FerrariChat GT4 Challenge: Round 1

The FerrariChat GT4 Challenge: Round 1

The Car: Chevrolet Z06, priced at a mere: 53,570. any street or sport tire combination is allowed, no slicks, and absolutely NO modifications.
The Track: Laguna Seca Raceway
The Challenge: Best time, post it, or take a picture of it if you are a top contender with a camera phone, digital camera or scanned polaroid.

You have 7 days. At Midnight on Tuesday, March 15th, the winner will be declared and will choose the next challenge. To start the challenge, use World Circuits and join up on a practice or track meet.

My best so far is a 1:34.948. camera phone will not take a legible picture, so you'll have to trust me on that one. There is at least another second to shave off of that and I have a feeling by Tuesday the times will be very very close.

 

doesn't come out too well, but it is legible.
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A Logitech Driving Force Pro wheel was used along with the soft sport tires.

A few tips for those unfamiliar with Laguna Seca:
- Turn one is actually down the front straight just going over the hill. yes, that's it.
- Turn two can be taken two different ways: double apex or a very late single apex. While the latter isn't a good racing line, since it opens up the inside lane for drivers to get you, it will have a greater speed into turn three.
- Going into six, where it dips, heading uphill to the corckscrew, I have to shift into third and tap the brakes while full on the gas.
- Corkscrew - follow the black tire marks, stay in second if you can. Remember, slow in, fast out.
- While coming out of 8a (dog leg right, after the corkscrew) and heading towards 9 (bending off camber left hander), stay right to gain more speed between turns 9 and 10 and trail brake yourself through the corner.

 

What is this... automatic transmission you speak of? =)

 

Get the softest sport tires. IIRC, they are 6,500, so not an expensive mod for the car.

Be smooth, because that means everything, more so than being over aggressive on the track.

Steering corrections / sawing (for those who have a wheel it is easier) are done for two purposes: 1) to reduce understeer and 2) to see where the tires are breaking at the limit; allowing you to feel how fast you can go into a turn. If you feel yourself pushing towards understeer in a corner, and this happens quite often when you over cook the braking point in turn 5, you have the wheel turned and you are waiting on the car to turn. Don't do that. Slow up, straighten up the wheel, feel the grip, turn. Still don't have grip and not turning? Saw the wheel back and forth, straightening and turning. This will cause the car to grip and then try to turn. But if this is too aggressive for you, slow it down by straightening the wheel, wait for the car to regain grip and then continue into the turn. Doing this slow enough will teach you how to speed it up.

I hope these tips help out someone out there. And I'm quite glad this starts out on a simple course with only 11 turns like Laguna Seca, instead of the Ring. I'm quite sure we'll get to that.

 

A bit too sticky, but you see there is room for improvement. It is about learning the limits of the car, more than just having a fast as hell car with super sticky tires.

 

tip: oil change is not a modification. I actually just did this tonight, but... I'm out of sync and could only manage a 1:35.6 so far this evening.