David, where do you usually park your trailer at TWS? I read in the rules that no trailers are allowed within the fence. That's strange, even enclosed trailers like mine with our tools and parts? Seems like that would only be for the flat trailers only used to haul the car. Usually at SCCA events trailers line up along the West and East fences and that open area to the North of the last garage. I'm looking forward to it, my baby is sitting outside work now, I'll probably leave about 4pm.
If I remember right, there were several trailers parked inside the fence area, five or six big ones at least and several singles.
Everything is going great, arrived last night, unloaded, and then David, Dana, and crew invited me out for Mexican food and Margaretas. Got up bright and early to get the car ready. We've had one session so far and it went great. I kept it really conservative as I haven't had this car at TWS before and it's really cold. The event is only half full, so not as much traffic as there could be, but I'm still getting held up each lap in the White group. I've never been this fast in a car before, I'm afraid to look, but it's 140+. I'll drop much time today, but as reference in my first session for 12 minutes my best was a 2:02. I've almost been that fast in the SRX7 before, I figure I'll be down to 1:56 or so this weekend.
Turned out to be the normal CCW, which is good I guess for my first time in the C on the 2.9. I've done 3 sessions so far and with about 25 laps, only one of those was clear of traffic! That one lap I got under 2 minutes. The rest of the laps I'm doing 2:02-2:08's depending on how bad the traffic is. Everyone is really good about signalling in the White group, but most laps you get stuck behind cars all the way from T1-T6 and T7-T10 or even the straight away. Even though I'm just out here to have fun, I would like to get some good times in. Dana's car broke a valve spring, so it's going to be out the rest of the weekend. Luckily she has a vintage Porsche that her and David can drive. I've now gone over 150 for the first time in my life! Not sure exactly how far over. I like to watch the road.
I just finished my 4th session. Again, 8 laps and only 1 was clear of traffic. It was a 1:58.5 though. I wish I could get 4 clear laps. It's hard only getting one clear lap because of the momentum and getting the true braking points/lines down. Maybe tomorrow I will, although that was our most crowded sesion because they're promoting some into the White group now. Later
Rob, I understand your frustration with traffic... My best at TWS, with my 240 hp. M3, is 1:58.6, as timed by a 200 lb. passenger in my right seat.....but it was one of only 3 clear laps I had that particular session (the other two were in the low 1:59's). The rest were 2:02 and above, with traffic. You should be able to do 1:52's easily with that 380 hp. Challenge car on slicks with practice & open track.
1:52 sounds a little fast, maybe that's about the lap record for a 355 Challenge. I would be curious what the times have been over the years Challenge has raced at TWS. The current SCCA T1 Z06's and Vipers are faster than the 355 Challenge. The double national at TWS in February had 11 T1 cars with some of the best drivers in the county. Bobby Archer 1:52.3 Viper Bob Schader 1:51.8 Vette Harrison Williams who is the only driver in the SCCA Soutwest Division that races a Ferrari on a regular basis did a 1:57.95 that same day, although the other day he went 1:56 something. All of those times are on DOT tires, mostly Hoosiers as those tend to be the fastest DOT tires. The SCCA Enduro weekend before Thanksgiving the Hahns were running a T1 Porsche, but since T1 wasn't a class for the Enduro, they put slicks on it and ran in SP. Their times were all between 1:53 and 1:55. With all that data I'm still not sure what a "best" lap would be in a 355 C. I guess the best is to find some records from the actual Challenge races there. Based on how much I as a driver can still learn about the 2.9, the car, and on some good tires I think a 1:54 would be about the best I could do. We'll see, not sure how much I can run the TWS 2.9 though. FoH runs the 1.8 and PCA I only get about 5-8 clear laps an entire weekend. This was based on this weekend when there were only 70 cars total, I guess about 50% as usual.
Had another great day. I think the Porsche Club might run the most organized event. Everything runs very smooth and everyone was very nice. The Drivers Edge runs a good event too BTW. First thing this morning was ice cold. It was below freezing and there was ice on the truck and Challenge car. I went out first session not expecting much, I was actually surprised at that cold how fast the car still was. I did a bunch of 2:00-2:02's, but nothing under. My tires are now shot. I get them from Grand Am with already a few heat cycles on them. These were the tires I did the NASA race in August and two TMS days. Besides the NASA race, yesterday's 4 sessions were probably the hardest on the tires. I switched the tires side to side as the right sides were getting more stress. The second session things had warmed up a little bit. I didn't improve on my 1:58.5 from yesterday, but I did 2 of them again and several around 1:59-2:02. The third and last session for me today I went out a little worn out and knowing the tires were even more worn out. I told myself not to push it. Well, that lasted only about 3 laps before I got a rare clearing this weekend. My car was now handling more like the Rx7 than a nicely tuned Ferrari race car. Still far from being anywhere close to doing a nice lap to my standards, after 7 sessions I was able to do a 1:56.9 this last session. This will be something to work from next time. I'm not going deep enough in T1, I'm not carrying enough speed through T2, I shouldn't tap the brakes as hard as I do in T5, and I'm really messing T6 up (didn't realize 3rd gear is better than 4th until last couple laps today). Besides those I'm doing pretty good everywhere else. I think with good tires and improving the above a 1:54 will be very doable. Here's the video of my 1:56.9 lap. Sorry, I still haven't worked out a better angle and bought a wide angle lens yet. http://www.ferrarichat.com/videos/rob355c/20031207_355c_TWS1_56_9.mpg 35.6 Mb. David Moore, please give me your feedback on the lap video.
Excellent video Rob! 1:56.9 is cooking. I know a couple years ago, in SCCA there was a 355 from Houston (Harrison Williams?) who ran up front, along with Steve Olsen's yellow 911 in T1, T2, SP......, and I don't think he was lapping much under 1:56. Heck, you could probably keep up with Dave in his M3, as long as he doesn't kick out his passenger. You know, NASA is supposed to be going back to TWS for two dates next year, hopefully the 2.9. You should come run with Jay and Shannon. Mark McKenzie
Well, I would, but I need a two car trailer then and with a two car trailer I need a one ton dually diesel and then I would need a new wife. I would love to have both cars down and might do that for the MSR NASA events. This is my best year yet for the Texas SRX7 championship. I got 13th overall my first year, 4th last year, and so far this year I'm looking OK getting a 2nd in our first weekend.
Rob & Mark, FYI, there is a guy from Houston, Ed Paez, who runs events at TWS every other month. They are on Thursdays (which sucks coming down from Southlake, Rob...), but they are great: small number of cars (25 total +/-), no run groups, generally talented drivers with great etiquette. You get ~7 hours of track time, with very little to any traffic. The next one is January 8th. Check out www.edpracing.com. Rob, thanks for the video. 1:56.9 is really cooking--congrats! I find that the 1-2 complex & the 4-5-6 complex are the two areas where I also made up the most time (based solely on seat of the pants estimates) when I started to really learn the 2.9 course.
Rob, looking at the video, here are my comments, for what they're worth: -nice lap overall -approach to 1 is either too low or too high; IMO, there are 2 good lines for that turn -->> very low, thus avoiding the bump transition as you come off the banking; many 360 C's take this line, with great results, and brake less but have to make a sharper left turn to get thru 1 and into 2; or -->> stay low until near the end of the grandstands, where you should go high & deep, come off the banking past the big thick skid marks, where the transition off the banking is much smoother, but the other benefit is a much more open, broad, FAST arc thru 1 and into 2; You took the middle line, which, IMO, is slower and harder on the car -apexing 2 a little early and exiting with a little more steering input than you need; if you get 1 broad & fast enough, you will apex 2 in the middle of the curbing and not in the beginning; you will track out at the end of the track out curb and not the middle as you did; and you will carry at least 5 MPH and probably more at the turn 2 exit and down that next straightaway -nice approach to 3, but it looks like you displaced the apex by a foot or so; if so, get right down to the curb (but not on it) for a quicker opening of your steering on exit and more straightaway speed -it looks like you're turning in to 6 a little early; wait until you are at the beginning of the gravel road on the right & then really rotate the car & get all the way down to the apex and hit the gas HARD; this will allow you to open up your steering a lot earlier & get more MPH on the exit; also, I agree with your assessment that you may want to downshift to 3rd prior to turn in here for better exit speed -get your RF tire over the inside flat curbing in 9; it allows you to open up the exit of that & get more speed down that hill -VERY nice thru 10 & 11 & 12 & 13 -you may want to apex 14 about a foot later; this will allow much less steering input into 15 & then exiting 15 as well, allowing you to accelerate with the wheel straighter right to the edge of that little grass strip on the right where you meet the banking FWIW....YMMV
Rob, It was nice to meet you (I'm the guy that stopped by early saturday morning). Your car looked and sounded great as did the other Ferrari's out there. I got to do the parade laps right behind the 512 and there was a silver 360 F1 in my run group today. Hope to see you out there again sometime. Nick Johns
Rob, thanks for posting the video link, it's great to see cars much faster than mine run the like you did. Sorry I couldn't get out there, I've been putting alot of hrs. in at work & I just needed some rest.
Thanks Dave for the feedback. I agree with everything you said. It will take me time to actually do it though. The Rx7 is hard to drive because of it's nervous unpredictable handling, but it's so slow that you have plenty of margin and time. The 355 Challenge is closer I guess to what kart racing would be. It's bam bam bam. All at very high speeds too, a few feet here and there make a big difference. I don't know if I mentioned it in my previous posts, but thanks to all the FC users that came up and introduced themselves. I was surprised, even many of the PCA people had heard of and even visited FC before.
Be sure and let me know for sure by the first of January. I was planning on going down Saturday as RonR is doing the Saturday school, but I'll go down Friday night to make sure the car is set if you're using it. All you need is driver equipment, novice permit, and register. Also, like I said before you should get your driving resume together to hopefully get waived from the second school. I might even try to instruct if I go Friday night, that would be a mess if I was you and Ron's instructor. Just do the opposite of what I say.
Thanks David, I already knew Dana was cool and it was good to finally meet you and your team. A great bunch! Maybe I'll try the low line in 1, it scares the hell out of me though. Have you ever looked what's over the edge of 1? You might as well go over a cliff. I guarantee you'll roll it or at least hurt the car pretty bad. The medium to high line at least if you go off it's pretty smooth because you're already in 2. I take the high line in my SRX7, I think in the 355 C I ended up somewhere between the low and high because the high was too violent as you say and I just don't have confidence in the low line. With the SRX7 I put my left tires on the crack running on the oval (about 2/3rds the way up). I then dive down using the blend line as a guide for my left side. I then brake and start my turn in once I run out of track. The SRX7's work best early apexing, so I need to work on doing a different line in the Challenge.
Here's the history of Ferraris on the 2.9 in SCCA races... 11/22/03 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:57.726 2/16/03 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:57.95 2/15/03 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:56.76 11/23/02 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:56.11 2/16/02 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:54.64 2/16/02 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:54.75 *Bobby Archer went a 1:49.965! 11/18/2001 Harrison Williams 355 C 1:58.846 5/26/2001 Toni Martinez (wife of Ed, different car than the one I bought though) 355 C 2:12.404 That's really it for the 2.9, there are several more for the 1.8 as the SCCA had an ITF (Improved Touring Ferrari) class that was for 348 Challenge cars 1997 to 1999 or so, but they didn't run the 2.9 until they fixed it around 2000 I think.
