First PI track day on the new Shockworks suspension, which kept the car well composed and predicatable. It feels like there's less body roll with the new suspension and there's better turn-in having moved back to the stock front sway bar.
First PI track day on the Kumho V70A medium compound, which are not as sticky as the Hankook Z221 softs that I'm used to. However, the tyres fared well with just a bit of camber wear on the front right and on the outer edges of both front tyres. The PI track surface is punishing.
First PI track day using the 370Z front brakes with Winmax W7 pads. Both pads and rotors held up well, I should probably brake harder.
*From RaceChrono as times for this session were not uploaded to Natsoft.
Source: http://racing.natsoft.com.au/results/
Best lap at Phillip Island in the Z at the weekend - 1m54.0s PB lap - 1m51.7s (April 2014)
Comparing the PB lap from 2014 to the best lap from this track day, we see that corner speeds were generally lower than the PB lap. This is most likely due to braking too early or too much and the Kumho's being not as sticky as the Hankooks.
Weather:
Low of 6 degrees Celcius overnight and a high of 16 degrees Celcius.
Hot tyre pressures:
First session - 38 PSI front and rear
Second and third session - 37 PSI front, 36 PSI rear
Fourth and fifth session - 32 PSI front and rear
Front tyres had done 5 track days prior and rear tyres had done 6 track days.
Differences in driving:
Brake jab before second hairpin (turn 5)
I haven't driven the Winton Club (Short) Circuit for more than 7 years, so I was keen to see how different the car and me are now combined with the new track surface.
Session 1 was not timed as it was a practice session and we were driving to around 80% capacity. However RaceChrono showed that I clocked a 1:10.8 which was already 2.5 seconds faster than my previous best time.
In session 2, I was able to start pushing and I finished with a 1:08.5 - 4.8 seconds faster than my previous best. 1:18.4065 1:11.6445 1:11.2580 1:09.1216 1:09.7839 1:08.5055 1:10.7413 1:08.8626 1:12.1030
There was no further improvement in sessions 3 and 4, but I still managed to dip into the 1:08's.1:20.2357 1:10.2046 1:09.5703 1:09.7438 1:10.3324 1:08.9062 1:09.9414 1:13.0515 1:09.6468 1:21.8112 1:11.1080 1:11.4054 1:09.0989 1:10.8316 1:08.7809 1:11.6312 1:10.2478 It's interesting to note that I can still go a fair bit faster through sector 4 of the lap (turns 7, 8 and 9), with RaceChrono showing a theoretical best of 1:07.2.
A speed comparison shows big gains throughout every part of the lap, especially the sweeper at turn 3.
Comparison of my speed graph to the previous personal best lap way back in 2013. It appears that the new track surface has aided in speed gains throughout pretty much every corner. However, there is more to gain through more aggressive driving (after I have compared my best lap video with other Z drivers).
For some reason my final session wasn't recorded. I matched my personal best time from almost 2 years ago. The wider tyres appear to help with corner speeds significantly. I just need to keep working on top speeds on the long sections. However, it was good to see some consistent sub-1:40 laps, which was not something I managed to do 2 years ago.
A corner speed comparison reveals higher speeds on most corners.
21st March 2015
I've been busy the last couple of months, so only getting around to posting this.
There's not much to say about this day as it ended for me after the first session. One of my brake pads had worn to the backing plate and I had no spares.
In that single session, I managed a 1:40.84 and here is the video of that lap.
