Spacebird
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2015
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- Location
- Boulder County, Colorado
- Vehicle(s)
- 2016 GT350R
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Video of Session 4, laps 6 & 7:
All, I thought I’d share my experience at Saturday’s Edge Addicts HPDE at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. Driving COTA has been something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, and since I’m moving from Texas to Colorado in 3 weeks (yikes!) it was on my Texas bucket list. I only managed one day at COTA which was a bummer, but glad I was able to do it at all.
Me: This was my third HPDE event. I’ve also done two days at the Porsche Sport Driving School at Barber Motorsports Raceway.
Car: My 2016 GT350R with the following modifications/configurations:
Brakes
- Caliperfexion stainless brake studs
- G-Loc R12 pads in front, R10 in rear
- Castrol SRF
- MGW shifter, revision 1 (I haven’t installed the updated arms yet)
- Steeda clutch spring
- Space City Spy gad pedal spacers
- Ford Performance AOS
- Maximum Motorsports Camber Plates
- Alignment set to Ford’s GT350R track recommendations
- Schroth Quick Fit Pro harnesses
- Necksgen Rev2 Lite
- ZL1 Addons Tow Hook
- XPEL Ultimate over the entire car
- Rear Seat Kit
Track:
Dear lord, this track is awesome. The 133ft elevation change of this track is easily one of the most fun aspects of it. You can’t see Turn 1 as you’re blasting uphill on the pit straight until you’ve nearly crested the hill, and at that point you need to be going SLOW to take it safety. Turn 10 is also in the blind but an important apex to get right.
The “Esses” of T3-T6 are deceptively difficult to get right and where a lot of time can be lost as they really sap momentum. T6-T7 tripped me up more than once an really got the tires to squeal and the traction control to kick in.
The main straight is exactly 1km long and where big power cars like the Shelby shine. My maximum speed was 141mph before laying on the brakes into Turn 11.
My performance: I ran in the Yellow “Intermediate” group which was about right for me; I got pointed by, and I pointed by. My best lap was 2:44 and I’m leaving a ton on the table. I find this car to be difficult to heel-toe despite my size 12 feet. I managed some solid 4-3-2 heel-toe downshifts, but coming out of the main straight at ~140 wasn’t when I wanted to really practices my 5-4-3-2 heel-toe downshifts! I usually just went 5-2 there much to the chagrin of my instructor. Maybe a bigger gas pedal will help.
Car’s performance: The GT350R performed like a champ. It got up to ~94 in Austin that day, and the track was a lot hotter than that. My engine oil temp flirted with the red line on my gauge (~275?) but no limp mode was triggered. The only quirk exhibited by the car was after I parked after the last session; I turned off the engine then had to move it about a minute later. The engine took a little longer to catch which I suspect had to do with the vapor in the system.
HPDE: My first HPDE was the the Porsche Club of America's local region. PCA runs a tight event, and I felt that Edge Addicts was way more loose e.g. driver's meeting running too long forcing people to rush to ready their cars, etc.
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