Couldn't stay away !

Today was WASCC's last tuning day for the month. I wasn't originally planning on going but when I woke up this morning somehow I had this urge to drive and so I packed my gear as fast as I could and drove out there !

When I reached Barbagallo circuit I was greeted with very strong and gusty winds. After purchasing my session pass for a mere $60 I grabbed a pit and started preparing.

There were only a handful of cars, 10 tops so it wasn't too crowded but the wind was such a nuisance !!

I went out on a track around 10am and did about 5 laps before returning back into the pit lane and adjusting my tyre pressure. From 220kPa all around I went down to 180kPa for the front and 190kPa for the rear  (thanks Ryo for your advice here !)

Immediately after that I recorded a couple of 1'12''s and 1'11"s laps (wohooo !!). I was definitely very excited but I felt there was much more to be had. Firstly I still had more than 3/4s of the tank so was carrying extra weight around plus my rear damper was too stiff for my liking resulting in some minor fishtailing. I decided to give the car a short rest before heading out for my final stint around 11:30am.

My final stint was perfect. I changed the rear damper setting down a notch and waited for a clean track to give this new setup a go. It didn't disappoint ! I recorded my new best lap of 1'10''20 !!! What's even more interesting is that after reviewing the data in CircuitTools my best lap was also my virtual best which meant I drove every sector of the track to its maximum !

Needles to say, I still feel there are about 2 seconds to be slashed off of that time. Maybe I am not pushing hard enough ?! I'm pretty sure I got the racing line just the way I like it, my time is lost in my slightly early braking into the 1st corner, back hairpin and the last corner. Will work on that later and maybe that's where the sub 1'10''s are hiding ?

A word about my newly fitted Project Mu's HC-CS pads !
An interesting pad ! It grips to its full potential much later than Level700s, but nevertheless feels very comfortable and the feedback from the pedal is very good. It's very street friendly but after a few hot laps at Barbagallo I am seeing a bit of excessive burning on the edges which makes me think it can't handle high temperatures of a hard-on-brakes circuit like Barbagallo. I have mixed feelings about this pad. I might go back to Level700s perhaps ? Time will tell I suppose.

And lastly, here is what my tyres looked like in the end :)

No video this time, couldn't be bothered.
Oh and on the way there I got caught for speeding ! F*king WA speed cameras ! Revenue raising bulls*hit !

Hope you enjoyed this article

Rod