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Did a Streets of Willow track day last Sat night. Kept in in normal mode with the traction control completely off. I was able to take the tight corners so much better without as much wheel spin. The throttle management is so much better than power mode. I think I have a new setup.
First night track day I have done. God it was fun. Ran from 4-midnight. First session I was sliding around quite a bit at it was 102 but as it cooled down my times went way down. When it got dark they turned on the lights at each corner but it was completely dark between corners. At my track pace you could not see the apex of most turns right up until you were there. Really made you learn the track and anticipate what was coming without seeing it. My last run of the night at 11:20 was my fastest by 1.5 sec. By then I knew the track so well I could really push the corners even going blind into them.
You are in CA right? I would highly recommend autocross with Porsche Club. They have the best set up which is about 80-90 seconds long which is way way longer and better than most of other local autocross. The Fontana autocross is just under 40 seconds long, it is way way shorter and not as fun.
Which track do you go to? Can you give me info? Do they require racing suit, car inspection, helmet SNELL rated 2010 and all that?? Thanks.
Northern California. I see most of the Porsche autocross is in Socal.
I frequent Thunderhill raceway. No inspection just a SNELL rated helmet.
Did a Streets of Willow track day last Sat night. Kept in in normal mode with the traction control completely off. I was able to take the tight corners so much better without as much wheel spin. The throttle management is so much better than power mode. I think I have a new setup.
First night track day I have done. God it was fun. Ran from 4-midnight. First session I was sliding around quite a bit at it was 102 but as it cooled down my times went way down. When it got dark they turned on the lights at each corner but it was completely dark between corners. At my track pace you could not see the apex of most turns right up until you were there. Really made you learn the track and anticipate what was coming without seeing it. My last run of the night at 11:20 was my fastest by 1.5 sec. By then I knew the track so well I could really push the corners even going blind into them.
That is exactly what I'm talking about. The normal mode is so much smoother and is now also confirmed by you on the track with better lap time. 1.5 seconds is A LOT of improvement really. Congrats man!
That is exactly what I'm talking about. The normal mode is so much smoother and is now also confirmed by you on the track with better lap time.
FSportIS- This was a very good observation from you to bring to the attention of the 2IS community. The additional throttle modulation available with normal mode would have helped me during my earlier autocross days when I had a lot of difficulty keeping the inner wheel from spinning around tight corners. Though PWR mode is very responsive, there is definitely a smaller window of throttle controllability and a larger room for error by overshooting your throttle input and creating unwanted wheelspin.
I don't have ISF steering ECU but it is a great upgrade for even more direct feedback for handling improvement. Redspencer and many others have it and they can definitely chime in for it.
Regarding the normal v. power, normal always work BETTER for me in any race whether it is straight line or corner because I have MORE CONTROL of how much throttle input I want. The power mode is more aggressive with the car trying to stay in lower gear but it is overly sensitive. Power mode is fun to to use on street to passing cars but not really good for lap times.
I have the steering ecu and the feel is better in power than it is in normal. In normal I think it is the same as the old ecu. This year I was going to try to autox in sport mode and do the shifting myself ... well, given that the IS will only take my shifting as suggestions.
I didn't get the ecu working until after I had already put on the winter tires, so haven't had a chance to test it out really. The summers went on yesterday but there is so much gravel and sand still on the roads that there is no point trying to find out how it corners. It'll just slide around on the junk. But first autoX is at the end of the month!!!
With the IS-F Steering ECU, I am much more effective on the course with ECT PWR on. As scott1256c mentioned, the steering feel is significantly improved with having much better feedback and less power assist while you are in PWR mode instead of normal. In normal mode, the excessive power assist makes the steering wheel too light and jittery and it is difficult to achieve the line you desire around a corner compared to being in PWR mode.
At the autoX, I also obtain much faster lap times by manually shifting the gears myself via the paddles. As long as you understand and work around the unorthodox parameters of the AI shift logic while in sport mode, it actually does a decent job as a gear limiter.
At nearly all the events that I've been to, I've only had to use the 1-2-3 gears and 2nd gear is my primary gear for most of the course. Downshifts are pretty responsive for being a slushbox and when you want to upshift to a higher gear, just do so 500-1000 RPMs prior to hitting the redline and the AI will understand your intent by shifting right at or very near the rev limiter. It's not a perfect system but you can make it work. If I leave the IS in auto mode, the transmission tends to upshift to a higher gear while I'm in a corner which will greatly affect my track out speed. I believe the newer 8 speed transmissions with the g-force AI fixes this issue.
BTW, with the IS-F Steering ECU, if you have VDIM fully on while in ECT PWR mode, the nannies are much less intrusive than with the ISx50 steering ECU. The IS-F has two different VDIM modes with different handling limit parameters depending if you are in normal mode or sport mode (PWR mode for the ISx50s). This feature carries forward when you install the IS-F Steering ECU.
I like the idea of keeping track/autocross stuff here in one thread. I did my first autocross (and track weekend) before getting the 2011+ ISF power steering ECU and the IS350 was a handful in the corners with traction control off with my inexperience and sway bars, F-Sport shocks with stock springs, and FIGS #2 LCA poly bushings. I also quickly came to the conclusion that PWR mode made the throttle too sensitive.
At my second autocross event, a very experienced instructor drove my car with traction control off in PWR + S (I recommended Normal + S) limited to 2nd gear and it was a handful for him too, which made me feel better about my previous event. I was able to beat the instructor's time with the upgraded ISF steering ECU's traction control on in PWR + S after a few runs, which surprised me. You can really feel it braking the unloaded wheel during the turns rather than it squealing and causing oversteer through most turns with traction control off. The previous owner's all-season tires I am trying to use up were probably a big contributing factor to that too. I want to autocross again with some performance summer tires, but the IS350 just isn't going to compete with small light cars like Miatas and S2000s on short courses. At my next track event I will try PWR + S, but I remember reading in the ISF forum that a member boiled his brake fluid because it was braking the unloaded rear wheel while he was accelerating out of turns.
The IS350 is much more at home at a track day than an autocross, but both are fun and good ways to learn the limits and capabilities of the car. I'm planning to go to the Driver's Edge track weekend at the 2.4 mile MSR Houston course on 9/12-13. Would love to see some other Texas CL members there...I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Registration opens at 9AM CDT on 7/13; the novice group will probably fill up in about 10 minutes so make an account beforehand. https://www.thedriversedge.net/02_tracks.htm
08-18-14, 05:17 PM
