added some mountain pass bits to the car - and went to Thunderhill w/Audi club - learned some lessions…
still not a track car and some heavy lessons learned - but some promising data for a 4,100 lbs 4 door sedan on the track - I think if we "fix" the problems - I can get more data and get some better times…
Video is my best lap from the 1st morning sessions (only got one session more on that later). Track was damp, cold, and there was some traffic. The lap time from start/finish to start/finish is 2:17.xx - I lost the accurate data due to APEXPro not autosaving lap times - and I forgot to enable GPS on my GoPro so we don't have any data {sigh}.
the Lap times for the session were:
- 2:56.xx
- 2:24.xx
- 2:23.xx
- 2.23.xx
- 2.25.xx
- 2.24.xx
- 2.20.xx
- 2.17.xx <----- video clip
- 2:20.xx
- 2:50 on the in lap
Battery capacity used was 60% (on track @ 98% battery, in at 38% battery for roughly a 25 minute session.This day was meant to be a "test" for my 2018 Model 3 Performance and we will call it a successful failure (like NASA called Apollo 13) - turns out I only got the one session because during this session the factory stock brake pads which were barely used going onto track (90%+) were decimated and rubbing bare metal by the end of this _SINGLE_ session - in speaking with other "racers" after the session apparently the stock pads from Tesla will not withstand _ANY_ heavy use and just melt/disintegrate under heavy track use - ok lesson learned - I limped home relying on regen a lot to minimize the actual engagement of the friction brakes. We'll be searching for better pads and we will be back. But the factory stock pads are NOT recomended for _ANY_ track use based on my experiend. Now this is not a surprising result in that factory pads are notoriously bad from most/all car manufactures - however I have _NEVER_ had pads what wouldn't last even a single session - normally "bad" pads you'll get at least one track day (4 or 5 20 minute sessions) and then they will be done. Having the pads disintigrate in a single 25 minute track sessions for me is a surprising result. But probably appropriate for a vehicle on the street that never uses the friction brakes due to regen.
based on what I learned from this single session - 1 20 min track session is about 50% battery for the Model 3P - so you could run 2 20 min sessions (a bit of 40 amp charging between sessions) - top off with the fast charger @ Walmart in town, and come back and run another 2 sessions in the afternoon.
Tires were the stock Michellin 4S - not particuarly grippy - I was slow on this first sessions because:
- cold morning
- damp track
- cold tires
- wrong pressures
- still learning the car on track
I'm pretty confident I could get down into the 2:12.xx arena if the brakes had lasted on this one day - and with some stickier tires this car would be sub 2:10.xx @ thunderhill, maybe even sub 2:05.xx more testing will be required to see…Tire pressures going out before the session were 36 PSI all around - when I came in pressures were 42/43 psi all around - if I had gotten a 2nd session I was going to target 38 psi HOT temps and I think the additional grip would've been good - heavy car @ 4,100 lbs don't want to drop the pressures too much.
So we'll call this my personal best for a Model 3 Performance @ Thunderhill and move on from here.
My real personal best @ Thunderhill is sub 1:58.xx times in a Porsche 911 GT3…so we know I'm capable of sub 2 min lap times - but what this car can do will require another visit with better brake pads.
