Buttonwillow Raceway Jan. 2009

Buttonwillow Raceway Configuration 13 Clockwise

Nestled amongst fields of in Kern County California is Buttonwillow Raceway.  Many moons ago, Yokut Indians used this area as a meeting place identified by a lone button bush that resembled a willow tree.  Now-a-days Buttonwillow Raceway has become the Mecca of Californian go-fast enthusiast.  The track can be run in many configuration, configuration 13 has become especially popular with which several time attack records have been set.  It is therefore easy to evaluate a car’s performance level using this configuration.  Just for reference purpose, the HKS time attack monster EVO set a Super Lap Battle record of 1 min 43.523 seconds in 2007.  The NASA Time Trial D class, which I’m competing in this year, has a class record of 2min 5.96 seconds.  Having used Toyo RA1 r-compound tire for 2 previous track days, I was anxious to see how my Mazdaspeed3 will stack up to the rest.

Saturday

When I arrived at the track, it was enveloped in a thick cloud of fog, yes fog !  I can hardly see 10 feet in front of me.  I met up with go-fast buddies, Sam/Amy/Jon.  Sam just got hooked on the go-fast crack recently, he’s determined, and is upping the pace rapidly with every track day.  Amy drives the EVO X, she’s one of the few girls that actually takes her car out at the track, more props to her !  Jon has been modifying Subarus and coming to track days for years.  His latest project is a 2009 STi.

My MS3, Jon and Sam's STi

Around lunch time the fog finally cleared.  I hit the track immediately to maximize the track time.  The car is still on soft stock suspension at this point, it rolls around quite a bit.  The max camber without camber plate is at -1.3, which is too little for both the car and the tire.  Never the less, the car felt very planted.  I finally figured out a good line through the “Sweeper” corner, I found a patch of square black asphalt right at the turn in point, it’s a very solid reference point, I just have to move the steering once at the right place (right before the black square), fight the urge to unwind steering mid-corner as the radius change deceivingly, hold the line, and it will take me to apex point perfectly.  Saturday ended without much incident, some car got stuck in the mud due to the semi-wet condition, remember to install your tow-hooks for situations like this!  Afterwards, we went to a local Indian food restaurant and had some delicious curry, and washed it down with Kingfisher “go fast” beer.

Drink go-fast beer to help out the F1 slumdog !

Sunday

Ken's S14

More go-fast buddies arrive at the track.  Ken show up in his drifter turned road racer Nissan S14.  His car has been extensively modified,  it’s powered by a SR20DET engine, and every single suspension arm has been replaced with aftermarket pieces with heim joints.  Eddie shows up in his ubber-$$$ NSX, it has been modified with JRZ suspension, Voltex wing, Toyo R888 tire, Comptech header, Tai-Tec Exhaust, and slew of other exotic go fast brands.  Sam ran into a hiccup with his ECU, and had to call it a day early.

Got Wings?

Continuing with the progress I made the previous day, my times kept getting faster throughout the day.  The new G2X data acquisition w/ lap timer is a great help, I can now cycle through the lap times as soon as I get off track.  The display dash can be configured to display a variety of real-time parameters such as (speed, lap time, diff. to best lap, rpm etc.).  Using the MPH display, it was easy to gauge my exit speed coming out of corners.  I’ve found a peculiar way to drive fast with the stock suspension.  On fast corners, the small steering movements made the car difficult to turn in at the right line.  I found that I could turn in early with just a tiny bit of steering movement which presets the stock suspension, and follows that with my normal steering input, this made the car felt much more  responsive, and I was able to hit the correct line while carrying more speed through the fast corners.  My fastest lap time of the day was a 2 min 6.5 seconds.  I was pleasantly surprised, I expected to be in the 2min 7-8 second range on the stock suspension.  Now that I’m already in the 6 second range, I should be able beat the class record easily come race day with coilover suspension installed and more front neg. camber.

The aftermath..

The front brake pads are completely worn down to the metal, I have to use ebrake to get around town right now, lol…..   Need to get a set of rotors asap, already have a new set of carbotechs on order.  I noticed even with the Motul RBF600, my brake pedal still gets soft toward the end of the day, infact at the end of Sunday it was to the floor.   I think it might be the OEM lines, I’m going to replace those with stainless steel lines.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for

2 Laps Around Buttonwillow Configuration 13

MS3 4 month 5 track days, my thoughts, and 2 laps around buttonwillow

So now that I’ve owned my 2009 Mazdaspeed3 for about 4 month, it’s got 6,000 miles on the clock, I’ve done 5 track days in preparation for NASA Time Trial Competition next year.  The car has exceeded all my expectations on the track, it has no problem keeping up pace with higher class cars.  In fact, it’s main strength is the incredible amount of torque to pull out of slow corners.

Here are a list of simple modification that’ll make the car much more track friendly

1. Brake Pads and Brake Fluid.  The stock brake pads are like endurance pads, they don’t have that much bite, but stays fairly consistent for normal track day usage.  The stock fluid however will boil within a few laps if you are trying to maximize your braking, which is to be expected with OE fluid.  The 1st thing you should do before going to track is flush out the brake fluid with high temperature brake fluids, I like ATE Superblue or Motul RBF600.  Remember that the racing fluid will absorb moisture quicker, so flush them often.  I flush them before every track day.

For brake pads, i’m a big fan of the Carbotech pads, they have very good bite and modulation, very consistent, and very little dust.  I’m using XP8 Front/AX6 Rear pads, these are race pads and are very noisy on the street (imagine a big bus with bad brakes, that’s what it sounds like on the street).  I recommend their Bobcat pads for the street, I’ve used them in the past in my Subaru Autox car, and they were excellent street pads.
http://www.ctbrakes.com

2. Brake pedal.  The stock pedal are spaced too far apart for easy heel/toe.  On track, it’s all about making the driver’s effort easier and more efficient.  I recommend installing SOK07’s custom replacement gas pedal.  It’s a very nicely machined piece that’s curved to match the OEM pedal.  In my opinion every MS3 track driver should have these, they make heel/toe 100 times easier !
http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=99230.0

3. Tires.  The stock tires will hold you back big time on the track.  Get some proper high grip tire if you want to run with the fast pack.  Some of the popular streetable tires are “Dunlop Direzza Starspec”, “Falken Azenis RT615″, “Bridgestone RE01R”, “Advan NEOVA”, “Toyo R1R”.  Or if you can bring a separate set of wheels to the track, you can mount r-compound tires on those, “Toyo RA1, Toyo R888, Nitto NT01R” etc.
I’m using Toyo RA1s 235/40/17, mounted on 17×8 +48 Enkei RC-T4 Tarmac wheels.  This setup will in effect make the gearing shorter, requiring you to shift more around the track, however the car will accelerate quicker, and around buttonwillow this places the car in a better power band IMO.  I’m still testing this area of the car, some of the thing I plan to try are narrower width rear tire for better rotation, and 45 profile front tire.

4. Alignment.  Due to the car’s McPherson strut front suspension, it’s dying for more negative camber.  i was able to get -1.3 camber in the front by loosening the top strut bolts, and pushing it all the way.  Max out the front neg. camber to whatever you can, this will make a world of difference on this car.  I recommend 1/8th toe out front, and 0 toe rear, note due the soft front springs, the car dives quite a bit during braking, and having front toe out makes the front end wonder alittle under hard braking.  This should not be a problem if you have stiffer front springs.  If you prefer more stability under braking use 0 toe front instead.  I plan to test out rear toe out in the future, for more rotation.  The stock setting had quite bit of toe in all around, which makes the car safe (understeer), but not fast !

5. Turn off DSC/TC completely on dry track.  I’ve tested all 3 modes, with DSC/TC on, the car doesnt’ rotate well, not fun !  With just the DSC off (pressing DSC button when the car is on, DSC light illuminates in the cluster), the car felt much more neutral handling.  With DSC/TC completely off (holding DSC button with the engine off, then start engine while holding it down, both DSC and squirely car light illuminates), the car felt even better !
On the wet track, it is faster with DSC/TC on.

And now for the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPag1rq2Vgw

Happy motoring !

Randy