This weekend I had the last track day of the year which was at the go-kart track. (Ecotrak) I had a personal best of 56.666 on street tires. I believe the fastest of all time on street tires is 56.1 so I'm knocking on the door. The lines I'm using need some modifications to take better advantage of the SRT's power.
Have you ever rotated your car in a turn with the gas? Now that's a new fun technique I'm practicing. And I need to practice it some more but it's not too hard and way too much fun. Next big step could be left foot braking. Starting tomorrow I plan on using the left foot no matter what I'm driving before trying it on the track.
I hope you enjoy the video. No changes to the car. (I lie, the headliner is out at the moment) The downpipes go on before January so my pip's can enjoy the sound of SRT fury at WOT.

Les

Untitled on Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com/17802493

 

Nice video Les. Your lines look pretty good to me. Are the street tires you are using the AD08's? I used the AD08's all year in SOLO II and they performed very well. I have done some research on combating the Crossfire understeer, and it looks like getting good at both trail braking and utilizing throttle-lift are the answer. I will be working on that in the off-season (currently 8 degrees here in Dayton).

I had an instructor for Corvette's tell me that left-foot braking is also a time saver. I have a G-Tech RR, and reading the data shows around .2 sec's lost either shifting or moving your foot from gas to brake or the other way around. I haven't worked on that yet, but it is on my list.

I finished in first place in both SCCA and NASA this year, and hope to repeat next year. I also want to run a PDX at Mid-Ohio and participate in at least one Pro-SOLO event next year. I enjoy your posts, keep it up.
Mike

 

I have the Advan AD08's but mine are gone after 2 events at Ecotrak (eats tires) 1 solocross event/Salinas short track, 1 solocross event/Ponce long track, and a one day event of track time. (2 months, fronts flipped on the rims once, rears still good) I sometimes overdrive the car which doesn't help either. But they are real sticky tires. What pressures do you run? My times are faster with a lower pressure but the fronts get eaten alive. I was upping the pressure little by little on Sunday until my times started slowing down. My best time is always the first or second lap no matter where the pressure is set. I think it's more a heat issue. When they pass a certain temperature they loose grip no matter the pressure.
Trail braking works for me when I get it right. Misjudge it a little and the lap is wasted. It's an art to threshold brake and transition to trail braking correctly. I get it right about half the time. I achieve my best success braking a bit early then transitioning to trail braking depending on the speed of the corner. I got most of the push out with the stock tire sizes by lowering the back of the car. I went too low at first and was real loose. The Koni's helped a lot too. I'm set at almost full firm in the front and full loose in the rear. I may need to revisit the settings now that I'm learning new ways to drive the car. I have a few more videos of the day, some just having some fun, I'll post one up this afternoon or tomorrow from a different location on the car.
Let me know what works for you! I'm trying everything I can, sort of a learning/understanding methodology.

I added a second video to the first post.

Les

 

For tire pressure running SOLO II, I started at 40 psi COLD on both ends, but the front end pushed too much. After trying changes both higher and lower, I ended up at 37 in front and 39 in rear using the "set it, and forget it" approach. The pressures would go up to about 40 / 40 when tires came up to temperature. This is with the AD08's and stock suspension setup.

I have Hoosier A6's for next season, so I will be running lower psi -- maybe around 35, and will take your advice on lowering the rear slightly.
Mike