My best attempts at turn ten also had me at full throttle prior to the apex and needing to upshift to 4th very soon after exiting the turn which in then got me to triple digit speeds on the back stretch. However, it was tricky, I was often either throttling in too soon or too late... Sam, I'm surprised that you were seeing such high speeds between 11 and 1, I was way slower there, but I often braked too hard going into 11 (wall motivated); so, I lost too much momentum in that turn, and I never downshifted to 2nd (and at times I thought doing so would have improved my acceleration). Next time, I'm definitely going to experiment with 2nd gear.

 

Of course when we're talking corners that are so close to gear changes it's hard to compare AP1s to AP2s. In my AP1 I'm not rushed to get into 4th between 10-11, and if the track (or me, tires, setting up a pass) I'll drop to 2nd though then I'm changing up to 3rd on the exit curbing or before (if I'm going that wide).

I'll agree though Kamron that I probably do 10 wrong more often than not, though that's the nature of track days vs. a race. We're treating every lap as a qualifying lap rather than establishing our fastest reliable pace over a longer run and pushing at certain times as the situation requires.

Kamron, in 11 if you were braking more than you had too (fair choice due to guardrail) did you turn in too early (waiting until you could go full throttle) or did you turn in at a good point where you were at full throttle near the apex?

 

Nice meeting/seeing some of you guys. Wish I could of drove. Next year hopefully.

Simpleman - When I arrived Saturday afternoon as I was driving in I first thought your car had a bunch of carbon fiber parts. I had to take a second look.

 

There is NO WHERE at Gingerman you need 2nd gear in an S2000. If you get down into 2nd, you're going too slow.

 

Pete,

In my AP1 I agree except 10 and/or 11 if setting up to pass somebody (or you're really slow due to shot tires or something).

Are you sure this is true for an AP2 though? I haven't tried to directly compare gearing at Gingerman with an AP2, but I have at MAM which has many similarities (cornering & straight speeds, overall track length) and I was surprised at how much difference there was due to the different gearing and 1000 rpm less to work with.

 

I believe the rev limit in 2nd is actually a little lower in an AP2 than an AP1 60 vs. 58 IIRC. Add in wider tires, and I have to wonder what turn at Gman you'd be taking at less than 58MPH. MAYBE 3, but I don't like to upset the car there, so I avoid 2nd gear anyway.

 

i was on all season tires. so i carried less speed in most corners.

i was in 2nd gear in corners 1,3,7, 10,11.
thought i did good since i passed a lot of cars.
my instructor was more focused on making sure i kept a good line and car control.

corner 3 was probably my favorite. i had problems with corner 2.

 

I was looking at my CarChip Data logger files and found that my max speed with staying in third gear and feathering the throttle once the shiftbeeper was on steady = 93 mph

No triple digits for me

Best Lap =1:47.6
Avg = 1:52.6

My last visit to Gingerman in 2007
Best Lap = 1:49.7
Avg was 2:00.7

 

I suppose after a few track days at Gingerman I could see that, but there was no way my brain would allow me to go through turn 11 at more than 48-50 my first time out. I didn't feel anywhere else on the track where I needed to grab 2nd at all.

2nd in an AP2 is most definitely below 60, IIRC it's around 56-58 which makes a difference. The 9k redline on the AP1 certainly has its benefits on the track, but I'll stick with my AP2

 

I was skeptical about 2nd at first. But a few years ago I followed another S who was faster than me (at the time). He was shifting into second at turn 3 and said that it was Justin Saini who told him to. Anything Saini says is made into S2000 law right?

Really though, I did find I was getting to higher speeds when I got to 5 if I went into 2nd for 3 in an ap1.