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Pastimes : Car Nut Corner: All About Cars -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (569)	7/26/2000 3:56:53 PM
From: SI Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5776

I once started to write a Hot Lap for HPT on my homepage, but gave up partway through because I realized I wasn't giving a lot of quantifiable info. Here's the basic rundown of HPT's 2.5 mile config, assuming 3.55 gears in the Mustang at 3600 lbs. Turn 14 to 1: Stay in the loud pedal until you run out of guts. For me, this happens at about 130 mph and around the 500-foot mark. Breathe engine for about 100 feet, then brake like your life depends on it (it doesn't, but that of the cones does) while downshifting to 3rd then 2nd. Don't heel-toe it as you need the engine to help you brake. Turn 1 to 3: 1 is a throw-away. Use it to set up a late entrance to 2. Ignore the apex of 2 and just shoot for the exit, floored in 2nd as soon as you can hook up. 3rd gear as soon as you have the car straight enough. Turn 3 to 6: Stay half a car width from the outside edge going into 3, and brake just enough to come down to 4100 rpm in 3rd, then slowly bring it in for a single apex at the end of the carousel. Let the car drift as much as it needs after the apex, but get it back to the left quickly for 4. 4 is an amazingly-fast right-hander. Just brake enough to set the nose and go for it. Ignore the apex as 5 comes up quickly. Just aim for a late entrance into 5, downshift to 2nd as you brake for it, then aim for 5's exit. Upshift to 3rd as soon as you've hit the exit. It's a short-shift, but a pretty decent downhill descent. Turn 6 to 9: 6 is a very tight lefty (about 180 degrees), so you need to scrub off a lot of speed. Start at the outer edge, but don't make the apex too late or you'll be pinching it off more than necessary. Going to 7 is uphill, but drops off to level at the exit, so with go through it at 3/4 throttle in 3rd, or floored in 4th. You don't want to torque the rear-end around here and it'll do it easily. Floored in 4th until about 300 feet before the Kink (8-9). Brake until you're not scared to death anymore, and pitch it left for 8 (way late apex) then right for 9, which is a sweet sweeper out onto the uphill straight to 10. Turns 10 to 14: Brake hard and downshift to 3rd between the 200 and 100 foot marks going into 10. You don't want to trail-brake here because you're going to keep it semi-tight to the left and want it to go ahead and push out to the right as much as it wants. Bring it back to the left with mild input and turn right at 11 and floor it. Aim for the entrance to 12 right at the inside of that turn. This should put the right of the car barely on the gators in 11. A neat thing here is that nearly everyone brakes for 11 and takes a wide entrance into 12. If someone is behind you, tap the brake pedal with your left foot going into 11 just enough to make them think you brake there, too. No good giving away all your tricks. Start 12 right at the inside and walk the car around it to 13, letting it drift out if you need the room, then bring it back to mid-track for 13, late apex it (right-hand turn), then very late apex 14 to the left leading out onto that long straight, which I think is about half a mile or a little more. The BMW M3's and most Porsches out-accelerate me on the straight, but I usually get them by at least a full second in the 10-14 complex, and while they're trying to figure out how I ran away from them there, (after they worked so hard to successfully reel me in on 1-9) I'm long gone. :) I have no idea what my speed is at most places on the track, and rely on my tach for guidance only going into the Carousel (5). The rest of it is always "floored until I can't stand it anymore". Oh, and on my homepage where I discuss the stuff at length, there's a pic of me entering 11 and I say that it's about 55 mph. I checked this weekend and it's actually a little over 70. I've been trying to make a .MOV or .AVI from my in-car video so people can see the driver's-eye view, but the filesize is enormous! I found a particular lap I want to use because in it I'm reeling in a few cars, passing one of them on the long front straight only to have my doors blown off by a friend in a white 500HP 'Vette on the same straight. There were two Vipers with me the last time out and I never passed either one, but was surprised how well I could hang with them. I was down about 2 seconds compared to them with the 3.27's, so should be able to give them a good run on 3.55's. Although I'm seriously considering 3.73's and a higher rev limit for my next outing.