Thunderhill NorCal Shelby Club 2015 Fall Classic
 

Only managed one video out of 8 sessions this weekend......and it was an epic fail on camera placement! :sieg:

Hopefully GW has footage of his Mustang in action as that car is so cool in so many ways. It's good looking, bloody fast, and sounds so damn cool!

'Great' modestly describes the company, track day promoter, track facilities, and fellow drivers. NorCal Shelby Club has an exceptional group of regular customers who's on-track courtesy makes for a safe, fast, fun weekend.

Ron Sutton brought his trusty sidekick Randy and their bench-racing stories were OMG funny!

Nice driving Ace! Good lookin pair of sunglasses you've got as well....#maybenexttime #allclearbehindyouboss

:thumbsup:

GW could improve on his 60' times in the relay race at the end of the day on Saturday. :D

Charley too........

Andy's Lotus didn't have any 'problem' but he was only running 2:02's like clockwork all day long. :D

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This is a very short video of the Mustang running...Did I ever tell you guys I hate GoPro and video?? LOL -- I suck at this video crap.

That's not bad compared to the preview!

Needs to be in the 16:9 format though.....trivial details.

Here's our buddy Pete chasing Lillard (in Charlie's "new to him" '07 Fat tired Mustang)

Thunderhill is now the longest track in the U.S at over 5 miles long. Finally had a full day of running the 5 mile course and love it. lots of different stuff.

Here's a video of our buddy PETE running the 5 mile Thunderhill track. If you look - you can see "old yeller" in front of him... until we finally clear some traffic and then I'm gone... Pete used to pass me and take off and I couldn't catch him but, since Ron Sutton's suspension re-do... I'm now 20 seconds a lap faster on the 5 mile. The 5 mile track takes about 3:20 to 3:50's to run... and it's so dang fun! You're mixing high speed 3 mile track with a twisty technical 2 mile section so you get it all.

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Little Porsche love, 2003 GT3RS.

GT2 RS...... That just happened to win Watkins Glen back in it's day. Dan said it's 550 HP and weighs nothing.

45 Nissim, Daniel 03 Porsche GT3RS, White Blue Blue

Also did a image search.......seems to match up with the GT3RS Cup Cars.

:hello:

Cant wait to run the 5 miler''' Jonesin for some track time...haven't been since may.

thanx for the pics siegster, makes me miss it even more...also love some P-car action....hmmm, wonder why..lol

Ah -- thought it was a GT2 car. It goes pretty good!

I believe the gt2 cars are turbo'd, and would have the ducts just in front of the rear wheels iirc

Greg is that the same Porsche you were messin with last time in the Lotus?

Looks like you all had a good time, no drama and everything stayed together...can't beat that!
:thumbsup:

Yup, Andy's about ready to lay 1.8 liters of whoop azz on him here. :D

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Andy was running 2:02 - 2:03 like clockwork out there.

Great picture Sieg, as always.

Besides vintage muscle cars, Porsche ranks right up there. Turbo or not, they're pretty badass cars!

What's cool about that car to me is the overall build quality, the fabricators did a great job. It's also maintained in a over the top manner.

Yes it is Dan. That was some of the most fun driving I've done on a track. That Porsche - and Barrett's Panoz... and the stinky little Lotus.

One of the issues I'm dealing with now with the so much new and improved Mustang -- is that there are fewer and fewer cars in Green Group to pick on. The cars that used to pass me are now several seconds slower per lap... and following them - or dogging them -- has become boring. There was a buddy in a new Porsche GT3 car that was running Green this weekend.... and I dogged him for several laps - him pointing me by and me waving him off because it was fun to run with him and there was nobody in front to go catch.

I hear ya...brah.

:P

Go old school.

Greg,

What is the lap time difference between the old setup and new setup? Any video this time? I'm happy to see the Mustang back in action

I've run Thill 3 mile 16 turn config (with the Crow's Nest) at 2:06 and 2:07's

The 5 Mile @ 3:23's

I seem to be fairly consistent at 2:08 and 2:09 and 2:10

As you know - in track day driving - it all depends on traffic. This last weekend at Thunderhill we had 33 or so cars in Green Group - so getting any clean laps was difficult.

The biggest difference between old and new is that I can drive comfortably off line -- and I'm just cruising around when running 2:09's. When Ron Sutton first came on with me I was driving my butt off to get to 2:22's and having a lot of scary "oh no" moments.

Gotta remember I'm running on 245 tires.... and that's the biggest deterrent to lower lap times. These tires only have so much grip. When running with people with big azz fat tires -- I have to step my game up to pass them or run with them.

Post #7 in this thread has a very short video of the Mustang running. I truly suck at the whole video thing. Lucky I got this short one even! I just don't think to turn them on -- or set the camera up etc. Mostly because I just don't care to be bothered with the whole camera thing.

Here's one when we ran Sonoma in May...... Best lap time was 1:56.something. Remember that I have a "spotter" and a fantastic driving coach. My sessions are about LEARNING vs passing everyone I can. Once I'm told there's a huge traffic ball ahead... and you have a couple laps left... it's a "what's the point" kind of driving. Nothing to be gained just running up into a sardine ball of cars. So might as well just coast at that point and play later on our next session.

That's great that you've been able to pick over 10 seconds a lap!!

There's a LOT more in the car.... but lap times were never the goal or direction given to Sutton. The goal was to be able to run WITH my buddies and have the car be FUN at that level. This is a pretty simple leaf spring car. While we were sprucing her up - we added some safety considerations such as the large race wheel bearings... and to rid myself of pad knock back - added a full floater... bigger brakes etc. The really big improvements came in the form of more suspension tune-ability and settings... FAR FAR better JRi triples...

The biggest part is that the car is fun to drive... totally predictable handling. Neutral. That has allowed the dumbest part of the car to improve his ability.

I think a good driver - Popp - or Hobaugh - et al - are capable of driving the car down in the 2:04's or even better. I'm just not there, and most likely never will be. We only drive these things 3 or 4 weekends per year.

Thunderhill
 

Always good to have a predictable car
Hobaugh was sorted thru a few issues on his
new vette at Crows this weekend... it is good
now and he said he looks forward to running the
Track portion the most at Optima

Bob

I've got a pretty solid 250HP engine you could have if you wanted to make things interesting again....you let me know, I'm here to help buddy!
The back up to the back up is gone, the Lotus is ho hum and now the Mustang walks away from everyone, whatcha gonna do?

The car sounds wicked and looks like it pulls like a freight train! Glad to see its staying together!:thumbsup:

:snapout:

There's a reason it's the back up.:D

The new engine builder has certainly proven his worth!! Another event or two without any issues and the Lotus will be finding a new home.

Yup........he's scared of it. :D

The Lotus requires a leap of faith, one that's data isn't measured........aero.

Thunderhill Nor Cal
 

Greg,
You may want to think about getting rid of that backup
car... I had issues with my Firebird at the last two events...
Went back to the shop both times and loaded up the Pantera
and went back to run on Sunday.. It sometimes pays to have
that backup car

Bob

These guys don't know anything about aero....

Aero lesson one:

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Nice one Sieg !

They also have a setup for more rear bite verses the enhanced straight line stability setup.

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