Hello. I found your build thread on CF forum and watched a few of your track sessions. While you have made progress you are leaving a lot of time on the table. I noticed you over drive the front end (med. to slow speed corners) and tend to add more steering input at mid-corner, which increases the understeer you are experiencing. Additionally, this is hard on the front tires since you are past the ideal slip angle, and by turning the steering wheel further (to compensate for this understeer) you are also creating more heat. Also noticed you are braking too late which necessitates deep trail braking, problem is you are either scrubbing off too much or not enough speed at the apex. Too much and you are back to throttle early and too heavy and then you have to lift and use maintenance throttle (steady state ) otherwise you push wide and miss your ideal corner exit point. Too little and you wash the front out, add more steering input, delay throttle application and again you run wide. Hope this makes sense and helps. So all of that said, I have a few questions regarding your ATS - V ownership experience. I know you have added some mods to your car. That said, how did you like your ATS - V for ride quality and daily driving before you made changes? Was it comfortable and did you feel exhausted after a long road trip? Do you have the A8 shutter issue, and if so it is really as bad as folks describe? The reason I'm asking is that I'm in the market for a nice luxury performance sedan and all of my research leads me to ATS - V. Not intending to go to the office every day but when I do it is ~280 round trip and I want a nice car that eats miles and is at the same time a capable performer. FYI... I have a 6th Gen SS 1LE which I use exclusively for track days, so the ATS - V is street only with minor mods (tune) if any in my future. Appreciate any input/advice you can offer. Stay safe on track and good luck with your future mods.
Thanks for the feedback. To start, I found a stock ATS-V to be an excellent car; the suspension was comfortable but definitely a bit on the taught side. It is a bit smaller inside than a F80. I did two 600mi+ round trips to Gingerman, car did great and got 28mpg+ at 77mph in stock form. With a 93 tune, the car can come alive and no fuel mods are necessary to run E30. My car has been moded but is still a semi-daily that sees plenty of office, school drop-off and grocery duty. As for on track, I know I can go faster. This video was my 10th track day, so with more seat time and experience I am getting more consisent and precise which is lowering times. Also in this video, it was my first day on RE71RS so I was getting used to their grip (which I did not take maximum advantage of) and it was also extremely windy (40mph+ gusts) so I was going 5-10mph slower on straights than I had previously. I think this contributed some to overbraking, especially into T1A. I've also found the PTM is restricting throttle application, even in Race mode, through the T2-3 complex. The faster I can rotate the car through T2 the faster I can straighten the wheel and get the power down for a faster T3 exit. Blowing an apex or two, late turn-in for T10, going slightly off-line, etc. all contibute to slower laps than the car is capable of. I'm hoping to get into the 2:21s this year at NCM on RE71RS and looking at video/data see how I can get there...I just need to execute.
Hello. I found your build thread on CF forum and watched a few of your track sessions. While you have made progress you are leaving a lot of time on the table. I noticed you over drive the front end (med. to slow speed corners) and tend to add more steering input at mid-corner, which increases the understeer you are experiencing. Additionally, this is hard on the front tires since you are past the ideal slip angle, and by turning the steering wheel further (to compensate for this understeer) you are also creating more heat.
Also noticed you are braking too late which necessitates deep trail braking, problem is you are either scrubbing off too much or not enough speed at the apex. Too much and you are back to throttle early and too heavy and then you have to lift and use maintenance throttle (steady state ) otherwise you push wide and miss your ideal corner exit point. Too little and you wash the front out, add more steering input, delay throttle application and again you run wide. Hope this makes sense and helps.
So all of that said, I have a few questions regarding your ATS - V ownership experience. I know you have added some mods to your car. That said, how did you like your ATS - V for ride quality and daily driving before you made changes? Was it comfortable and did you feel exhausted after a long road trip? Do you have the A8 shutter issue, and if so it is really as bad as folks describe? The reason I'm asking is that I'm in the market for a nice luxury performance sedan and all of my research leads me to ATS - V. Not intending to go to the office every day but when I do it is ~280 round trip and I want a nice car that eats miles and is at the same time a capable performer. FYI... I have a 6th Gen SS 1LE which I use exclusively for track days, so the ATS - V is street only with minor mods (tune) if any in my future. Appreciate any input/advice you can offer. Stay safe on track and good luck with your future mods.
Thanks for the feedback. To start, I found a stock ATS-V to be an excellent car; the suspension was comfortable but definitely a bit on the taught side. It is a bit smaller inside than a F80. I did two 600mi+ round trips to Gingerman, car did great and got 28mpg+ at 77mph in stock form. With a 93 tune, the car can come alive and no fuel mods are necessary to run E30. My car has been moded but is still a semi-daily that sees plenty of office, school drop-off and grocery duty.
As for on track, I know I can go faster. This video was my 10th track day, so with more seat time and experience I am getting more consisent and precise which is lowering times. Also in this video, it was my first day on RE71RS so I was getting used to their grip (which I did not take maximum advantage of) and it was also extremely windy (40mph+ gusts) so I was going 5-10mph slower on straights than I had previously. I think this contributed some to overbraking, especially into T1A. I've also found the PTM is restricting throttle application, even in Race mode, through the T2-3 complex. The faster I can rotate the car through T2 the faster I can straighten the wheel and get the power down for a faster T3 exit. Blowing an apex or two, late turn-in for T10, going slightly off-line, etc. all contibute to slower laps than the car is capable of. I'm hoping to get into the 2:21s this year at NCM on RE71RS and looking at video/data see how I can get there...I just need to execute.