08/17/2024
Friday was a great day on track. The aero proved to be functional, and lots of learning about driving and setting up aero on a practical moving car was made.
The biggest lesson was about airflow separation on a wing. When setting up wing angle, be sure to account for the changes in angle as the car brakes. I'd encountered significant loss of rear grip when setting the wing angle more aggressively than when the day had started out, and gained back drivability by taking the wing angle out.
Too much wing angle when combined with nose dive and a large splitter results in a car feeling like a giant is picking up the rear end whenever you brake. It's a terrible experience, and will certainly throw you off. I'd never spun the car, but did 2 sessions in a row with too much wing angle, both times coming off high-speed straights.
It's also time for some larger brakes on the SFG track car, which we should see installed before making our way out to the October 5th track day with Falcon Autosport. 294x26 brakes weren't cutting it for heat dissipation, although the front brake cooling ducts were putting in significant work with a large difference noticed. 350x32 fronts and 320x32 rears with 4 piston calipers will be sorting that situation out, with some 1300f rated pads vs the erroneous 500f rated pads which were on the car (falsely listed as 500c (932f) when purchased).
All excuses aside, a car can only be pushed as hard as the driver has talent for, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn the platform. If you're looking to advance your skills too, talk to Drew at Falcon Autosport, and he can either get you some coaching time on track, or set you up with one of the talented drivers on his team.
I hope to see some of you at at the next track day!
-James