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Read on at your peril. Those were the highlights. Everything else is just
dreary. :-)
A LAP OF HEARTLAND PARK
My instructor, Jeff (slow 'ol farmer dude), laughed as we sat down to play.
He does not like our cars -- oh, he likes them just fine, he just doesn't
think they are suitable for open tracking. He runs a fire breathing 351
Mustang that will just flat eat my lunch.
(I am copying Jeff on this so he can correct any mistakes on the fine
points of driving the track.)
Here's a hot lap of Heartland Park in a VR4. We're running the long course
-- about 2.5 miles with 16 turns. I am writing this to show you how a VR4
runs a road course, and to write down my notes before I forget them. I'll
save this post for the next time I go back. You are welcome to use it if
you go. It oughta give you an idea of how to approach the track. It might
help if you print off the map.
Down the front dragstrip straight we hit anywhere from 100 to 120 mph,
depending on the launch out of turn 16 and how hard you want to run. A
really good launch, 7200 rpm shift points, and waiting until the last
possible moment to brake will yield 120 in my car (stock engine VR4). I
rarely if ever attempted to do so, because it's so hard on the brakes.
(Note: I can see Jack T easily hitting 130-140 here, because we are
essentially running a 3/8 mile drag race from a running start. Jack might
even reach liftoff velocity here.).
Hard, hard braking and downshift to 2nd for 1, a less-than-90 right (an
acute right, to rallyists), then an immediate left at 2. Jeff says to treat
Turn 1 as an entry to 2. Just forget taking turn 1, he says. "What you are
doing is aiming for the turn in for 2. Get that right, and you'll launch
toward 3 and the carousel." So, we take a very late apex into 1, cut way
back to the right, and take a late apex for the left into 2. "We're just
widening this turn as much as possible," he says. It feels slow when you do
it, because what your head wants to do is clip the apex at 1 and drift
across the track at an amazing speed, but that's the slow way because then
you have to slow and come back all the way to the right.
3/Carousel is a constant radius turn to the left, taken with a late apex in
4th gear and positioning the car very, very high up in the turn. You go way
high to avoid the terrible bumps in the middle of the Carousel where my car
(and many others) "porpoise" through (bouncebouncebounce.) Although going
high is not the fastest line, it's fast enough and preserves the suspension.
Toward the end of the carousel turn, we pinch back down to the inside curb
on the left, touch the track out cone, drift out a little to the right,
then tuck back to the left in preparation for the entry to 4, a very fast
sweeping right that opens up.
Stab the brakes to bring the front down, turn in, then flat all the way
through. We're still in 4th at about 80 at the apex. Touch the inner curb
at the apex and let the car unwind to the left ("plenty of track there"
says Jeff, "use it all"). I can't say how fast it is through there, because
the car is on the turbos and accelerating like crazy in 4th gear and the
corner station at 5 is coming up dead ahead and the car is drifting left to
the track out cone, skittering on the pavement, and I don't want to look
down at the speedo because way too much is happening at that point. I'm
guessing maybe 110.
The fast line through many of these turns is to stab the brakes, turn in,
and nail the throttle way, way before the apex. You accelerate through the
apex and then let the car unwind to the track out cone. Lesser cars, such
as 911s and RWD cars, sometimes trail brake right up to the apex, then get
back on the gas as they clip the apex. With the AWD, we can get on the gas
very early, and gobble those guys up. Of course, instructors in lesser cars
get power on very early too, but they are much better drivers and go very
very fast in spite of their inferior cars.
(Jeff: We 3000-GT owners regard our cars as mechanical marvels that are
vastly superior to more mundane vehicles like Mustangs, 911s and M3s).
5 is a 90 deg downhill right. Very, very late apex. Stab the brakes, down
to 3rd, turn in, power all the way through, unwind left to the exit, then
come back to the right as you go flat down the hill to 6. If you do 4
wrong, you have lots of time to ponder the entry to 5 because you're very
slow, and you'll most likely early apex 5. But if you do 4 right, then 5
comes up in a terrible hurry and you have to take a late apex because you
are going so dang fast that you just barely have time to brake and
downshift, and you get a late apex whether you want it or not (you want
it).
(When you are learning 5, the instructor keeps yelling, "waitwaitwaitwait,
NOW turn in," as he tries to get you wait for the late apex. But if you get
4 right, all this yelling is unnecessary).
Brake hard for 6 (a very tight, less than 90 deg, uphill left.), shift down
to 2nd, late apex, then flat all the way to 8, the esses, like so: Come out
of 6, upshift to 3rd, flat out, move to the far right, wait for the late
apex for 7 (a sweeping left), turn in without lifting, clip the apex cone
on the left and, keeping the throttle nailed, unwind to very outer edge of
the track on the right. If I get this corner right (once in a great while),
my car has just enough power through here to get a teeny bit of air over
the rise and it sets down right next to the edge of the grass. (That is a
rush! Alas, I can't find the sweet spot for the turn in point every time).
Then continue flat in 3rd, upshift to 4th and hold it until it's time to
brake for turn 8 at about 110-115.
Incidently, Heartland Park is all late apex turns, because one turn always
leads to another. Screw up the entry to one turn -- say with an early apex
-- and it takes 3 or 4 turns before you can get back in the proper rhythm
and get the speed back up. One turn in particular that you DO NOT want to
early apex is 7, where you are flat in 3rd with the turbos making all the
horsepower in the world (remember, that's where Roger always wants us to
take hp readings with our G-force meters: 3rd at 6,000 rpm). If you early
apex 7, you run out of road, and take a 90 mph ride through the grass,
about 50 ft from a concrete barrier (you can see it on the map). Please
don't ask me how I know this so vividly.
But I digress...
Hard on the binders for 8, a 90 left that is the beginning of the esses.
Stay way right on the straight leading to 8, bang on the brakes, down to
3rd gear then turn in to the left with a late apex. There is a round curb
on the inside, and I always tried to bounce the left front tire off the
curb. It would bounce about 6 in. into the air, and the whole car would
"hop" and settle down perfectly for the next immediate right. From that
point to 12, it's flat out, reaching about 110 mph. 9 is a right, 10 is a
sweeping left, 11 is a nonturn and 12 is a very very fast 90 left.
At 12, wait until the last possible moment, hard on the brakes momentarily
to slow the car, then turn in to the left for a late apex at about 80 in
4th gear (100+ if you are an instructor), flat to the floor after the turn
in, clip the curb at the apex, and let the car drift a little to the right,
then swing back left about 3/4 across the track, stab the brakes, aim for
the curb inside 13 (a right), and stay flat, still in 4th gear. Here, we
are essentially straightening out the 12-13-14 series of esses, whilst the
911s and BMWs are making big sweeping turns, going wide right out of 12,
swinging way back to the left to enter 13 with a late apex, then late
apexing 14 (a downhill left), drifting way right, then tucking back in for
15 at the bottom of the hilll -- like a bunch of drunken sailors, swinging
back and forth across the track, left, right, left, right. . Instructors,
and folks who have AWD cars (ahem), just slice right across from 12 to 14
in 4th gear, then bang the brakes, downshift to 3rd, and hug the inner curb
through 14, a downhill left.
This particular tactic will gain you 50-100 yards on the competition in a
heartbeat. One second you are way back and the next moment you are on their
butt.
15 is a hard right at the bottom of the hill. Like 1, this is a setup for a
more critical turn, 16, a tight left which leads onto the main straight.
You want to late apex 15 and, like 1, stay way to the right -- don't drift
out to the left, because you'll just have to bring it back to right -- then
late apex onto 16 and onto the front straight, and that's one lap of
Heartland Park in a VR4.
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The brakes work!
