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For me the satisfaction of a track day is not a fast lap time. But putting my hours and hours and hours of hard work to the test. If it holds up then I did things right. Otherwise, learn from mistakes and redo.
I'm not in this to make the fastest most reliable car around. I'm in this to learn new skills, expand my knowledge, and have fun along the way.
Sure, this last set of issues has been frustrating. But in the end it will mean more to me than if I had just bought a car and gone driving.
Drove the car more yesterday. And my god its good. It pulls so hard and so linear.
Got a possible line on some 800/500 springs, and some 225 R7s. Next planned event is the packwood tour, for my first shot at "real" autocross.
Very reasonable. And I can completely relate.
teens/twenties - all about building, all about tinkering, all about the journey
now - want fast/fun/sexy car and could care less about slaving away in the garage to make one so if I can buy one already like that.
Enjoy this time now when you're young and have tons of time and energy. when you grow up, for most people not only is it a lot harder, but a lot less appealing too.
Why? I don't know him that well. Its a reasonable question.
This entire thread is a testament to his wanting to tinker around and try new things to see what works best for him via trial, error, and guidance. I just thought it was funny that you were surprised!
Very reasonable. And I can completely relate.
teens/twenties - all about building, all about tinkering, all about the journey
now - want fast/fun/sexy car and could care less about slaving away in the garage to make one so if I can buy one already like that.
Enjoy this time now when you're young and have tons of time and energy. when you grow up, for most people not only is it a lot harder, but a lot less appealing too.
Yep. I love watching these guys go, but I lack the time and energy to do much beyond basic mechanical work. As much as I like to wrench, I love driving more, so I have started looking for easy buttons a lot more than I used to. It's sort of depressing and liberating at the same time.
Originally Posted by portabull
^this. i'm 70, don't know how it happened...
Inside every older man is a younger man wondering, "What the hell happened?!?!"
That's what I spent all weekend doing. And it was awesome.
Short background on the car. Its the first Palatov ever built. Carbon body, tube frame, inboard brakes, chain driven AWD, crazy stuff.
It was originally built with a Hyabusa turbo engine, then converted to electric. It changed hands a few times and ended up at a battery company that a few of my friends from college work at. They did a bunch of work on it, and offered me a seat in it. We showed up Friday night, and started working on the car Saturday morning.
On Saturday we did the following.
- New High Voltage harness to connect the 6 batteries to the inverter. 3 pairs of special sauce cells wired in series. So 350v DC.
- Welded a new dead pedal, new battery box mounts
- Turned a new steering shaft bushing
- New charging harness to charge all the batteries at the same time
- General bolt check, brake bleed etc
- Lots more I can't remember.
We got the car out of the shop on Saturday night around 1am. Quick test drive and onto the trailer.
Sunday morning. Show up at the track, rear tire is flat. Go bug one of the Semi double stackers to take the tire off the wheel for us, bicycle patch on the inside. Remount tire.
Time to drive.
Car is an animal. Not a ton of power (~125hp), but tons of grip, and incredibly sensitive to inputs. Inboard brake on a torsen means the wheels lock together under braking. So the way to drive it is brake, lift, turn in, power. And if you didn't brake enough, you better not touch the brakes in the corner, because you are going to be backwards.
First session was borderline scary, Second session was amazing. I kind of got it figured out and it was one of the best driving experiences I've ever had. Got it down to 3 braking zones. 2, 11, corkscrew. Flat on the accelerator everywhere else. It was amazing. But the motor started to cut out and every time it did I had to reset it with the emergency stop button, so my fastest time ended up a 1:53. The car has done a 1:48, and I think I could have gotten a sub 1:50 lap, but oh well.
TT was last. They gave us one corner to warm up tires and that was it. Not enough. I felt the car slide in 4 and probably should have back off there. Hit the kerbing hard in 5, braked for 6, when I lifted something was wrong and the car was not responding to inputs correctly. The car pulled me into the turn really early, I tried to correct, and ended up hitting the big curb in 6 blowing up a suspension pushrod. But it turns out that zip ties are not strong enough to hold the body down when sideways, because the body flew up off the car. I got the car settled and straightened on the side of the track, and the body suddenly flopped back down (hinged in the rear). So some carbon damage, a broken pushrod, and I owe my roomate a new gopro.
Overall, epic experience and still hoping they invite me back again
Ive been following those guys on the book of faces for a while! They were at Pikes Peak and have a TT Hyabusa based V8 in there now. The thing is nuts and a few have popped up at Trackdays in my neck of the woods
Ive been following those guys on the book of faces for a while! They were at Pikes Peak and have a TT Hyabusa based V8 in there now. The thing is nuts and a few have popped up at Trackdays in my neck of the woods
Intense and awesome post!
There are a bunch of Palatovs out there right now. This one only makes it out about once a year for the Refuel event.
One of the highlights of my life was getting to drive a 2016 Norma M20 for 5 hot laps. By hot, I mean 70%, because I don't have $100K to buy this guy a new car. He imported it after Le Mans last year, before he had started learning high performance driving, and wanted a "professional" to suss it out, when it arrived. I don't think a professional has driven it yet, but I sure had fun pretending! Sadly, there is no video.
Dyno is tomorrow. Got my det cans working. And EBC is holding strong. Going to turn up the boost and add timing till it stops making power or blows up whichever comes first.
Any bets on numbers?
I'll be sad at <300whp.
Happy with 300-350whp.
Surprised/Happy with over 350whp.
What fuel octane will you be using on the dyno? Unless something is broke, it better make > 330whp. I would expect 350-400 depending on how high you rev it, and how much boost.
I really don't know what to expect. I know soviet did 400 on a very similar setup, but saw signs of det when he pulled the head off.
I wish I could run ethanol, but with 1 station in portland 30 minutes from me its not worth it.
E85 would be nice to have. I ran 93 for years and kept the timing soft, it ran strong. Rods only 99 motor, 4 or 5 years ago 6 years ago!, 28 PSI on a GT3271:
What RPM limit are you going to run? Easy way to make power without det is to rev higher and feed in the boost at higher revs. For a given HP, you run less boost so it's less likely to knock. Just keep the RPMs below what you're comfortable running.
This was 28 PSI, rev to 8400, VirtualDyno, 1.5years ago on E85. Super safe tune with timing, using boost and RPM to make power instead of lots of timing which as you have seen, and have mentioned other seen, can result in detonation.
06-23-2017, 08:08 PM
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