ATTENTION: Eagles Canyon Track Day - Sunday, September 14th

[channelmaniac]

I'm in. Well, conditional on the rollbar decision anyway.

Altiain, are you also doing tech inspections?

I'm sure that Gary can get you a roll bar in short order... PLUS... we can do a tech day before then to help you install a roll bard and get your car in tech passing shape.

What do you think needs to be done to your car? Besides flushing brake fluid (We'd need a pressure cap or you'd need to get speed bleeders for doing that at a tech day), clutch fluid, and adjusting the throttle cable... Have you checked your brake pads and lubed the slider pins lately? Do you have decent tires? Is your car like Bean's and ready to throw off a muffler?

RJ

[altiain]

I'm afraid I have nothing to do with tech inspections at Eagles Canyon.

That said, I will be sharing the track with you, so your safety affects my safety. If I notice something on your car that I don't feel is safe, I won't hesitate to point it out.

Here's a quick track day checklist:

• Brake pads - Make sure you've got plenty of brake pad left. Minimum half pad depth.
• Brake fluid - Should be high quality and reasonably fresh. I'd recommend Valvoline Synthetic at a minimum, and Motul RBF600 for heavier cars and more advanced drivers. If you haven't flushed your brakes in the last year, now is a good time. This will also give you a chance to do a visual inspeciton on pads and rotors.
• Tires - Tires should be in good shape (no cracks, no leaks, no plugs) with 2/32nds minimum of tread remaining. Bring a compressor if you've got one.
• Coolant - If you can't remember the last time you flushed your cooling system, now might be a good time. Miatas have marginal stock cooling systems to begin with. 25 minutes at WOT puts a lot of stress on this system. I recommend a 30/70 coolant/water mixture.
• Oil - fresh oil is cheap insurance. If you're close to a normal oil change interval, you might consider doing it before a track day instead of after. Also, several people (myself included) have burned up Miata motors due to oil starvation. I'd recommend over filling by about a 1/2 quart, just to be on the safe side.
• Interior - If you live out of your car, now is the time to clean out all of your crap. You shouldn't have anything loose in the cockpit, and you should remove your floormats. You'd be suprised how much loose stuff flies around inside the cockpit on the track. I had a student once who had left a roll of paper towels wedged under the back of the passenger seat in his car. The roll came loose, partially unrolled, and about a dozen sheets ended up flying out the driver's side window before I managed to grab the roll and secure it. Things like this do not make for a comfortable driving environment.

[Darron65]

I'm sure that Gary can get you a roll bar in short order... PLUS... we can do a tech day before then to help you install a roll bard and get your car in tech passing shape.

What do you think needs to be done to your car? Besides flushing brake fluid (We'd need a pressure cap or you'd need to get speed bleeders for doing that at a tech day), clutch fluid, and adjusting the throttle cable... Have you checked your brake pads and lubed the slider pins lately? Do you have decent tires? Is your car like Bean's and ready to throw off a muffler?

RJ

My car gets regular exercise so it's up on its shots, etc. I will not be installing a roll bar so if it turns out to be a firm requirement then I guess I'll be free on Sunday.

Good info for others though!

[Darron65]

Just got the email... Bryan is firm on "a factory roll over bar or an aftermarket bar" so I'm out.

[Sharpie]

You can't use your hardtop?????

[MX-5EE]

Just got the email... Bryan is firm on "a factory roll over bar or an aftermarket bar" so I'm out.

Too bad, I would have liked to play.

[black roadster]

If you're going to do road course you really need to consider a roll bar. Many events won't let you run without one. Besides that, it makes the car look less like a chick car and stiffens up the chassis and certainly makes the car safer in a roll-over.

YMMV.

[MX-5EE]

If you're going to do road course you really need to consider a roll bar. Many events won't let you run without one. Besides that, it makes the car look less like a chick car and stiffens up the chassis and certainly makes the car safer in a roll-over.

YMMV.

I just spent near $3k on the bike. I don't feel like getting a roll bar this year :)

Till then, there is always autocross.

[altiain]

ATTENTION: Due to impending weather from hurricane Ike, this weekend's sessions have been moved to Oct 4th (Cars) and 5th (Bikes). All current registrations will be automatically moved to those dates.

[Nails]

I'm in for this, just finished signing up. Glad it was moved to October.

[Nails]

Ok I had fun at Hallett two weeks in Novice group. I never got passed except once by Track Dog driving Zig's car. Well, today, I got passed at least a half dozen times and I never passed anyone.

Ummm there was a Volkswagen Golf in my Novice group at Eagles Canyon but he was never on the same stretch of track I was. That was the ONLY car that probably had less hp than mine. Our novice group included that Golf, my NC, an S2000, a BMW, a Cadillac CTS, a convertible Carrera (more on this in another post with pics), a Lotus 7 look alike with Pontiac V6 Supercharged, and if that's not enough we even had a Shelby Cobra. The intermediate and advanced groups were packed with Vipers, Vettes, Porsches, some Beemers, another Caddy, and who knows what else but you get the idea. Mine was maybe one of only three four-bangers on the track today. Oh and there was a suprising lack of Rotaries out there too! Altian was a no show so I was representin' the MME crew solo!

Now I was lookin forward to getting schooled by Altian but since he couldn't make it I was at the mercy of the lottery. You see, if you've not been to a casual track education day it's kinda like going to the local playground as a kid for a pick up game. You, as a novice, show up in a Shelby Cobra and you can quickly see who has heirachy as instructors, or at least who calls "shotgun" the fastest. So Altian and Bryan (the original trackmaster referred to earlier in the thread about roll bar rules) were no shows and instructors were one less than novices. I'll tell ya now it was slightly embarassing standing next to my car in the grid with a bit over a minute to go and no instructor. Even that damn Golf got an instructor!


Finally, the stand-in track master, Keith, said he'd ride with me. Now Keith's a nice guy and very knowledgable but his communication was sometimes confusing and his grabbing my wheel at times was a bit unnerving. So after the second heat I asked him if he'd point out the line in two specific areas I had trouble with. Instead he drove my car with the following group and showed me. Then it became clear and I did just fine on the third so I was cleared to solo on the fourth heat. WooHoo!


So I get my camera mounted up with the rig I borrowed from mk2tmr2 (worked great BTW Thanks!) and get ready for my solo on the fourth. Winds are gusty today and my camera is a bit right side heavy so I think maybe I should use Carazzie's smaller, lighter camera instead. I load it on the rig and push record for video right before leaving for my last run.

It was my best run. No distractions just me, the car, the track, and the camera in my rear view mirror. I was chasing the s2000 out of the gate and it (as usual) gained distance on me. But I kept at it, focused on my line until I saw a yellow flag. The S2000 spun out in the canyon and I was back up on him again. Never passed him though. But never got passed on that last heat either so I felt pretty good about that.

Now here's the bad part. You'll hafta take my word on all of this 'cause I have no video. Changing cameras last second meant changing cards too and the dayum card in Carazzies camera was full! And I can't EVEN BLAME HER 'cause it was MY CARD! DOH!



So anyway, long story short, (I know - too late) I had fun today even though I was the only Miata (and only Mazda) and made some new friends.
The canyon is smoother than Hallett and faster IF you have the hp. My top speed was 90 at both tracks and I used 2nd thru 4th on both tracks but 2nd more today. The straights are longer for easier passing (I would assume if I did pass) and the canyon part is very fun for our kinda cars but dangerous with poor throttle control. Those descending ess curves can bite your ass because your speeds through them are deceptively fast and if you go off the track down in the canyon part you're gonna hit large rocks and canyon wall. Seems like there was more grassy "slop space" surrounding Hallet's track.

I'm tired. I'll post pics (no video 'cause I'm an idiot) tommorrow.

[Nails]

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/j...t=ff78783d.pbw

[Nails]

I know some of ya'll wanted to go but the "no roll bar" rule stopped ya.

There was a convertible Carrera there and I guess no one cared since he left his top up all day. No bars at all on his car.

[Nails]

Johnwags stopped by near the end of the day to say hi. I lent him my brain bucket and he caught a ride with David Cooper (the track owner) in his sahweet Porche!

[cArAzzIE]

I guess that'll teach you to stop using your camera memory for indefinite picture storage! :p

[ken o]

Cool. Sorry I missed it, I was out of town. BTW - David Cook is the track owner with wife Linda. Both good people.

[Nails]

Yea Linda was driving a yellow track prepped Vette that day.

[altiain]

Sorry I couldn't make it - I had another commitment come up at the last minute. Glad you had fun, though!

FWIW, a 911 Carrera convertible has a pop-up rollbar behind the rear seats, which covers the rollover requirement.

[Nails]

Yea sure it does. And my "pop-up" from driving so fast will protect me in a roll over too!

[SirHustlerEsq]

I can't wait to get out there with some power and play with the Vipers.