

http://windshadowstudios.wordpress.c...on-at-130-mph/