Tested at Shannonville Yesterday
Thread Starter
Rotary Freak
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,199
Likes: 9
From: Oakville, Ontario
Tested at Shannonville Yesterday
After a long wnter, I took the wee beasty out to Shannonville Monday for a test. Dave and I had done a few things to eliminate the detonation we had suffered at Mosport last fall and we were kinda eager to see what would happen.
Things we changed;
- built a cold air system pulling from the front of the car
- heat shielding between the header and intake
- ran the car on premium unleaded
Thats it!!!! We didn't think anything else was needed.
Fired up the car when we got to the track (that in itself was a great start based on previous history). Took a lap warming everything up and as I came out on to the front straight I nailed it. Some small stumbling, but after 7,000 it just totally woke up. Backed off through 1 and hit it again in 3rd. Super strong pull, very turbo like. The car had good power and decent torque, but I had to keep the revs up to get rid of the stumbling. Coming out of the hairpin, I was able to drive around the BMW's and Honda's pretty easy. I came into the pits to make some final adjustments. We took a look at the mapping and adjusted the lower end air fuels, bumped the timing back up to 22 degrees below 5,000 rpm and filled it back up.
In my continuing desire for openness, I need to tell you that I really don't like Shannonville Long Track. Its really fiddly and most of the track is between gears in the stock box. The track rewards good tires and torque. It requires very little in the way of cojones, but does require finess like a Solo 2 event. There were a ton of street cars out there lapping (Samson must have had a great day $$$$ wise) so it was hard to get clean laps. The tires I was running on the car were 6 years old and met the definition of stones. They would only soften the outside 1/16th" of the tread and it was slide slide slide in the corners.
So I went out to see if we could run an hour on a tank of fuel. The timing and fueling changes really helped. The car was extremely flexible with the ability to pull from 4,000 rpm at full and partial throttle in 3rd. It just flat out screamed at higher rpm. A couple of times I just smoked the rears off the car coming out of some of the tighter corners and even though I shifted as fast as I could, Dave gave me **** for pulling over 9800 rpm out of it going down into turn 2. The car just wanted to rev to the moon and I should have pulled 4th, but it would have been a quick up and back down and really unbalance the car. We ran the car for about half an hour relatively hard, about 75%, but we were limited by the rock hard tires (the would lock going into any corner under braking) and the huge amount of traffic. I have to admit, it was fun smoking by NSX's, BMW's and Vettes, but they were street cars and I was forced to let off on almost every lap to not clobber somebody. Even so the times we were pulling were very good and right in the middle of the GT4 bracket. The mph's were extremely good and we left with a few to do's before we race the car.
So the to do's are as follows;
1) NEW TIRES. The ons I have for this car are just too old for any grip. They make great lapping tires as they dont wear, but they leave a lot to be desired for racing.
2) Increase the timing back to normal levels. We were still running 18 degrees above 5,000 rpm and we had no indication of detonation so we will creep up on it fom here.
3) The substantially increased power, means we really need to improve the suspension. Dave and I are going to put the 3 way adjustables on the car before its first race. The car was bouncing over every bump and we just don't have enough ride control.
4) NEW TIRES, I can't say this enough. I was leaving streaks under braking, lines under acceleration and the car was pushing and oversteering everywhere.
Until next time.
Eric
Things we changed;
- built a cold air system pulling from the front of the car
- heat shielding between the header and intake
- ran the car on premium unleaded
Thats it!!!! We didn't think anything else was needed.
Fired up the car when we got to the track (that in itself was a great start based on previous history). Took a lap warming everything up and as I came out on to the front straight I nailed it. Some small stumbling, but after 7,000 it just totally woke up. Backed off through 1 and hit it again in 3rd. Super strong pull, very turbo like. The car had good power and decent torque, but I had to keep the revs up to get rid of the stumbling. Coming out of the hairpin, I was able to drive around the BMW's and Honda's pretty easy. I came into the pits to make some final adjustments. We took a look at the mapping and adjusted the lower end air fuels, bumped the timing back up to 22 degrees below 5,000 rpm and filled it back up.
In my continuing desire for openness, I need to tell you that I really don't like Shannonville Long Track. Its really fiddly and most of the track is between gears in the stock box. The track rewards good tires and torque. It requires very little in the way of cojones, but does require finess like a Solo 2 event. There were a ton of street cars out there lapping (Samson must have had a great day $$$$ wise) so it was hard to get clean laps. The tires I was running on the car were 6 years old and met the definition of stones. They would only soften the outside 1/16th" of the tread and it was slide slide slide in the corners.
So I went out to see if we could run an hour on a tank of fuel. The timing and fueling changes really helped. The car was extremely flexible with the ability to pull from 4,000 rpm at full and partial throttle in 3rd. It just flat out screamed at higher rpm. A couple of times I just smoked the rears off the car coming out of some of the tighter corners and even though I shifted as fast as I could, Dave gave me **** for pulling over 9800 rpm out of it going down into turn 2. The car just wanted to rev to the moon and I should have pulled 4th, but it would have been a quick up and back down and really unbalance the car. We ran the car for about half an hour relatively hard, about 75%, but we were limited by the rock hard tires (the would lock going into any corner under braking) and the huge amount of traffic. I have to admit, it was fun smoking by NSX's, BMW's and Vettes, but they were street cars and I was forced to let off on almost every lap to not clobber somebody. Even so the times we were pulling were very good and right in the middle of the GT4 bracket. The mph's were extremely good and we left with a few to do's before we race the car.
So the to do's are as follows;
1) NEW TIRES. The ons I have for this car are just too old for any grip. They make great lapping tires as they dont wear, but they leave a lot to be desired for racing.
2) Increase the timing back to normal levels. We were still running 18 degrees above 5,000 rpm and we had no indication of detonation so we will creep up on it fom here.
3) The substantially increased power, means we really need to improve the suspension. Dave and I are going to put the 3 way adjustables on the car before its first race. The car was bouncing over every bump and we just don't have enough ride control.
4) NEW TIRES, I can't say this enough. I was leaving streaks under braking, lines under acceleration and the car was pushing and oversteering everywhere.
Until next time.
Eric
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 4,001
Likes: 379
From: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Good to hear testing went pretty well.
As you said, tires is extremely important. I think some people throw out tires that have sat 3 months, let alone 6yrs old.
It'd be great to see the car in action sometime at Mosport.
As you said, tires is extremely important. I think some people throw out tires that have sat 3 months, let alone 6yrs old.
It'd be great to see the car in action sometime at Mosport.
Thread Starter
Rotary Freak
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,199
Likes: 9
From: Oakville, Ontario
Eric
Your car may not be set up for this track or maybe they don't allow race cars but I did 275km at DDT mosport this sunday with http://www.clubonetwonine.com/. Only 20 people in this full day event. Alot of track time.
Glad to hear you had a good day.
http://www.clubonetwonine.com/?page_id=56
Glad to hear you had a good day.
http://www.clubonetwonine.com/?page_id=56
Hey, glad to see the car was doing well. We had that conversation in the paddock area. I ended up going out for a few more sessions in my friend's BMW, it was a good day for the track!
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