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| Watkins Glen International - 7-20-2020 |
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| Caymans, Caymans, everywhere |
I spent the better part of the first session just getting comfortable with the car on the track. It feels very different from my S2000. Power is obviously better but it doesn't have as much feedback throughout the chassis (mostly because my S2000 has spherical bushings everywhere). I was also trying to figure out the optimal gear to use for each corner. This is where I found the data from my newly acquired AIM Solo2 DL. I found it massively helpful on track to be able to see if the changes I was making at various corners were helping improve my predicted lap time.
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| AIM Solo2 DL |
Towards the end of my second session on the first day, I was noticing the brake pedal was feeling very spongy. As I was about to get into the final corner I could feel the pedal going to the floor so I made a quick decision to pit in. Turns out I had boiled my brake fluid (ATE) and basically had no brakes. Bad things could've happened if I attempted to barrel down the front straight at that point. Thankfully, The Little Speed Shop was there and they had the car flushed with fresh Motul RBF660 before my afternoon sessions and I didn't skip a beat. The RBF660 seems to be the ticket. I never had another case of brake fade or boiling fluid even though the ambient temperatures continued to rise the rest of the afternoon.
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| Brakes getting flushed with Motul RBF660 |
Despite the increasing temperatures in the afternoon, I no longer experienced any further brake fade and I'm glad to report my three CSF radiators did a great job of keeping my coolant temps in check, with me not seeing anything above 217F despite outside temps being in the 90s and running 25-minute sessions. On day 2, I only ran the morning sessions since I had to leave by noon. I was finally able to get a good clean lap without traffic and improve on my time from the previous day setting my personal best at 2:20:28. I was driving well within the limits of the car. Not once did it get bent out of shape and I left enough grip for error. The one thing that changes your mentality when you do track days in a car that you expect to drive to and from the event on its own power is that you're less likely to take risky moves to find a bit of extra time. Ok, maybe that's not true for other people, but that's certainly true for me.
Watkins Glen International - 2:20:28
Overall, it was a great event. Watkins Glen had very strict Covid-19 protocols and while that added to some extra effort from everyone, none of it really dampened the fun we had. I had loads of fun being on a familiar track enjoying such a fun car with a pretty good run group. I am a big believer in the mid-engine platform. The balance and control are really amazing and the more laps I turned the more I realized how superior it is. I will say, for a track like The Glen, having some aero could've helped. I felt I couldn't really go flat out up the esses as the front started to feel a bit light and was slightly pushy. I think some front aero to get that nose down would've helped quite a bit. The rear felt super planted though. Aero is not a direction I'm willing to take since this is not a dedicated track car and I'm not trying to win anything. I do, however, have some ideas about some brake improvements but that's for another blog post.
Setup Notes:
Front:
Compression: 6
Rebound: 11
Rear:
Compression: 9
Rebound: 8
