AROCA Sprints - Sandown Motor Raceway

Weather:
High of 15 degrees Celcius, rainy

The day ended early due to track being very wet.

Hot tyres pressures:
33 PSI front and rear, targeting 32 PSI

Suspension settings:
6/12 front, 6/12 rear

Difference in car setup:
New Shockworks suspension
Kumho V70A tyres
Lap times:
S1: 3:25.9025 1:41.8766 1:34.4478 1:32.3917 1:32.7185 1:31.8400 1:30.4173
S2: 1:45.1877 1:31.2483 1:30.8925 1:30.3069 1:31.0761 1:28.2336 1:27.6356 1:27.6489
S3: 2:08.0169 1:44.3176 1:38.0716 1:36.6967

Comparison with PB lap (1:27.16, lighter line):

Hi and lo speeds:

Video of the best lap:

WRX Club Sprints - Sandown

Weather:
Low of 13 degrees Celcius overnight and high of 21 degrees Celcius.

Lap times:
S1: 1:55.6669 1:32.9475 1:29.8159 1:28.8392 1:27.5932 1:34.2842 1:44.6094
S2: 1:29.3652 1:28.4596 1:27.2821 1:30.1213 1:27.1722
S3: 1:39.0041 1:30.6676 1:29.6469 1:32.9147 1:31.2102 1:29.0927
S4: 1:40.8814 1:30.4952 1:33.3158 1:36.8703 1:29.0361 1:29.2417
S5: 1:42.1064 1:29.7570 1:29.2776 1:28.5907 1:31.1239

Too much traffic (and drivers that don't heed blue flags) in sessions 3 to 5.

Comparison with previous PB:

High and low speeds:

Video of my new PB lap:

AROCA Sprints - Sandown

14th February 2015

Sandown - Valentine's Day Edition. The day started with a very wet track, having rained throughout the whole night and into the morning. The rain eventually subsided by the track dried up by around 11:00 after a few sessions worth of cars taking the racing line. The day then became very warm and humid, with ambient temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius.

The new parts in the car's setup were:

• RDA slotted front brake discs
• Project Mu HC+800 front brake pads
• 18 x 10J front wheels with 285/30 Hankook Z221 semi slicks (C70 compound)

The RDA disc brakes were great and held up well in combination with the brake pads in the hot temperatures. The most notable difference is how the car now handles with the wider tyres up front (up from 265/35R18). Now with 285 wide tyres all around, I noticed that the larger amount of front grip translates to feeling mid-corner where the rear of the car is seemingly at the limit of grip but then follows the front around the corner.

Below are the lap times for the day. Unfortunately, I did not beat my previous best time of 1:27.69 but I did learn that the potential of a faster time is now greater with the car's new setup.

Practice - Untimed
Session 1 - 1:59.0989 1:56.1098 1:51.6517 1:50.1842 1:54.0665 1:43.3011
Session 2 - 1:39.1209 1:37.8309 1:36.7610 1:34.9352 1:36.2855 1:38.3492
Session 3 - 1:37.2765 1:35.8748 1:36.1227 1:32.6068 1:34.9488 1:31.6475 1:33.3968
Session 4 - 1:30.4820 1:35.0791 1:32.2845 1:30.7166 1:28.6187 1:30.0778 1:28.2480
Session 5 - 1:32.6736 1:29.8638 1:28.2622 1:28.1247 1:27.9774 1:28.5248 1:32.4355
Session 6 - 1:32.8446 1:34.3082 1:29.5302 1:28.0986 1:27.7601 1:29.9723

As can be observed by the speed graph, I didn't beat my best time because I was let down by my top speed on the two straights.

What is interesting though, is that I drove faster through sectors 2, 4 and 5. Could this be attributed to the wider front tyres? Whatever it is, I'm happy there is plenty to be gained in the current setup as the theoretical lap time is now a low 1:26.

I'm looking forward to returning to Sandown when it's not so hot.

[Video] Sandown BONUS VIDEO

Note: Track day rules were NO overtaking on corners

AROCA Sprints - Sandown

21st September 2014

Thank you to Ying for this photo.

It's been a very long time since I last drove at Sandown, more than 2 years in fact. I was keen to get back to Sandown as the Z has changed in terms of its setup, so I signed up again for an Alfa Romeo club track day. Compared to last time, the Z is running soft Hankook Z221's and has the 1.5 way LSD, so theoretically should be faster straight away (all other things being equal).

The results of the day are below.

Session 1
This was a practice session and untimed. RaceChrono reported that I did a string of 1:29.xx laps.

Session 2
Achieved a new personal best lap time of 1:27.69 although the lap itself was not optimal as I had to overtake a Skyline off the racing line before a corner. See the video in my previous post.
1:51.0322 1:29.7741 1:28.8864 1:32.4086 1:31.9004 1:31.1671 1:28.5430 1:27.6940 1:28.2113 1:31.6460

Session 3
Too much traffic and couldn't find a clean lap.
1:52.2643 1:30.5932 1:32.0691 1:28.7007 1:31.8187 1:28.9151 1:29.6133 1:30.4816 1:28.6240

Session 4
Due to another car coming off the back straight and crashing into the barriers, the sessions in the afternoon had to be run under yellow flags at the corner after the back straight (possibly because the safety barriers were damaged). Thus we all couldn't run at 100% pace through that corner, resulting in me being about 3 seconds off the usual pace.
1:59.9605 1:35.0703 1:32.2190 1:33.0796 1:32.1231 1:34.0424 1:30.3375 1:30.6891 1:30.1433 1:33.2398

Even though there was at least one more session in the afternoon, I decided to call it a day and conserve tyres for Winton next month.

Looking at the comparison of speeds between my previous PB lap and the new one, we see that:

• The new setup helped to find speed through turns 4 and 6.
• The speed into turn 9 was affected by having to overtake the Skyline off line.
• I need to shift gears faster going up the back straight.

RaceChrono reports that I have a theoretical best lap of 1:26.6 so there is more potential in the car's current setup if I can get cleaner laps.

Left: 1:27.87 Right: 1:27.69

[Video] Best Lap at Sandown 21-Sep-2014

New Sandown PB - 1:27.69. Plenty more time to be gained, need to find laps without traffic. Thanks to JimJim for adding the telemetry.

State of the rubber

It looks like the Dunlop D03Gs (H1 compound) are well and truly end of life, the tread is now heavily uneven left and right. These have done 9 track days - 7 at Winton, 1 at Wakefield and 1 at Sandown.

The Hankook Z221s (C30 compound) appear to have had minimal wear after 5 track days - 2 at Winton, 2 at Sandown and 1 at Phillip Island.

Rear DBA rotor temperatures

The DBA rotors have three coloured stripes on the edge that change colour when they reach a certain temperature.

Temperature (degrees C)/Original colour/New colour:

• 458 / Green / White
• 550 / Orange / Yellow
• 630 / Red / White

Upon inspection of the rear rotors today, I found the following:

Left hand side - only the green stripe had turned white, orange and red unchanged.

Right hand side - green stripe had turned white, orange stripe had partially turned yellow and red was unchanged.

So far these rotors have done one track day at Phillip Island and one at Sandown - both tracks are high speed and run anti-clockwise. Whether track direction causes more brake usage on one side is still a question I need to find an answer for.

[Photos] Sandown 29th April 2012

Here are some great photos from Sandown by Dan Lee. Thank you.

The full album can be seen here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/104728463250082923536/albums/5737189767665671377

Kam's supercharged Z, mine in the background.

AROCA Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

I was back at Sandown again today for another try at a better lap time. Since the last time I was at Sandown, the parts on the car that are different are the DBA 4000 slotted rear rotors and the front brake pads. I fitted the Project Mu HC+ front pads again as the Project Mu Level Max900i pads were too harsh.

Session 1

1:50.9929 1:30.9017 1:33.7821 1:33.5591 1:30.2257 1:35.3221 1:35.8109 1:30.2612

Session 2

1:48.5825 1:32.8667 7:22.2710 1:48.5849 1:37.8147 1:36.6162 

Session 3

1:41.5749 1:33.2464 1:41.6169 1:32.1120 1:31.3743 1:33.3182 1:32.3516 

Session 4

1:52.8549 1:31.4204 1:30.0035 1:30.8259 1:31.9522 1:29.0031 1:27.8767 1:31.3727

This time around, there were many cars slower than mine in my run group. So the first three sessions were spent overtaking and not getting clean laps. Sessions 2 and 3 were especially frustrating as I was caught behind a Torana that was faster than the Z in a straight line but much slower in the corners. There was no way I could pass him as I didn't want to dive in under brakes on him during corners and he wouldn't let me pass on the straights. In session 4, I aimed to get out on to the track before the Torana by lining up early. Fortunately, the Torana was out in the session before mine with its second driver and did not join me for mine. I managed to get a few clean laps in and ended up with a new personal best time of 1:27.87.

From the speed graph, it looks like I found some time at turn 1, braking later at the end of the back straight (around the 100 metre sign), and turns 6 and 8. So overall, I'm very happy with the results today. Thank you to Exe Crew for coming along to drive and/or support. You know who you are.

Full event results: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?29/04/2012.SAN

[Photos] GorillaZ @ Sandown 18th September 2011

Here are a couple of pics from Sunday.

Thanks to Ying for this pic.

AROCA Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

Today I joined the Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia at their track day at Sandown. The weather was perfect - sunny and no rain in sight. I went to this track day not expecting much improvement (if at all), judging from my last visit to Sandown. The things that have changed on the car since last year are the Project Mu Level Max 900i brake pads and Project Mu brake fluid. In addition to that, the car now has the 265/35R18 Hankook Ventus TD Z221 semi slicks at the rear, compared to the 255/40R17 Dunlop D03G last year. I was to be pleasantly surprised.

Practice
1:51.2488 1:41.1170 1:42.3953 1:36.5952 1:32.5984 1:38.6449 1:33.8959

Session 1
1:40.9837 1:34.0626 1:35.7845 1:32.1095 1:31.2179 1:34.2567 1:35.2121 1:33.3627 1:56.8544

Session 2
1:32.0829 1:34.7989 1:31.8079 1:30.8023 1:31.0758 1:31.0492 1:32.6734 1:49.5718

Session 3 - New PB!
1:53.3659 1:32.2929 1:34.0607 1:29.9864 1:33.9377 1:29.7400 1:30.6694 1:32.3326

Session 4
2:05.5371 1:32.3262 1:32.1319 1:34.3576 1:35.8649 1:34.9616 1:35.3367

After the practice session, I was thinking whether I would actually improve today, with my best time for the session being 1 second off my PB of 1:31.6. Then, I was surprised that I actually beat my PB in session 1 with a 1:31.2. I realised that I was starting to get more things correct and I continued to try and go faster through turns 1 and 6, two areas that I identified as being particularly weak previously. In session 2, I was really starting to get into the rhythm for the day, the car felt very planted out of corners and the brakes were inspiring confidence. At the end of the session, I couldn't believe it - finally into the 1:30s, beating my PB again. In session 3, I worked on later braking for turns 1 and 6. For turn 6 I aimed to brake just after the 100 metre mark and maintain at least 130 KPH through the corner. This seemed to work as I ended the session with my new PB of 1:29.7. Session 4 was a write-off as I was stuck behind a "150kW at the wheels MX-5 race car" whose driver would pull away from me on the straights but could not get away from me through the corners. This was incredibly frustrating as the driver refused to yield and let me past. It's one thing to be fast in a straightline (the car), it's another to be able to be fast while cornering (the car AND the driver).

Anyway, an enjoyable day for the most part and I'm happy with the car setup. The front brakes performed consistently for almost the entire duration of the 12 minute sessions and the new semi slicks kept the rear end very stable out of corners. I'm happy.

Thanks for the company and also coming out to race Exe Crew.

Speed versus distance

Corner speeds

Full event results: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?18/09/2011.SAN

Crack Whores

So, a day after MGCC Sandown sprints, I felt this shuddering when I was braking from 60 KPH or more. I then discovered that my front rotors had cracked. The left one has two small cracks and the right rotor has one crack that is more prominent. These are almost 2 years old and have been used and abused for roughly 25,000 KM of road and track days.

VW Advanced Driver Training

I had the opportunity to attend an advanced driver training session organised by Volkswagen Australia.

This event was held at Sandown Motor Raceway and consisted of two main types of activity - track driving and skid pan. On the track, we were treated to a drive in either a Mark VI Golf GTD or GTI, accompanied by a professional driver for about three laps. This was a very worthwhile experience as I picked up a few pointers about braking and steering the car. The pro drivers also then drove us around the track in the new Golf R.

On the skid pan, we were allowed to drive either a Tiguan, Passat CC or Jetta over a wet surface through a slalom of cones and then followed by a swerve and brake exercise. The intention was to demonstrate the safety technology built into the cars like ABS and stability control. We were also shown how Passat CC's can park themselves in a parallel parking space. I've seen self parking systems on the internet before but it was very impressive to see it first hand.

Overall, this training session was great and I commend VW for organising such an event and offering it free of charge. Hopefully they do it again.

More photos are in the album below.

Volkswagen Advanced Driver Training 2010-09-01

MG Car Club Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

So, I just did Sandown again. It's been almost a year since I was last there. The results... no PB, just almost exactly the same best time as last time.

Session 1 
1:39.0800 1:40.0000 1:33.6700 1:33.1700

Session 2 
1:34.4800 1:31.7000 1:35.2200 1:34.6400

Session 3
1:34.2900 1:33.6300 1:33.7200 1:32.4300

Session 4
1:32.5900 1:31.9900 1:31.6400 1:33.4800

Here is the speed comparison of my best lap (green) versus my PB lap (blue) from last year.

Speeds - I finally passed 200 KPH this time.

The watering hole

In their natural habitat...

Photo by my friend Shaun.

MGCC Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit - Further analysis

Here's a comparison of Kam's speed graph and mine. Kam also drives a 350Z and I can see where I can improve.

- Turn 1 - I'm slowing down too much
- Turn 1 - I'm not getting on gas early enough
- Turn 4 - As above
- Kam carries almost 10 kph more through the sweeper/chicane
- Turn 8 - I'm not getting on gas early enough
- Turn 11 (coming on the front straight) - I get on gas earlier than Kam, but Kam has some crazy (almost vertical) acceleration. I'm thinking my gear change from 2nd to 3rd was a bit slow there.

MG Car Club Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

This day comprised of a drag and sprint component. Each competitor had two drag runs, one on each straight of the circuit.

Drag
Best run (according to RaceChrono):
60 feet - 2.43 s
1/4 mile - 14.49 s @ 157.1 kph
0-100 kph - 7.19 s

Sprints
Tyre pressures that worked for me: Front - 34 PSI hot, Rear - 33 PSI hot.
Tyres: Dunlop D03G/D02G
Brakes:
- First time trying Ferodo DS2500 at the front, they held up very nicely.
- Also got some titanium shims for the front, brake pedal still felt spongy after each session though.

Session 1
1:34.2000
1:33.2000
1:33.8900
1:35.1700

Session 2
1:50.9500
1:33.8100
1:32.3100
1:33.1700 <- VMax 197 kph Session 3
1:38.8700
1:34.7300
1:32.4200
1:32.5300

Session 4
1:33.4500
1:32.1400
1:32.2000
1:31.6100 NEW PB
1:31.7800

Full results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?11/10/2009.SAND.Q1.I

Comparison of my previous PB to the new one:

High/low speeds for PB lap:

Thank you:
- Kam for technique consultation
- Dave for chasing me and applying the pressure for PB
- Shaun for the lunch run and support
- Drew, Anja, Jason and Ray for taking photos and support
- Dan and Ying for the Porta-Gazebo
- The rest of the crew who competed or came to support

MSCA Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

I had been eager to get back to Sandown after my first time there. So when JimJim told me about the MSCA sprints, I jumped at the opportunity. The weather was near perfect, with the temperature reaching the mid to high 20's. I would have liked if it was low 20s as it would have been less taxing on me whilst in the car.

The goal for today was to improve my technique (as always) and better my PB for this track. I also had Silas and DavidM's comments (from previous posts) in mind. Here is my speed vs distance graph for my best lap today (green) compared to my best lap the previous time I was at Sandown. Turn numbers are also marked.

Circuit map:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0aF_3UIe8HXBSplEbXWPdIROU3IBYtQHzdl7zDYEW3Rm24U2FRFFYSl_wtmPA-4M2DhO3Sf8xzCiVN72BREVd4J5ndK1khVlRCYbnYAAaOhWfHQ3ibMbJfhf6r4EE8p-MYxyX-ZDAcyz/s1600-h/SandownMap.jpg

Max speed: 192.7kph (previously 191.7kph)
Min speed: 51.3kph (previously 50.2kph)
Avg speed: 122.1kph (previously 120.5kph)

My focus for the day was maximising speed on both the front and back straights. So getting on the power as early as possible and braking as late as possible. From the graph, I can see that I improved my speed on the the two straights. However, I am still braking too much for turn 1 as that should be a 100kph corner. I am also exiting the sweeper at turn 6 faster. I should have gotten more laps in today but my second session was cut short after I partially went on to the grass at turn 12 and heard a clunk as my right wheels came off the concrete and landed on the grass a few centimetres lower. I pitted to check if the clunk had damaged anything and was not allowed back out as the session was almost over. Luckily everything seemed alright with the car. My third session was cut short again because of the car stuck off the track and requiring a tow, the whole group was red flagged. Jibbed. Towards the end of the day, it appears the heat took its toll on my concentration and I couldn't go any faster.

Session 1
1:39.8701
1:33.9590
1:32.4006 NEW PB
1:34.3772
1:37.0675
1:36.5503

Session 2
1:33.7101
1:34.0629
1:37.2817

Session 3
1:34.4238
1:34.5663
1:34.3383

Session 4
1:37.3238
1:36.2506
1:35.0118
1:35.5937
1:35.7425

Although the flow of the sessions was slow at times, overall it was a good track day. The MSCA staff were also great as they worked quickly to provide me with a timing device after they noticed my first few laps in the first session weren't recorded.

Full results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?18/01/2009.SDMO.Q1.I

MG Car Club Sprints - Sandown Motor Circuit

Today was my first time at Sandown as I had finally plucked up the courage to try this track. It was a great day - the weather was kind to us, MG Car Club are a great bunch of people who run events very well and lots of fun was had by all.

Thank you to Ray, Ying, Dan, Tran, Mugsee and Charger for coming to watch and support. Big thanks to Ray for doing the lunch run, that chicken rice was great. Thanks Ying, Jas and Mugsee for taking pics too! Also thanks to Jason, Shaun, Drew, Laura, Adrian and JimJim for the moral support. Without you guys participating, I doubt I'd be out there alone having a go.

Circuit map:

Speed vs Distance graph for lap where I reached 197kph and my best lap:



Thoughts:
- I still need to figure out the line to take as well as braking and acceleration points for turns 6, 7 and 8.
- I need to work on braking from close to 200kph while downshifting two gears.
- I need more power to keep up on the straights with the Exe counterparts who have turbos.
- The proximity of the walls scare me.

Session 1
1:40.1700
1:45.0500
1:37.3600
1:36.6300

Session 2
1:37.1000
1:34.9200
1:34.3700
1:34.9500

Session 3
1:35.4400
1:38.2300
1:34.0700
1:33.9600

Session 4
1:33.5700 PB
1:34.9000
1:33.7800
1:40.4800

More results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?12/10/2008.SAND.Q1.I

Photos courtesy of Mugsee, wokstar, senk9 and UnCo.