Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

[honeybadger]

Some pics from my last track day at COTA. FINALLY got a chance to try my competition wets. Man, those things are fun! In damp conditions, they were only 8 or so seconds slower than the Cup2s. Lots of trust in them.

 

[tracktardicus]

I felt like Sonoma was trying to kill me and my car. It's Laguna Seca for me...

 

[dem00n]

What wet tire are those?

 

[honeybadger]

I felt like Sonoma was trying to kill me and my car. It's Laguna Seca for me...

Sonoma has so much heritage. I loved it. Laguna is incredible too - a lot more dangerous that people realize, though. Thunderhill and Buttonwillow are fun - much safer for pushing limits!

What wet tire are those?

Pirelli Wets. I bought them from usedracingtires.com for $125 a piece.

https://www.pirelli.com/tires/en-us/motorsport/all-tires/products-sheet/rain

 

[honeybadger]

One of my favorite "not so small" easter eggs on HB

 

[16Kobra]

Tracked at VIR a month or so ago. There was a dude with a Viper who had honeybadger on his license plate, walked over and talked to him and was hoping I finally got to meet you.

Told me he wasnt you...but still a cool dude.

 

[Caballus]

Some pics from my last track day at COTA. FINALLY got a chance to try my competition wets. Man, those things are fun! In damp conditions, they were only 8 or so seconds slower than the Cup2s. Lots of trust in them.

What size tire and wheel did you use?

 

[honeybadger]

Tracked at VIR a month or so ago. There was a dude with a Viper who had honeybadger on his license plate, walked over and talked to him and was hoping I finally got to meet you.

Told me he wasnt you...but still a cool dude.

Damn - I'm going to have to drive up there and steal his plate!

What size tire and wheel did you use?

I run 315/30R19 Cup 2s/Hoosier R7s and 305/690R19 Pirellis most often. For wheels, I have 19x11s from Signature - a set of SV502s and a set of SV503s

 

[honeybadger]

Cota after dark event last night. Used the darkness to capture a few fun moment

Fireballs!



Glowing rotors!

 

[danpass]

Hey @honeybadger :

What ONE thing made the biggest improvement to your lap times?

“I discovered brakes/braking was king.”

“I found that …. “

“I read THIS one book”

“I discovered that …”

 

[drummerboy]

Cota after dark event last night. Used the darkness to capture a few fun moment

The lightpass over "honeybadger" ... epic.

 

[honeybadger]

Hey @honeybadger :

What ONE thing made the biggest improvement to your lap times?

“I discovered brakes/braking was king.”

“I found that …. “

“I read THIS one book”

“I discovered that …”

Hey Dan -

Sorry for the delay. Work and life are getting in the way of my car adventures right now!

There's really no ONE thing for me - more about about a culmination of epiphanies that have helped. In no particular order:

• Yes, a Miata really is a great way to improve your driving. You can't power your way out of stuff in a Miata, so learning to carry entry speed and maintain the car balance through the corner to maximize speed is critical. This transfers over to the GT350 perfectly
• How fast your car can go through a particular corner really, really depends on the way you setup a corner. I've given rides to my students who are convinced my brakes and lateral grip are miles better than theirs.....until I drive their car and show mine is really just 15-20% better. In a couple cases, I've even given rides to buddies who are matching lap times on stickier tires (sticker GY 3Rs vs my 3 year old Cup2s). How you set the car up for the corner is every thing (see the bullet above)
• Stay on street tires/stock aero until you're 4 wheel drifting - no really. Upgrade those and you'll fight the plateau they put you on for 4x as long as it would take you to learn to 4 wheel drift the fast sections.
• Safety equipment (6-pt harness, halo seat, etc.) did more for my lap time than tires/brakes/aero did. If you're locked down tight, you're less physically stressed.
• Slow down to speed up - instead of diving as deep as possible into the brake zone, pick a point further out (let's say 250M board) and gradually use the brakes less and less each time to see how much speed you can enter the turn with (always braking at 250m board). This will teach you how to let go of the brakes smoothly (see bullet #2) and maximize entry speed vs. a short brake zone.

 

[16Kobra]

Hey Dan -

Sorry for the delay. Work and life are getting in the way of my car adventures right now!

There's really no ONE thing for me - more about about a culmination of epiphanies that have helped. In no particular order:

• Yes, a Miata really is a great way to improve your driving. You can't power your way out of stuff in a Miata, so learning to carry entry speed and maintain the car balance through the corner to maximize speed is critical. This transfers over to the GT350 perfectly
• How fast your car can go through a particular corner really, really depends on the way you setup a corner. I've given rides to my students who are convinced my brakes and lateral grip are miles better than theirs.....until I drive their car and show mine is really just 15-20% better. In a couple cases, I've even given rides to buddies who are matching lap times on stickier tires (sticker GY 3Rs vs my 3 year old Cup2s). How you set the car up for the corner is every thing (see the bullet above)
• Stay on street tires/stock aero until you're 4 wheel drifting - no really. Upgrade those and you'll fight the plateau they put you on for 4x as long as it would take you to learn to 4 wheel drift the fast sections.
• Safety equipment (6-pt harness, halo seat, etc.) did more for my lap time than tires/brakes/aero did. If you're locked down tight, you're less physically stressed.
• Slow down to speed up - instead of diving as deep as possible into the brake zone, pick a point further out (let's say 250M board) and gradually use the brakes less and less each time to see how much speed you can enter the turn with (always braking at 250m board). This will teach you how to let go of the brakes smoothly (see bullet #2) and maximize entry speed vs. a short brake zone.

Thanks for those tips. I noticed I use too much brake at times and dont "push" enough speed into the curves. Will have to experiment with your tips.

 

[oldbmwfan]

Thanks for those tips. I noticed I use too much brake at times and dont "push" enough speed into the curves. Will have to experiment with your tips.

They are great tips. Entry speed, and to a lesser extent apex speed, is the differentiator between good and great. It's certainly the area I need to work on the most.

 

[honeybadger]

Thanks for those tips. I noticed I use too much brake at times and dont "push" enough speed into the curves. Will have to experiment with your tips.

It's really, really easy to over-slow corners when "diving" into them. Here's a recent example. In May, I was using 3rd gear in T1 at COTA because I didn't feel I had the tire grip under power to justify 2nd. (see the first 20 seconds of the video below). In July, I was using 2nd because I had on some old scrubs that had better grip (sort of - but that's a long story). However, shifting to 2nd was causing me to overslow. My apex speed was the same, but corner entry and exit speeds were worse. Overall, I was slower.

3rd gear corner



2nd gear corner



Here are the entry speed numbers

It's substantial. Second gear was caused too much engine braking and I was over slowing the corner. Few tenths lost every corner that I was doing that in. Really great example of over-slowing really robbing momentum.

Now - I could probably gain all that time back(and more) if I adjust and compensate for it, but the margin for error there is literally microscopic. Whereas coasting in for a tiny bit in 3rd is much easier and will likely be faster every lap unless I nail it perfectly.