2 track days so far.

[Sean]

The first day at track was just getting the car runnign well. The second day about two weeks later was learning the car. Changes so far was increasing compression in the front to get rid of the darty feeling at speed, and loosenign the rear swaybar to settle the rear. Seemed to work ok, but rear feels a little too pendulum and there is too much lean in the car.

Next changes may be to stiffen front sway bar and then bring a little more stiffness back to rear bar to establish balance. there is just too much lean on turns. May also then add slightly more compression to the front and a little rebound to rear to settle car under really heavy braking and high speed corners, but will do sway bars first, one change at a time.

Motor is being kept below 6k rpm, power peak is 7k but 6k is plenty for now, still hitting 155 on straights and there is more than enogh power for everywhere else. Biggest adjustment has been learnign how to meter out the power. Coming from a lotus it was always momentum and very few places where max power could not be used.

In Gt40s every lar I see where I could be gaining speed and laptimes. Lots and lots to learn.

 

[John]

Sean rule number one, for track days, have a large note book and write every thing down, and i mean everything , track, weather, tyre pressures, ride height, spring settings shock settings, bar settings etc etc, then record every change and what it did.

cheers John

 

[Sean]

Sean rule number one, for track days, have a large note book and write every thing down, and i mean everything , track, weather, tyre pressures, ride height, spring settings shock settings, bar settings etc etc, then record every change and what it did.

cheers John

All good advice. A little lucky in that the car was setup by Dennis Oltrof so there was a decent base tos atrt with. Tire pressures each day start at 18psi and acording to Dennis should not go above 24. Easy to bleed off after first session(40 mins) and then they are pretty consistent. For the hoosiers, sounds right as they get a bit greasy around 26, but will look to see how they wear as I am used to runingn a bit more psi albeit on other cars.

Shock settings, yes they vary per track, but I am still trying to get to a baseline of stability that works for me. Notebook in hand. Hopefully I get tot he point where minor adjustments per track and day is relevant in terms of pace and skill. Love the tinkering, its all part of the fun of the car, and learning the car is not just the driving as you know.

BTW love the F5000

 

[John Milmont]

Got any footage of your driving? gopro?

 

[Sean]

https://www.tracktimephotos.com/largeView.php?imgName=2015/20150706_WGI_ADV_8429

 

[Sean]

Pic was at watkins glenn. At this point I would say that i am maybe at 2/3 the capability of the car. Although I have always driven a manual on and off track it has been in more modern cars. The Gt40 takes a lot of getting used to in terms of feel, knowing the gears to extract best performance in each bend, how many revs to use before shifting which significantly varies depending on where you are on a particular track.
Also how to best setup for a corner, when to start putting the power down, how much to add, how best to loose speed and how not to overacclerate requiring too much braking etc.
Some things that feel fast are not and visa versa. Same with any car on track, except the Gt40 requires a far finer honing of all the above to really move.


In short every lap every corner I see where I could have gone faster and better. 250 miles to get comfortable, the next 250 get get reasonably quick, and maybe years to really learn it and setup to extract near max.

As it is the me in the car is already faster than those worked track prepped bewinged 3 series beemers, well except one. Can keep pace with a decently driven c6z06 vette on slicks but not a well driven one, at least not yet.

Would love to try it a really big fast track like lemans.

 

[Sean]

video

 

[John Milmont]

video

looks like the link didn't work!

 

[Sean]

Ok so 5 days now.
The front bake master was bad so its being replaced. lack of front brakes working overheated the rear, despite the bias being ever more dialed to the front.

Been playing with shock settings, still too much power oversteer on corner exits. Reducing rebound ameliorates this but now anythign close to liftoff, like feathering and it spins.

Solutions to try are softening rear compression to ameliorate power on oversteer, Or adding compression to front shocks as a means of stoppign the front pitchign down g . Will see.

Alignment sorted and tires heating evenly across.

Working with different engine mounting bushings as too much motor movement. Sorted clutch and shift linkage.

Car is now significanbtly faster, but the front end grip is already so tenacious that sorting the rear should enable significantly higher corner speeds and stability.

Compared to my lotus elise on slicks the GT40 seems more forgiving at the limit, maybe more nervous below the limit. I would say once sorted cornering limits are higher than the lotus. Turn in though is slower and the Gt40 requires a firm hand. Brakes are good, less initial bite than the lotus but more tolerance for repeated use from high speed.
Steering very comunicative.

Power is of course a completly different league. One needs to get used to 150 mph approaches where it was 120 before, etc.

The key for more speed is going to be carrying more though the bends, need to work on getting more rear stability for that.

One last note, its all tremedous fun, whrereas other cars may be less challengign but are for some reason more scary. The Gt40 also feels very rugged, like it can be tracked all day every day without suffering.

 

[Sean]

soild motor mounts sorted the motor lean and improved the shifting into another leauge.

Stiffer springs, 650 fr and 750 rear improved lap times by 5 secs, car is still smooth and not hard, easily streetable still.