FL5 Track-day at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - Personal Experience

[Fresh]

Hello all,

I'm busy today at work, but wanted to blog some things here for you FL5 owners out there....

1. This was my first track-day event ever. My car had 400 miles on it. Stock oil, pads, tires, etc.
2. Course was Mid-Ohio.
3. This was a NASA HPDE-Intro course, although they said we would be following the same format in the two-day HPDE-1 event, just more of it.
4. I bought this car as a second-car will all intensive purposes to drive it like I stole it <--- and yes, I did. I kept the RPMs between 4.5-6.5k the majority of the track (3.1 miles). Down the back straight where 911GT3's were hitting 150, I was easily hitting 100+, but since I don't drive that fast, I inherently felt the need to slow down...
5. The brakes are AMAZING. We did an exercise where we slammed full ABS from 80-30mph and I felt like my eyeballs were leaving my head.
6. I thought this was a driver/passenger-instructor event, but it was a true lead follow. This wasn't 30 MPH around the track, this was 100+ down the back straight.
7. Make sure you download Honda LogR 2.0. You MUST set this up before hand and start the "data log" since this is for tracking... the auto-score is for street riding. The amount of data you get is MIND-BLOWING. Make sure you have your track selected too. Watch the Honda intro video on this.
8. I was hitting around 0.8G on the turns... likely close to 0.9G on the up-hill turns.
9. The car's front diff PULLS you around corners and Honda did a great job on this.
10. In no way could I keep up with my last-year's TT champion leader in her Miata... so DO NOT go with an EGO.
11. Even more so, the GR86's were either more experienced (which they later told me they were) or completely crazy and gave no craps about their life... they were ALL OVER my rear and I could hardly catch them.
12. Heat soak is a REAL thing. The first mod I want is the intercooler and charge pipes. If you're gonna track ALL THE TIME, get racing tires immediately.
13. The car suspension is VERY well setup.

I'll come back and add more here later.... gotta run to meeting.

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[Cornercarver]

Wow, thank you for sharing that. So still issues with heat soak on the 11th gen, too? Doesn't really seem like you needed race pads for the brakes, but might be a consideration later.
Clearly an R compound tire will help.
But mostly, knowing the course, getting used to the speed so you are comfortable and confident in going faster.
I remember doing a lead follow at Bondurant - moment of silence please- in a 2nd gen Cadillac CTS-V years ago, and being amazed at the speeds we would hit with seemingly perfect control due to taking the racing line and braking and accelerating at just the right time. A real eye opener. It was even a manual, but we were told to just put it in third once we set off and just leave it there. A short, tight course but we still hit over 80. That 556 horsepower engine was good with that.
Our cars, on the other hand, need a bit more shifting to perform optimally.
Thinking on a fast track without too many slow corners you were mostly going between third and fourth once you got up to speed?
Good guess, or am I way off?
Most importantly - sounds like you had fun. And you and the FL5 lived to tell about it.

 

[Samurai1225]

Wow that sounds like amazing fun. My nephew is certified automobile tech and built an STI where he did quite a bit of performance driving at Mid-Ohio. He has some connections at the track and we plan on setting up a track date in the future. We all like to think we are great drivers, but I'm sure getting these cars on a real race course where you can unleash the cars full potential is an eye opener ....

 

[Sooner1]

Wow. Track day with only 400 miles on the car.

 

[Clark_Kent]

#12 Heatsoak. I wanted to dig into that a little bit. What data were you seeing and what were you experiencing that led to your conclusions about heatsoak? For example, did the car go into limp mode? Were you down x mph on the back straight after a couple of laps? Were you seeing less boost under similar conditions early in the session vs. later in the session? I'm not challenging your statement, just seeking to understand.

 

[keller]

#12 Heatsoak. I wanted to dig into that a little bit. What data were you seeing and what were you experiencing that led to your conclusions about heatsoak? For example, did the car go into limp mode? Were you down x mph on the back straight after a couple of laps? Were you seeing less boost under similar conditions early in the session vs. later in the session? I'm not challenging your statement, just seeking to understand.

Yeah, oftentimes people have different definitions for overheating. I'd honestly be surprised one could heatsoak/overheat a CTR on their first ever track event.

 

[Fresh]

Thinking on a fast track without too many slow corners you were mostly going between third and fourth once you got up to speed?
Good guess, or am I way off?

I was down into second on the keyhole and the last chicane in front of the pits (finish line). Launching downhill out of the keyhole in second, to third, to fourth was quite exhilarating to say the least...

 

[Fresh]

#12 Heatsoak. I wanted to dig into that a little bit. What data were you seeing and what were you experiencing that led to your conclusions about heatsoak? For example, did the car go into limp mode? Were you down x mph on the back straight after a couple of laps? Were you seeing less boost under similar conditions early in the session vs. later in the session? I'm not challenging your statement, just seeking to understand.

In the morning, my oil temps stayed low and my intake air wasn't too bad. With the GR86's behind me, when I'd pull out of a corner and launch into the straights, I would smoke them (in their own words).

In the afternoon, the car was hot, wouldn't cool down easily (even when leaving running without brakes on with hood open). During my 5:30p laps, the GR86's in the same corners were eating my rear bumper. I keenly remember a few times thinking "why is my car not moving like it was".... it was definitely being robbed of power in some fashion....

 

[Fresh]

Yeah, oftentimes people have different definitions for overheating. I'd honestly be surprised one could heatsoak/overheat a CTR on their first ever track event.

The "engine temp bars" on the left hand side appeared ok, but it was clear my power was gone in the afternoon runs... see above response for clarity.

 

[keller]

The "engine temp bars" on the left hand side appeared ok, but it was clear my power was gone in the afternoon runs... see above response for clarity.

That's interesting. The ECU pulls power depending on ECT and IAT2 (oil "temps" are ignored...). The FL5 doesn't seem to have any problem keeping ECTs on check, so I can only assume it was your intake air temps. Can you remember what kind of temps you were seeing then?

How were you tires by the end of the day? I can see the GR86s getting on you just because of overheated tires.

 

[Fresh]

How were you tires by the end of the day? I can see the GR86s getting on you just because of overheated tires.

There was plenty of tread-depth, but I could tell they were hot. I had a LOT of medium limestone (nearing #57 size...) stuck to my tires since our paddock wasn't paved... smdh. However, from the LogR, I did only see a few times where I was approaching the limit of the tire... but I know I did this more than a few times. on the later runs, I was getting loose in the end in the 0.6-0.7G range... so maybe they were too hot.

I was BLOWN away by how fast those 86's were in the corners and in the straights later in the day. However, when I was the direct-follow behind my miata teacher (who was insane, but total shout out if you read this Chris I could stay on her bumper and leave the 86's. But later in the day, and when i was in the back, i just couldn't keep up in the twisties, which, again, blew me away...

If anyone wants to head out there for the next HPDE-1 event, let me know. It would be fun to have another CTR.

 

[Jester04]

The "engine temp bars" on the left hand side appeared ok, but it was clear my power was gone in the afternoon runs... see above response for clarity.

Please put heavier weight oil on the car, it will save your engine from low oil pressure. The stock 0w-20 won’t hold up.

 

[VarmintCong]

Hello all,

I'm busy today at work, but wanted to blog some things here for you FL5 owners out there....

1. This was my first track-day event ever. My car had 400 miles on it. Stock oil, pads, tires, etc.
2. Course was Mid-Ohio.
3. This was a NASA HPDE-Intro course, although they said we would be following the same format in the two-day HPDE-1 event, just more of it.
4. I bought this car as a second-car will all intensive purposes to drive it like I stole it <--- and yes, I did. I kept the RPMs between 4.5-6.5k the majority of the track (3.1 miles). Down the back straight where 911GT3's were hitting 150, I was easily hitting 100+, but since I don't drive that fast, I inherently felt the need to slow down...
5. The brakes are AMAZING. We did an exercise where we slammed full ABS from 80-30mph and I felt like my eyeballs were leaving my head.
6. I thought this was a driver/passenger-instructor event, but it was a true lead follow. This wasn't 30 MPH around the track, this was 100+ down the back straight.
7. Make sure you download Honda LogR 2.0. You MUST set this up before hand and start the "data log" since this is for tracking... the auto-score is for street riding. The amount of data you get is MIND-BLOWING. Make sure you have your track selected too. Watch the Honda intro video on this.
8. I was hitting around 0.8G on the turns... likely close to 0.9G on the up-hill turns.
9. The car's front diff PULLS you around corners and Honda did a great job on this.
10. In no way could I keep up with my last-year's TT champion leader in her Miata... so DO NOT go with an EGO.
11. Even more so, the GR86's were either more experienced (which they later told me they were) or completely crazy and gave no craps about their life... they were ALL OVER my rear and I could hardly catch them.
12. Heat soak is a REAL thing. The first mod I want is the intercooler and charge pipes. If you're gonna track ALL THE TIME, get racing tires immediately.
13. The car suspension is VERY well setup.

I'll come back and add more here later.... gotta run to meeting.

Awesome, congrats on first track day! Weird that there was no instructor in the cars, especially for an intro course. Only club I knew who did that was EMRA, bunch of cowboys.

Your car doesn't need anything, certainly not R compounds - you need more track days.

 

[Fresh]

Please put heavier weight oil on the car, it will save your engine from low oil pressure. The stock 0w-20 won’t hold up.

Yes, I plan to change to 5w-30 but I’m open to others suggestions…???

 

[Fresh]

Your car doesn't need anything, certainly not R compounds - you need more track days.

Yup I completely understand. Learning the line more, but really the braking distance/location was my shortfall.

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