Dial 911

[lemming]

Originally Posted by lemming

Just out of curiosity: are we taking the same track layout?


https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...lightning-lap/

I’m just trying to our peak speed in the context of other cars benchmarked there —

Uphill esses 154mph/straight at 172mph.

Trying to compare peak speeds —

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by lemming

Just out of curiosity: are we taking the same track layout?


https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...lightning-lap/

I’m just trying to our peak speed in the context of other cars benchmarked there —

Uphill esses 154mph/straight at 172mph.

Fuck me, that’s fast.

It’s not the same layout. There are four layouts at VIR:
Full Course - what JST and I have been talking about
North Course
South Course
Grand East - what the Senna ran, which adds the interior of the north and south courses to the full course, at the cost of ruining the entry to roller coaster on the back straight (where I was talking about braking)

The one surprise in that lap was how much speed the Senna lost in the uphill esses, but that’s probably because the suspension and aero won’t let you drive over the curbs in the same way. The fast route in a BMW 100% includes two wheels off over the curbs into the dirt.

[Nick M3]

Here’s some excellent reference footage of James Clay in a SpecE46 (330i) with telemetry, which will show the BMW route up the esses and also my surprise at the Senna’s speed there.

https://youtu.be/tJS58KHBq68

[Josh (PA)]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

Here’s some excellent reference footage of James Clay in a SpecE46 (330i) with telemetry, which will show the BMW route up the esses and also my surprise at the Senna’s speed there.

https://youtu.be/tJS58KHBq68

I missed the section through the esses because I couldn't stop staring at his feet...

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

I missed the section through the esses because I couldn't stop staring at his feet...

Yes, the flip flop joke cam was unfortunate, but I looked through about half a dozen videos before I found a good video of a not crazily modified BMW with telemetry and a good driver.

Clay does love him some flip flops.

It's a really good demonstration of how well a mildly modified BMW will do high speed transitions. I think that the top of the uphill esses is where the speed delta between the Senna and the BMW was closest around the parts of the track that they ran. SpecE46 allows for coilovers, sways, a diff, and weight reduction. There's a spec tune, but it comes with a low rev limit and is more oriented around turning off error codes, because the M54B30 blows up if you rev it above 6500ish in track use. The rest of what's allowed is durability and safety oriented. They aren't even allowed monoball RTABs.

[JST]

Originally Posted by lemming

Trying to compare peak speeds —

What Nick said about course layouts. The Senna hits its top speed of 172 (!!) on the front straight here, which is...holy crap, that front straight isn't particularly straight, so that's a little pants-shitting right there.

But, yeah, the Senna actually gets up on the curbs more than I expected in other parts of the course, so I wonder whether it could have done the esses even faster if the driver had ventured farther onto the curbs. Maybe not, though, since its entry speed is north of 150 mph--unlike the Spec E46 that Nick posted, which basically accelerates the whole way up, the Senna bleeds off speed on the way up. Maybe getting on those curbs at 150 is a bad idea.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by JST

What Nick said about course layouts. The Senna hits its top speed of 172 (!!) on the front straight here, which is...holy crap, that front straight isn't particularly straight, so that's a little pants-shitting right there.

But, yeah, the Senna actually gets up on the curbs more than I expected in other parts of the course, so I wonder whether it could have done the esses even faster if the driver had ventured farther onto the curbs. Maybe not, though, since its entry speed is north of 150 mph--unlike the Spec E46 that Nick posted, which basically accelerates the whole way up, the Senna bleeds off speed on the way up. Maybe getting on those curbs at 150 is a bad idea.

To be fair, the issue may not be the esses themselves, but rather not flying over the top.

[FC]

I'll blame my mother for bringing us up being timid (she thinks I'm a feakin' daredevil ) but all those speeds seem crazy fast.

OT: That's another thing to like about Lemons, you get to go 10/10 and wheel to wheel without going THAT fast.

[lemming]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

To be fair, the issue may not be the esses themselves, but rather not flying over the top.

Thanks! Didn’t know how many different layouts there are at VIR. I’ll watch the videos you posted this weekend.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by FC

I'll blame my mother for bringing us up being timid (she thinks I'm a feakin' daredevil ) but all those speeds seem crazy fast.

OT: That's another thing to like about Lemons, you get to go 10/10 and wheel to wheel without going THAT fast.

Lemons isn’t that slow at the top end of Group B, and Group A can be very fast.