Official "my latest HPDE experience" thread.

[Traum]

The purpose of a HANS device is to keep the head from whipping in a crash, and that mostly only happens when you are held down in the seat by a race harness. A 3-point belt already allows for a gradual deceleration of your body / neck / head, so the protection offered by a HANS device isn't strictly necessary if you are using a 3-point belt.

[Vancouver240sx]

I believe IF you have harnesses it should be required to wear a HANS. I believe not wearing a HANS with a 6 point is more dangerous than not wearing helmet with a 6 point.

Unless you plan to use a HANS, stick with the stock 3 point. Through the grapevine this was the cause of the deaths at A27 this year.

Rich

[bcrdukes]

The reason I'm asking is I'm on the fence of getting bucket seats and a harness. My home track is fast enough and has concrete walls to cause serious injury, or even death.

My Boxster is still a dual-duty street and track car. I don't have a trailer to haul the vehicle and don't plan on getting one anytime soon, and I need to make a decision on how competitive or serious I want to get with this vehicle.

My other first world problem is if I get bucket seats, what do I do with my stock seats? I'm not looking to selling them, and space/storage is a serious premium.

I noticed some people run a Simpson Hybrid and and have said they can use it in a car that's got a harness, and a 3-point seat belt.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

The reason I'm asking is I'm on the fence of getting bucket seats and a harness. My home track is fast enough and has concrete walls to cause serious injury, or even death.

My Boxster is still a dual-duty street and track car. I don't have a trailer to haul the vehicle and don't plan on getting one anytime soon, and I need to make a decision on how competitive or serious I want to get with this vehicle.

My other first world problem is if I get bucket seats, what do I do with my stock seats? I'm not looking to selling them, and space/storage is a serious premium.

I noticed some people run a Simpson Hybrid and and have said they can use it in a car that's got a harness, and a 3-point seat belt.

It's the same question I have. How far do I want to take the M3. I would need some new track pads, new stickier tires, better coils.... but that takes it increasingly out of the street car range and into a dedicated track car, I still have two car seats in the back and I use it as a family car.....

[underscore]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

The reason I'm asking is I'm on the fence of getting bucket seats and a harness. My home track is fast enough and has concrete walls to cause serious injury, or even death.

Will you/do you also have at least a roll bar if not a full cage? The way I understand it you should really have one if you have a harness because if you find yourself upside down and the room comes in, a harness won't let your body move like a 3 point and you'll get crushed. So you kind of need to go all or nothing with the cage/seat/harness/HANS thing or you end up with something actually more dangerous than stock.

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

My other first world problem is if I get bucket seats, what do I do with my stock seats? I'm not looking to selling them, and space/storage is a serious premium.

Do they recline much? You might be able to get them fairly flat and then they'd be easier to store. Or unbolt the two halves and the mounting bracket, then worst case stash all the pieces under your bed or under your couch lol.

[bcrdukes]

So I have the factory roll bar (if you want to call it that) but if I want to run a full harness, some aftermarket goodies can be easily acquired. I would only run the harness for when on track, and not on the street. This is sort of the dilemma as well. I'm not doing 20+ events a year where it warrants a full on-roll cage. This is still a street car (for now) so I'm looking at the hybrid Simpson as the compromise.

Factory seats - To be honest I'm not sure how much they recline. I'll have to ask around on this.

[roastpuff]

Most harnesses will need an aftermarket roll bar to mount to as well. Factory roll bar will not work. IMO if you want a bucket you can run it with the 3 point stock belts - it's what I'm doing.

As per our discussion, if you're not sliding around in the stock seats I would not switch it out with a bucket unless you feel like you are not securely planted in place.

[Dbone]

I have the Schroth 4 point: www.schrothracing.com/item/lotus-ii-harness/fia-4-point-asm I don't wear this on the road since I have move around so much to get any kind of visibility with the side mirrors, but on the track it' a god send.

The seats are great in the lotus, I don't slide at all but not having to hold on for dear life while breaking or cornering makes driving much less of a chore.

I took the M2 out to VIMC was was getting a little pissed off with how much effort I had to put into just staying in the right place.

There was a guy at area 27 in July in an M2 who was wearing both a dodgy 4point, and his OEM belt at the same time.... he also said he heat soaked after 1 lap.. so I think we can agree that's probably the dumbest way to do things.

I thought HANS was not allowed at most track events outside of competition. Am I wrong there?

[bcrdukes]

Hmmm never heard of that. The track events I've been to (typically HPDE) encourage a HANS if/when you can use it, but never on the street. For competition, it's almost a requirement depending on the sanctioning body you're competing in.

[BIC_BAWS]

And that wraps up the season! I somehow did 6 track days this year, 3 were VIMC. Super stoked I finally feel more comfortable with carrying speed into T3. That's all I wanted out of yesterday. While PBs are secondary to it, I did end up getting PB twice yesterday.

However, PB aside, the best part of the day was showing a kid my "racecar" at the Chinese restaurant we were at. This kid spends his weekends at his parents family restaurant, similar to many other Asian immigrants. Last year, the kid was outside with his mom when we rolled in and he was like "mom! Look! Racecars!". So this year, I wanted to show him the cars haha

YouTube

[EvoFire]

You went through most of the track in third gear, even with how short the box is on the Type R. Definitely looks technical. I think the M3 would be doing a lot of 2-3-2 shifts.

[BIC_BAWS]

I think I could have shaved a bit more time, but I couldn't fully floor it on the straight after the last corner and had to let off early due to traffic. Nevertheless, it's still a significant improvement - 2 seconds and it's all due to focusing on optimizing T3.

I think I got on throttle too early in this PB lap, which made me understeer and then wash out. But I'm super happy that I can even do this *now*.

Originally Posted by EvoFire

You went through most of the track in third gear, even with how short the box is on the Type R. Definitely looks technical. I think the M3 would be doing a lot of 2-3-2 shifts.

I could have up shifted to 4th before T8, on the back straight, but I feel like it gives me too much speed going into T8. And given my last experience with going into Ebisu too hot, this would be a direct causation of that.

I was trying different shift points yesterday. I think on the final corner I can downshift to 2nd if I'm setting up for a PB lap, but leave it in 3rd when on PB lap.

Sometimes I'll pop it into 2nd on T5 if I feel like I scrubbed too much speed, but I feel like that's also dangerous because it unsettled the car in a turn. I don't think it's a matter of if I spin, but rather when.

[bcrdukes]

That car you caught up to should have given you the point-by.

[Traum]

VCMC x OPDA autox at Merrit Airport this weekend. Seems to be a Velocity Driving school event on Sat, followed by a timed autox event on Sun.

Weather for the weekend is looking fantastic for now, and I don't really expect that to change.

I don't suppose any RS-er is crazy enough (like me) to think that waking up at 3am to drive to Merrit for 10 min of competition driving is a good idea, right?

[bcrdukes]

Looking forward to your track day review!

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Traum

VCMC x OPDA autox at Merrit Airport this weekend. Seems to be a Velocity Driving school event on Sat, followed by a timed autox event on Sun.

Weather for the weekend is looking fantastic for now, and I don't really expect that to change.

I don't suppose any RS-er is crazy enough (like me) to think that waking up at 3am to drive to Merrit for 10 min of competition driving is a good idea, right?

I think going to Mission is already too far for 6 mins of seat time. Yeah you are crazy lol

[Traum]

It's funny how I am actually looking forward to the drive to Merrit (and back) more than the actual autox driving itself LOL~ In particular, I like the B roads (Hwy 7) between Mission and Hope quite a bit, but it may not be wise to drive through there in the morning to get to Merrit since it is a slower route.

[bcrdukes]

Another amazing HPDE weekend with PCA UCR at CTMP.

Few things I learned: Hankook Ventus RS4 does not like cool weather and require a few laps to warm up. Nearly lost it at the entry at Turn 8.

Had an amazing instructor from Rennsport Region PCA and he took me for a spin in his 964 RS America. By no means fast, but in such amazing condition and a perfect demonstration of slow cars being fast. I love that he isn’t afraid to track it.

I’ve gotten a lot more proficient and consistent. Got signed off for solo, but I’ll do that next month’s event in a few weeks. The White run group (Solo Group 1) was at capacity this weekend.

Edit: Sweet air cooled Porsches Rennsport Region PCA members. My instructor's car is the RS America. Edit #2: @Badhobz - These two cars both run Hankook Ventus RS4s. "Hankooks? On a Porsche?"

[Badhobz]

Looks like you had a lot of fun. Kudos for driving it the way it’s meant to be driven.

Not like this retard that buys grand touring cars and never grand tour anything other than driving it to holt Renfrew for the valets to do Ferris buellers day off type shit.

Ps hankooks still sucks ! And those older beetles look 1000% better than their modern day reincarnations.

[bcrdukes]

The Hankook Ventus RS4 is now considered a "benchmark" for track day tires, so a lot of different manufacturers are now copying them.

[roastpuff]

Did some auto-x today, man it's fun being able to sling the S2000 around corners. Not the fastest way to go for sure, but controlling the car with the throttle is definitely a skill I need to practice.

[bcrdukes]

TIL: I did not know how to heel-toe.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

TIL: I did not know how to heel-toe.

So what did you learn you were doing wrong? I'm not great at it either.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

TIL: I did not know how to heel-toe.

Personally, I find it much easier to bang it off at the track than to do it on the street. I am already hitting the brakes hard, and depth-wise, that pretty much brings my foot (and the brake pedal) to the same level as the gas pedal, and it just makes everything so much easier.

[bcrdukes]

I'm basically rev matching and sometimes it's smooth enough to not disrupt the balance of the car, so my instructors were fooled. It wasn't until today when going down Turn 4 and up the hill into Turn 5a, my "downshift" from fourth the third disrupted the car's balance, my instructor had a big WTF moment and made me do nothing but heel toe for a bulk of the morning. Lots of trail braking and having to unlearn 20 years of muscle memory is no easy feat!