GT Challenge Race May 15th
05-11-16, 09:28 AM
#1
Rotary Freak
Thread Starter
GT Challenge Race May 15th
All you rotarheads, we will be running the #23 RX7 again this Sunday in the 1 Hour GT Challenge Race at CTMP (Mosport). We have a more upgraded car as compared to last year as we have put the car on slicks (NA Carrera's), have a new TPS (old one was only going to 3/4 throttle) and a new gearbox with lower ratios in second and third to help develop more grunt out of the corners. It should be a blast and we will be trying to set a new personal best lap time in the car.
The race time is at 1:00 pm, just after lunch. This will allow you sleepyheads to sleep in, head out to the track, enjoy the race, see the car and get home before dinner. Oh yeah, here is a link for free tickets;
http://www.casc.on.ca/sites/default/...15_eticket.pdf
Come on out and support the last FC still racing, especially as it started its race career back in 1997. I have also heard that Mazdees is going to be bringing out their 13B Miata. Lots of noise and lots of flame. Should be a buzz.
Eric
The race time is at 1:00 pm, just after lunch. This will allow you sleepyheads to sleep in, head out to the track, enjoy the race, see the car and get home before dinner. Oh yeah, here is a link for free tickets;
http://www.casc.on.ca/sites/default/...15_eticket.pdf
Come on out and support the last FC still racing, especially as it started its race career back in 1997. I have also heard that Mazdees is going to be bringing out their 13B Miata. Lots of noise and lots of flame. Should be a buzz.
Eric
05-12-16, 06:55 AM
#2
Rotary Freak
Thread Starter
Great present yesterday. I had a delivery of black gooey slicks just in time for this weekend. The good people at NA Tires sent me up the first set of this year's race compound for me to try. They were an excellent tire last year and I can hardly wait to try out them out. I hope the weather is good enough for us to use them this weekend.
If anyone wants to learn more about the tires, you can go to their website at natiresusa . They were very durable and well priced. Also, I have a great co-driver this weekend in Malcolm Strachan and between the pair of us, someone should set a new fastest lap in the old reliable.
Eric
If anyone wants to learn more about the tires, you can go to their website at natiresusa . They were very durable and well priced. Also, I have a great co-driver this weekend in Malcolm Strachan and between the pair of us, someone should set a new fastest lap in the old reliable.
Eric
05-13-16, 06:06 PM
#4
Rotary Freak
Thread Starter
I have already run on them. They were good enough for the RX7 to hold first place overall for about 3 laps last fall in the 3 hour and hold the races fastest lap for almost 90 minutes until the Porsches, turbo Genesis and Subaru started to go better as the conditions dried out. They were also 2 seconds a lap faster on my Cougar.
We will see on Sunday.
Eric
05-16-16, 09:12 AM
#5
Rotary Freak
Thread Starter
So yesterday was miserable. It was between 1 and 4 degrees C. My mapping never was set up to run in that cold of temperatures and the car was coughing, snorting and bucking for 98% of the day. I was coughing out 8 to 10 foot flames at people and the plumes were lasting for seconds... It was very tough, but in the end so/so.
Details.... First, I could barely get the car to start. There we were with 2 cars in the race and only mine would start. Headed out for the combined Practice and Qualifying with snow flurries whipping around in the super strong super arctic gusts of wind. There was no traction. It was literally like driving on ice. I was able to spin my rears wherever and whenever I wanted to. Coming out of 5B in second, spin spin spin, cough, splutter, misfire, into 3rd, same all the way through and even into 4th. For someone who has driven the track, I was spinning the rears all the way up to the bridge going into 8. Stupid, stupid weather to try to go fast in. I even had my wiper on and it was pushing a slight amount of snow. Useless conditions and a just did 1 full lap and then came in. I checked the weather and it was only going to get up to about 4 degrees, so we decided to switch to the Toyo R888's as they are a street tire and may be able to generate some heat. Only problem was that my cambers and caster were set up for the NA Carrera's, so it was less than optimum for the Toyo's.
We worked and worked on the Cougar, but in the end and after changing 4,237 sparkplugs and trying everything, we gave up. Neither Cougar is mapped to start using race fuel when the temps are below 10 degrees C and we didn't want to keep trying stuff and potentially hurt the car. So only the RX7 it was.
The grid was small but very high quality. There were 13 cars in the race (I think). I was starting 9th and looking ahead, I could see that unless somebody broke down, 9th overall and 4th in GT4 is where I was going to finish. Lets see, there was a this years model of a Porsche 911 GT3 Supercup car, a 997 GT2, a 911 Cup version from 3 years ago, there was a V8 M3, a 944 Turbo with flares and slicks and all turned up to 11, a rotary Miata that is super well prepped and very very fast, an older 911 993 C2 car, a 3/4 Camry tube chassis stock car on slicks, running a big bore Yamaha 4 cylinder, myself, a Spec Miata, a CTCC Honda Civic, an ex Grand Am Camaro, my teammate Mark Clyde's Cougar and I think that's it. Looking at the grid, there were 5 cars in GT4 and I was going to have to be lucky to finish in the top 5, lol. Then the weather hit. First we lost the Camaro in Qualifying as it pounded the wall, my Teammate Mark just couldn't get his car to fire, so we started the race with 11 cars. To generate any heat in the motor, we taped off almost the complete front end of my car and that seemed to work well on the pace lap as the temps came up quickly, the car cleaned itself out and I was all like well maybe I can run with a couple of these guys, maybe.... Then coming up the back straight to get the green flag, my water temps had climbed up to 210 and oil was up to 200, so I dashed in to the pits and had the guys tear off a strip of tape and then took off to catch the field already half a lap behind.
By the third lap, my water temps were back to about 140 degrees (back on cold start enrichment and the sputtering and coughing and huge flames), my oil temps were in the 180 range, so that was good and I had caught and passed the Miata. The tires, with the less than optimum cambers, were really generating temps and I had decent grip, but they did have a slight vibration from the lack of toe. So I spent the first 20 minutes of the race trying to remember how to race the RX7 as it was the first time I had raced it at Mosport (CTMP) since 2013. I found out that it doesn't like to even touch the curbs, even a nibble would send it bounding for the outside of the track. My head was bouncing off the roll bar padding (I had forgotten about that), a ton of kick back through the wheel (my Cougar has power steering), but the new ratios in the gearbox were wonderful and really allowed the car to power out of 5B really well and out of 10 right in the power band. Turn 1 became a maybe 3rd gear and a shift 3/4 of the way through the corner or a quick shift into 4th before the corner and power through. All of these things will change if the car was running cleanly, so I really didn't care I just tried to go as quickly as possible, stay reliable and not hurt the car.
Shocking thing was that with a number of the cars, after they passed me on the back straight, I could stay with them and even catch them from 8 through to 5b. So the pig was doing its job handling wise, it was just the coughing and spitting and flameballs that were holding me back. Anyways, I had no idea where I was in the race Overall and in Class, so I just kept pushing as hard as I could for the whole 60 minutes. With 2 laps to go, I was passed by Russ Bond in the Toyota Camry Stock car and then I just kept things managed and finished the race without a fuss. So it turns out that the pass with 2 laps to go moved me back to 4th in class from 3rd. Disappointing, but honestly with the way the car was coughing and sputtering, I had nothing for him. I must have passed the Spec Miata about 5 times, but as there was nobody else in the race even close to my lap times, I think I finished in 10th place overall.
Best part was that the sun came out during our race and it was decent to load up and head home. Everything was in one piece and a trip to the chassis dyno ahead with a good tuner to cover for those low temp issues, plus trying to squeeze out a few more ponies and we should be golden. Thanks to Ian and Mark, plus the great guys at NA Tire, Wix and the race weekend organizers who had to stand out in the bitterly cold, snowy and rainy conditions.
Until next time or until I get some great shots and video from the weekend.
Eric
Details.... First, I could barely get the car to start. There we were with 2 cars in the race and only mine would start. Headed out for the combined Practice and Qualifying with snow flurries whipping around in the super strong super arctic gusts of wind. There was no traction. It was literally like driving on ice. I was able to spin my rears wherever and whenever I wanted to. Coming out of 5B in second, spin spin spin, cough, splutter, misfire, into 3rd, same all the way through and even into 4th. For someone who has driven the track, I was spinning the rears all the way up to the bridge going into 8. Stupid, stupid weather to try to go fast in. I even had my wiper on and it was pushing a slight amount of snow. Useless conditions and a just did 1 full lap and then came in. I checked the weather and it was only going to get up to about 4 degrees, so we decided to switch to the Toyo R888's as they are a street tire and may be able to generate some heat. Only problem was that my cambers and caster were set up for the NA Carrera's, so it was less than optimum for the Toyo's.
We worked and worked on the Cougar, but in the end and after changing 4,237 sparkplugs and trying everything, we gave up. Neither Cougar is mapped to start using race fuel when the temps are below 10 degrees C and we didn't want to keep trying stuff and potentially hurt the car. So only the RX7 it was.
The grid was small but very high quality. There were 13 cars in the race (I think). I was starting 9th and looking ahead, I could see that unless somebody broke down, 9th overall and 4th in GT4 is where I was going to finish. Lets see, there was a this years model of a Porsche 911 GT3 Supercup car, a 997 GT2, a 911 Cup version from 3 years ago, there was a V8 M3, a 944 Turbo with flares and slicks and all turned up to 11, a rotary Miata that is super well prepped and very very fast, an older 911 993 C2 car, a 3/4 Camry tube chassis stock car on slicks, running a big bore Yamaha 4 cylinder, myself, a Spec Miata, a CTCC Honda Civic, an ex Grand Am Camaro, my teammate Mark Clyde's Cougar and I think that's it. Looking at the grid, there were 5 cars in GT4 and I was going to have to be lucky to finish in the top 5, lol. Then the weather hit. First we lost the Camaro in Qualifying as it pounded the wall, my Teammate Mark just couldn't get his car to fire, so we started the race with 11 cars. To generate any heat in the motor, we taped off almost the complete front end of my car and that seemed to work well on the pace lap as the temps came up quickly, the car cleaned itself out and I was all like well maybe I can run with a couple of these guys, maybe.... Then coming up the back straight to get the green flag, my water temps had climbed up to 210 and oil was up to 200, so I dashed in to the pits and had the guys tear off a strip of tape and then took off to catch the field already half a lap behind.
By the third lap, my water temps were back to about 140 degrees (back on cold start enrichment and the sputtering and coughing and huge flames), my oil temps were in the 180 range, so that was good and I had caught and passed the Miata. The tires, with the less than optimum cambers, were really generating temps and I had decent grip, but they did have a slight vibration from the lack of toe. So I spent the first 20 minutes of the race trying to remember how to race the RX7 as it was the first time I had raced it at Mosport (CTMP) since 2013. I found out that it doesn't like to even touch the curbs, even a nibble would send it bounding for the outside of the track. My head was bouncing off the roll bar padding (I had forgotten about that), a ton of kick back through the wheel (my Cougar has power steering), but the new ratios in the gearbox were wonderful and really allowed the car to power out of 5B really well and out of 10 right in the power band. Turn 1 became a maybe 3rd gear and a shift 3/4 of the way through the corner or a quick shift into 4th before the corner and power through. All of these things will change if the car was running cleanly, so I really didn't care I just tried to go as quickly as possible, stay reliable and not hurt the car.
Shocking thing was that with a number of the cars, after they passed me on the back straight, I could stay with them and even catch them from 8 through to 5b. So the pig was doing its job handling wise, it was just the coughing and spitting and flameballs that were holding me back. Anyways, I had no idea where I was in the race Overall and in Class, so I just kept pushing as hard as I could for the whole 60 minutes. With 2 laps to go, I was passed by Russ Bond in the Toyota Camry Stock car and then I just kept things managed and finished the race without a fuss. So it turns out that the pass with 2 laps to go moved me back to 4th in class from 3rd. Disappointing, but honestly with the way the car was coughing and sputtering, I had nothing for him. I must have passed the Spec Miata about 5 times, but as there was nobody else in the race even close to my lap times, I think I finished in 10th place overall.
Best part was that the sun came out during our race and it was decent to load up and head home. Everything was in one piece and a trip to the chassis dyno ahead with a good tuner to cover for those low temp issues, plus trying to squeeze out a few more ponies and we should be golden. Thanks to Ian and Mark, plus the great guys at NA Tire, Wix and the race weekend organizers who had to stand out in the bitterly cold, snowy and rainy conditions.
Until next time or until I get some great shots and video from the weekend.
Eric
05-16-16, 07:36 PM
#6
Yup. Carted my boy out to lindsay for a motorcross race. Sat in a pop up tent with the dirtbikes outside watching the rain come in sideways. Could not put up any awnings or tents to block the rain. Too windy. This is two weekends of horrible cold and wet weather. Ditched the RX7 time attack effort and moved on to play with my son with dirt bikes. Gas is 1/100th the cost of running the rx7 
Post some pictures. Miss my old track days.
Post some pictures. Miss my old track days.
05-16-16, 08:03 PM
#7
Rotary Freak
Thread Starter
I should have pictures and maybe some video from the outside showing flames sometime soon. I used to race dirtbikes as well. My old Husqvarna, Suzuki and Hodaka days. Good times, but not the same with the passing of 2 strokes.
Eric
Eric
Trending Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post