Special thanks to Gotbluemilk.com for my on track photos
Everyone always has their favorite track and mine started well before I could even drive. I loved Laguna Seca Raceway way before I was even old enough to drive, spending hours upon hours racing on racing on the track in sims like Gran Turismo.
I remember my first time at actually racing on Laguna Seca and I have to say all those hours on Gran Turismo really paid off. I already knew where my turn in's and brake zones were. Now nothing can really prepare you for all the elevation changes that the track has and of course the corkscrew with its 59 foot drop.
For me, Laguna Seca just has a flow to it that I love. Anytime I'm struggling or just need to do a little test and tune for something new I've installed on Project 71-109 this is the track I want to drive.
This time out I had a handful of new parts that I wanted to test out and get a feel for. One of the big things that I added recently was additional downforce up front. I added a CR front lip and a Racebred front splitter.
The front end of Project 71-109 was definitely more stable with the addition of the new lip, front splitter and the A052s, which I'm now running over the RE-71R.
I was able to set a new PB (Personal Best) by 2 whole seconds and I can say there was plenty more in Project 71-109 but I lost 1 complete session due to a car dumping a bunch of oil on the track which took clean-up crews my entire run groups session to get cleaned up
Another addition for this year was my Rockstar Rollbar and with all the track days I have planned along with the direction Project 71-109 is headed it was time to address some additional safety measures. Stay tuned for my Sparco seat and quick release wheel that will be going in soon.
So one thing that I have to address immediately is my rear downforce, or lack of. I found at turn 1, which is just after you pass under bridge at the start finish line and come over the crest the rear end was getting loose. Like full pucker. I would come over the crest doing 100+ mph trying to keep the car as straight as possible to keep the rear end from dancing around. It took a lot to fully commit going over the crest but I just had to suck it up and put my trust in the car and my setup.
So needless to say once I got home I ordered a wing. I’ll have to wait for that to get in but hopefully I have the wing before my next Vtec Club event mid-May at the Streets (Willow Springs).
The one thing I really enjoyed at this NCRC event was that all my sessions were done by lunch time since they ran a morning and afternoon set of run groups this left me plenty of time to walk around and shoot photos not only in the pit area but also some on track pics and with a 105db day all the big cars were out.
My run group consisted of a bunch of Porsches, McLarens and Corvettes which suited me just fine since most them were way faster then my S2k it would allow me to get a lot of open track laps or in a couple instances a had a Porsche or a Vette that I would get to play with whole the driver got more comfortable (faster) in their car. I always find it interesting to see the speed differences in the car and drivers.
Up next for is going to be an extremely hot outing (100 degree day) at Chuckwalla but it’ll be fun because I’ll be joined by some friends. Project 71-109 is coming along really well, by next track day I'll have my carbon hood, customer swift springs and I'm sure some other fun goodies.
Everything Else. Enjoy!!
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