Thanks Niles, how's your season going so far?

Thanks! Heading to VIR this weekend with Fritz and Pete so I should have some new video posted in the next week.

 

Waiting for the new coilovers to come in. Do you think I need them? Check out that lean!



And a few more:

Pete and I creepin:

 

I obviously won... haha

 

Looking good! Did you have a lap timer in the car? What time difference did you see?

 

I did, but the tires on the front of the car were 6 years old(really really bad push) and I still have my old coilovers on while I wait for the new ones... plus it was 90 degrees compared to prob. 40ish back in October... so I was taking it easy feeling the car out. I was running 2:11's quite a bit. I think once I put the Penske's and the new rubber on in some cooler weather, it's going to be a low 2 car at VIR.

 

Lookin' good Brent

What alignment settings are you running?

 

Thanks Rich! I'm around -2.5 all around for camber and around 5.5ish on caster. Toe is -.08 front and .10ish rear. I won't be taking any pyrometer readings until I get the coilovers on.

I'm actually not instructing at the NASA event in June at Road Atlanta so that I can hopefully focus on setting the car up since I've changed a good bit since last season. Hoping I can use that extra time I have to my advantage. I'll have to talk some of the track homies into coming down to the pits to take my tire temps.

 

Nice pictures and those are some tasty lean shots you have going on

Locate the "do you have lean" thread and bump that baby with some fresh photos.

 

I love this thing Brent. I smile every time I see you on track. You were part of the inspiration for the one I got.

 

Guys.... Lego, who posted above and is owner of www.trackdecal.com (most famously known for the decals of the actual track layout) just picked up a sick LS2 FC track car! Look forward to seeing you at the track soon! You going to make it to RA in a couple of weeks? Can't wait to see the new car!!!

 

Wow the traction must be nice

 

Really fun weekend at Road Atlanta. A good bit of RX-7's and RX-8's. Saturday went well and I took 1st place in TTS with a time of 1:35.4 in the first session of the day. The car had more, but I was working my way into the new set up and feeling it out. My new coilovers didn't come in so I was way undersprung. This was also my first time at Road Atlanta in 7 months. I wanted a 1:33 so I decided to save my tires for the 1st morning session on Sunday morning.



Sunday the track God's made me work for my Ho Ho. First session out was the only session I was going to be able to make my goal of 1:33. So as I am pulling onto grid, another car is in my spot(3rd overall) so I just go ahead and pull into the 1 spot since I figure A.R isn't running since we are less than 1 minute out. I yell at Mark Nunally to let him know to pass me when we go out, but he says don't worry about it. Nothing but clean track, air, and opportunity. So after the warm up lap I take off and am doing my usual 85%ish lap before I do a couple as hard as I can(normally my 3rd lap is the fastest). As I am going down the back straight, I bang 3rd gear off the reve limiter(new traqmate dash is reading half the rpms... at 6000rpm's, it reading 3000rpm's)... I knew better. It walked the serpentine belt and cut my upper radiator hose spewing water onto my windshield. I back off a little, cross the start/finish line and am met with a black flag. I was expecting it since I knew I had a little water coming onto my windshield...

I pull into the black flag station and he informs me that my transponder isn't working. f@#k... I forgot to put it on. That lap was a 1:38 according to the traqmate and would have been good enough for 1st in TTS if I would of had my transponder on the car. I pull in and wait for the next session of the day. I will now have to grid last since I didn't get a time in the first session.

The second session I try to go out last. I wanted to sand bag on the back straight and try to get 20-30 seconds behind me and the last car. Didn't happen. I had a couple cars pull behind me and could not get them to pass. F@#k it, lets have some fun and carve through some traffic. Man of man, what a fun session, I was passing people everywhere. I passed a guy on the outside of 10a, in the esses, turn 5, etc... I was having an absolute ball and was really excited to see the video later. I was running low 1:40's with traffic and maybe a 39. Well, as I was just about to turn into turn 7, I hear a POP, and as I turn in, the car snaps to the right/inside of the turn. I cut the wheels left and only ended up spinning half way around(thanks to alot of luck)... which put me sitting backwards in the middle of the track staring right at a C5 Corvette. After a few cars dodged me, I was able to work my way behind one of the walls so the session wouldn't have to end early. In the process, an MR2(I think) came around the turn and went off track as I was trying to get out of the way. He drove right back on though. Soooooo, I drive the car off to the inside after the session is over and getting the go ahead from the corner worker... next to the skidpad. The tow truck driver gave me a lift back to the paddock. I grabbed one of my other wheels/tires and my jack and put them in the bed of my truck and went back to change it. Not real sure what caused it. It could of been rubbing on something in the fender well, but I doubt it. My other 17in A6 on the passenger side have no marks/grooves. I also checked my tires yesterday afternoon and their was nothing. My 18in tires are the exact same dimensions as the 17's and they also have no marks/grooves on them after 3-4 days at the track on them. I think I prob. hit some debris on the track. Once again, I was thinking that I'd like to see the video and see what happens.


You can't keep a good man down... or I'm too stupid to quit. I threw my 6 year old R6's back on in the heat of the day and prob. sweat out a gallon of water in the process and had just enough time to throw my suit back on and drive the next session. I almost sat it out because I thought I might need to rest after sweating so much and not eating lunch yet, but I wanted to have some reaction time(aka the next session) if something happened and I didn't get my time that session. Once again, I went out at the back of the pack and fought through traffic. I made a conscious effort to slow down since I was going from a really sticky set of tires to a not so sticky set of tires. I was keeping my eye on my speedo/time on the traqmate I only needed to beat a 1:42.4 to get first. After a couple of laps of pacing I got a 1:42.2. I went and got the timing sheet for the session to confirm the time and to confirm the other guy hadn't picked up any time. Back in first... and let me tell you... that was the most hard earned TT "lap" I've ever ran... haha. So I ended up getting first today by the skin of my teeth, but at this point I'll take it any which way I can get it. We had 6 in class again today so we were one shy of getting 2 hoosiers for 1st place. I'm good with 1 though.

So back to the video... I picked up the traqdash this weekend. I talked to the traqmate representative at the track as he was there with discovery parts and he told me that I just needed to put my camera into standby and when the traqmate starts timing, the camera will start recording... not the case and I don't have any video's from today because of it. Really bummed about that. I was really looking forward to editing video's this week My video's from yesterday didn't really turn out either. I'm going to have to play with this stuff between now and VIR next month so it's good to go.

Big thanks as always to Dan(Chadwick) at TweakIt for installing my new accusump after my old one was recently damaged and mounting my tires for me on a ridiculous time line.

Just talked to Matt at Penske and my coilovers are starting to come together and should be done soon if Indy Car teams will stop calling... I'm the low man on the totem pole.

I'm hoping before the UTCC to have the Penske's on, a new front splitter, maybe a rear diffuser, and the fire suppression system installed. I'll prob. have some pictures soon as well.

 

Congrats on wins and sorry to hear about the tire.

A 33 should be no problem especially w/ those Penskes mounted

 

A couple of new things:

Penske 8665 Coilovers:


New Traqdash from Traqmate(was able to get one of the first 100):







traqmate HD to overlay my data onto HD video:

 

And a couple more of the Penske's(more info on them later):

 

all those parts are awesome. The more I look at track car builds, the more I want one.

 

So a little information on my Penske 8665 Racing Shocks. These were built at Penske Racing Shocks in PA by Matt(who is an FD owner). The 8665 is a pretty neat little damper. It is what alot of the Rolex/Grand Am cars run and is the same shaft that is run on the high end stuff like Indy Car. It is a triple adjustable shock that all adjustments are on the top side of the car opposed to others where some adjustments are located on the bottom of the shock. Low speed compression and rebound(30 clicks of adjustment) are on the top of the shaft and high speed compression(14 clicks of adjustment) is located on the external reservoir. My starting spring rates are 900F and 750R. We'll see how they feel and adjust from there.

Two adjuster ***** on shaft:

Reservoir adjustment:


My Shock Dyno Sheet:


Bottom Mounts:


Brake box out of the car awaiting the new one to be installed:


Making a new dash due to the old one being damaged:


Trying to get a few things done to the car before the Grassroots Ultimate Track Car Challenge in a few weeks. I'm hoping to get a front splitter on the car before then as well. Week after that is a Chin Motorsports event at Road Atlanta that I'm going to be hopefully dialing in the suspension and getting some practice in. The week after Chin is NASA Road Atlanta. After that, moving to TX and heading back overseas immediately most likely.

 

Had alot going on the last few weeks, but found a little time to get to the shop.

Today Dan worked on re-installing the pedal assembly and fabricating new hard lines that go to the brake and clutch remote reservoirs.

My pedal box was waaay out of adjustment and I was not comfortable with it once it was out of the car and we could observe it function. Dan called tilton and found the newer model that has some revisions done and appears to be a much better design.

How they mount in the car:


in the car, the pedals look nicer as well. Have to add an extension to the brake pedal to be able to heel/toe most likely.

Part number:


hardline bracket:

With lines:


with the soft lines before, they were always a pain to get bled due to always having high/low points that fluctuate. The hard lines are a way to make a linear drop from the external reservoir to the master cylinder reservoir.

I did little things most of the day like change spark plugs, beat out the sharp edge on my rear fender well, etc...

Also received my amsoil shipment. I'll be changing out the fluids in the next day or two. Pictures are for my reference so I can remember what I put in and when I changed it.



Greddy diff cover and diff cradle are on. Here's the greddy cover:


New Hawk brake pads came in. Thanks Hawk and Andrew Racing!


Rollbar reservoir mounts for the Penske's:


Penske shaft size in mm's:

 

Awesome build Brent!

Quick question, what was your reason for choosing the stock rear end with the Greddy cover and brace (also which brace is that?) instead of going with the Cobra 8.8?

I am setting my car up for similar duties and have been on the fence about the rear end.

 

I like the characteristics of the stock diff. I haven't really found another one that feels that good for track stuff. The greddy covers allows an extra quart of fluid which will help it run a little cooler. It's also already tapped for a diff cooler if I decide to add one. Bill Lackey with the dry sumped LS1(450ish rwhp) melted the bearings in his last year during a race. Mine has been fine so far.

The cradle is just a little extra protection. TweakIt makes a cradle and is currently doing a group buy on it here: https://www.rx7club.com/group-buy-center-69/tweakit-racing-differential-brace-952898/ PFS makes one as well.

 

DROOL. The Penske's look awesome!

 

Thanks Pat!

 

Here's a video from the Chin event the weekend before Road Atlanta playing with one of my track buddies in his C5:

Soooooo... Road Atlanta with NASA-SE on Aug 6-7.

We have 10 cars in my class and a little over 50 on grid(that means 50 cars on track at the same time). There are a couple of guys in my class that I think are going to be a handful. One of them is my buddy Alex in a 996 GT3 that is really well set up suspension wise and he is an incredible driver. The other is David White, who is a pro grand am driver for bimmerworld, and is driving a purpose built M3 that is built by Randy Mueller.

First session out on Saturday is the warm up session, I have some pretty old tires on and manage to run a 1:35.1 with traffic. That puts me 3rd overall, and P1 in my class. The next session out is the money session as it's not going to get any cooler(about 90 degrees outside by this point). I had changed tires to a better set, went out a session with my student, and then suited back up and jumped in my car dripping with sweat. We get out on track and one of my Corvette buddies is in front of me. We are moving pretty well and on pace for a 1:32 when he blows turn 5 and gets out of shape. I back out of it to give him plenty of room. He recovers and we both continue on. I ran a 1:33.6. He came over after the session and apologized a dozen times about messing up my lap. Really not a big deal. It's part of it and I'm sure I've done the same to him on more than one occasion. It just so happened my GT3 buddy was with us in the paddock as well talking. We get the time sheet and he ran a 1:33.4... he kindly thanks my Corvette friend for messing up my lap and giving him the lead I went back out a couple more sessions and tried to get my time down, but with the heat, around 100 by this time, everybody's lap times were going up. That ended up sticking. In my class Alex in the GT3 ran a 1:33.4 for 1st, I ran a 1:33.6 for 2nd, and David in the BMW ran a 1:33.8 for 3rd. Always good to have some really close times!

I hit the awards ceremony and dinner, drink a couple of beers, head back to the paddock and sit around with a bunch of friends and tell lies and drink a couple more. Earlier in the evening I had put a set of sticker Hoosiers on(always the fastest when they are stickers) for first thing Sunday morning. Since we didn't have a warm up session on Sunday, the first session is a timed session. It would be significantly cooler(75-80 degrees). The cooler air and sticker tires, I knew I had a 1:32 and my mind was telling me a 1:31. I made one final check before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep.

As I'm heading to the track Sunday morning, it's starting to sprinkle. I go to the driver's meeting, the instructor meeting, and the TT meeting. I do one final check on the car and head to grid. I finished 4th overall the day before out of the 50 car field so I'm sitting in a good spot on the grid to not hit any traffic for a couple of laps. I have a very well prepped C6Z, a GTR race car, and a GT3 in front of me. We go out on track and run our warm up lap. We come down the hill full song and take the green flag... to be greeted by a waving yellow in turn 1. A 350z had forgot to latch his hood(honest mistake) and as soon as he pulled out on track it flew up. The caution turned into a full course caution. We stayed under a full course caution for 3 laps. When we finally went green again, we had already caught the slow cars and had very thick traffic. We only got 2 green laps. No one got a clean lap. Oh well, so much for the sticker tires and cooler weather. If that wasn't enough, in one of the 2 green laps, I ripped my shift **** off and it went flying. :P

The next session I go out and run a 1:33.6 again. However, that was with engine trouble on the back straight. I had lost power towards the end of the back straight(turn 9) and carried it all the way through turn 12 and across the line for that 1:33. It def. would have been a 1:32, but it was not meant to be. That ended my day. I ended up with several 1:33's throughout the course of the weekend. Here's a couple of laps from one of the sessions playing with a GTR with alot more hp than me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFY00PAK_Ps#ws

So the aftermath:


So, I pulled the valve covers a week or so ago before I took the car out of the trailer and found this:


Valve was still in the hole so I was hoping I might get lucky.

I found all parts:


The root cause of everything was the roller shaft breaking on the rocker(pictured above). Which caused this:


and this:


The good news is that there was no damage done to the block. I can basically pick up a set of pistons and another set of cheap heads and be up and going if I so choose. Not sure if that's the direction I'm going to go though. Looking at all my options currently. Giving some serious thought to a LS2 or LS3. I'm looking into possibly getting an engine that is going to make a ridiculous amount of torque that I can choke the hp down in. I have plenty of time to figure it out.

Spent the rest of the day just messing around at the shop hanging out. Dan and Brian were on the dyno getting the car ready for Nationals in a couple of weeks:


Brian painted a bunch of stuff this morning, to include Dan's hood... and cleared all the new carbon fiber parts our friend Jason made for his S2000:

Rear 1/4:


Trunk:

 

Long time no post by a former 3rd gen track guy (sold it to Fritz) and NASA instructor:
Brent I was at Road Atlanta doing TT in my Lotus Elise that weekend and I came by to chat but you must have been out with a student or something. As you said, it sure was hard to get a clean lap in TT that weekend - that was my first time at Road Atlanta and between the yellow flags and cancelled session I felt like I was just starting to learn the place... on Sunday afternoon! I was also in TTS but only starting to get up to speed: http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottKnott?feature=mhee#p/u so I'm glad I was at least able to help you guys win some tires ;-)

Anyway you were looking good out there and it made me wish I had just done a V8 conversion to my FD. That would have saved me the headaches of dealing with heat issues with my PFS setup. So now I deal with heat issues on my supercharged Lotus instead. Haha I suppose it never ends. Hopefully I'll see you at another NASA event - I'm down in Florida during the winter and do a bunch of Mid-Atlantic NASA and other TT's and rallies in the summer. (see my racing website below for pictures, videos, mods, etc.)

 

great vids, bumer about the motor :-(