MBellRacing

It's a Camaro, therefore, not a Honda. Sorry. Either way, this is the end of the first session at our COTA test with the Stevenson Motorsport Camaro GS.R. Car literally rolled off the trailer like this. We went a few seconds faster by the end of the day and made the car use the track a bit more efficiently. Regardless, the engineering and tech teams at Stevenson do a phenomenal job making a car that is within range of a win so early in a weekend.

Sorry about the poor quality. Edited quickly to post before the other drivers did. FIRST!

Enjoy.

[youtube]o6m1fM9vawM[/youtube]

...okay, I don't know why this crappy forum won't embed the youtube media. Tried with media embedding on and off. Whatever. Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6m1fM9vawM

TM_EM1

Thanks for posting

How's that first corner?

rice_classic

It looks like you have a normal gearbox (as opposed to a sequential box) and going into T12 under braking I see you row through the gears instead of just braking and going from say 5th directly to 3rd or 2nd. Is rowing through the gears advantageous, did the data suggest it the way to go or is it just how you do things and it has no positive or negative result?

Robin6

Thank you!

Looks like a hand full, with the slick track.

How close is your hand getting to that control board on your shifting? It looks very close in the video?

Lucky duck!

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

Wow thats one super tight course there Matt.
Has to be hard to keep the momentum in the car?
Debating if I'll go to the Super V8 cars race there next year in May... or continue my tradition of the The Grand Prix of Long Beach in April.
Going to Long Beach is more fun because I can stay close to the track, and there is plenty of entertainment in any direction.

20CiviC02Si

iTrader: (3)

Everyone said that COTA wasn't going to be fun for normal cars, i'll give them that the back straight would give me plenty to think about while the car struggles to it's maximum speed. But the rest of it looks like a blast, especially the complex immediately following turn 1.

Cool vid!

Crash Override

Looks awesome, thoughts on having the race there in a few months? With how slick it is, I hope that it doesn't become a demolition derby.

90_EX_Civic

holy ****! that's hellava elevation change!.

MBellRacing

Wow, so my subscription didn't work for this thread... I thought it was being ignored! Question/answer time!

Epic. This was just the first session. We were braking past the 100 marker due to the hill. The deeper you go on braking, the steeper the hill, therefore the less your brakes need to work. It's like a challenge effect-- who can brake the latest without cresting the hill with the binders on!

Uhoh, not this topic again! It's more or less habit, but it's also very difficult to skip gears. Our drive is extremely drag dependent, as is our brake bias. The downshifts help to keep the revs high, helping the next downshift, and adding some compression drag to the drive and rear wheels. I didn't believe this theory either until I got stuck in third on a couple corners. Trust me, this boat doesn't turn without the torque to open the diff.

It's not as close as it looks, and it's easier to shift than it looks as well. We're using a new clutch which has slowed the gear shifts, making them look clunky. I've missed the gear **** once and hit the headlight switch, which does nothing most of the time, maybe once. It was a thought of Riley originally, though-- all the less useful and important switches and ***** are at the bottom where you're more likely to hit them.

Well the weird thing about this track, as was proven by Vettel and Hamilton, is that both momentum lines and park-and-power-out lines work about the same. Once you find your lap time, you can stick to it pretty well over a tire stint by playing your strengths. We've made some huge strides this past year with our big Camaro and it really is relatively nimble. This course made it feel like a touring car, bouncing around on two wheels and skipping to light oversteer... it was a BLAST.

I'd say try out Austin. If you've never been to downtown before, it is an amazing place. I've been doing the irresponsible thing all week by going out and witnessing what Austin has to offer every night. It really is fantastic. This is one of the few places I'd consider moving to if I had to leave my home town.

The facilities here are second to none. I mean that. I've never been to a track on this continent quite like it. Try it out, I think you'll have a good time.

We were thinking the same thing. The long straight wasn't our concern, it was track width. F1 cars cover a lot of real estate due to high horsepower and high downforce. Our production racer Camaro isn't so quick to change direction, so we assumed we'd have to give up some track-outs/turn-ins to be effective on a lap time. Not the case. There was an E46 M3 former-GS car (it actually looked like it could have been mine) out there which is the epitome of momentum cars as compared to the modern GS-class hotrod. It was doing just as well on this course as the Camaros, E92 M3s, and Aston Martins.

I'm stoked to have the race there. Seriously. I'm looking forward to this event more than any other, including my home race at Laguna or the first trip to Hotlanta. The course is REALLY slick right now, but not like Barber or Homestead where it burns up tires. It almost seems like relative grip is there, it's just the breakaway is very immediate, feigning a very low-grip surface. It has enough grip that we are burning through brake pads at about a set per 1.5 hours. That's half a race and we're running 1/3 more brake cooling this weekend. You don't get that at places like Barber or Homestead.

Let's be honest, any GS race where they let a bunch of under-certified doctors, lawyers, and teachers race against all-pro teams looking for that championship purse is going to end up in a few pileups. It doesn't make any of us look very good, and I have my complaints about it already. I think this track is pretty safe and offers plenty of run-off for asshats to send themselves, with only a handful of gravel traps. Hopefully it won't be too gnarly an event.

Indeed.

rice_classic

Thank you for answering. I have no opinion on the matter as I do I both depending on the corner and how the car feels under decel for that specific corner. But, I figured since you're in a vastly different car and you're in an environment with access to all the latest data acquisition I figured your insight would be of benefit.

So thank you.

MBellRacing

Bonus footage! This is video taken at the end of the first day. We were still trying some setups, so the car was a bit loose off a few corners, but vastly improved. Yes, I made a few mistakes in these 2.5 laps, but I'll never post any of my fast laps for obvious reason. You'll also see the car stumble after an alarm on the dash pops up. We were testing fuel mileage and the main tank went dry and I had to switch to reserve manually.

Crash Override

Thanks for the answer, in the new video it doesn't look like your driving on a sheet of ice. Is it just down to seat time and getting used to dancing on the knife-edge?
As for your comments about the rest of the field, it is totally true that the kill level of paid and pay-to-play drivers is a wide gap. As some might say, it adds to the "show".
I can't wait for the Aussie V8s to come to town, I'm going to be at/working that race for the WC cars. I haven't been to Austin, or the entire state of Texas for that matter, but I know it'll be a blast.

MBellRacing

We had worked on the car all day to make it more compliant in transitions, and I had been doing most of the driving, so seat time had a little to do with it.

The difference in talent is sometimes apparent, usually not in speed, more often in mistakes and how they react to them. There are extremely fast paying guys, and there are paid guys that may not be worth their salary. The big difference between NASCAR and F1 and this series is that the talent is so broad, affording us some pretty epic crashes, sometimes without much reason. The big issue is when you're in my position, trying to make a living, and certain individuals are just tossing it off every corner, causing constant cautions and occasionally ruining our races.

Austin itself is incredible. I can't wait to head back for the race.

Edit: Just re-watched it myself... check out that pit limiter timing in pit lane. BOOM. We all pride ourselves in the Michael Schumacher-style dive bomb pit entries.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

You can tell your comfort level was much much better in this session.
The car seemed more settled (set up) .
Question.. on the candy cane areas .. is it rumble stripped? (bumpy)
Sounds like it on the tires.
Is there a concern with the oil pan in these areas?

I remember the Nats in Utah a few years ago..
The cars were hitting them and catching fire left and right.
I know the GA cars are different but....

MBellRacing

That stuff is FIA curbing, so yes, it has some rumble to it. There are also bolted down apex blocks to keep formula cars from cutting corners. We can use just about every inch of track, including some places with the blocks as long as we hit them with the unloaded tires. Those National cars must have had some really low oil pans. I've never even had that concern before except when I've completely left the course. The Camaros are all dry sump, anyway, so no dangling pan. The GT cars hit the gearbox in the rear against the ground before any engine component, usually. I know I sheered most of the lower mounting bolts off at Daytona a couple years ago.

2fast4u831

Cool video Matt! Can't wait for the races to start again.

Egezzy

iTrader: (2)

Going into T1. Do you have a reference point or are you going off of mental/muscle memory??

MBellRacing

The braking markers are [oddly] like 50' off to the right, so even the braking zone can be a bit mental, or you find certain bumps to use as markers. The turn-in is a bit muscle memory, but really what I'm doing is following the flow of the elevation. The road cambers very dramatically and I try to use that on late entry to aid in brake release, heading for the apex. The track is so wide, even on tighter corners you can carry some serious speed past the apex.

Crash Override

I can't remember where I heard it, probably some race somewhere along the way, every driver makes mistakes. The good drivers correct very quickly and get on with it. Novices (like me) find hard objects to correct us.
The driver's view of CTSCC has been really really cool. Good luck in Daytona, I know the Roar before the 24 is only a few days away. Do you ever get an off-season?!?