914Driver said:In reply to JG Pasterjak
Sorry, "Ah gots ta know", is that mayo & raw onions?
Mayo, regular ketchup, and raw onions on a small dice. Next level stuff.
914Driver said:In reply to JG Pasterjak
Sorry, "Ah gots ta know", is that mayo & raw onions?
Mayo, regular ketchup, and raw onions on a small dice. Next level stuff.
Thanks for posting Mr. Biermann's thoughts. The man flat out "gets it" and I'm glad he's sticking around in his new role.
Also kudos to Hyundai for not getting in the way of N.
Had a fun chat with Kyle Compton from Brian Herta Autosport yesterday. Back in the US, Kyle is the Tech Director in charge of the IMSA TCR operation overseeing the team's Hyundai Elantra N TCR machines. Here at the Nurburgring the local Target Racing crew is handling those main duties, so Kyle is focusing on strategy, and helping coach his drivers around the exceptionally complex 14+ miles of th Nurburgring 24 Hour circuit.
"We've learned a couple things from Target, but more than that it's been highly validating for both of us to see how similar the cars have been prepared, and that we both figured out very similar ideal setups independently of each other." Compton reports. Although there have been bits of knowledge to be picked up. "One really cool thing we learned is a way to increase the durability of our axles on faster tracks. What Target is doing is rerouting some of the brake cooling to the axle connections. On a track like Daytona, it's really hard on axles, but brake cooling is not so much of an issue, so it's kind of an easy fix to make this change for the faster stuff."
As for strategy decisions for a 24 hour race on a 14 mile track, Compton says that situation makes the strategy decisions easier in a lot of ways, but also more critical. "We can go eight laps on fuel. That's it. After that there's not enough reserve to get us back around if we miss it, so eight laps is our limit. but that's about 70 minutes, so it's a fairly full stint on tires as well. After that our pit stop will be about two minutes [there are minimum pit stop lengths based on how many laps you completed since your previous stop], and we can do any and all of the regular service we need to do well within that window." Compton says.
In this race, there's no limit on the services you can perform on pit road while fuel is being dispensed. And fuel comes from a standard, commercial style gas pump, located between each garage stall. So fueling is relatively slow anyway, and you're not allowed to put the gas cap in the handle to leave it on where you go inside for some Corn Nuts. But because of the crowded nature of the pits—nearly 150 cars will take the green later today—if you're NOT fueling, the requirement is to roll your car into the garage and out of everyone else's way for service. "So we need to kind of keep our service window inside of our fuel window anyway, because we don't want the extra hassle of having to roll back into the garage" Compton says. "So the stops here are a bit more methodical and relaxed than IMSA stops, since we have the time and we need to use it anyway, why not use it in a way to minimize mistakes?" So wheel changes are done with cordless impact wrenches, recycling the same lug nuts which are hand-applied before being run down to eliminate the chance of cross threading, then hand-torqued. This eliminates both a potential failure point, and a bunch of additional hoses on the ground possibly creating a trip hazard, or fouling the tools of the brake service techs.
As for his drivers, Compton is reviewing data with them, but not at the same granular level that he would at an IMSA event. "In IMSA, you're looking for tenths." Compton says. "Here, we're still making gains in the range of several seconds, and the nature of the competition, with all the passing of slower cars and being passed by faster cars on a very narrow track can really kill your momentum and have a profound effect on lap times. So when we look at data, we're looking at it more over a complete segment instead of on an input by input basis. What segment were you off the pace in and why, and how did you get behind? Could you have let someone by earlier in a spot where you wouldn't have lost so much time? Could you have passed a slower car in a different spot to preserve momentum better? That's the kind of things we're looking at. And the local Target hyundai drivers are also invaluable passing on track knowledge to our crew."
It seems to be working, as American Hyundai driver Michael Lewis will start on the class pole in the 24 Hour race. One of the Target Hyundai drivers was slightly faster in qualifying, but an at-fault contact on track will push that car to the back of the class starting grid. still, for a first-time Nurburgring driver, Lewis coming within just four seconds over a nearly nine-minute lap of a driver with hundreds more laps at this track is impressive, and bodes well for the American Hyundai squad in the race.
Kyle Compton (right) chats with driver Taylor Hagler (center) and one of the Target Racing Team members after Hagler's qualifying stint.
Compton is reviewing data with his drivers, but the intent is to get big chunks of time through preservation of momentum, not tiny slices through granular improvements. The signal/noise ratio over the Nurburgring's 170 or so turns is just too great for fine analysis.
Youtube livestream link, here's hoping Motortrend doesn't take it again
Hah, JG just got a shout out from Hindy on the livestream.
jb229 said:Hah, JG just got a shout out from Hindy on the livestream.
I was about to come comment about that, I think it was via some comment on twitter?
sleepyhead the buffalo said:jb229 said:Hah, JG just got a shout out from Hindy on the livestream.
I was about to come comment about that, I think it was via some comment on twitter?
Came to do the same.
sleepyhead the buffalo said:jb229 said:Hah, JG just got a shout out from Hindy on the livestream.
I was about to come comment about that, I think it was via some comment on twitter?
Yeah Sam Dougherty from NC tweeted me out. Honestly I'm just happy to be referenced on tv as something other than "local nuisance-animal owner."
Been really slammed today shooting. I'll post some stuff later tonight. For now, enjoy this giant drafting table that is in my AirBnB with blueprints on it for some porsche cylinder heads.
Thanks for all of your work on this.
I have to stay awake long enough for my laundry to finish, and, honestly, it's gonna be tough. So, in that spirit, here's a bunch of rando pix dumped out of my cards into your brains. I'll be doing various organized stories around this whole trip. Don't worry. But for now here's the garage sale. Enjoy:
JG Pasterjak said:Not every car is a GT3 car
I'm still pretty bummed out about this happening to it last night... through the 3rd part of the Pflanzgarten complex (depending on how you judge/name it)...
if you want to see a bit more of what it's like to drive a ~170hp econobox amongst GT3 cars, there's this video from Misha Charoudin driving it in its first N24 back in 2021:
between having 'driven the back side of the OneLap grid', starting out my HPDE in a Honda Fit; and having followed Dale's escapades in the "Underdog E36" and the Miliken Ford Fiesta, plus the Manta... the Dacia Logan and Thai Toyota Corolla Altis are things I've got a big soft-spot for.
Saw this thread and reminded me of a reddit post from earlier
The Logan was a tragedy, hopefully the massive fan support encourages the team to try again with a new build. The volunteer marshalls had all come together to pay for the gas!
from last year: Hyundai N Playlist - Nurburgring Eurobeat
Thanks algorithm, glad I know this exists
JG Pasterjak said:So, recapping, Dale Lomas at Rent4Ring mentioned he had a little surprise for me in the borrowed ride department. As it turns out I had the pleasure of taking the first customer laps of one of Rent4Ring's new fleet of four-cylinder Toyota Supras, which was an utter delight, even in its fairly unsorted form. I'll bug Dale to hop in the thread and give you the rundown on the specs, which are fairly impressive as R4R augments their cars for performance and durability. Lomas says their typical approach is to provide their customers with "way more chassis and brakes than motor, because you just don't need a lot of motor here to scare yourself silly, and in lots of ways too much power dulls the learning curve."
video form:
sleepyhead the buffalo said:JG Pasterjak said:So, recapping, Dale Lomas at Rent4Ring mentioned he had a little surprise for me in the borrowed ride department. As it turns out I had the pleasure of taking the first customer laps of one of Rent4Ring's new fleet of four-cylinder Toyota Supras, which was an utter delight, even in its fairly unsorted form. I'll bug Dale to hop in the thread and give you the rundown on the specs, which are fairly impressive as R4R augments their cars for performance and durability. Lomas says their typical approach is to provide their customers with "way more chassis and brakes than motor, because you just don't need a lot of motor here to scare yourself silly, and in lots of ways too much power dulls the learning curve."
video form:
This thing completely rewired my opinion on the 4 cylinder Supra, which previously had been "why bother?" Well, because it's awesome. Lopping a couple hundred pounds that all sits in front of the front axle off the car turns an already good handling car into a truly nimble and agile friend. Honestly it feels like the whole car just got smaller,and the corners got closer, and it's just so much easier to place and point than the 6 cylinder version.
The trim I drove it in was fairly unsorted and definitely unsuitable for renters. it had like 1/4" of front toe out and even a little pinch of rear toe out, so the watchword was URGENCY. If you so much though about turning in, it would turn in. Heck I'm 4000 miles away right now and it probably sensed I just typed that and turned in. But if your hands were calm enough, you got a feel for just how capable the chassis was and how much potential there was. The biggest hurdle they'll have to overcome is the trailing arm rear, which does some weird toe tricks under both compression and extension, and there's a lot of both at the Nurburgring. But you can't just lock things down because you need that compliance to handle the immense amount of bumps, humps, jumps and yumps at the track.
But, yeah, I've been a Supra fan since they dropped, and I never took the 4 cylinder seriously, but it's every bit the sports car the 6 cylinder is.
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