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Went down to Roebling this weekend with the quattro club and some other local Audi guys. It was HOT! Four of us plowed through around 50 16oz bottles of water each day. They did decide to let us wear shorts and Ts though for which I was eternally greatful given the temps in the 90s and mid 90% humidities. It stayed dry though so there was plenty of grip for all! Here is a little writeup I did like the one for VIR. No cool pics yet but I'll update it if I find any.

WOW! Don't let the "simple" track layout fool you. Roebling Road is a VERY challenging track that really pushes your ability to balance inputs on the car.



A quick tour... (Starting on the main straight going into the chicane "Bus Stop")

The "Bus Stop" was open for the weekend and it was FUN! Bringing around 110-115 down the front straight brake hard and downshift into 2nd on entrance. I was really surprised by this, however in the m3 i was able to use a few liberal doses of throttle steer to make it considerably quicker than I would have initially anticipated and a LOT more fun.

This was followed by turns 1 and 2 which have slightly different radii and gave me my first real experience with balancing the braking side of the "friction circle". This is in 3rd gear. Somewhere between 1 and 2 you need to bleed a little speed for turn-in and there is nowhere to do it in a straight line so it was really great to learn how to balance letting out a little steering while doing a slight amount of braking. By the end of the weekend I learned just how early to pour on the throttle coming out of 2. The car really hung on well under full throttle even before hitting the apex.

A slightly early shift to 4th to set up for the big sweeper at turn 3. A small lift before entering and hang on to the outside for a while while slowing feeding in throttle. Then turn in a bit more and really lay down the power. It took me a while to learn just how liberal I was able to be with the throttle here and by the end of the weekend I was able to carry 90 or so out of this turn.

Which leads to 4. Um, BRAKES! It was a challenge to get all my braking in here since you really have to keep the car turned in pretty late out of 3 which leaves little time to get the braking done for 4 which is a slow 3rd gear corner for me. Again, once turn in for 4th is started the throttle application comes fairly steady.

Turn 5 is tricky with the braking balance as is 1->2. You can bring quite a bit of speed back out of 4 and I needed to bleed some off to turn in for 5, but again without any straight line to do it. So dial out a bit of steering and SLOWLY bring on a small bit of braking. Then turn in and get back on the throttle again.

Turns 6 and 7 combine to form "Carousel". You enter in downhill with the tracking falling away from you off camber. Hold on as late as possible as close to the track edge as possible then turn in and slowly bring on the throttle, hit your apex, and mat it.

Turns 8 and 9 are the big sweeper leading up to the front straight. A nice lazy shift from 3rd to 4th set me up well for this corner. Find your line which will SLOWLY bring you from about mid track to right inside on the apex and out onto the front straight. And keep it tight, lots of nice tire marbles waiting for you just outside!

Obviously I am no master as this was my first time at Roebling. But thats what I was doing I might try to find some turn by turn pics like I did from my VIR writeup and ad them later.

This was my first event on the 245/40/17 Kumho MXs on 17x9 (et45 with 10mm front spacer) SSR Comps. I was initially running them about 36 cold which put them somewhere around 44-46 hot. My instructor advised 40hot as thats what he runs in his victoraces on his M3. WOW! Much more stable and grippy. Added bonus is that it looks like the tires are wearing MUCH better now also. It was in the 90s at roebling this weekend and I was told the track temps were around 120. The MXs stuck very well all weekend even after all 3 30 minute runs on sunday. Never felt greasy at all. They held great and seemed to give pretty good feedback. We'll see how many events they last through.

Jake you should come to our event. We don't use the bus stop

_________________
Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

I LOVED the bus stop! But yeah, im really gonna try to make it. I just need to figure out how to get out of going to this wedding.

Is it yours?

_________________
www.ncvw.org
1993 VW Corrado VR6 - DSP15 (RIP)
1986 MB 190E 2.3L 16v - STX (SOLD)
1997 BMW M3 3.2L - BS for now

Which M3 were you driving, Jake? I answered the somewhat plaintive call for instructors and was down there helping out, driving the red Spec Miata.

The ACNA is an interesting crowd - mostly new cars - a few older, interesting ones, but without a core enthusiast/racer group like the BMW, Porsche, Alfa, or Z guys. I only saw one Audi in the entire instructor cadre - there were a bunch of Porsches, a few BMWs, a Corvette, a Factory Five Spec Racer, an ITB Golf, a race-prepped Chevy Cavalier. The students came from all over the Southeast - many with 12 hr drives (which shrank the crowd Sun afternoon pretty significantly). More of an older crowd than some groups, definately there to learn and have a good time, but not many pushing the edge. Very few agricultural excursions, a few mechanical breakdowns, but no bent sheet metal. My wife (who wasn't driving the track) sat in on the classroom sessions and thought they were instructive and well-organized. I'm glad, because most of what I saw was inadequate organization - nice people, but I think they just don't do this often enough to be smooth at it.

First time I've run the chicane (a.k.a. "The Bus Stop"). Makes sense for a marque club with mostly less experienced drivers whose cars could hit 140+ on the front straight, but really kills the flow of the track for a momentum car like mine. Did eventually get my exit speed up on Turn 2 track out to what I'm used to without the chicane, so it doesn't ruin the rest of the lap, just have to learn a different approach to Turn 1.

For the rest of THSCC, there is a new environmental wrinkle at RRR. Some type of endangered turtles are nesting in the sand berms around the carousel. They apparently like to mosey out and bask in the sun on the hot asphalt about 2 pm - so if you see a corner worker throwing a waving yellow, and another corner worker with a push broom, they are trying to herd the turtles out of harm's way. There was a lively discussion about appropriate flags - white for "slow moving vehicle" vs. yellow/red striped for "debris" and whether this depended on whether the turtle was moving or stationary. There were also a number of suggestions for painting the turtles or attaching signaling devices to the shells for better visability.

And a word of advice for anyone considering the Comfort Inn and Suites (same exit) - DON'T!

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Marvin McBride
Spec Miata #62

Marvin,

I was in the black E36 on the SSRs. Four of us came down from raleigh. We are mostly recent converts to "track junkie" status and the 3 others havent wisened up and gotten out of their Audis yet. (I am an ex s4 driver).

We were right next to you with the two ez up tents in fortress formation.

The classroom was actually well organized overall.

The rest of the event was um... Well sunday was great once I got the heck out of blue group. Yellow was spectacular, like 9 cars and all reasonably matched skill levels it seemed. And none of the mechanically challenge Coupe GTs.

On the other hand ACNA blue group is supposed to be for drivers with 2-7 events of experience which put myself and the other 3 friends I came with in it. It was a GREAT run group at VIR with ACNA last month. It was attrocious here. The excersizes were just silly, so i skipped most of them. There was a lot of politics involved and they had like 25 first timers so it was really tough to set up the run groups I guess. I like running ACNA cause I have a lot of friends from my S4 days there. But I won't do another event with them if they are gonna pull that crap. End Rant.

I'm interested to know what the exercises were.

I remember years ago I did a BMWCCA school, in their advanced group, and all groups did the following:

- First session: 3rd gear ONLY
- Second session: never use the brakes ever

I could kinda see the value in it for the complete neophytes, but to force the int. and adv. groups through it I didn't much care for. The only upside was the comedy of certain folks that took the "no brakes" thing way too seriously and went off as a result

Anyway, I'm sure the bus stop was fun...but navigating T1 at "no bus stop" speeds...and then having to deal with T2...that's a heck of a good time right there. Plus, Don, Jimmy, Travis and I will all be down, and fun times will ensue.

(Peer pressure...Peer pressure...)

--Karl, who understands the wedding thing

Karl,

The excersizes were on the front straight. They had a slolom set up and a braking box. It was hella lame. No instruction. Just "Drive through those cones" and "Go fast then stop"

Horrible.