Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt.A
Greg, that is a great endorsement for Good Ron (Sutton)! Sounds like he setup your car so YOU could drive it fast!
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That was baked in the cake. He (Ron Sutton) was brought on to help me... in the most basic ways. Tire pressures... etc. Running two cars, I wanted to LEARN basic car/track management. i.e., if the track is hot - what do I do with the tire pressures etc. When are my tires "hard" (Durometer). Teach me how to measure tire temps and what they are telling me. BASICS.
The point is - that HE was able to watch the car - and ask me questions and listened to ME and what I was feeling etc.
I think by the end of the first day - he'd taken 15 or 16 seconds off my lap times.
Fast forward... "Why is everyone passing me in the Mustang? But I can pass them all in the Lotus?" And "The Mustang just wears me out..."
All of the discussions we had were not about being .10 faster. They were solely centered on making the car more fun to drive. Making it predictable. Improvements that made the weekends fun and safe for ME... at whatever level I was capable of driving. I will NEVER tell you I'm fast or that I'm a good driver. It's never been my goal. I just wanted the car to work so I could stop having "oh crap" moments 6 out of 10 turns. The CARS are fast. My guess is - the Mustang would be 4 or so seconds a lap faster with Brian Finch or Hobaugh or Mary Pozzi behind the wheel. I think they'd really like the way the car is set up.
I've gotten the car to understeer (tight) once or twice now.... The minute I let up on the brake - she gets grip and off I go on around the corner... I had very minor oversteer (loose) on exit under power. Mentioned this to Ron and with a minor adjustment on the shocks (triple JRi's) that disappeared. The car is happy. The understeer was induced because I'm so much more confident in the car that I can hammer the entry harder - brake later - and explore late apex lines etc that I NEVER would have attempted prior to the "fix".
I was going to name my "team" - Tasmanian Devil Racing - I spun every track event. Now my lap times are faster than the group I run with and I don't spin or even come close to it. I did go off track at T3 at Sonoma on exit - kept it in the dirt until I could feather back on track for T4 - and I hardly even lifted on the throttle... I was WAY off line into the turn (3) - which had me exit wide - I knew this was going to happen when I entered the turn... I just got lazy on a pass and didn't bring the car back to where it should have been. In the old car - I wouldn't have made the pass - and had I gotten off line I would have been in the wall at T3 instead of a "ho hum I have two in the dirt". When flagged for my indiscretion - the President of the club asked what happened - I told him - (he's run nose and tail with me) he waves me back out and says "GO GET 'EM".
