Came back from a successful test day at the Streets of Willow Springs (SOWS) with Speed Ventures.  We ran in the CCW direction.  Those familiar with the track and incident history will know that running CCW is actually safer than running CW here.

Headed out from Orange, CA at 3:00am, picked up a member of our crew (my cousin Mike) in Monrovia, and arrived early at the MacDonald's off the Rosamond Blvd. exit.  We ordered the Deluxe Breakfast for "dine-in" and proceeded on to an early arrival at SOWS.

Parked the rig between the main building and the breakfast/lunch truck, unloaded everything, and spent a bit of time training the "new guy" (Evan) how to run the AMB timing equipment for Speed Ventures.

There were probably less than 7 cars in Red group (the group I drove in) throughout the day, and only 40 or 50-something cars total for the entire event.  It was quite a relaxed Friday at the track.

In the first and second sessions in the morning, I drove the car on the 225/50R15 RA1 tires, lower boost setting (11psi), with passenger.  The lap times started around 1:32 and eventually got down to a 1:28.7 at higher boost (15psi) and with some changes to the shock settings and tire pressures, also with passenger.

Just past mid-day, our friend Joey Leh from The Octane Report (http://octanereport.com/) arrived at track and parked next to our spot to get some coverage on our Baby Monster.  He attached video cameras to the outside of the car, took pictures and video from 3rd person angles, and even installed a Traqmate GPS data acquisition unit inside the car.  This was much more than I would ever have done on my own.  Thanks Joey!

We had Aaron Bitterman of Speed Ventures take the car out for a few hot laps on the RA1s with no passenger.  He managed to score a fast lap time of 1:26.053 on his 2nd hot lap ever in the Baby Monster.  He was still trying to get used to the response of the turbo at 15psi (we actually hadn't tuned the Greddy boost controller very well for the 15psi setting yet), and the taller sidewall of the 225/50R15 RA1 causesd some handling/balance issues.  Other than those minor details, Aaron stepped out of the car quite pleased with it, and said that mid 1:24.xxx lap times were definitely possible on RA1s or equivalent tires.

I then gave Joey a few laps of ride-alongs just as the ambient temperatures soared past 95 degrees F, and only put in a best time of 1:29.x during this run.  I threw in some intentional sideways action in the skidpad for a good time, which I hoped Joey would have enjoyed.  He did say it would have been nice to capture that sideways action from the 3rd person point of view, but alas, he was in the car when it happened.

For the final session of the day, we swapped the tires out to the 275/35R15 Hoosier A6 to see what kind of fast lap time the Baby Monster could do.  I went out for a total of around 3 hot laps without passenger and managed to get a best time of 1:25.252.  This was good enough for the fastest time of the day for all cars, but we think this setup should at least be good for a 1:22.xxx lap time with the right driving (or right driver?).

Throughout the day, we did get some minor heat issues, but only on the 4th straight hot lap, and at lower speeds.   The oil cooler and intercooler are stacked in front of the radiator, which is not a good thing for radiator cooling.  We plan to open up one of the blocked brake duct openings (the blocking plate is bolted in and easily removed) in the bumper and just plumb it to the front of the radiator.

The paddocks were deserted by 5:30pm (boy, people sure left quickly).  We were the last to pack up and leave.  We headed back to town at a leisurely 55mph pace and had some Taiwanese food for dinner at Sin Bala in Arcadia.

In all, we felt quite pleased with what the car could do in hot summer weather, considering we had actually set this car up more for a higher-speed track such as Big Willow or Buttonwillow.  The car had so much grip in some areas that we wished it had more power.  Just imagine this:  250whp in a 2230 lb. car, wide open throttle after the bowl CCW in the off-camber right-hand turn...hugging the inside line.  That's not just mechanical grip.  That's also aero grip - a pretty good amount of aero grip that can be felt and utilized even at speeds starting as low as 55mph.

Here are some analysis graphs from the Traqmate data file gathered during Aaron's 1:26.053 hot lap...

Brake and turn zones map from the Traqmate data file:

Lateral g's, braking g's, and velocity graphs:

(click to zoom in)

The Traqmate data file from Aaron Bitterman's 1:26.053 lap is available for viewing here:
SOWSCCW Test OR Test 5.tqm
You can download viewing software from http://traqmate.com/ to analyze this file and to play back the lap in real-time.
Unfortunately, technical issues kept the unit from recording anything during my Hooser A6 hot laps.
Once again, thanks to Joey Leh for letting us use your equipment to get this awesome data!

More photos from this day can be found here.

We have some videos too...

A few exciting moments, Jeff behind the wheel:

Aaron's 1:26.053 lap:

Jeff catches up to Kris Wattanaporn: