Replies to post #189 on Bob's Track Friends Chat (TRAKDAWGS)

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

I was under the apparently mistaken impression that Ford would be in attendance, filming for an upcoming piece about one of the ways people use their products, which is the only reason the car is running the heavy pony wheels. The lightweights are going on this week for Brainerd. I'll weigh them and the ponies and determine the "effective" weight loss the car sees with the much lighter wheels I usually run.

I'll bring the pony wheels along mainly because though the tires on the light wheels have two full 3-day weekends on them, they're in beautiful shape. The tires on the ponies have only last weekend on them, so they're very good spares.

[OldAIMGuy]

Hi Bob, Re: Set-up from photo....
Your car looks very happy in the photo. A tiny bit more of neg. camber might be called for, but much depends upon the tires.

Last weekend my friend Pete Wilson (you met him in Pahrump, he is the former 5.0 LX SSGT piloto) won a new set of Hankook race tires while driving his Spec. Miata in an SCCA National event at Road America. He's currently running Toyo's and when the tire guy came around he said the setup for the Hankooks should be with less negative camber on both ends of the car.

So, there may be some relationship to side wall flex and other factors that give you the "ultimate" setting. In this case, if the car feels solid in the corners with controllable drift, I'd say, "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"

Re: Challenge of Seeing the Future!.......
I think this is maybe one of the hardest things to teach new high performance drivers. They need to look as far ahead as they can, especially in a tight series of corners. It's really neat when the light comes on with this. Suddenly the driver isn't looking at THIS corner, but the eventual position of the car for the best of the series of turns.

That said, I also find myself, on a new track, struggling to keep my eyes "up" in the first sessions. Once the rhythm is learned, they we take in much more than just the next turn.

Your photo demonstrates the difference in where the eyes are pointing very nicely!

I'm returning to Mid-Ohio's race track for the first time in about 7 years at the beginning of August. Remember the trick David Zubick was teaching us in Pahrump? Close one's eyes and drive the entire track in one's mind - turn for turn, straight for straight, shift for shift. I've been attempting to do this "refresher course" visual of the laps I've travelled at Mid-Ohio in preparation for this coming event.

Even though I won't be in the same type of car as my last races there, it seems to be helping to remember some of the details of the track. I'm sure after this amount of time, several of the mental snapshots I have will have changed. I'll also need a whole new set of brake and turn-in points, but at least remembering the track has got my "motor" running!

Best regards,
Tom