My previous set of RT615 lasted about eight months and left around 0.5mm of thread depth. I swapped in a new set and got the wheels aligned with proper camber and toe, in preparation for this massive trackday.
Before moving off from Singapore, I had a visual check with the weather and it looked good. I set off with high hopes that it was going to be a fine day. The weather was good all the way until around the 80km mark on the North South Highway when I started to see droplets of water hitting my windscreen. It was not surprising as it was supposed to be rainy season near the end of the year. The rain continued even when I reached Sepang and from judging the color of the sky, I immediately knew that it was going to be a wet trackday for the whole morning session, at least.
For the SGTrackies session, I did not track much due to the wet condition. I spent lots of time walking around and socialising with some fellow trackies who was also waiting for the sun. One of them was Chiam, who had also signed up for the TCC's session in the afternoon. That was our only hope for the day. For those who only tracked in the SGT's session, they only had less than 15 minutes of dry track near the end. I only did about 4 laps on the wet track (not even enough to warm up my tyres), before proceeding to register for the next session with TCC.
The afternoon TCC session started out with good weather. The track was 100% dry provided by a bright scorching hot sun. It was totally unimaginable that the weather could change so fast between morning and afternoon. There was no complains from me as it provided me with the right environment to do my best lap and also to test out the effectiveness of the oil cooler.
I scrambled out immediately after the orientation run. The track was closed with the red light on my third lap and I went back to the pit to check and release my tyre pressure. When the track reopened, I went out again and tracked for for more than 30 minutes trying my best. I counted more than 10 laps continuously and the oil temperature was still below 110 degrees. It put a big smile on my face. When I pit again, it was already around 2:45pm. This means that the qualifying for the 40 minutes mini-endurance event is going to be over soon. My thoughts at that moment was that I should be able to qualify for Class D which will enable an "extra" 40 minutes of track time. However when the transponder time sheet for the first 2 hours came out, I was surprised that I was stucked between Class C and D. That means that I was too slow to secure a slot for Class C and also outside the upper limit of class D. Although not able to have the last bit of fun, I was slightly consoled by setting a better personal best timing. But it was not enough as it didn't hit below my target of 2:50 minutes. There was still plenty of track time left though.
When I feel cool again, I headed out to the hot track doing another 30-40 mins. After that, the track was closed in preparation for the mini endurance event. I stayed around to chit chat with some fellow trackies while waiting for the event to end. The event was cut short due to oil leaked and everyone was forced back to the track. That marks the end of the trackday.
TCC 12 Nov 2007 - Best Lap:
If you prefer to watch it in YouTube, Click here
This video was taken during the later part of the track session. It was the best closure for me for tracking in 2007. The lap time recorded in my DV Cam was 2:49:08 which translates to 2:49:320 on the mili-seconds scale, using the formula (8*1000)/25 with a PAL DV recording at 25fps. Let's see if this matches nicely with the transponder time sheet when it is release later. I am happy with this lap time as it met my target for this year and in the video I also saw the opportunities that I can do better in future. See you guys next year! That'll be Jan 2008 if nothing goes wrong.
2 comments:
Hey Ronnie,
I can see you are alot smoother now. The car is turning well. There are several areas to focus and I think with current setup, a 2.47 to 2.46 is achievable.
Basic stuff:
Shit/engage clutch slightly faster.
Gears:
T4 in 3rd gear (only with good traction or speed)
T5/T6 in 4th gear next time
T7/T8 in 4th gear (only with good track or speed)
Line:
T7/T8 you can go slightly faster there and your line will naturally max out the corners. Easy in on T7 and once in control, WOT as you going for T8. By the time you exit, you will hit vtec.
T11 you missed the apex. Late on the turning which is normal because the apex is hidden from view. You need to anticipate it and turn, use marker around there as cue to turn.
Practice a little more on T13/T14. That need lots of practices.
Btw, ID shows Ken but its me Fred!
Hi Fred, thanks for leaving those precious comments.
I am very excited in the potential of a stock powered DC5. At the begining, I always have doubts on what a stock DC5 can do. But now I believed that it has much more potential than what I can imagine. Frankly speaking, now I believed that a 2:47 would be achieveable but I'll need to improve on my driving. That will be my next target.
I had played around T4 in 3rd and 2nd. I noticed that 2nd give better result as I dont have enough traction in 3rd to take T4 with my RT615. Same goes for T7/T8, inorder to maintain grip, RPM would drop too much after the turn which does not give a good pull after the corner.
I noticed that T5/T6 would be better in 4th (I also heard my 3rd gear beeper in the video.)
T11/14, I still havent figured out the best turn yet.
I could go faster on T13 if sepang removed those stupid cones there.
If I managed to get all those right, 2:47 should not be too far away I guessed. I'll probably keep my car stock to see how far it can push.
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