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Did a track day at Road Atlanta on Friday. Happy Fathers' Day to me! It's my third time on this track, and I'm finally starting to feel a little less intimidated. As I got more comfortable I found myself creeping up on some half-decent lap times, at least for a novice.
It was well into the 90's and humid as hell. Car just ran and ran, no issues with heat or anything else. I couldn't be happier with the car right now, it feels really really right for my skill/ability.
I'm finally starting to feel like when I kill these tires (BFG Sport Comp 2, 320 tw), I'm ready to move on to stickier 200tw tires. I'm getting more comfortable driving at the limits, and learning how to control the car when things are a little loose, etc. I've noticed that I'm able to hang in there with, and occasionally get a point-by from, some other cars with more power and faster tires. Not sure if I'm going to go with NT01's or RS4's, both seem pretty well regarded.
Some video of my cleanest lap. Paced this race-prepped Mustang with his big *** **** for a while, it felt pretty good. It's good to video the sessions and review later, I see lots of areas for improvement and places where I can pick up time. The esses are tough but I'm starting to get a feel for it.
After six months of licking my wounds, I decided it was time to re-engage on the Race Lesabre for Lemons, which needs a new motor. Found a running 3800 from a 98 Park Avenue for $300 and snapped it up. Began the swap on Saturday. FWD auto transmission, air conditioning, power steering, and just the general size and inaccessibility of everything make this quite a project. Still less than doing a cage and safety gear in a new car though. We're almost done pulling the old motor. I seriously feel like after this, swapping a motor in my non-PS non-AC Miata will be the easiest job in the world.
We need to figure out how to baffle the oil pan so we don't oil-starve the thing and kill it in 25 laps again.
If Captain Ahab had actually killed the White Whale, he probably would have felt like I felt in this picture.
Car projects that require creativity and problem solving take roughly three times as long as projects that just involve turning bolts. In this case, we had to figure out what to do with the power steering system (unbolt from block and leave in car), A/C system (rip it all out), and transaxle (leave in car). To leave the transaxle in the car, we had to unbolt the flywheel from the torque converter through a small window in the bellhousing- which required rotating the crank on our seized motor.
We then had to remove the bellhousing bolts, and could reach all but one. To get the last one, we had to remove various brackets and assemblies and reach through the passenger wheel well with 3 feet of stacked drive extensions to reach an invisible bolt head. Succeeding at this task was a minor miracle. I have no idea how we're going to put this bolt back when the new motor is in.
All of which reminded me what an enormous waste of time this Lemons car is. The only real benefit is that I'm learning a ton, getting in way over my head on a car that I don't really give a **** about. I'm starting to gain motivation to finish my 1.8L build, because doing a swap in a Miata will be a breeze compared to this.
I did my second HPDE this weekend with NASA Midsouth at Barber, and had an amazing time. I dreamed of turning laps while I was sleeping last night.
I really liked the Midsouth group; compared to Southeast, it was smaller, more personal, better instructed, better managed. It was my first time driving at Barber, and I had a blast. HPDE 1 and 2 were in combined sessions for the weekend. My instructor on Saturday was really good, and I was driving confidently and picking up decent speed. I moved up to HPDE 2 on Sunday.
My best time in the first session was 2:11, and by the last session on Sunday I was running consistent 2:03 laps. That is humbling considering that the SM racers were running 1:50 laps. Nonetheless, I was on trashed 320 treadwear tires and still faster than all but 2-3 cars in the session. A brand new Camaro SS 1LE and a brand new Cayman S with PDK... I think maybe it doesn't take as much skill to drive those cars fast.
The car ran like a champ again, I've now got about 30 sessions on it post-turbo without a single issue. Alas, this weekend was brutal on consumables. My tires are toast, my brake pads are toast, my brake fluid boiled. Decisions I'm faced with:
- faster tires for a 15x8 rim that I can drive an hour or two to the track on. The RS-4 is tempting, but it doesn't come in a 205. Maybe NT-01?
- brakes. I got seven track days out of the XP-10's for my 1.6L calipers, and I'd say five of those days I didn't really know what the hell I was doing. I'd guess that going forward, they might get me four days. Maybe go to something longer wearing like PFC?
Last edited by Schroedinger; 07-30-2018 at 05:26 PM.
So far so good. My driving skills have progressed a lot, and so far the turbo setup is still keeping up. I’m running 13psi, but with a very conservative tune. I’m thinking about getting a set of inconel studs to keep on hand at the track, since that seems to be the most likely failure mode.
As I suspected, front brake pads are shot. Not too much of the pad taper that I’ve heard about with stock brakes. I think I’m just going to replace them with the GLOC 10’s. The rear pads are like brand new, maybe it’s time to look into a proportioning valve.
Replaced front pads with the GLOC R10’s, and finally got around to replacing all the brake lines with the Supermiata ones. Pretty straightforward project.
As for my tire choice, this is where I landed:
I know this is probably not the best choice for durability, but I had a decent reason. I bought my wheels used last winter, and they had old RE-71R already mounted. One of them had a nail in the sidewall, and I bought a brand new tire to replace it. I then decided to learn to drive on the track with regular street tires, and it was never used. As of today it’s less than a year old. So for the cost of three new RE-71’s, and the discount for local pickup at the TireRack warehouse, I’ve got nice new rubber on all four corners for around $380.
I got everything put together and went for a test drive. It’s all fucked up, my brakes feel like balloons because I didn’t bleed them properly and something is dragging badly in the rear brakes. I was violently hung over when I did this project, which is not ideal. I’m going to let it sit for a day or two then sort it out.
The Sport Comp 2's were hard as a rock for laps 1-2, decent for lap 3, then overheated from lap 4 on. Three good laps would give me a 200% increase in good laps.
I went back in to correct my sloppy work from Sunday. I took the rear drivers' side wheel off and found this:
It looks like I found the source of the dragging noise. I didn't clock the brake line fitting properly, and the rim was dragging against it. Fortunately I caught this before it wore a hole all the way through the line. So I reclocked the line...
... then I did a proper brake bleed at all four corners. Everything is groovy now, the brakes feel great. I go in Monday to have the tires mounted and the alignment adjusted. My last tires had a lot of wear on the outer shoulders, I think I'm going to shoot for more camber all the way around. I need to figure out the best way to go about starting to dial in more rear brake bias.
I'm still using the worn line for now, and I agree it's a little close for comfort. There seems to be plenty of metal left, but my understanding is that brake fluid sees 500-1500 psi and I worry that it could be a stress riser for a fatigue fracture. I'm going to put it through the paces for the next few weeks and inspect it frequently.
EDIT- after posting this I realized that it's not worth dying in a fiery crash over a $35 brake line. I ordered a replacement.
Last edited by Schroedinger; 08-08-2018 at 03:08 PM.
The Sport Comp 2's were hard as a rock for laps 1-2, decent for lap 3, then overheated from lap 4 on. Three good laps would give me a 200% increase in good laps.
I have driven on SC2s. The RE71s are going to give you three really nice laps compared to those at least. Lol. Waaaaay higher grip.
My last tires had quite a bit of wear on the outer shoulder, and I had a little bit of oversteer. I have been running 1 psi less in the rear tires to even it out. When we checked the alignment, front camber was already maxed at 2.5 degrees; looks like there may be some extended ball joints in my future. I moved rear camber from 1.5 degrees up to 2 degrees to try to get a little more grip back there.
Good point. I had removed the safety guard because I had to do some work in a tight space; I’m glad I had the presence of mind to put it back on. My rule of thumb is that if the sparks are hitting me, I’m probably in harm’s way and need to adjust my plan.
Once I was using a table saw in my driveway. I had removed the splitter from the back of the blade. The work piece kicked back and went whizzing past my body, and stabbed right through my metal garage door like a spear. I learned an important lesson about power tools and safety equipment that day.
06-16-2018, 10:29 PM
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