Although I sold my Evo X and am running an Evo VIII at the moment, hopefully you guys don't mind some track data :)

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5803/pits01cropped.jpg

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3066/350zfinal1.jpg

My next time out at the track was a Cascade Sports Club driving event at Portland International Raceway (October 1st, 2011); after trying to fix all the issues that surfaced during my last track day it would be interesting to see how the day panned out. My particulars were as follows:

Camber Alignment Front: -3.0
Camber Alignment Rear: -1.5
Sway Bar Front: Stock
Sway Bar Rear: Whiteline - Full Soft
Suspension Specs: Ohlins DFV Coilovers (10k front and 12k rear) - 10 clicks from full stiff front and 7 clicks from full stiff rear
Brakes: Carbotech XP10 (front), Carbotech XP8 (rear) with Stoptech SS Lines, and Motul RBF600 Fluid - stock rotors
Tire Pressures: Nitto NT01s (245/45/17s all around) - 29PSI all around - Cold
Changes to setup: Rear swaybar firmness, tire pressures, seats/harnesses, rear seat delete, BOV

We had a great turnout with Lucas and Myles from English Racing joining my brother, friend Kevin, and me at the track. Lucas had his powerful black Evo VIII in my run group along with Kevin's "far-from-stock" Subaru Forrester XT. I like to tell him that I get anxious when I'm following him as a loaf of bread could hit my windshield at any time. Myles also brought his 600WHP Integra out to run in the Novice group with my brother and his twin turbo, 570WHP 350Z (my old car). It was the first time out for both of them and they both had a blast.

Also new to me for this session was a Racelogic PerformanceBox GPS data acquisition system. My last track day I used Harry's Laptimer for my iPhone. I hooked it up using the external TomTom GPS antenna and could never get it to accurately record data. Others have raved on the Harry's solution so it was probably user error. When I'm at the track, I just want stuff "to work" without having to fiddle around too much and the PerformanceBox definitely does the trick. It is literally as easy as suction cupping it to your windshield, running power into the cigarette lighter, setting start/finish line via one button press, and forgetting about it the entire day. Once the start/finish line is setup, it stores the location in ROM so even powering off the unit is no problem. All data is recorded onto an SD card and it can be loaded up on your computer when the day is done using their great software, Circuit Tools. In addition, my original plan was to overlay the GPS data from the PerformanceBox to my HD video recordings via TrackVision but apparently the native output format of the PerformanceBox CSV file isn't recognized by TrackVision without modifications so I just did some quick in-video ghetto track time edits as I passed the start/finish line until I could get the TrackVision stuff figured out.

The weather forecast showed a 50% chance of rain so I spent most of my time praying for it to stay away. Ambient temps stayed in the 60s most of the day and I made some minor tire pressure adjustments to account for them. All in all, it was a beautiful day for racing. We had a small bit of drizzle right before lunch but got lucky and had a dry day the rest of the time.

Cascade's policy is that the first session of the day is to be with an instructor, even those with previous track experience like myself. Not a big deal, my only concern was that I truly wanted to get some solo, dry laps in hopes that I'd ultimately get my sub-1:30 goal that I've been trying for all year. On the flip side, it is always great to have a passenger to provide feedback as all of us fall into bad habits, etc. I was not being very smooth in the opening session and Dave (instructor) called me out a couple times. I also didn't have a bunch of confidence in the car since there were a lot of changes made since my last time out. With the new setup, extra 200 pounds, traffic, etc - I was able to put down a 1:32.86 so I was optimistic that I'd be able to reach my target if the track stayed dry.

In between the first session, I checked my tire pressures and they were right at the 38-40PSI mark all around. Interesting enough I noticed passenger side front about 1.5PSI hotter than the driver's side so I wondered if the passenger in the car caused that (car was corner balanced with no passenger ballast added). I dropped it 0.5PSI in preparation for the next session. Overall, the first session was a good one and the car was handling very nicely. Brakes were strong, and it was very neutral feeling and oversteer could be called upon demand based on driving technique. Probably just about what you'd want for a fast lapping vehicle (or at least it matched my driving style best)....

My first solo session (session two) was mainly spent continuing to test the car and build confidence while encountering many "cool down" laps caused by slow vehicles on the track. Cascade does not allow open passing so if you get caught behind a slow car between turns one and seven then you can really have a long time to wait...my best time during this session was 1:30.57 so I was less than a second off my goal. By the end of the session, I was really gaining more confidence in the car though, and knew I could drive even harder during session three.

Session three was very eventful, and it included spin outs, a full course black flag, and an individual black flag for me (doh!). The full course black flag was caused due to one of the cars dumping coolant between turns seven and twelve right in the driving line. We sat in the pits for 14:30 while they quickly dumped some quick dry and cautioned us on the track conditions. For any complaints I may have with Cascade, they definitely are the most safety conscious club I've ever run with. This is definitely a good thing. My personal black flag incident was due to me blowing through the Chicane at turn one. I was doing some brake testing and was seeing how deep I could get into turn one. Let's just say that waiting until the 350 mark wasn't going to happen so I decided to play it safe and go through Chicane instead of doing anything stupid like trying to make the turn and spin or hit someone or a wall. After heading down pits, and explaining what happened they told me I did exactly the right thing and let me back out to finish the session. With all the eventfulness of the session, my best time was 1:32.62 which was a step backwards. Between sessions, I took tire temps and was happy to see that my pressures looked spot on with essentially no variation between the rear tires' inner-middle-outer areas. The front tires did appear to be about 20 degrees cooler on the insides, but the middle and outer sections were identical. Because of this, I only made a slight adjustment to pressures to account for the ambient temperature rise going into the fourth session.

The last session of the day was just good all around. My only complaint was the lack of open track and the slow cars that were in our group. Midway through the session I put down a 1:29.74 followed by a 1:30.91 in open track conditions. It took me all day but I finally achieved my goal. Laps eleven and twelve were some of the most fun all day as Lucas and I were neck and neck for a lap and a half. Lap eleven was some great footage showing me chasing Lucas while putting down a 1:30.57. I've put the footage of session four on YouTube and it can be seen below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Mrcw7eYqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KPukGfOKRI

Great video and write-up. Congrats on your 1:29. Loved your car-makes me want to add a 9 to the garage.
What class was that? All of that slow traffic would drive me crazy.
Something I found interesting was that you turned your fastest lap right after one of your slowest laps. It makes me think that with a good run off T-12 you could easily get into the 1:28's!

Thanks man, and thanks for coming out and meeting us! We're going to definitely hit some track days together next year.

I asked Cascade to drop me into the Advanced Class group, which is their level two group. Originally I was in their HPDE (level three) group but I wanted to run with Lucas English (English Racing). I kind of regretted my decision because of all the bozos that were in our group though. The slow laps kind of served to cool off my tires though which is why I could get those low times. Here is kind of an example later in the day:

7 - 1.43.89
8 - 1.29.74
9 - 1.30.91
10 - 1.40.57
11 - 1.30.57

You can see the ups and downs and I know there is more in the car. Over the winter I'm going to lighten her up a bit and I think a 1:27 is possible but we'll see. I don't think turn twelve is my issue though, the section between turns 4-7 is where I feel I can pick up that extra second or two. In reviewing my lines, they are really bad...

Here are a couple more pictures from the track...

http://rockstedy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HPDE007.jpg

Chasing down Lucas off turn 12!

http://rockstedy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HPDE017.jpghttp://rockstedy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HPDE018.jpghttp://rockstedy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HPDE020.jpg

I think your line through 12 is great. But you turned the 1:29 following your buddy through 10-12 which slowed your exit speed out of 12 on to the front straight. So that's what made me think when you put it all together you'll be in the 1:28's or even 1:27's like you said.
Have you compared the sector times and max corner speeds to see how you got that fast lap?
Also, running without the cones in T-6 is probably worth a few 10ths.
And damn that thing pulls hard down the straights!

I'm going over all the data this week, I've only briefly done comparisons so far. I basically just need some more seat time and run more clean laps. Simply removing some excess weight will probably help too as I'm already happy with the power levels (surprisingly "low" at only 370WHP/310WTQ)....

My goal is to keep power where it is and shoot for NASA TTS (8.7 - 1 power-weight restriction)...If I can get my WTQ up to around 400 while leaving WHP where it is at, I'll be a happy camper...NASA TTS will include some high displacement cars (Vettes, etc) that will have huge WTQ advantages over me...

Great driving and nice vids! PIR looks like a fun track. Bummer about trackvision. Have you looked in their forum? I saw a section on support for racelogic/performance box
http://www.trackvision.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=321

Thanks orthojoe, I very much enjoy your threads so I tried to do my best imitation here :)

Yeah, I was bummed about TrackVision too but I might be out of luck for now. Unfortunately that thread you attached was from back in 2007 before PerformanceBox switched their software to CircuitTools. It would be ideal if TrackVision took the raw DGM file which contains all the GPS data and allowed me to import it but right now it isn't supported...dang, I want me some video overlay!!!

Bummer. I'm surprised the trackvision guys havent gotten around to fixing this problem... Racelogic is a popular brand, so they are missing out on potential customers...

Completely agree, and I was actually shocked when I started testing things out. I haven't actually emailed TrackVision yet so that might be my next step...