Ok ladies and gentlemen, back by popular demand (the season just started again) I have a decent little clip of the weekend (01/28/06) at Willow Springs Raceway. This clip is rather large and slow to download, but I think it's well worth it...

http://www.hollywooddigitalimaging.c...nd@Willow1.avi

This is a smaller version and quicker DL

http://www.hollywooddigitalimaging.c...nd@Willow1.mov

I did a rush job on it and the audio seems to be a bit out of sync after the first few seconds, after I inserted the track map. I apologize for the excessive wind noise, the microphone on my camera seems to get buffeted by the air coming into the car when the windows are down. I'm a cameraman not a soundman... LOL

As far as the rest of the info I would like to share, Willow Springs (big track) was the first track I ran when the car had 1,100 miles on it and was completely stock, two years ago... I wanted to see what the "off the boat" car would do and how, or, if I needed to modify it.

With the OEM set-up two years ago, my best time was 1:58:04 and a top speed on the front straightaway of 91 mph. This past Saturday I logged a best lap of 1:45:09 with a top speed of 108 mph on the front straight and 114 on the back side between turn 6 and 8.

The car is noticably faster now. Sixth gear is reached at the flaggers stand on the front straightaway which is 2,400' or 1/2 mile. I'm looking forward to having it dyno'd next Saturday. I'm sure this is a combo of the intakes, chip, and exhaust mods. I'm really impressed with the difference.

 

you did one heck of a job staying on the M3's caboose. mr M3 needs to work on his lines.

thanks for sharing...i felt like i was driving.

 

Thanks Andrew, it still makes me crazy that a sedan can beat my butt... You wouldn't have believed how fast some of the EVO's and WRX's were that weekend.

I think the M3 was trying to find the line going through the infamous turn 9, he almost had it but was taking the apex a little late. That turn 7,8,9 complex is really difficult to master because it's a multiple apex series of turns at very high speed and if you miscalculate the last turn, you'll end-up in the run-off.

The corvette must have been a first-timer, because it looked like he just gave-up halfway through the event, the VW and vette were a pass from the back of the pack on the last lap. The M3 and I were on the same lap.

I'm really impressed how the car feels more powerful now. This was the first time I ran the big track at Willow Springs since I did all the mods. I usually run the small track which is a very technical road course with a short (1,100') straightaway.

The #'s don't lie, now the car is hitting 108 mph on the front straightaway, compared to 91 nearly two years ago. Still not fast enough to be competitive, but a decent showing... I think if I can get rid of 200+ lbs, it will be much more competitive.

 

GREAT Video! (and audio). Got my heart pumpin just watching it. Not bad for a Limited with "a little work". WOW!!!

 

Thank you sir... I try to wave the flag for the little underpowered Crossfire... I had at least a dozen people pouring over the car in the pits again... It happens every time I run the car... They all ask questions...

One gentleman running a Porsche GT3 Cup car asked when I was going to supercharge the car... I said quite frankly, when you give me $12,000... LOL

I will continue to post a video after each event this year... Hopefully 12 events if my schedule permits...

 

Yeeeehaaa!

 

HDDP,
The changes in lap times are huge... Great job, and video's are great.

 

Thanks ROADKILL... I was going to run at ButtonWillow Raceway this weekend, but I have a problem with some wrong parts that came in from Chrysler...

 

I am interested in racing the crossfire, but i don't know what kind of modifications I will have to do to the roadster to make it legal to race. Oh yeah I have to beg the wife for the keys for it too...

 

The problem with the roadster is we're still trying to get a determination from DC if the roll bars are cosmetic or functional. I'm trying to get that info for another member as well.

You will not be allowed on a track until we can find out if the roll bars are considered a functional safety bar. I'll keep you posted...

The current SCCA classification that we currently have for the car is T3 Touring car http://www.scca.org/_FileLibrary/File/Touring.pdf... You can find out the mods. you are allowed online at: http://www.scca.org Download the touring car specs and it will tell you... I'm still working with the SCCA to get specs for GT class. My car is not legal for T3 class because I have exceeded the allowed modifications.

 

Let me know when you find out. I would not think they would be cosmetic as they seem to be pretty stout. Also do you ever do any racing in AZ? They have a couple of tracks here in the Phoenix area.

 

Firebird, Chandler AZ... Love that track... do you want me to check their schedule for you ?

 

That would be great. If my schedule permits, I will try to make it to that race.

 

HDDP,

I've watched the vid quite a few times, checking out different things here and there, however, I didn't noticed until my recent viewing...the stability of the camera is amazing! I see a lot of in car shots, but you've got that camera absolutely stable (look at dash, not bouncing at all, your head is bouncing all over). Obviously this is your biz, but how difficult is that set up (pics?) and what's the camera used?

Sennaspirit

 

LOL: It's an old crappy, beat-up Sony PD150 that I bought 6 years ago to do some silly project for some studio... It sat around in the shop for a couple of years collecting dust and I decided to use it for the track...

I purchased two woodworking C-clamps and mount it to the cross member behind the seats, the most stable part of the car... It works perfectly IMO... I'm a director of photography / cameraman by profession and have worked with many of the mini-cams used for TV broadcasts of racing events for 15 years... I mostly do network primetime shows and feature films now... I just throw this crappy camera in the car for videos for the forum and to analyze the driving line of the track.

The only problem with shooting a camera out the front or rear of a car is that it does not give you the true perception of speed, because everything is relative at those angles... If you really want to present the visuals of absolute speed, you need to mount cameras at 45% thru 135% angles to the static background...

The best we have been able to do with forward and backward mounted cameras is to place them very low on the car so you can see the static tarmac in relation to the moving vehicle...

Obviously, I don't do this when I'm goofing around on the track with my buddies... Heck, half the time I even forget to turn the camera on because I'm concentrating on the event and not working...

The thing that I keep promising to do, is get the audio set-up properly... The camera has a front mounted mic that gets buffeted by the wind from both windows being down and cancels out all the good audio of the engine and exhaust note... The funny thing is, one of my best friends is an Emmy Award winning sound engineer and he keeps telling me that he'll let me wire in some of his mic's to the back end of the car so the audio is better, but I keep spacing it out every time I go to the track...



Here's one of my tools for work... Trust me, I've tried to get them in the car... NO WORKIE !!!

 

Please do the sound upgrades!

~ Jess

 

HDDP, your racing video was very exciting to view...living vicariously through your video racing the Crossfire is just to cool!

Great work.

 

...as usual... very good stuff.