My three road course laps at the 2010 Optima Invitational
Thought you might like a ride with a rank amature around the Spring Mountain track..
Car did great and the new engine really pulls well. The new radiator never let the water temp get over 220 and the oil temp stayed under 250 which is a big improvement. I have some wierd rattle on the interior that you can hear in the vid.. drove me crazy.
As for my driving.. well, it's been a year since I've been on any type of road course, so I was a bit nervous. Fortunatly I was coached by David Pozzi and I stood near Mary and Mr. Stielow for a while so that helped.
Car felt good the first lap but on turn 10 of my first hot lap (coming onto the main straight) the car got all wonky. People on the wall said it lurched up bad, I just thought I took the turn too fast, but afterwards I could feel the car was really leaning.
Turned out I snapped the end off my front sway bar on that turn. Still, the car stuck well and my third hot lap was my best with a 2:00.4x time.. Considering my lack of experience and the broken sway bar I was pretty happy.
Telly loaned me the sway bar off of his gold TA for the autocross, but it was a lot stiffer and since we didn't have time to adjust the shocks Penny pushed like a dump truck. Need to fix that.
The brake challenge was fun too.. the car with the 461 flat out launches hard, Once I made it to the timer in 6.3 but smashed the back cones.. I was having so much fun accelerating I forgot about the braking part. Think I fubar'd a tire.
Still, it was a great day and I had a blast. Congrats to Mark Stielow who kicked major ass and more than earned the big trophy!
Anyways, here's my laps.. one warm up and three hot laps.. If you have ADD you can fast forward to about 4:15 to catch the drama.
Who needs a stinkin' front sway bar!!
Also, big kuddos to the Autokraft oil pan.. you can see in the video that my oil pressure stayed rock solid even in the hard turns. David Pozzi has my data card so we can see how far off my line was compared to his.
Here's the peak g's from my Ipod deal:
And the poor sway bar:
Great seeing everyone!
__________________
"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."
That's crazy, I figured the splined sway bars were bullet proof. You can really see the difference in turn 1. Our cars are nothing alike in the way they must be driven. It looks to be due to the transmission difference. Car really didn't seem horrible without a sway bar. Good time for that much body roll!
It's called G-Force.. about $3 I think. It's generous sometimes by a tenth or so compared to my racepak but it gives a good idea.
Here's the carnage after I came off the big track.. I have to give huge credit to Penske for the car handling as good as it did even without the front bar.
__________________
"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
My three road course laps at the 2010 Optima Invitational
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