GKP is messing with the "big" boyz now.

 

Wrenching sunday went well (it rained on Saturday). Thanks Eddie for all the help. I am ready for TM next week.

 

It was fun...Your car is great...Seafoam should really be called Seafog

 

See ya Saturday Suan! Weather will be great, chance of showers tomorrow.

 

Great day at WGI. Thanks for all the help to get open track qualified for TM. Great to see Eddie, schao, and finally meet up with Gary.

S-driver, Hope you made it home with the cracked rotors and broken end links. Those are some big a$$ tires you have on.

I decided not to do Sunday. Really nice day but after 3 1/2 hours of track time, along with some boost issues, and being sore all over, I thought it was better for me to take a relaxing drive home instead.

 

So what is next for everyone?

Choices are June 13 WGI longest day with patroon bmwcca or June 23 LRP with CART.

 

Made it home just fine, stayed off the brakes as much as possible! When I had to there sure was some rough noise and pedal feel!! Found out why the end of the end link was not in good shape... when the nut came off the bolt shifted up and contacted the wheel rim. I have a nice silvery worn groove on back edge of the rim.

I hope to make the CART event but no promises right now. I cleaned up the car and its now covered in the garage.

Will call and find out costs of new rotors and links.

Nice meeting you Eddie!

 

I'm going to be changing out my ALTA endlinks this week if you're interested.

 

Finally, perhaps an end to the clunker back end.

 

Looks like the new coils may have been good for the CVs. I checked them and they look fine after wgi.

I now have boost issues with it cutting out after about 30 minutes or so on the track. When you squeeze the accelerator, you get almost no acceleration even at 5000 rpm. Just hesitates. Do a lift and hit the throttle again and boost comes back. I looked around and tighten all the pipes and it was tight. Perhaps it could be the BOV? Any opinions?

 

Wow
Trackmasters are up there and tough...By the end of the 2 days I was was exiting turn 11 10 mph faster than the 1st day...80 at the exit cone and there was probably more to be had. ~125 mph top on both days...8 mph faster than last year (no engine mods ). This is the group to go to if you want to learn. My instructor was fantastic and he could make his Mini rip. I did find the novice group a little fustrating and was running up the back of other cars a lot. Although I had expected this and would just back off if there was a train ahead. Also, my instructor would have me practice things best done a slower speed like late entrances, trail braking and throttle steering. At Slinger's suggestion I also tried 5th for going thru the esses instead of shift to 5th between turns 3 and 4. As my speed increased thru turn 1 I would only downshifted to 4th instead of 3rd and went to 5th before turn 2. Not sure if it was faster as the plain "S" bogs down a little at lower RPM, but it was fun to try.

I am liking my car setup. The wheels were the crowning touch for the suspension. The slight reduction in offset seem to have changed the loading on the tires and I am no longer rolling them over on their sidewall. Tire wear was minimal but the grip would pull the wax out of your ears . The FSDs seem to be doing the job. Nice ride on the road and good control on the track. A little jittery going up the concrete in the toe under hard acceleration but that is probably expected. The Wilwoods and Carbos XP-10s were flawless. I am not sure I ever really got them up in temperature even though I did some heavy breaking for turn 1 and a few other turns .

And I have to say this: THE JCW RECARO SEATS ARE FANTASIC well worth the money.

Great to see the other Minis there...S-Driver, Slinger, Gary (well he does have GP right?)

Next for me is the BMW CCA longest day on 6/13... See you all there There should be a good group of Minis there. Be nice if VV would go too.

 

I'm assuming you will be moving over to the Intr group now??

 

Don't know...that was the one thing that my instructor didn’t say. He put me mostly in the intermediate category (I like their rating system) with some things like trailbraking and throttle steering were in the novice level, but that was my first try at them. He also marked me down for missing a few trackside things like a car that went off turn 1 (I took exception to that as he was way off and I was looking down the track; he didn’t buy it though). I plan to email Tony at TM about what I should do for their next event. I would really like to be in with the intermediates.

Glad to hear you made it home ok on the brakes. Any idea how close to the rotor was to min thickness? If they were relatively new, that would be a bummer.

 

Final check of my CVs shows they are good after OT at WGI. I am thinking one problem solved! Now I have intermitent boost issues to worry about. These cars are real fun off the track as well!

Just sign up for inter school. See what they say.

But I am glad you had fun and learned a few things on the way to being safe on the track. I hope to see you at wgi for the longest day June 13.

 

WOT after 1 into 2. At turn 2, when you shift to 5 th gear before the ess, you should be close to 3800=4000 rpm at 5 gear so no bogging down.

Surprised the instructor let you shift gears in the ess, even in the straighter spots. Most will tell you not to shift until past track out. So you will be redlining all the way there.

Hit 130+ mph at the end of the back straight.

 

All of Saturday I shifted in the esses, smooth as silk. Sunday I got sloppy and lazy on the shift and bobbled it a couple of times and he tried to talk me out of it. After lunch I got my act together and was back to smoooooth. No complaints from him. If I held it in 4th after that I would be at the rev limiter before I got straight again...for me, even worse.

I will have to look at my video, but I don't think I was that high in revs after shifting into 5th before the second turn. Still a little shy of WOT down that short stretch.

 

Go faster in turn 1. In turn 1, do a little turn to load the driver front tire then smoothly turn the rest of the way, when you unwind before Apex, WOT to Turn 2. You should be fine on 5 th gear w/o bogging.

 

... ...

 

My rotors are well within min thickness as they were new last year. Plenty of meat there...

For me....WOT throttle out of T1, shift into 4th at the end of the rumble strips drivers left, and into 5th just before turn in for T2. Otherwise I'd be on the limiter all the way up thru the esses or I'd have to feather the pedal. I sometimes shift between 3 & 4 but even then I'm feathering until I get to the little straight-a-way on the hill. My car does not accelerate up the esess at all, just maintaines about 100mph until coming out of T3.

When I went to my first Novice school my instructor put the kabash on shifting in the essess as well, even tho it was no big deal to me...

 

I would like to get those big a$$ 225 width tires that s-driver has. Feels like 245 to me. Then I can take T1 even faster.

Yep, my instructor also pu-pu my shifting in the ess.

Those 997 GT3 cups cars were awfullly fast in those esses.

 

Do you know what the min thickness is for you Wilwood rotors?

Went and looked over my video and it looks like I am hitting about 100 mph between turns 3 & 4. I feel pretty good about managing that. I've been watching the video Gary took of you a few years back. My speeds in a number of turns are similar to what the first lap shows - his 968 rips after that. It is hard to tell where and why I am slower - just trying to learn. I am doing about a 2:40 lap with an instructor on board. Must say, my instructor was good about letting me shift where I wanted.

I found another good mini video. Show a really nice 3rd to 4th to 5th shifts between turns 1 and 2. A really fast car too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Vqw...eature=related

 

Ehhhhh.....don't believe that speedo display. It is most likely off a little

That video of Gary following me is painful to watch! Its so slow from that vantage point. I'm on street tires then and the purpose was just to get some video but in the end because he's a little behind it seems ridiculous. His car at the time was capable of 2:12 lap times so he was being kind and hanging back...

I got your PM and will respond tonight. Right now I'm at work and its a pain on this phone typing that much..

 

Anybody planning on Lime Rock with NASA on Monday, June 6th?

 

The whole thing looks fast to me. He did a 2:23 lap while behind you. My video is painfully slow by comparison Gray's 2nd lap was a 2:20 by the data logger; not too bad. He was was ripping through some of the turns. However, I was also looking at his line to see if there was anything I could take away from it.

With what has turned into a very expensive pet, I am limited on what I can do...not this one, but I will do LRP later this season. I am doing WGI on the 13th.

 

VV seems like some of us are still having car trouble so will not be sure when we will be out again. The one with a good car seems to have had some $$$ pet trouble.

Let me see how long I am working and what I can do to free up my schedule.