Where is the suspension

Lotus driving impression

2007-11-14T22:20:00.000-05:00

Drove Edmond's Exige S tonight. Almost new, it's got 3300km on the clock, and coincidentally I know the previous owner of the car.

Getting in the car would be a huge pain in the ass for people new to sports cars. If getting into my S2K with bucket seat ranged in a difficulty of a 8, this would be a 12. The aluminum crash structure makes getting into the car very interesting; but once you're in, like I said last time, you know you're in a serious machine.

Driving position wise, I'd rank it a 9.5. S2K would come in a 8.5. The ONLY car that ranks a 10 are the Star Mazda race cars that I work on,and the Riley DP car that is also in our shop. So being half a point off of those cars can't be that bad. The headlights operation is a pain in the ass though, but this is a sports car, so really, I couldn't give a hoot. The reason why it ranks ahead of the S2K is because, I sit lower in the Exige, my legs can extend further forward for the pedals, and the wheel is closer to me. Not only that, I'm also closer to the centerline of the car than the S is. Those factors above makes me think it's better than my car.

Driving feel: Exige only gets a 9. Rearview doesn't bother me, because with my Mugen hardtop, my rearview might as well be useless. It's not AS useless as the one in the Lotus, but I rely heavily on the side mirrors, which is the same case on the Exige; so transition there is pretty much seamless. Steering is good. If I didn't have the S2K, I'd say it's unbelievable. Telepathic almost, but the S is so darn good, it made it so that when I got in the Lotus, I wasn't blown away like I was when I first drove an Elise last year when I had NO benchmark. The shifter is just f**king awful. If there's one thing about this car that's shit, THIS is it. I just couldn't get around how absolute shit it is.

Handling: will update, because I had no roads for me to try it on that requires me to turn the steering wheel to handle the twisty bits. Power is adequate, not mindblowing, but it certainly isn't slow.

I was expecting a VERY raw sports car, and in a sense, it is somewhat raw if I didn't have mine to base it out of. You get more road noise for sure, but the car is all about being minimal, so that's fine. The lack of powersteering isn't even an issue.

More testing

2007-10-17T02:52:00.000-04:00

Sunday October 14, 2007; 1400-1700h. Sunny. 15’C AT; 18’C TT

Second time out with the non-staggered 255 setup along with the Azenis 615 tires. Target time today was to see if I could do a 2.07 on street tires and it proved a LOT more difficult than I thought. Ran a total of 20 laps split in 4 sessions; testing plan was still out lap followed by 3 hot laps followed by a cool down lap. Target hot pressure was 36 psi, as that number seemed to work last time on Fabi.

Biggest mistake this weekend was not bleeding the brakes before the day. This was coupled with the fact that I can’t unmount my wheel without having to break off the wheel lock, which makes putting the wheel back on impossible. The brakes felt like shit the whole day; pedal travel was longer than I preferred, and the feel was just awful. I loved the XP10s the first time I tried them, but they’ve been not up to my standards these last couple of track days. This could either be that they’re not up to par for my style of driving, or that I’m getting better with the car and are making bigger demands on the brakes.

Alignment-wise, I havne’t changed anything from the last track day; and the pulling of the car under hard braking seems to have gone away. Either that, or I’ve just ignored it and drove around the issue. Asymmetrical tire pressures work, asymmetrical damper settings don’t. Funnily enough, I set my pb the first session I toyed with that setup; but then made a mistake and went off into the weeds in the second session. The shocks need at least a half turn stiffer from full soft on the track; as I was getting a bit of roll oversteer when it was on full soft. I suspect if I were to go to R compounds next year, I’d need a bit more since I’d be carrying more speed into the corners. Still debating if I should stick with the 615s for the first track day next season and see if I can shave 0.15 off of every corner on the track before going to R comps. I THINK 2.07 is doable on them, but it’d take some pretty cool hands and feet. T1, 2 and 3 I can probably gain half a second from it. Sifu keeps saying I can do T1 easy flat, but the high kerb make me have reservations about it. The bumps offline really unsettles the car (not unsimilar to T1 and T17 @ Sebring) T2 I know I can roll more speed into the turn as it’s not really a V shape corner. I’m turning in too early T9 and it’s just scrubbing off too much apex speed in order for me to stay on the right line going into T10.

Conventional line for T10 is definitely the way to go, while my line for T14 definitely feels faster. I might be taking a longer route, but damn if I can’t get on the power about 3 car lengths earlier than everyone else.

One thing I learned from this weekend is not to have red mist descend on me. I didn’t have that problem with Terry chasing me in a faster car, so I couldn’t figure out WHY I was apprehensive having a B20 EK behind me when he’s consistently 2s slower than me when I clocked him. Pure brain-fart in that regards. Need to keep focused on my line, and the road ahead of me and fuck everything else behind me. (they’re there for a reason anyway). That’ll be my focus from now on, gap consistently, instead of trying to double the gap in ONE corner.

Overall, progress was made. I can’t say going from S02 staggered to 615 non staggered made me go 5 seconds faster, since I was driving the car a lot faster this time than the time with the S02s.

Road Atlanta

2007-10-05T00:07:00.000-04:00

Petit Lemans is one of the most anticipated events on the ALMS calendar every year. Now that I'm here, I know why. The track looks like an absolute BLAST to drive. A mix of high and low speed corners + tons of elevation change = a fun track IMO.

Watching the ALMS cars go around in night practice is just mind blowing. This event blows Sebring out the door IMO, simply because the venue is so much better. Watching the Penske Porsche at night is unreal; their lines and driving accuracy in darkness looks almost the same as when they went around during the day. I guess that's what makes them pros in that they can hit the marks everytime no matter what the condition (well, higher chance than most amateurs anyway).

Had a talk with an ex-Mclaren mechanic who's now a driver coach, and learned some great insight on the difference in style between Prost and Senna.

This weekend's been awesome so far. The track's great; the view out of my trailer is great for once, and I've learned a ton from the brit.

The discussion of bravery

2007-09-28T12:24:00.000-04:00

Had quite an interesting conversation with someone who seems to be quite in the know about racing. I’m assuming he’s an engineer from his previous posts since he seems to have his own personal preferences in terms of how to setup a car for a driver and how to conduct his own race strategies and so forth.

In one of his posts, he wrote, ““It sounds like to me that you're not making your car any better, but that you're simply getting braver. You end up going faster because you're more used to the car and the corner, not because you're actually making progress with the chassis. This exact problem is why it's so tough to find a good test driver.”

That struck a bullseye for me since it seems like for the past two times that I’ve drove an AP1 on the track, I’ve been getting a lot more comfortable with the car and thus am able to push it a bit harder in the corners. My sensei thinks otherwise about the “pushing harder”; but I digress for that’s not the point I’m trying to make here. My question to him was this:

“How does one find the happy medium between bravery and driving to the point where he can evaluate the chassis setup. I’m guessing the laptime can do it (eg, I’ve had a driver who can put down the same lap (within the tenth), so that’d probably make her and ideal tester; but for a case like myself and my friends who just run HPDEs as a hobby, how do we get ourselves to find the spot where we’re going fast enough such that the feedback is actually valid? I sometimes try to ask my friends with “What’s the car doing, how does it feel”, and they’d come back to say, “It’s good.” Yet he’ll go dick around with the shocks and even when “it’s good.”, he’s still clearly way slower than others.”

His response was very helpful. “There's a simple answer here. Seat time. When you get to the point where you are doing the right things with your feet and hands and you aren't being mentally rushed all the time, then you can start to dissect what the car is actually doing. The problem is that it take a lot of track days to get there and the frequency has to be fairly high so that you don't spend your seat time knocking the rust off.

Get a track map and after each session, write on the map what the car is doing in each corner. The first time out you might say: "Turn 1 has mid-corner push". The next time you go out, concentrate on what you're doing at the time the push shows up. Are you starting to come off the brake? Are you already into the corner? Is there a pavement change? Does the radius of the corner tighten? Make your notes about that.

During the 3rd session, you've felt what the balance is and what you're doing, now try to feel what the chassis is doing. Does the front and rear of the car feel like it rolls together? Is the car rolling a lot and then sliding? Does the car feel like it's not really rolling much, but just not accepting the cornering load? Is the front of the car popping up or the rear squatting? Are the tires rolling under? Does the tire skip over bumps?

Once you figure out what the car is doing and why it is doing it, then you can go about figuring out what your tuning response should be. It's not an easy task.

If you have a group that you go out with a lot, then there will usually be a retired pro, semi-pro, or club racer that is 'The Fast Guy'. Get him to take your car out for a session and have him write all sorts of notes on what the car is doing and what he feels. Compare those notes with yours to see if you can understand what he's talking about.

What you need to realize is that above all, you are the biggest handling component of the car. What the driver does can make a massive effect on chassis balance. Bravery in a driver is great for a qualifying session (especially in an ill handling car), but in general is a bad trait. If a driver is confident in his feeling of the car and knows what he is doing and what the car is doing, then he doesn't have to be brave. If a driver has to be brave in a corner, then he doesn't know what's going to happen on the back side of it. That should not be the case. He should know where he's going to track out and what the car is going to do before he ever enters the corner. The best drivers I've known haven't been especially brave.”

I suppose the method with which I am using isn’t all out of whack afterall, especially after what happened last week @ shannonville. I know I’ve improved in getting comfortable with the car (and comparing to the progress I was making when I was karting, the AP1 progress have been slightly better, I think. I’m not talking about laptime improvement; but rather overall awareness of what’s going on with the car.) The feedback still needs work if I were to compare myself to the drivers I work with; but I think from an average Joe HPDE’er, I’d say I’m below par right now =P

I’m about the end of the “2^nd session” from what he said; I can’t quite feel everything to what I should be paying attention in the 3^rd session yet. I feel some of it; but not ALL of it; that’s why I was reluctant to make anymore changes on Sunday. That, and the fact that the car still wasn’t at the limit when I’m cornering.

End of season; new beginnings

2007-09-24T12:37:00.001-04:00

First time out on the track with the non-staggered setup this past Sunday (which means, first time out with the car after the kit was put on) It was another BE event, but this time it’s a private event co-ordinated with a local car club (mostly younger kids) so we ran only the back half of the track. Conditions were perfect weather-wise, but not so good for the track. Days like this the track usually gets greasy and the times don’t start coming down until it’s later on in the day. The window is really small since it gets too dark not too long after the shadow starts to get long, but the track doesn’t speed up until the shadow starts to grow.

There were a few objectives of the day:

1) Get up to speed as quickly as possible with the non staggered setup

2) Be comfortable with pushing the car

3) Be relax enough to be aware of what’s going on inside and outside of the car

4) See where I am in relation to the other S2K that has I/H/E, Tein SRC and RA1

Objective 4 was very important, since I’ve been seriously debating into switching out the Konis for the way more expensive Teins. Granted the nut behind the wheel plays a huge role in how fast the car goes, but after the last day out with Steve’s ride, I was pretty confident I now know the car enough to run with some of those guys. I’m nowhere near the full track 2.03 bracket; but then again not too many of those guys run that pace anyway; so I’m mid pack for now.

The day overall went smoothly; no excursion into the weeds (which is really a big no-no on a test day..which is basically what lap days are about), the 615s felt like they have a lot more stiffer sidewall than the S02s; not only is the response a lot quicker, but the car felt a lot softer sprung than before. This didn’t make sense to me at first because if it was true, then the overall sum of the spring rate (tires-spring series) would increase. But if the tire sidewall is taking more lateral load and transferring that to the springs, then it would make sense. Observers say mid-corner body roll are minimal on the car, but with the stock seats, I couldn’t really tell since I was moving around a bit.

Alignment needs a re-do, since the front darts quite a bit under braking. Quite uncomfortable when you’re doing 160+ trying to slow down for a 100+ corner (kmh) in under 50 meters. Never did accomplish my target of braking beyond the 50 marker, simply because 1) brakes didn’t bite hard enough for some reason (and I already bled the system before the day); 2) the car’s darting. Probably went too aggressive on the front toe, hence the darting. Will have to do an alignment setdown to see where the front is at.

Consistency is getting there, not quite robot like as I am in the sims, but it’s getting there. Still going into some corners too hot and have to do some corrections mid-corner, but at least I’m at a point where I’m relaxed enough to know that I did do it wrong, and adjust for it the next lap (and not posting a very different time). Very happy with myself on that one since I’ve always felt I can’t recall for shit after each session; but that’s now also coming along nicely.

Biggest thing to work on now is to push the car harder in the corners. Setting my pb in the last session with a passenger just shows I’m way too comfortable in the corners. That’s a note to review for next session.

Much thanks to my sifu Otto for the critiques and comments, Carl and vince for driving out all this way just to keep records for me and to carry some of my shit in their car. Words can’t express the gratitude I have for those two guys this season. Without them, my progress would be a lot slower.

Oh Mosport

2007-09-03T00:45:00.000-04:00

I hate Mosport. Seriously, I do. I don't mind the track, for it is one of the few tracks where the driver with the biggest balls usually gets the pole and the win. But everytime we go to Mosport, it's ALWAYS pissing rain. No, let me correct myself: it's DUMPING rain.

Our race sucked. We did the right thing, but did it at the wrong time, and with that we paid dearly. I believed our driver was also partly to blame, but of course I didn't say that outloud for everyone to hear. When you are racing in a series where not everyone has equal experience, but the whole field started out on dry, then I expect a driver with 3 years of FBMW, 1 year of F3 experience to at least do some thinking before screaming into the radio telling us that we're changing tires.

Yes it's wet, yes it's slippery; but if YOUR car is sliding around, then maybe think about the fact that everyone ELSE is in the same predicament? You know the guys in Team Tampon is going to wad it up, so exercise some patient and have a cool head to wait till someone puts it in the wall , get that FC Yellow, and then pit for tires. (It's mosport for god's sakes, even the PROS put it in the wall in the wet) So now the car comes screaming in, and we change to rains under green.

Yup, as expected, one lap down. All because red mist descended. Not only that, but we shouldn't need to INSTRUCT you to put the front bar full soft and turn on the TC! We'll remind you calmly, but shit, with that much experience, I expect that to be programmed in the head. That also holds true for finding puddles to cool the tires instead of telling us the car is understeering. What'd you expect when you're not cooling the tires?

Thank god the next race isn't until October. It's been a week and I'm still pissed at why we didn't finish on the podium.

S2000 Track day

2007-07-30T18:29:00.000-04:00

Saturday was the third time I've took the S to the track, and the first time I've seriously "drove" the car on track. Seriously as in not cruising around and actually trying to get a quick lap in. The weather was good; a hint of cloud over the sun but dry and mild temps. The track temp wasn't too hot, so the track was actually quick.

The car is no longer stock. I'm running Koni yellows w/ GC coilovers, Carbotech XP10 fronts (stock rears still..i do have the XP8 for the rear, just havne't installed em); and have a bucket seat for the driver's side. Image below is my setup sheet. Cold pressure was 34 psi left and 35 right. I just took a stab at it and surprisingly they came to 40 psi hot all around.

I ran only 2 hot sessions for a total of about 8 laps near the end of the day. First session was just an out-flyer-in affair with Stephen as my passenger since he wanted to know what lines I take. Best lap was a 2.16.8. Steve from Ottawa suggested I take a couple of corners in 2nd gear rather than 3rd so I tried that on my last session with Carl beside me. Using my "normal" gearing, I ran a 2.14.6; using 2nd gear for the first double apex, I ran a 2.15.4 . I think i just need to slap it down to 2nd, and just give 'er. I looked down mid-corner thinking I was about to top off the revs only to find that I'm at around 6k or so; which means there's tons of revs to be had. I'm fairly confident I could do a 2.12. On the nelson part of the track, I'm still slow in T1, 2, 3 and the double apex (which means really, I'm slow for the entire nelson part of the track) Pretty sure it's not that big of an ask to go 0.15 quicker in each of those corners. On the fabi side, I think the entrance to the 2nd double apex I can carry a bit more speed; the right after the double as well, the corner after the backstraight I feel I'm around nine-tenths. I can probably brake a hair later there (Carl would probably be aghast reading this; but buddy, I felt like I was still waiting for the corner to show up from where I was braking when you were there); the entrance to the chicane I could carry maybe 3-5 clicks more and the last corner I can probably roll more speed through.

The main objective of the day was just to get mentally used to being clocked, bedding and testing the pads as well as getting a feel of the car after the suspension mod and the alignment setting. Unfortunately the next time the car hits the track the setup will change AGAIN since I'll be running a non-staggered 255 setup all around. But I think overall, I've achieved most of my objectives. A cool head was kept, and my mental intensity was there when I was running my flyer without having red mist descend at the same time. What I would've liked to do more was able to give myself some objective feedback on the handling of the chassis, and my inability to do so only tells me there are several probable reasons:

a) I wasn't intuned with the vehicle
b) I wasn't able to feel what the car was doing and my mind was 100% occupied with driving
c) I wasn't driving near the limits of the setup.

a and b aren't likely since I was making corrections when needed (sometimes before the problem rose and bit my ass); so c would be most likely. Turn in was probably 30-40% sharper from before. I'm not sure how much of that was due to the spring change and how much was due to the negligable toe out I run, since I never did an alignment "setdown" on my OEM suspension before slapping these on. I think the car turns in just a tad too nice since by my passenger's account, my hands are quite busy during turn-in, and I am not a fan of busy hands. Nice and slow hands = fast car IMO. I might try raising the front a quarter inch to see if that'll slow it down. The real fix should be running a set of softer front springs and dialing down the toe out; I'll see how my winter budget goes. The springs aren't that pricey anyway so I might just go for it. Mid-corner, the car wasn't really stepping out or pushing, which leads me to believe I'm not using all the tires I'm given. The only problem I had was slight on throttle exit u/s on the hairpin, which I'm not really against. Not to mention since this was more or less a "shakedown" day for car and driver, I decided against making any changes but rather focus on increasing my personal performance. Mid-corner, the car wasn't really stepping out or pushing, which leads me to believe I'm not using all the tires I'm given.

For the record, I'm still about 3 seconds slower than the slowest S2K equipped with RA1s and about 5 seconds off the pace of the quicker ones. Target next time out is the range of a 2.12; basically if I can't get that time or better, I'm not going to bother with R compounds; for clearly the problem isn't the tires, it's the nut behind the wheel.

Overall, my marks for the following would be:

Suspension: can't mark due to me not being at ITS limit
Brakes: 92% Once they got up to temp, these pads are unreal. The damage they did to the rotors weren't that bad either. I WILL be running an aftermarket caliper next year (most likely spoon since I can keep these OEM sized pads) purely for unsprung weight savings and the ease of changing pads.
Tires: 85% again, they give pretty decent feedback if you are on the ball and are anticipating the loss of grip. They do lose some grip when you try to run a few flyers in a row.
Myself: 65% Personally, my performance wasn't spectacular, but I got over the mental block of pushing the car. Next I need to push the car some more so it'll talk back to me, and rev it more in the corners. Being in the gears I'm in right now causes me to be way below the powerband coming out of it.

Humbling

2007-07-01T09:17:00.000-04:00

Went to a HPDE event today in pouring rain condition. Bone stock AP1 except for header and catback. There's a quarter mile backstraight going into a 100 deg corner (take that in 3rd gear in the dry..about 110 apex speed)

I braked a bit earlier than usual (about 30m earlier compared to dry condition) and I had some interesting yet inconsistent results:

Twice the fronts locked up w/o any sign of abs kicking in

Another time near the end of the day, I don't know which end locked up first. But I was DAMNED sure my steering wheel was straight when I hit the brakes and the tail end was getting swirly. It didn't feel like the rears were locking, but it feels like the rears got just a tad too much bias for those ocnditions (track has dried by the time of this braking event, not completely dry, still moist but no rain and the sun was out and it was what I'd call a greasy condition).

I am also suspecting it could be hydroplane, as I was taking the normal dry line under braking and the left edge of the track seems to have just a tad more water than the middle; which could explain why the car tried to pull to one side due to difference of grip levels between the two tires.

The car is fun to drive, but damn hard to go full blast, I think there are a few reasons for me driving slower than I did when I had another track car back a few years ago.

1) I care alot more aobut this car than I did w/ my other track car
2) rolling a convertible isn't exactly something you're likely to walk away from
3) There's nothing for me to chase.

I can't help 1 and 2, except I can get a rollbar, which means the car will be even more uncivil (the catback is already pushing me towards going back to OEM exhaust). 3 is fixable simply by bringing a stopwatch and timing myself. We'll see how it goes on the 14th; hopefully I get some fire in my stomach back.

Simply superb

2007-05-17T00:37:00.000-04:00

Just completed the first on-track sessions today with the new driver of our team. What a difference between someone who's experienced in driving a car, and someone who THINKS he's good enough to drive a car.

The technical feedback was superb; not only was the driver able to convey what the car is doing, the feedback also gave us a GOOD picture on what the car was losing grip at certain phases of the corner. In addition to that, the severity in which the car goes from grip to loss of grip was also conveyed. First time I've dealt with a driver of this calibre in terms of feedback.

Red Mist descends

2007-05-12T09:16:00.000-04:00

Getting upset after having an on-track incident is normal, I can relate to that and it's totally human nature.

However, there is a difference between getting upset, and going after someone whom you thought punted you off BEFORE reviewing video evidence. It makes you look like an idiot, it is unprofessional, and worst of all, it lets the other guy realise that he's now gotten into your head. Think about that one for a second, when you react, you're not in control anymore; he is.

There's a difference between trying to make a pass, compared to say just being stupid and asking to be knocked out of a race. Trying to sneak in from 2 lengths back at the point of turn in and HOPING the guy gives you racing room isn't being racey, it's being DUMB; especially when such an attempt is made at the first turn of the SEOND lap of a 22 lap race.

Screaming on the radio because your engine is going soft isn't going to do any good either. We can't do anything about it because obviously at such levels of racing, we dont' have two-way telemetry. Hell I don't know who nowadays have two-way telem except for a certain Austrian University's entry in last year's Formula STudent competition. (which is just mind boggling if you think about it.)

Team got a third driver for the next seven races, this should be interesting. Apparently, said driver's got some experience and is fairly quick; this should be interesting to see how bubble boy deal with it.

What a gong show

2007-04-12T00:52:00.000-04:00

As a crew member of a team, it drives me absolutely NUTS when I see a driver QUIT DRIVING. You'd better think twice before you key that radio and tell us, "I'm going to pack it in guys. Too tired and my neck is killing me."

are you FUCKING KIDDING ME? If you were Michael Schumacher and had a gazillion world titles in your belt, I'd understand. When you are over 3 seconds slower than your teammate, then I can't understand why you aren't out there trying to get faster. When you can give up six tenths in ONE corner (!!!!) and when I've been harping on a technique fix for 5 session debriefs, then please; don't DARE tell me not giving you the car that you need. You didn't even stay out there for more than 5 FLYERS in any of the sessions for crying out loud.

I guess I should reiterate: fatigue is normal. But don't tell me you're packing it in because you're tired, can't stay on the track and then come bitch to me about all these mechanical failures costing you the chance to challenge for the title. Title challengers don't just pack it in.

Just pisses me off when I have a quitter on my hands.

Random Thoughts from the past 2 weeks

2007-03-21T11:04:00.000-04:00

Race fans are a funny bunch of people. People are raving about Lewis Hamilton being WDC material and there are others who call the formers having knee-jerk reaction. Let me say it right now; I HIGHLY rate Lewis. For those who know me, the last driver that I cheered for was Senna. (Villeneuve but that was just because he has the maple leaf on the car) I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a driver for a LONG time. First time I saw LH was in F3; and the rest is history as they say; but I digress.

Some might think it’s a knee jerk reaction to be calling LH WDC material; but I disagree. The last person to podium on his debut was JV; and he was a LOT more experienced than LH. These two also have something in common: the cars in their debut are quick machines. In their respective era, JV’s FW16 is today’s F2007; so them being on the podium shouldn’t be surprising IMO. Hell if Kubica can score a points finish in his debut last year in that crappy BMW; then LH had better score better.

This week’s motogp race should also be interesting to see how the Yamaha counters the Ducati. If the gap doesn’t close dramatically, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal since Jerez doesn’t have top end sections like the last round where the Ducs just blew the doors off everybody. It was nice to see Casey stop dropping his bikes and showing everyone his form from the 250 days.

New season; new beginnings

2007-03-20T18:29:00.000-04:00

The town of Sebring sucks. The only saving grace is that it’s in Florida and the weather is somewhat decent down there (until Thurs and Fri). The race track itself is nothing to write home about either. Flat and bumpy; the only good thing about the race is that there are some crazy parties in the infield.

Our team this year isn’t as strong in the past 2 seasons from a drivers point of view. One is a 26 year old who’s paying his own racing bills after having started his own business; the other is a 19 year old who is getting his first taste in formula cars. This is also my first year working in Star Mazda as a data acquisition engineer. A far cry from BMWs these cars are. A lot more channels we can log and a lot more freedom that we have when it comes to helping out the drivers from the analysis point of view.

I’m tasked to the 26 year old for the season and I can say that I’m pretty happy with his progress given the fact that he hasn’t been in a proper race car for 10 years. The great thing about this guy is he actually listens to what we have to say, and that he actually REMEMBERS our session objectives when he’s out on the track. So often you have drivers who have red mist descend upon them when they put that helmet on that they end up going backwards as far as development goes. I can’t say enough good things about him in that regards.

Having said that, the things that frustrate me is that he has no clue how to communicate with the engineers. When a car’s pushing and you’re telling me it’s oversteer because you think you’re cranking in more steering angle than you should; well then buddy, it’s time to hit the books and at least learn the proper terms. I don’t need you to tell me what the dampers are doing and what the tyres are doing at all the corners of the track (and frankly, if you can do THAT, you should be racing higher up in the ladder anyway); but at least get the terminology right so we don’t go on a witch hunt simply because you didn’t equip yourself with knowing the language.

Personally, I’ve learned a lot in the past 3 on track sessions. From the first test where I still felt I was overwhelmed and didn’t belong to now where I’m starting to feel more comfortable with talking to the driver and sometimes even suggesting either making a change or not changing the car to learning how to ask the proper questions so that we can help make the car go forward instead of dropping the anchor. It’s been stressful; it’s been hectic, but man is it oh so worth it to see the guy go quicker every session. One thing for sure is, communication is key in this business. I can have all the theoretical knowledge and technical know how I want; but if I can’t communicate with the driver to apply the stuff in my head; it’s pretty much garbage.

We have a test before the next race; stay tuned for more updates. Meanwhile, here are some pics I took at Sebring.

http://naito.homedns.org/gallery/Lafora/Sebring+2007/

Been a while

2006-10-19T18:40:00.000-04:00

Been a while since I last posted.

Last 3 rounds of the racing season was done as supporting races for Champ Car and ALMS. I was hoping for some pics of the ALMS cars, but the location was not ideal and that binned my plans. I have absolutely zero interests in Champ Car as far as pics go, so that's the explanation.

Going to Valencia in a month and we're preparing for that right now (sorting out the logistics, blah balh balh); this means I won't be going to Macau to watch the F3 and WTCC race, but I will be going in december to visit my grandpa in HK.

Will report here in Valencia.

Testing at Miller 2

2006-07-19T23:25:00.000-04:00

Today was Day 2 of the FBMW Miller Test. The focus today was getting the setup right for the track as well as running a bunch of different setups to see how the car would do on this particular configuration. Not much to report on this one basically except for the fact that I'm learning a lot on the job in test days with regards to car setups and what not. I think the best lesson I learned today was that sifu's advice holds true; don't give a fuck to what other people are doing, just run the test to the programme you planned around and stick to it. If people are posting fast times, who gives a shit, they have their programme, you have yours. It's a TEST, fast times mean fuck all except for the ego boost. Kudos to my boss, that's exactly what he did.

Best fun of the day was when the sessions were done and Nature and I went to the kart track to run a few laps with the rentals. The track is simply AMAZING. I've never ran a track outside Ontario so I wasn't sure what to expect. Sodi kart with 13 hp Honda 4 stroke engines on a track that has more grip than anywhere in Ontario. The asphalt was the same as the full size track except for a difference in the thickness.

Track had so much grip my rear wheel jacked itself about 7 inches off the ground according to my buddy. Some of the FBMW drivers went out after and I was humbled by Simona by about 7 tenths. (her best vs my best) Target tomorrow is to hit the 41s =)

On a side note, the pictures above why you don't wanna have bad relationships with teams that you run with. I mean, it's one thing to be a RedBull backed driver, but it's another to completely turn around and go to another team after a supposed phone call from said sponsor. Granted, I don't know the exactly story behind the switch, but either way it looks bad on no one but the driver. The team did an excellent job last year with the same driver BEFORE he was backed by Red-Bull, so why not show some class and just say "look, I'm sticking with them for the rest of the year." It's not like they don't get the results either.

Anyhow, I digress. Props to them for having a sense of humour, here's what they did to the driver's car after he left. They had chrome hubcaps on the wheels when it was sitting on the setup pad; not to mention, it's car number 69. LMAO!

Testing at Miller I

2006-07-19T00:55:00.000-04:00

Finally arrived at Salt Lake City on Monday afternoon for the two day test with the Formula BMW series. My first impression of Miller Motorspark is it's ONE big race track. Not only is it huge, but the facilities are top notch. The garages are very spacious (hey TONY, learn from Miller would ya) and equipped with CABLE TV!!!!

Tuesday was the first day on track and we spent the first session bedding in new pads for the upcoming two races. Our testing programme today was mainly trying different setups for the upcoming races, so laptimes wasn't a priority. Daniel did set fast time of the afternoon after we put stickers on his car. Unfortunately he only had a few flying laps due to a red flag near the end of the day. But it is always good for morale to end on a high note.

2006-07-18T01:03:00.000-04:00

You gotta give it to these motogp guys. Great races almost every weeekend (even in the premiere class with the litre bikes), and they are almost ALWAYS classy blokes. 2000 champ Kenny Jr took out Tamada with an optimistic attempt on sunday in germany, and immediately ran over to Tamada to see if he's hurt.

then in the interview with Eurosport, he took all the blame and even apologised to Tamada's team on TV.

compare this to the F1 guys, who always blame the other party and gives cliche answers.

The COMPLETE Indy Report. It's LONG

2006-07-06T21:27:00.000-04:00

After a mediocre weekend at Montreal in which we had two one-car finish, we packed up and headed to Indy hoping luck would finally be on our side. The great thing about Indy is the location of our paddock relative to the pitlane (real close, thank goodness) and the fact that one can walk down the F1 pits on Thursday. The bad thing about Indy is the fact that it feels quite anti-climatic socially. Then again, after a week of Montreal, just about anywhere other than the Mardi Gras would feel anti-climatic.

Friday’s practice session went well for Daniel as there were no incidents that involved him and thus it allowed him to use the entire session to learn the nuances of Indy. The same couldn’t be said for Doug as the car expired after only 2 hotlaps. Thus commences the witch hunt of “what killed Doug’s car.” When we checked the data, nothing seemed out of the ordinary aside from a drop of fuel pressure. Keith bought a new engine loom for the car and we changed it for the qualifying session for the afternoon. The car fired up after this first operation and so we gave it the green light.

Twenty minutes prior to takeoff, the heavens decided to give more adventure to the drivers AND the mechanics and engineers by having sunshine AND rain at the same time. How’s that for a mind trip when it comes to setup and strategy. What made it worse was the fact that Doug’s car was stranded in pitlane AGAIN due to the car being uncooperative and unwilling to run. To complicate the problem even more, we ran into more problems as the car was being diagnosed by the people from BMW in the pitlane. Now I’m not knocking the guys from BMW at all since they did a bang up job in helping us, but at the end of the day Morgan had to replace the chassis and data aq loom in the car Friday night.

Meanwhile out on the track Daniel qualified sixth for race 1 and twenty-first for race 2. Matt Lee swept the pole for the weekend and the ringer from Germany, Stefano Coletti, starts 7^th and 10^th for the two races. Daniel didn’t have lady luck on his side since he only had two hotlaps after we changed to slicks before time ran out.

We retired to the Boyer’s RV on Friday evening to enjoy some of Bruce and Sandy’s cooking. The Boyer steaks were an absolute smashing success as everyone had nothing but praise for them. Even cooked to well-done they were still very tender and full of flavour.

Race 1 on Saturday started off with drama again. Doug’s car couldn’t make it out of the false grid as she stalled for the 3^rd time. It is most disheartening to watch our driver sit there as the gate to the track closes. Daniel made a good start but Coletti still managed to squeeze by at Turn one demoting Dan to 7^th. Wickens started P2 also got by Lee at the same spot. Further back of the grid saw Reed Steven’s car stall on the grid causing the safety car to come out. Fortunately, no one from the back collected his strickened car causing further mayhem to the field. Aside from the SC period caused by Steven’s car, the entire race was green and so there was plenty of racing happening. Daniel was in a tussle with the rest of the drivers at mid-field all race long. Analyzing the data after the race, we found he was losing approx 5 kph down the flat out section of the track causing him to go backwards during the race. At the front, Coletti was keeping Wickens honest from lap 7 on by continuously pumping in mid 1.38 laps. Unfortunately for the Polish driver, he ran out of laps and Wickens took round 1 by a convincing margin.

Meanwhile back at our garage, we finally found the cause of Doug’s grief. A bad crank sensor was found and so Morgan went to work right away to replace the damaged unit. Daniel’s car was being treated to a new engine and so out came the late nite oil as we went to get the cars ready for Sunday morning’s race. Bruce and Ramson were great in staying until 11 giving us a hand. True racing dads and we were very grateful for them making our lives easier. When all was said and done, the clock read 2:30 by the time our heads hit the pillow.

Sunday started bright and early at a quarter to seven. Keith took 33 for a spin around the paddock to make sure she TRULY ran before we send a very frustrated Doug out to the false grid. Doug starts race two from the back of the field since he failed to post a time during qualifying. Daniel starts from 21^st. Armed with a fresh engine, Daniel quickly clawed his way to the mid-teen position and was in a battle with Gelles driver Maxime Pelletier. The two would swap positions all race long and in the end Daniel had to settle for 15^th. Since Doug didn’t have much track time due to the electrical gremlins in his car, the setup used wasn’t optimized and thus he made a couple of costly mistakes that had him finish near the end of the pack. Coletti put on another clinic in consistency as he was in low 1.38s the entire race.

It was a frustrating weekend for the team as we scored no points this weekend. I enjoyed this weekend tremendously. Being the second weekend on the road with the guys, I’ve finally got a good grasp on the daily operations of what goes on during race weekends. In addition, sharing a room with Keith allowed me to pick his brain a little bit on his philosophies on the engineering side of racing. Another thing that made a strong impression was that despite the bad luck, no one on the team (including the drivers and parents) were really bitching or pointing fingers. I’m definitely fortunate in working with these guys as I’ve heard and personally dealt with people who aren’t as forgiving.

After the race was over, the four of us went to watch the F1 boys get to work. I loved where we sat since you can see corners 8 to 11, all slow stuff. I’m not a student of aero so I had no clue about that department; but driving style and mechanical grip of the car I have some basic knowledge so I enjoyed my vantage point immensely. If Indy claims itself to be the racing capital of the world, then I must say I’m unimpressed in the lack of racing knowledge some of those people displayed. Turn one claimed six cars and remarks of “what total idiots”; “use your heads man!” could be heard from all over the grandstands.

Look guys, first of all, this isn’t roundy round NASCAR where cars can stay in a two to three-wide train all day long. Second of all, this is racing and it means going for an opportunity when you see it. I’ve seen some wrecks in NASCAR and CCWS and they’re just as big IF NOT bigger. The six car pileup brought out the safety car and Taku took out Monteiro on the restart in turn one. Fortunately for Monteiro, he was able to go on and finish the race. On the TV screen, the lap counter was highlighted yellow and the gentleman behind me exclaimed, “What! Under yellow again?” I couldn’t get my mind on WHY he said that until I realized that fans here are used to these knee-jerk safety periods just like the Europeans are used to taking dives that warrant Academy Awards in soccer. So I kindly told him that if it’s a full course caution, the safety car WILL come out; if there’s no SC, it’s only a local yellow for that corner. JV had an engine failure (what is it with these BMW engines *grin*) and Ralf had to retire near the end of the race. By my count, only 13 cars finished the race this year at Indy.

Being able to watch this race both live and glancing at the jumbotron watching the FOM’s TV feed, I can see why the general American public wouldn’t be interested in F1. Frankly, it’s bad racing. It might be GREAT driving at the odd times, but it sure as hell is bad racing. NASCAR and most things oval give great racing where you have lots of lead-lap traffic and lots of passing. MotoGP brings great racing AND riding; F1 only brings great technology in which only a handful of people care about, and great driving by only certain parts of the field. There’s also another problem in that unless you follow F1 closely and know all the helmet paint scheme of all drivers in F1, there’s no way in hell would you stand a chance when it comes to identifying who’s who. Even I failed to differentiate between Fisi and Alonso since their lids looked very close when viewed from the side and I’ve not missed a F1 race on TV for at least 10 years.

One thing I came away with after watching today’s race is realizing just how much difference there is in terms of performance between the top teams and the bottom teams. The slow corners are great for this since chassis and suspension design as well as traction control all give indication on how much mechanical grip the car has in slow corners. At the exit of 10, neither Ferraris or Renault had noticeable TC activation until the starts start to degrade. (Eg, when I can hear MS’s TC come on, he went to pit for tires 2 laps later) On the other hand, I can hear the Redbull cars’ TC go on every lap no matter what condition the tires are. An eye opener that one doesn’t get the benefit of seeing with ITV’s coverage..

First official day at Indy

2006-06-29T22:15:00.000-04:00

Thursday is usually setup day for us and it's probably the most laid back day since there is no on track action of any kind. (Unless you count the FIA Safety Car ripping around the track action)

Morning was spent doing the final touches to our paddock area and tidying up the place. Doug had an exam so he won't be able to get here until 9 tonite which put a dent into our plans since he wanted to change the seat in the car. Didn't really affect our timetable in terms of being on the pad since there were two of us who could substitute as "fake Doug." Learned a few things today in terms of what to do with the pad as well as how to adjust the car's corner weights and ride height. Pretty basic stuff for mechanics :)

Biggest eye opener today was walking down the pitlane AFTER it was closed to the public. Cars were going into scrutineering so I got real close (as in i could literally touch em) and took some pretty close up pics on the cars. One interesting thing I found out today was that the F1 tire plus the wheel is only 12 kilos; which is mind blowing light if you see the actual size of it. It's also insanely heavy to think that it comprises of about 10% of the car's weight (all 4) if you don't install the balast of the car.

Best thing that's happened so far this week is probably being put in the same room with my boss. Just learning so much stuff about the business as a whole; both in terms of the driving principles and engineering stuff; real cool :)

tomorrow is practice and qualifying; stay tuned

pictures are at

Indy Pics

Montreal 2006

2006-06-26T02:00:00.000-04:00

The great thing about the Montreal F1 weekend is the parties. The bad thing has probably have got to be the fact that the track is located on an island and there are only a handful of bridges to get there. Those going to watch the racing usually takes the subway, but since we’re working, we drove instead.

Got there on Wednesday afternoon and we setup camp at just about the very eastern tip of the track. It took about a 3 minute walk from the trailer to reach the grandstands located at the hairpin. Since I work for a team that fields a team of very young drivers, I already checked the forecast beforehand to see what the weather was like. Praying to god I won’t ever see rain since rain plus concrete walls plus a F1 audience usually spells HUGE disaster in terms of wrecks and accidents. We had some precipitation on Thursday, but it was a non-issue since that was a setup day and the rest of the weekend was pure sunshine which got the weather part out of the way to say the least.

I’ve been working for a team located locally who are quite renowned for their success in the lower formulae in North America. This was also my first weekend of working for one of the quicker karters who came out of Canada in recent years. Since he studies in the high-school that I used to go to, and raced for the kart team that I am now with, needless to say I was very much looking forward to see just how good he is. I knew he was quick before, but now I can see exactly how good when the data comes back from each session. Being a rookie in this series, his race-craft was certainly among the top of the crop in this field. The first race saw him start 12^th and finished 6^th. He has what I called controlled-aggression and the thing that impressed me the most is he does not always go defensive when under-pressure, and only shows his nose when the chance presents itself. (a lot of younger drivers like to feint an overtaking maneouver; there are good and bad to it, and usually the bad outweighs the good if the guy in front is of an equal skill level)

Overall our weekend was not without incidents. We lost a corner in race 1 on Saturday from an accident at the hairpin, and race 2 saw our other car lose the front AND rear wing because the leader decided to check the field before crossing the start/finish line after a SC period. In retrospect and looking from his perspective, I can see where he’s coming from. Coletti races in the German series where according to an engineer from Mucke, the skill level is really high. So if you don’t give yourself some breathing space after a SC, the guy behind is just going to draft past and get on the inside of you on T1. Accident happened because the 2^nd place guy over-reacted and just stood on the brakes causing a domino effect; an avoidable racing incident, but them’s the dice I suppose.

If our weekend was considered relatively uneventful, then the Star Mazda side of the squad definitely had one of the shittiest weekends in their history (according to my boss). For those of you who have access to Speed TV and want to see the carnage, make sure you check the schedule and see when you can find the Star Mazda Montreal race on TV. Don’t tune in late as it only took 5 CORNERS in the first lap before all hell broke loose. The Mazda squad runs 3 cars; two are completely tubbed (tubbed means the carbon fibre tub of the chassis has been junked) and the other had 3 of the 4 corners destroyed. The impact was so bad on one of the cars that nothing except for a hose clamp was salvageable on the chassis. You know it’s a bad one when you can crack the dash of the car as well as ripping a bearing off of the suspension bellcranks.

Paddock access to the F1 stuff wasn’t as great as Indy which is coming up next; but we were located at the Mclaren pitbox and their pitwall equipment is absolutely INSANE. I was particularly impressed with their weather station where it shows in bar graph form the data of the past 3 hours on: air temp, track temp, humidity, dry/wet, barometric pressure and wind speed. The V8s don’t sound that much different from the V10s last year, but the braking is absolutely a sight to behold. I snapped about 170 pics of my weekend; you can check them out at

Montreal Pics

In the lands of legends

2006-06-16T22:52:00.000-04:00

WOW.

I knew one of my bosses was good, but I never knew HOW good.

2nd place at the Canadian Formula A karting championship and former rookie of the year in the Toyota Atlantic series. Pretty sure he would've made it to Champ Cars had he not hurt his back.

Rubbed elbows with Alex Tagliani and Dan Wheldon (Indy 500 champion).
Very nice guy, very down to earth. Him and I share a common passion outside of racing: FASHION. I think that's why I find talking to him easier since he's younger and he's into other shit as well.

Learned a lot today talking to Ian after work picking his brain on what they did when they designed that formula ford chassis. He showed me some drawings and I was blown away at how easy we have it now when we design the SAE cars.

His are HAND drawings; meaning every modification would need to be done over :)

ours are CAD; which means mods are done via a click of a mouse.

Where Do I Work

2006-06-13T18:55:00.000-04:00

Some of you might ask where I work?

http://naito.homedns.org/gallery/Lafora/Summer+2006/

The album will be updated throughout the season, and I will most likely post a new entry with update.

Two things I learned today.
The Star Mazda cars run on bias ply tires; but they have cockpit adjustable front ARB AND traction control.

The DP car's got some pretty interesting numbers. The RC is low as heck (think it was 96 thou above ground), but weighs a whopping 2400 pounds. Car goes on the pad tomorrow to setup for a mosport test; see if i can snap some pics for you guys.

The more I kart, the more respect I have for the pros

2006-06-11T20:26:00.000-04:00

Had an epiphany at the track today. (this is a kart post, no pics)

Some say it's "easy" being the 3rd driver (you know the Heikkis, the Ants and the Wurz's); I think those who say it's easy ought to just go to the local kart track, either borrow or rent a 125cc kart (i'll make it "easy" for you; just use a single speed for now, forget about the shifters), then run the kart on your personal limit for at least 15 laps per session for the entire day.

Leave me a comment if these applies:
a)you aren't completely knackered by the end of the day.
b) you can recall the kart behaviour in the 15 laps to some level of detail so that the feedback you give is actually useful in tuning the kart (this eliminates the "oh yah, it's good" or, "oh..it's kinda loose")
c) the laptimes can't vary by more than 0.5 seconds for the entire 20 laps.

I tried doing that today, and it gave me just the tiniest of insight at exactly how good a driver one must have to be to just be a test driver; nevermind to get a race-seat. Condition a and c above are highly correlated to another as the day wears on. Condition b) depends on two things: either how talented you are, or for the mere mortals, how long you've driven that type of vehicle while thinking and analyzing all the time what you're doing.

I remember last year when I was first under the tutelege of sifu, I was just trying to absorb everything he's telling me. Absorption is one thing; application is an entirely different story. I don't think I was really driving the kart as much as being just a passenger. (a noob in a 31 hp on a 300lb kart, that's with me AND fuel --> running condition basically, so the kart only weighs about 150 pounds without me) I KNOW what I was doing wrong; but I don't think I was making a conscious effort in fixing the mistakes on the fly since I was trying to just apply what sifu was telling me.

Only way to achieve progress is thru "perfect" practice, and I finally could fix stuff on the fly today. I only stepped into that zone when I realised I didn't have to consciously think of the lines and just let the kart drove itself. That's when I can notice all sorts of stuff going on around me. What I was doing that was causing hte oversteer; what I was doing that was causing the braking mistake; why do the rpm's at the end of the straight differ; where was i losing time; and I could try fixing them in the very next corner. At that point, giving feedback on the chassis' behaviour was gradually becoming easier; just need a VERY calm mind when you drive so your physical being and subconscious can finally step up to the plate, kick that screaming conscious mind away and start absorbing information.

Extremely pleased today with my progress. Not as much the progress made on the timer (the speed will come I'm sure); but the progress in me as a driver. I've felt this before, but only in a simulation world. Those who know me could probably know what I'm gonna say.

FOX in particular, on south city.