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RaiderJatt02's GT350 story, first 1000 miles and beyond...

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raiderjatt02

raiderjatt02

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You’ll hate to hear this, but mine didn’t. It just got worse after my first track day. My brakes sound like a school bus. HA! I run GS1 street pads when not doing track days and they are quiet and low dust. I’ve also run them in autocross and they worked great.
ahhhh shit lol. Oh well, fuck it. I can live with it for now (because race car and all that...). Do you swap rotors when you change pads back and forth too?
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raiderjatt02

raiderjatt02

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NorCal SAAC Mini-Nats 32 - Sonoma Raceway

Ohhhh man it's been a while. I can't believe I haven't updated this post with my track days from this past year! Let's get all caught up now shall we?

Back in August the Northern California Shelby American Automobile Club (NorCal-SAAC) held their 32nd Mini-Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. Last year, for their 31st, was my first track day with my car and I had so much fun that I decided to do the full 2 day event this year. This was my second time at Sonoma and my first time on the Project 6GR wheels and Cup2's. The difference between the PSC2 and MPSS are insane! I'm sure most of you already know this but it's crazy when you finally feel the difference. The only mods to the car are the G-Loc brake pads, 6GR wheels, and PSC2 tires. When I first put the G-Loc pads on and tried them on the street with my MPSS, they actually felt a little worse than stock because it felt like they were "too" strong. It seemed like the ABS was working overtime and the car didn't feel like it stopped as quickly. Once I paired them with the Cup 2's though....good god, it felt like my eyeballs were going to fall out of my face.

The first day was amazing even though it was pretty crowded. I started getting into a rhythm but once I passed the R in the video below, the sight of it in my rear-view was intimidating and threw off my concentration. I had my first "off" and put my left 2 tires into the dirt at Turn 4. This brought me back to reality and I decided to pull into the pits to calm down. It happens between 9:30-9:55 in the video. If you listen carefully, you can hear my front splitter scraping in a few places. It never scraped when I had the OEM 35 series tires. The slight drop in ride height from the GT350R PSC2's makes a big difference out there.

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As you all know, the Cup 2's don't last very long and this was how they looked after my first track day on them:

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I live about 1.5 hours away from Sonoma but decided to get a hotel close by since I was doing the 2 day event. Little did I know that my hotel would be one of the shadiest looking places ever. I didn't feel too comfortable leaving my car there at night but luckily the wonderful folks at Shelby American let me leave my car with the rest of theirs overnight at the track! This is where she slept:

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The next day was more of the same but much less crowded since most people only do Saturday. I was able to get my best time of the weekend and my personal best of 1:57.7. Obviously there is tons of room for improvement but I'm still learning and trying to get better. I'm aiming to get a time close to that on the stock MPSS or MP4S. I know it's possible but I need a huge bump in skill :-D

Here's a video of my best lap:
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If any of you are in Northern California or in a position to attend the NorCal SAAC Mini-Nats next year I highly recommend it! It's a great time and there are some awesome cars out there. One of my favorites was this Fox Body Saleen behind me:

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This was the fastest Fox I've met on track. I feel bad for forgeting the guy's name but he was a great driver and this car was pretty much neck and neck with me in the turns. I only pulled on him in the straights. We had a good few laps together before traffic came in the way.

I will try to update this thread with my experience at Laguna Seca and Thunderhill when I find the time but here are a few more pictures from the Mini-Nats!

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icormba

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That was awesome!!

By the way, the slower you drive... the better the pictures come out!! I know this, man! ;)
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raiderjatt02

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Nice driving! Those sport cups still holding up?
Nope. They're completely gone. Lasted me 3 1/2 track days. I had to cut my day at Thunderhill short just so I can limp 3 hours home on a torn up set.
 

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Looking good man, I will not be looking forward to replacing those tires so I will be right there with you on only a couple track days next year. I just hit 1k miles yesterday and the lovely Los Gatos local law enforcement gave me a ticket to congratulate me.

Should be fun next year, be cool to have some pics of me out in a car to, I think bike pics are a little more impressive but that's just me :) I don't think the cars run the same configuration as the bikes at Sonoma but it will be cool to see the lap time difference to.
 

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I managed two track days out of my Cup 2's along with 5000 street miles. I'm on the fence about using them again for a third and final day. I figure once you see the cords they're finally done, amiright? :)
 

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I managed two track days out of my Cup 2's along with 5000 street miles. I'm on the fence about using them again for a third and final day. I figure once you see the cords they're finally done, amiright? :)
Live a little man. Life's more fun on the ragged edge :headbonk:

Jesse - you going to Knotts again this year?
 

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I just hit 1k miles yesterday and the lovely Los Gatos local law enforcement gave me a ticket to congratulate me.
Haha damn, you even have me beat! I've been followed plenty of times but have yet to be pulled over :KnockOnWood:

I managed two track days out of my Cup 2's along with 5000 street miles. I'm on the fence about using them again for a third and final day. I figure once you see the cords they're finally done, amiright? :)
Wait until you see the picture of my tires when they were gone...I didn't see any cords but they were definitely dead. They were spitting out chunks of rubber. :D

Live a little man. Life's more fun on the ragged edge :headbonk:

Jesse - you going to Knotts again this year?
Helllllll yeah I'm doing Knotts again this year. I plan on making that and the Mini-Nats a yearly thing. The cruise down last time was awesome. You and your dad coming again?
 

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I know I am. Not sure about pops yet. But hopefully. Such a good time. You'll have to make time for the annual K1 Karting race!
 
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First time at Laguna Seca

So back in August I finally got the chance to drive on my #1 favorite track growing up. Laguna Seca. Like many of you, I knew this track like the back of my hand from the countless laps spent in Gran Turismo so the fact that I was finally able to turn some laps in real life made my heart race with anticipation. The thought of flying down the corkscrew and actually feeling the G forces was nerve racking but I couldn't wait to get out there.

As I pulled up to the track, I had to take a picture by the main entry signs. It was REALLY foggy on the paddock but luckily the fog burned away and it ended up being a perfect 70F clear day.

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Hooked on Driving hosted the event and it was my first time running with them. I've heard good things and bad things about them but I had a blast and they ran a great event without any issues. There was a decent range of cars out there and 2 GT350R's. I had the only GT350 and there was only 1 other Mustang. The rest were Z06's, Porsches, BMWs, Miatas and a few Ferraris. Pretty much what you'd expect your typical track day.

I was worried about getting black flagged for sound but thanks to the advice of others on here I lifted between turns 5 and 6 to avoid the sound check station. After I passed them, I was going all out the rest of the track. The HoD folks kept waiting for me to get flagged and started betting how long it would take before the track marshals ended my day. The only time I actually got flagged was on my last session of the day when I was just messing around and trying to see how loud I can get the sound meter to hit. The lap where I finally get called in happens at about 5:50 in this video:

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100.4dB at WOT as close to the sound booth as I could get. Not bad :lol:

I had some fun chasing down 2 Z06's. The drivers were also new to this track and they were really cool to talk to and drive with. Once I passed them, they basically followed me the rest of the day trying to learn my lines. After every session we'd talk and give each other tips on where each of us could make up some time and get faster. Good people but it was pretty funny seeing all 3 of us drive hella slow past the sound check booth every lap.

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Lap 1:
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Lap 2 :D :
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The Cup 2's started to show their age and the car felt a lot more lively than it did at Sonoma Raceway. I could tell they were getting close to end of life. It made for a fun day even though the tires were a lot less confidence inspiring than they were the first time out on them. This was day #3 on this set of tires but I was hoping for at least 1 more since my next event was at Thunderhill in the 5-Mile configuration...more on that day later.

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Oh, and for all of you out there worried about your front splitters....stay away. Stay farrrrrr away. The sounds coming down into the Corkscrew every lap is cringe inducing. I scraped at 3 or 4 other turns too but the Corkscrew is on another level. Luckily the regular GT350 splitter's aren't too expensive to replace every couple years.
 
 




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