Gingerman long course

#1

I’m doing the test day and I have been taking a couple of laps timed. Not sure where I’m at. How close do we run with the spec Miatas in overall time?

The SM track record on the long course is a 1:50.1

Car is running decent. Trans breather hose came off and puked some fluid. I’ll fill it back up when I get home. This last session the car started to cut out toward the end of the session in right corners. I’m hoping it was just a fuel issue. Transmission is clacking around and sounds like it is about to fall apart.

Times have been in the 50-53 area. The RA1’s are green though and a little greasy toward the end of the sessions.

Good to finally be back in a car. Weather is perfect.

#2

According to the records (look over to the left), the times are in the 1:41 but not sure which course that was. Simon, What was it?

#3

I was also using my BFG Gforce tires (300 treadwear streets). I used them for 4 or 5 sessions and suprisingly they look great. There is some feathering on the outer edges of the front tires, but I never bothered to rotate them so that is probably part of the reason.

BTW, those tires are $95 each.

Lap times were about 1.5-2 seconds per lap slower.

Transmission is bothering me now. How much rattle is too much rattle? Clutch out has horrible rattle, clutch in is ok and sounds fine. Lots of gear noise in first, third, and fifth.

Not that I can afford a new trans at the moment so I’ll run it anyway. Just curious.

#4

140’s are old course times.

#5

It was the old short course thru 10a abefore they added a bit of track.

#6

[quote=“Foglght” post=64793]The SM track record on the long course is a 1:50.1
[/quote]

If you can run top SM times you will be extremely competetive, I’d venture the top SM times are slightly faster than the top Spec E30 times especially at a track like Gingerman. Obviously depends a lot on the drivers but I was slower than the top SM guys when I raced there.

#7

I raced SM at that event last year, and some of the fast guys (Price and the Kid) were out there. Got my only SM win there when Price broke and the Kid passed under yellow!

#8

Had a chance to really inspect the tires yesterday. The RA1’s are showing signs of shoulder deformation already. I’ll have to be careful about rotations. It doesn’t look like tire rollover from lack of camber. It looks like the damper/spring combo isn’t doing the job.

The BFG tires though look great considering they are a street tire and 2-3 years old. I doubt a full tread tire would be good, but very interesting. I didn’t want to use the RA1s since I’m on such a tight budget so I ran with the BFGs for the rest of the day. Fairly consistent in grip. They did get greasy when pushed real hard.

I’ll have them as backup rain tires if it does rain there (mid-ohio). No money for another dedicated set of RA1s for the rain. Guess I’ll get DQ’d if that happens.

Hoping for a not soaking wet track.