VCOA Track Day Vids from Thunderhill Raceway 12/9

[norcal745ti]

Here are some Video from thunderhill w/ VCOA a couple weeks ago. Compressed quite a lot so y'all could view it easily.

http://media.putfile.com/Movie_00025047
Chase of my car from my friend's BMW 325is (mildly built up, 200+whp, lots of suspension $$$)

http://media.putfile.com/Movie9090
On board the red Volvo wagon! Chasing my friends bmw

http://media.putfile.com/Movie_00017486
Another chase of me and my friend Becky's Miata (just shocks, but she's a licensed instructor and drove a Grand Am BMW Z4 at California Speedway) from the same BMW.

Also, anyone know a good site to host video's where I could directly connect? This one is decent, but cant directly link to the vid only w/o that page.

[Yea, Right]

Great vids Justin, I needed some track time. you were definately holding your own. Your car seemed to have longer leggs, but could not cary quite as much speed through some of the turns. Man the sun is just treacherous going up the hill in the afternoon.

[RoadRacer4Life]

looks good man sweet road course vids of your volvo.. I hope to get some more vids of my 242 when its done

Sam

[pgrey]

Cool... Now I wish I had gone.

Peter

[djecko]

impressive! your car is definately holding its own! great job!

[norcal745ti]

My corner speed was pretty respectable, it was the power/torque to get out of the turns I lacked. My friend in the BMW said in turn in and mid turns, I was just as good, it was turn out and straights that he could get on me. I was only running 12 lbs of boost that day... I found out I had a bad plug wire at the beginning of the day, causing a mis-fire at high rpm/ high boost. I fixed that and coulda up'd the boost, but I wasnt slowing people down enough. Altho HP wise in Group 3, I was definatly at the tail end. Very little volvo's in that group, we had a Touring2 350Z, WRX, EVO, S2000, M3...etc. I think I could gain some corner speed one I get my coilover/re-vavled koni's complete... still talking over idea's on that w/ some people. Holding w/ those guy's w/ the current set up of Cut ipd and koni's kinda keeps me from working on that since my car is acting so well out there.

This red car is pretty much taking a change for the track and less of a street/autoX car. I will mildly building up an engine for good performance and reliability which will probalby take me out of the FSP which im competative in and into Street Mod where I'll go up against national champions regionally all the time. I'll probably just Co-drive. Going w/ a spring rate more condusive to the track vs Street. A nice 5spd w/ some quick ratio's. And hell, I just got this jungle gym finished friday.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/cylvezter/IMG_0353.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/cylvezter/IMG_0352.jpg

[fast242]

nice, you got to use the whole track instead of the usual 1/2 track set up. Although your friend seemed to be too tight in turn 1 with the bummer. But thats what it looked like to me, it could be the camera angle.
I plan to have my car in fighting trim again for T-hill May 2006.

Cheers

PJ

[norcal745ti]

yeah when we watched the video, we thought the same thing. Becky in the miata is probably the one to watch for finding the good lines...

[Zee]

Jeepers! Don't you guys have any trees in your part of the world?

Not even a little bush or something in that desert track there.

You need to come East and drive Watkins Glen or Summit Point and feel what it's like to "drive through the trees".....

[norcal745ti]

Jeepers! Don't you guys have any trees in your part of the world?

Not even a little bush or something in that desert track there.

You need to come East and drive Watkins Glen or Summit Point and feel what it's like to "drive through the trees".....

Nah, Laguna Seca has Beach Sand... Closest is Sears Point which has Vinyards...

[fast242]

Jeepers! Don't you guys have any trees in your part of the world?

Not even a little bush or something in that desert track there.

You need to come East and drive Watkins Glen or Summit Point and feel what it's like to "drive through the trees".....


Well, lets see. Being it is California, a place with the Highest point in Continental US at 14,494 feet and lowest point -282ft below sea level. I bet you can find a place in California that lacks tree's or has more than enough.

With Thunderhill being in a very fertile area for Farming, the trees and brush have been removed.

Basically, SCCA bought the land from a Farmer and it looks like a track in the middle of a fallow farm, which basically it is. Cows graze nearby. But fences keep them at bay. Trees would be kinda neat, but it makes off track excursions more expensive.

Cheers

PJ

[norcal745ti]

Pheasant hunters come roaming into the property aswell which they had to yellow flag some events for...

[Hank Scorpio]

Jeeze Justin I didnt even notice the cage at the BBQ!!! Nicely done! Who did it?

[norcal745ti]

yours truly... Had access to a tube bender and mig welder and went at it. Welding was probably the hardest part. Lots of hard to reach area... A-pillar infront of windsheild and on top of the main hoop. After a while of trying to keep the splatter from messin up the headliner and windsheild, I just said F-it. Also welding the mouting plates to the floor was a challenge, since the floor is very thin and the plates are about 1/8". Had to set the voltage where the weld would penetrate the plate, but not put a hole in the floor and w/ the hard angles and all. Got a bit frustrating. The welds werent as pretty as I would like, but it came out fairly decent for my first try. Got it looked over by a guy who builds cages for SCCA/NASA race cars and he gave me the thumbs up. But he said I could have gone a little larger on the mouting plate for added safety... The shape of the halo was also something I didnt quite like, but all in all, it was a good learning experiance. Hopefully i'll get some better pics of it soon.

[suterman]

You were really motoring round those bends, is that an automatic g-box? surley a manual would be more desirable..

[norcal745ti]

You were really motoring round those bends, is that an automatic g-box? surley a manual would be more desirable..

yeah, its all apart of the 2-do list. Also, volvo lacks a disirable manual aswell... Now that I have the camry, this 2-do list is being gobbled up quicker since I dont have to worry about the Volvo being taken off the road.

[stylngle2003]

nice lookin cage from where i sit, Justin

vids looked great too, your car is pretty flat in the twisties

[NoSloVo]

Jeepers! Don't you guys have any trees in your part of the world?

Not even a little bush or something in that desert track there.

You need to come East and drive Watkins Glen or Summit Point and feel what it's like to "drive through the trees".....



Thunderhill is a great track..... there is nothing to run into if you were to run off the track .... maybe a cow if you go really far off. I heard a story of a motorcycle track day and some guy missed turn 1 and went up over the hill and nobody saw it. They had to go looking for him since nobody had seen him for a while.

there were also some pictures on the net about a guy in a new m3 hit the concrete barrier next to the straight. How that could happen I dont understand. He had spun the car two or three times prior to that on the same lap! Not a usable panel on the car.

found em ......

http://www.wreckedexotics.com/m3/m3_062402_04.shtml
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/m3/m3_062402_03.shtml
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/m3/m3_062402_02.shtml
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/m3/m3_062402_01.shtml

[norcal745ti]

a couple of Evo's flipped on a track day on turn 3 (off camber) about 6 months ago. Also, it gets failry close from turn 8 and turn 14 if you go into 14 w/ no brakes.

http://www.thunderhill.com/assets/images/trackmapnew02.jpg

[norcal745ti]

yeah, Oskar, that turn where the bimmer crashed is the only part that you could hit a wall, the enterance to the hot pits... and it did...