mx5cartalk.com

anyone interested in a track day sometime in October??

im looking forward to getting out there with the new diff and suspension...oh and new lap timer also

post up your interest

im thinking the dates either the 1st or the 24th.. Looks as though there is only 2 that month

19th Oct looks good! ;)

oh didnt see that

i better get my entry in

I really wanna go, but need new tyres first

Fuzzlet wrote:I really wanna go, but need new tyres first

Seems like we've heard this before.

Fuzzlet wrote:Club Track Day - 4th May - Wakefield
21 Apr 2009 02:09 pm

Would love to go but need 2 new tyres and a new set of front pads before I can head down again

Either you wear out tyres very quickly or it's the same old rubber you had on in April, so you may as well bring it down to Wakefield and finish them off properly.

Let's see what 133kW will do. No excuses.

well, i'm booked the 19th

Hey dude,

Keen for the 19th or speed off the streets!

Charlie Brown wrote:Either you wear out tyres very quickly or it's the same old rubber you had on in April, so you may as well bring it down to Wakefield and finish them off properly.

Let's see what 133kW will do. No excuses.

2 tyres have a bit of tread left, 1 has a hint of tread pattern left, and the 4th is basically a slick haha

gobsmax wrote:Hey dude,

Keen for the 19th or speed off the streets!

Hey Alan, im booking for the 19th.. would be good to attend a club day

Sasso wrote:I think I'm due for a track day, but I want timing, I assume the club day has that? What about passengers? Where's the entry form I don't understand their website.

Timing yes.
Passengers no (few track days permit it) but you will get one-on-one instruction from an experienced driver if you want it.
See http://www.mx5.com.au/nsw/motorsport.htm

Im in dragging rims down for pete.
Not willing to track the astra.

Mikes Manor on Sunday?

Sasso wrote:Thanks for that. Damn I hate when they do no passengers. Circuit club do it, makes the day so much more fun. Oh wells the competition will be fun enough

True, but Circuit Club also seem to charge a fair bit more for their track days. Looking at the website, they are asking $190 for Wakefield Park. The club "early bird" rate this year has been $120 for Mondays and $140 for Sundays. I'd assume the difference is due to higher insurance costs for Circuit Club if they are allowing passengers on the track??? That and Circuit Club also need to cover the use of the timing gear.

Anyway, hope you can make it to the club track day.

MX-5 club uses a sophisticated form of stopwatch timing. Check out RTM Lap Timing Software for details. It's very reliable timing. Though they use a start/finish line positioned at the exit of the fish-hook rather than the traditional one on the main straight.

Come on, watching me spin out cant be that entertaining can it? As for timing, the club just uses an advanced form of hand timing. I've only seen it contested once, but that was cos the club's timing said a car did a 1' 5.1" lap, and the in car timer said 1' 4.9"....

No the lap timing is nothing that fancy, Sasso. Every car does have a number on each door, but there is no automated character recognition thing involved. I've not been in the timing room when they are working since it's not a good idea to interrupt their concentration, but I think it works something like this:

They have three people in the room. One is using binoculars to watch the next car in line as they approach the fish-hook and probably announces the number of the car that is next in line. Another probably watches the next car behind, just in case the first one has an "off" before the line, or if they're close together (I imagine it gets very hectic if there are a few cars close together!). And the third person has binoculars locked onto the start/finish line, as soon as the car crosses, they click the button on the computer for that car number to mark a split time. The rest of the software manages the logging of the times and printing/displaying of the results via classes or outright, etc. Anyone who's played with a digital stopwatch could tell you that with a bit of practice, you can reproducably get within a few hundredths of a second.

So, like Fuzzlet and I said, it's a sophisticated version for stopwatch timing. It's a very neat system and provides real-time updates of lap times for display on a PC screen that they have sitting next door in the control tower. You just wander in after your track session and can see your lap times straight away. I've also checked my times against those collected with my GPS PerformanceBox and they are within +/- 0.1s which is the precision level of the box. And given that I'm only estimating the position of the start/finish line, I reckon the system is pretty reliable for what it is. Just don't pester the timing staff!