Screwed at Laguna Seca

Do you have a cold air intake? You can fail sound if you're on the cam with C.A.I. - Rob.

wow that is disheartening, I really wanted to hit that track. That can't be for all events there?

Dietsch Werks said:

Do you have a cold air intake? You can fail sound if you're on the cam with C.A.I. - Rob.

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I have a forcefed intake on there now but am putting in a cup air box next week...any better?

Minnis said:

wow that is disheartening, I really wanted to hit that track. That can't be for all events there?

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Yes, the noise restriction is always enforced except for their big events like MotoGP and such. I know at motorcycle trackdays the control riders rig up deflectors at the end of their pipes to deflect the noise to the other side, lol, as TrackAddict mentioned. Or maybe one of these? But I don't know anything about this stuff...
Dynatech Vortex Insert Cones - summitracing.com

Pretty much any aftermarket exhaust will get you a meatball flag at Laguna on a track day event. There are only 4 weekends where they lift the noise limit - Moto, ALM, Historics...

Cheers,
Kiyoshi

I don't think anyone has been to Laguna and not fallen afowl of the sound limits. 92 db is fairly quiet - most cars will exceed this with a stock exhaust and after market air intake. The Lotus may be a little better because the intake is on the left, away from the sound booth. Tracking only to mid track on turn 5 helps, and short shifting does too.

WHY are there sound restrictions there? :shrug: The track has a HUGE buffer of hills and abandoned military property all the way around. There are very few homes and they are at a considerable distance. Is it just the liberal, commie, enviromentalist, nanny state mentality that is so indigenous to the area?:no:

Before you all reply, let me go put on a few layers of Nomex!

Skip Barber has an 87dB limit, somehow they get the formula cars to comply for races, more gear noise than engine. The track rental rates are per sound level, 91dB more $ than 87 etc..

TrackAddict said:

I have a forcefed intake on there now but am putting in a cup air box next week...any better?

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Yes, As far as the intake goes. The Cup air box setup meets sound - Rob.

khamai said:

Pretty much any aftermarket exhaust will get you a meatball flag at Laguna on a track day event. There are only 4 weekends where they lift the noise limit - Moto, ALM, Historics...

Cheers,
Kiyoshi

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The Larini Sport SE and Sport 8" pass sound @ Laguna - Rob.

I just know my FF275 setup will fail sound so I am not wasting $380 for the Speedventures event in August to find out for sure :wallbang:

Guess I'll never drive that car at Laguna :sad:

Drive Sears Point instead. It's a much more technical ad entertaining track than Laguna - and you don't have to deal with the sound hassle.

Laguna's worth doing once, but once the novelty of the corkscrew wears off, the rest of the track is a bunch of 90 degree turns.

OK - flame away...

Cheers,
-Darryl

ErictheBastard said:

WHY are there sound restrictions there? :shrug: The track has a HUGE buffer of hills and abandoned military property all the way around. There are very few homes and they are at a considerable distance. Is it just the liberal, commie, environmentalist, nanny state mentality that is so indigenous to the area?:no:

Before you all reply, let me go put on a few layers of Nomex!

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its not the liberal environmental commies, its the rich and powerful bastards living in mansions nearby (ie well connected lawyer types) ;-) (who built their places AFTER the track was built) Monterey is a relatively conservative enclave in Northern California.

djo715 said:

Drive Sears Point instead. It's a much more technical ad entertaining track than Laguna - and you don't have to deal with the sound hassle.

Laguna's worth doing once, but once the novelty of the corkscrew wears off, the rest of the track is a bunch of 90 degree turns.

OK - flame away...

Cheers,
-Darryl

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Already drove Sears Point/Infineon and have signed up for the July 5th with HOD there as well. I just would like to add Laguna to my "collection"

IamBatman said:

its not the liberal environmental commies, its the rich and powerful bastards living in mansions nearby (ie well connected lawyer types) ;-) (who built their places AFTER the track was built) Monterey is a relatively conservative enclave in Northern California.

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Yep, exactly. The sound travels quite well, too...my uncle lives maybe 4 miles east of the track (up San Benancio Rd if you know where that is); I recall visiting him once during a CART race weekend and when out on the deck you could easily hear the cars practicing. It's a normally tranquil area, I can understand why people might not like too much noise, though again, the track has been there a long, long time, people choose to live next to it!

MattG said:

Yep, exactly. The sound travels quite well, too...my uncle lives maybe 4 miles east of the track (up San Benancio Rd if you know where that is); I recall visiting him once during a CART race weekend and when out on the deck you could easily hear the cars practicing. It's a normally tranquil area, I can understand why people might not like too much noise, though again, the track has been there a long, long time, people choose to live next to it!

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It makes as much sense as people building their houses in the flight path near an airport and complain about airplane noise. Idiots...

ErictheBastard said:

WHY are there sound restrictions there? :shrug: The track has a HUGE buffer of hills and abandoned military property all the way around. There are very few homes and they are at a considerable distance. Is it just the liberal, commie, enviromentalist, nanny state mentality that is so indigenous to the area?:no:

Before you all reply, let me go put on a few layers of Nomex!

Click to expand...

Two things are apparently not commonly understood about Laguna Seca and sound, in contrast to other tracks.

The first is that since 1974 the track has been a Monterey County park, operated by the county board of supervisors in response to the wants of county residents.

The second is that there is not a huge buffer all around the track. A good way to see this is to ride a bicycle on the roads and trails adjacent to the track. Plus the land around the track that was once Fort Ord is now also county land in the process of development.

So, in short, there simply is no constituency for higher sound levels, and lots for lower levels.

Have the Forced Fed open intake and headers (with sport cat), pass sound at Laguna, no problem. The only open intake, that I know that has failed sound is the TurboXS. Everything else has been fine. After market exhaust- the 8" larini or 2Bular are ok. It's pretty common to have a rover (doing a sound check) to catch those who try the old trick of a lift /short shift passing the sound station- glad you were able to get away with it this time.

khamai said:

Pretty much any aftermarket exhaust will get you a meatball flag at Laguna on a track day event. There are only 4 weekends where they lift the noise limit - Moto, ALM, Historics...

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Indeed, for the SCCA events we have to run at 90db in the morning and in the afternoon (only the middle of the day gets to run 101 and 103db), and since SRF's and Spec Miata's are the only classes that can get down to 90db with mufflers, we always end up running first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

The upside is that with the muffler on I can run track days to test there

Steve