So as the title suggests, I have a situation where a paid driver ate the wall due to a sudden abs failure.

Now the cars obviously not his, but the question is who pays for the wreck? The aim data clearly shows a sudden abs failure into the corner, but the team owner is crying fowl saying that it was up to the drive to mitigate the car back to the pits despite the abs warning being only on intermittently for a few seconds… the drive was also 25% slower into said corner than typical due to rain and amateurish ability… for all intense and purpose he’s considered one of the slower safer guys on the team… that said he’s shook now and was asking advice… if he pays how can he trust the team and cars again… and if he doesn’t pay, he’s gonna be a black sheep at the track in the future due to the size of the team and their presence at the track… not to mention the fight that will ensue…

Thoughts from the community on this? It’s about a €20k hit.

This is my first HPDE, and my instructor has been phenomenal. Is it appropriate/expected to tip your instructor after an event?

I have a g80 m3, how much performance am I leaving on the table by letting the car shift automatically? In the more performance oriented modes it stays in pretty low gears and keeps rpms at 4-5000. It seems like you could actually slow yourself down if you are shifting too early or late as well.

I was talking to another driver who said his car (which IIRC was some kind of alfa romeo) he needed to use the paddles because on one long slow turn it would shift to too high a gear.

Hey everyone,

A while back I shared Perfect Apex here: an open lap analysis tool and AI Race Engineer built for track day drivers using loggers like TrackAddict, RaceChrono, and RaceBox.

I recently rolled out a major platform update to our email subscribers, and wanted to share the highlights with the community here too.

The biggest news: we have permanently eliminated storage caps across all tiers.

We previously enforced session storage limits on free accounts, but capping your telemetry gets in the way of what matters most: logging your progress across seasons and learning from each other. So free Rookie accounts now get 100% unlimited session storage.

To make this sustainable and build a real benchmark library for grassroots drivers, only paid accounts (Racer & Pro) can make sessions private. In return, all free sessions stay public to power our new Community Reference Laps, giving everyone unlimited storage while helping the community compare lines and find time.

Here is what recently rolled out:

🏁 Community Reference Laps

You no longer have to analyze your laps in a vacuum. Perfect Apex now automatically matches your session against faster community benchmark laps on the same track and layout:

• Instant Delta Overlays: See exactly where faster drivers are braking later, carrying more apex speed, and getting on throttle sooner.
• Side-by-Side Telemetry: Compare your speed, braking deceleration, and G-force curves against target benchmark laps.
• Community-Powered: Every public session uploaded helps build a deeper benchmark dataset for the entire track community.
• Pro Exclusive - Manual Reference Lap Browser: Pro members can click the reference badge to open the exclusive Reference Lap Browser, filtering community sessions by car, driver, and lap time to handpick specific benchmark targets to overlay directly on their charts and track map.

Compare against other drivers at the same track

🔄 Refined Cross-Session AI Insights & Shareable Debriefs

Track days don't happen in a single 15-minute stint. We have upgraded cross-session analysis to generate structured AI coaching insights directly inside your analysis workspace:

• Automated Multi-Session Insights: Compare morning vs. afternoon stints or track setup changes across sessions. The AI automatically synthesizes your driving habits, pace trends, and consistency evolutions into clear coaching summaries right in your analysis window.
• 1-Click Event Debriefs: Tap "Analyze Full Event" directly on your home dashboard to instantly generate a unified multi-session coaching debrief across your entire track day.
• Shareable Debriefs with Full Chat Privacy: You can now share your full AI coaching debriefs with friends, instructors, or community forums. Spectators can read the complete analysis and explore interactive track maps and mini-charts, while your private chat history stays 100% confidential.

Get better insight across a full day

💡 1-Tap AI Follow-Up Coaching Prompts

Digging into your telemetry just got much faster. After your AI Race Engineer finishes analyzing your session, you will now see 1-tap suggested follow-up questions:

• Context-Aware: Questions are generated specifically from your driving patterns (e.g., "How can I carry more entry speed through Turn 3 without upsetting the chassis?").
• One-Tap Deep Dives: Tap any prompt chip to instantly dive into specific corners, braking zones, or consistency habits with zero typing.

1-tap conversation followups

🔍 Smart Telemetry Auto-Detection & AiM Sports Support

You no longer have to manually select your data logger or file format from a dropdown:

• Format Auto-Detection: Just upload your telemetry file. The engine automatically identifies whether it is from TrackAddict, RaceBox, RaceChrono, AiM Sports, Lap Legend, Harry's Lap Timer, Apex Pro, Circuit Storm, SoloStorm, or Qstarz. (Manual overrides remain available if you ever want them).
• AiM Sports Support (Experimental): You can now upload raw CSV exports directly from AiM Race Studio 2 and Race Studio 3.
• Major Parser Resilience Overhaul: We recently ran an exhaustive audit against hundreds of real-world sessions and resolved edge-case parsing bugs across all supported loggers.

Have a file that previously failed to upload? Try it again!
If you previously ran into an error or had a session that wouldn't parse, please give it another shot now. With our new auto-detection and overhauled parser resilience, your data should import cleanly, and we have added clearer guidance if anything ever needs attention.

⏱️ Exact Millisecond Lap Times

We have upgraded our timing engine for deeper accuracy: official transponder and logger times are now extracted down to the millisecond directly from your data files across TrackAddict, RaceBox, and RaceChrono, giving you millisecond delta precision against your personal best and community benchmark traces.

⚡ Unified AI Coaching (With Increased Limits!)

We have eliminated rigid separate limits for session uploads vs. chat questions, replacing them with one flexible monthly pool of AI Interactions with significantly increased capacity (40/mo on Racer and 100/mo on Pro, plus 3 free interactions every month for Rookie accounts). Whether you want to auto-analyze a high volume of stints or dive deep into the telemetry details in chat with your AI coach, the choice is 100% yours, with clean monthly billing cycle resets.

As always, Perfect Apex is a solo passion project built on community feedback. If you have got laps from your last track weekend, upload them and see how you stack up against the community references or help to build a deeper reference library!

Try it out free here: https://www.perfect-apex.com/

Drop a comment or DM if you run into any quirks, have feedback on the reference lap matching, or have ideas for future features.

See you on track,
Ryan

First and unfortunately last visit to COTA. Was here 3 years or so ago driving an F4 car, but always wanted to come back and drive my personal car on track.

Had some odd weather this weekend, but we finished with drying conditions, high 70s, and no sunlight. Blistering track conditions. Ended the entire weekend with a final lap, and a PB

Supra MT - No Aero, 295 Square Bridgestone RZs, MCS Suspension, Pure 600 Turbo, 93 Octane and other minor tidbits

Sup y’all. Never tracked before but a canyon carver. My niche is performance sedans. I don’t have a dedicated track car but would like my daily. What exactly do I need to race a willow springs? How do I sign up? I do understand a helmet, DOT 4 fluid, tires & brakes need to be in good condition which is fine. How do I go about signing up for a track day?

Thanks

Her r53 alternator failed so she took the ls3 e82 out on Sunday.

The car is a menace and your average HOA would try everything they could to ban it from existence. My wife adapted to its rowdiness by just staying in one gear most of the time

I was experimenting with the trackemcoder camera settings, exposure and bittate were real bad, but it worked on a non rooted phone

Realtime encoder info

https://mrblahhhh.github.io/car/tech/2026/08/21/trackencoder-metrics-explained.html

https://youtu.be/RC6Pbdx1Pas?is=r-HzfTPwuiJIvt9h

I normally don’t write reviews, but I want the Miata community to know exactly what they are purchasing and what kind of product support they can expect from Skunk2.

Most people buy this throttle body to protect their NB Miata from the notorious OEM throttle body shaft failure. When buying it, most of us accept that we will have to do a few modifications just to make it work reliably. That is exactly why I bought it. Here is my experience and why I cannot recommend this product.

Timeline & Failures:

• Usage: I upgraded to this throttle body three seasons ago and have put about two full track seasons on it.
• Failure 1: Just two sessions into using it, the supplied Skunk2 throttle cable holder snapped. I had to buy a 3rd-party replacement to fix it.
• Failure 2: This past weekend during a track session, my throttle pedal dropped completely to the floor. I rolled into the paddock expecting a loose cable, but the throttle pulley was completely missing.

After inspecting the unit, I discovered the throttle shaft had completely snapped—the exact failure this part is explicitly marketed to prevent!

The Support Experience:

I took pictures of the broken shaft and reached out to Skunk2 customer service. I wasn't even complaining; I simply asked if I could purchase the specific replacement parts to fix it myself.

• Skunk2 response: “We do not sell parts.”
• My follow-up: I asked what I should do next.
• Skunk2 response: “Buy a new throttle body.”
• The resolution: After telling them their lack of support earns them bad Google reviews, they finally offered me a meager 15% discount on a brand-new unit.

My Recommendation:

Bypass this subpar part and save yourself $300+. You can easily epoxy your stock OEM throttle body to safely protect against shaft failure instead.

Helpful Links:

Link on how to epoxy stock TB:

Prevent Miata Throttle Shaft Failures with Epoxy Tips

 

Link on things people have done to make Skunk2 work:

Skunk2 Throttle Body Mods and 1 year review - Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats.

Pics of my failure:

https://preview.redd.it/saswz55tvqth1.jpg?width=780&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7bfc7b8c0df09b37bc1a8bc6a8854d25c1edd9d5

https://preview.redd.it/34e2155tvqth1.jpg?width=439&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04b5651f2beb5b3e3f341752f3757fa2165237f8

 

Just a follow up to the pictures I posted of the Crown. Original PB was 2:11 and I beat it with a 2:08. Don't mind the volume drops while I'm braking, they really started to screech towards the end of my last two sessions so I wanted to spare y'all's ears.

I was looking at the Z07 package and the only thing it adds which I want is the aero, and the track suspension changes. I dont care for the carbon ceramics. I was under the assumption the Z07 package contained alot of track essentials like proper cooling.

Can't I just get a regular base model, put in the competition seats and just buy the Z07 wing and be fine? Am I missing out on anything? I dont really care about the creature comforts and because I'd be getting a base model I wouldn't feel guilty about modding it if I wanted vs modify a special edition car.

i orginally wanted a 718 Cayman GT4 but the prices have shot up to ~$150k out of nowhere which makes it really hard to justify for me and it kind of prices me out.