Kevin Doe Gettin' It!

[Black Horse]

Kevin did real well stepping up to meet the challenges of Putnam Park Road course. After battling a few minor mechanical issues he was hauling ass! This photo was taken one lap before he pushed the limits too far and spun coming out of Dead Bear....nothing like an agricultural excursion backwards! Don't sweat it Kevin, everyone either has done it or will do it!

http://hyperperformance.smugmug.com/photos/297724425_25HmC-M.jpg

[REDHOTGTGIRL]

Way to go Kevin! Car looks great!

[satan jamez]

God I love that car!! Major kudos to you Kevin :)

[BigBadStang]

Way to go Kevin! Car looks great!

...for bowtie powered rice.

jfwy...congrats on burnin it up man!

[mach_u]

Awesome dude! :bigthumb

[PaulFiveOh]

Wait, he didn't wear his sombrero this time?

:)

[Kevin Doe]

Thanks Dave and guys/gals. Dave, you take some badass pics. I think I'll be buying a CD of them again! I had an absolute blast there. Here is my lengthy post about it I made on another forum. Did you happen to get any pics of me during the tank slapper which lead to my demise, or me off track? I didn't see any on your site. See the following post for about my crazy instructor. Guy was a nutball, but I liked him a lot. I don't think I would have pushed my car near its limits w/o him. I actually thouht I was near the limits untill he had me going faster and faster every lap. It was awesome.

[Kevin Doe]

I did my first track day in the dry over the weekend. WOW. Here are my thoughts.

Here is my story of Putnam Park:
I loaded my car up on Friday afternoon, picked up my dad, and headed for my Grandparents in Indy Friday night. They live right on a big lake, and it was super peaceful. Chilled in their hot tub and had some brews, fantastic!

We woke up early Saturday morning at 5:00 am, as the track was an hour away and I had to be there at 7:00 am to get my car off the trailer and to tech inspection. Right after tech inspection I noticed that there was some coolant on the trailer. I started checking hoses and things for leaks and found none, however coolant was still dripping from the passenger side of the radiator. Not good. I was slated to run in about an hour so I had to do something quick. I removed my intake tubing, and upper radiator ducting to check it out. I noticed the leak was coming from the radiator itself. It was dripping about once every few seconds. It was collecting in my lower radiator ducting, then dripping down from there. I made the decision to stuff a bunch of paper towels in the ducting to soak it up to prevent it from dripping right in front of the tire. I figured I would watch the coolant temp and level and be fine. After thinking about it and talking with the tech guy from Ron Davis Radiators about the issue I think I need to mount the radiator with more ability to float. Chassis flex may be the demise of my radiator. Here is my mounting.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/LowerRadiatorMount6.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/LowerRadiatorMount7.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/Lowerradiatorshroud1.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/Kevin_Doe/RX-7/Coatedparts2.jpg

I think that if I cut the ducting that is on the top and bottom of the radiator a few inches short of the radiator I can put in some sort of bellow material that will still allow the radiator to be isolated from chassis flex. I think the ducting might be the culprit for the cracks. I'll consider revising something to prevent the same issue from happening again. How does everyone else have theirs mounted/ducted and isolated?

First session, I went out and was basically learning the track and the line. Getting familiar with the Azenis grip and whatnot. I learned on that session that my instructor was basically insane. He previously raced a Porsche 996 turbo, but not races a Spec Miata. He was pushing me like a mad man. During this session I noticed I was getting some clicking coming from the drivers side front tire during right hand turns. I had previously heard this on the street, but thought it was a dust shield or something. I was not 100% convinced, so I had brought a few parts with me in case the problem was more severe. I had brought a new tie rod end (custom heim joint from Hinson) because the existing one had some play from when I hit a pothole. I also brought a new from wheel hub in case it was the bearing going bad. After the session I replaced the tie rod end and did a "highly accurate" tape measure toe alignment at the track (on my trailer).

Second session. I was getting much more confident, and finding the line a lot better. I was starting to feel pretty confident hard barking at the end of the front straight and with the azenis grip. My instructor kept going nuts on corner exits. He just kept yelling, "gas, more, more, more bitch!" He was basically insane. He wanted me to put people to shame coming out of the turns basically. Second session was pretty awesome. Getting a lot faster. Following the second session I noticed I was getting some pretty sever rubbing on the drivers side fender liner. I have some power wires running right behind the fender liner. The rubbage had gotten into the wires a little bit. I taped up the wires, and tied them off to the intake tube to pull them out of harms way. I'm not sure why I'm getting so much rubbage, I'm running 255/40/17s up front. On the street I have only slightly rubbed. At the track the rub actually got slightly into my washer tank. I didn't have any rubbage at the top of the liner, it was all on the front of the liner.

Third session. Third session was awesome. Jeff (a friend with an Lotus Exige S) and I were battling it out for a bunch of laps. Our lap times were very close to each other, and it was a ton of fun. My instructor contined to call me a bitch, and even once yelled, "pussy". So I kept pushing harder and harder coming out of the turns. So I'm coming through a long left hand sweeper. I'm at the apex, and putting down some pretty good throttle, and go near full throttle in 3rd shortly after, but pretty far before the wheel is straight. The car is just planted, and surprisingly so, but not for long. I had found the limits of adhesion of the azenis, finally! The rear walked out on me, so I corrected, then it snapped back the other way, and so on and so forth a few times. I thought I had it saved. Apparently not, all of a sudden, about 500' out of the turn it snapped me backwards and I went off track into the grass backwards. I looked at my data log from that session, and I was going 85 mph when it snapped on me and went backwards. Jeff was right behind me when it happened and even he thought for sure I had it saved. Nothing was damaged, I pulled in the pits and then went right back out for the rest of the session.

Fourth session. The forth session was by far the fastest session for me. I was pushing it hard in every corner (besides turn 10, there is a wall right on the outside) and it was by far the most fun. This is what I've been telling everyone, "Take whatever you think your tires are capable of based on street driving, and then double that." The azenis gave me WAY more grip that I ever thought imaginable by street tires. I had previously thought that to obtain that level of grip, slicks were required. There was a Legacy GT there that was VERY fast. He and I were battling it out all of the 4th session. I was catching up to a C5 vette on slicks, and holding off the Legacy most of the session. The legacy driver said he has in car video of the whole thing. He said I was shooting 2' long flames every time I'd let off and coming out of a few turns I'd put down two good black streaks shifting into 3rd. He said it was badass. He is going to mail me the DVD of it. I can't wait to see it. I'll post it up when I get the DVD. About halfway through this session I thought my car may be breaking up, but it turned out that I was exposing the fuel pickup on hard left turns and sucking up some air. Now I see why Hyperion made those covers. I was right about 1/2 tank when I started to starve the pickup. I'm gonna have to pick one up from him if he's still selling them.

After the 4th session I found that there was grey grease all over the back of my car. I crawled under it and found a ripped inner CV boot. I have no idea what made it rip, maybe some debris from my off track experience in the third session. Anyhow, to avoid toasting my high dollar axles I decided to not race on Sunday. This could have been the best decision I EVER made.

There was an instructor that drives their own car on the track to do "lead/follows" with other cars. Sure enough, he was driving a C6Z on massive slicks. I told him my car was busted, and he gave me a ride during one of the sessions. He was doing a lead follow with a 350Z for a few laps, and then I tried to provoke him. I asked him how fast he got to on the two straights, he said ~135, and 100 respectively. I made the comment that I looked at my datalogs from yesterday and I also hit 135 and 100 in my car almost exactly. I said this to provoke him. IT WORKED. He said, "you won't pick up that much on the straights, you have to be fast in the turns." He then decided to actually show me what he meant. He drove at 100% for about 3 laps. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. That thing ripped turns so hard it was actually hard to hold my head up straight. I was put so hard into the side bolsters it was amazing. He could take the car down from 135 to 80 mph in like half of an instant. He was pushing it so hard he started to get loose in a few 90 mph corners. It was just crazy. This might have been my highlight of the weekend. I had a shit-eating grin from ear to ear after that ride along. He didn't get any faster on the straight than me, well, maybe 5 or 10 mph faster, but not much. But that thing stuck to the road like I I thought no car ever could. I was basically in heaven.

[PKFIRE]

Kevin that was a very descriptive and awesome write up on your experience at Putnam. It sounded like a blast. I can see how road course racing can be addictive.

[Sharad]

very much respect for anyone that will build a car like that and really DRIVE it!!!

[Black Horse]

Great description....you have the habit..BAD! Who was your instructor..I think I know who it is but not totally sure?

One of my first instructors (and now a very good friend Ted Schwartz) sat in the seat beside me yelling - more gas, less brake....at one point he pushed me so hard through a corner I went 4 wheels off and blasted through a pile of mud, spun once and drove it right back on track....he laughed the whole time!

You'll come to learn on street tires to feel and hear your grip limits. Nothing like a good squeal...but when it starts into a tortured squall you are about to visit the weeds.

You did sound badass down the straits....turned quite a few heads...especially those you caught up to that were not expecting you.

[firestang70]

Congrats on getting to test the limits of yourself and your car.

[88ssp]

Great write-up. That's awesome. I needed an instructor like the one you described. My instructor was a bump on a log and later wrecked another student's car.

I hope I have a better instructor later this year.

[Kevin Doe]

...and later wrecked another student's car.


The instructor isn't driving, so blaming a wreck on them seems wrong to me. If I had hit something or fucked up my car when I went off I wouldn't have blamed the instructor. Sure he was pushing me, but when the day ends I was the one driving.

[88ssp]

No, in this case, the instructor was driving the student's car with the student in the passenger seat. Instructor broke his wrist, the student was taken to the hospital and the car is a total loss. No real story on what exactly happened, but it flipped end over end after going off-track and hitting a guardrail.