Slow old poop
15+ Year Contributor
- 707
- 7
- Jul 24, 2005
-
Cedar Rapids,
Iowa
Quick summary:
1st in TTB on Saturday
Broke on Sunday (15-cent part)
Passed nearly everybody on a wet track
Went almost as fast as the car can go: 6500 rpm in 5th gear
Beat the guy who came in 2nd in TTB at the Nationals
Very bad news: S2000s will be in TTB next year
An incredible weekend!
It rained much of the time, snowed a little, and the track was so cold the tires would barely warm up by the end of a session, but the Eclipse got through it with flying colors.
It took all season of breaking things, coming in on the hook, and going home on the trailer, but my fantastic crew perservered and refused to give up hope.
We finally saw the potential of the DSM platform. In short, a DSM is a legitimate contender in TTB against M3s, M Coupes, various Corvettes, and assorted other platforms. For me, it was a complete success.
SATURDAY
Cold and wet. The first two sessions were on a wet track, where we just danced around, exploring the limits of traction, and tuning the Apexi for increased boost (18 psi). Finally, the track dried out enough, so I ran without my 230 lb tuner, "LIttle Dan" (Mike the Mechanic refuses to ride with me any more until I fix the roll cage, but Dan has no fear, or maybe no sense).
We turned a 2:42.xxx, fastest in TTB by three seconds and fifth fastest in the TT/HPDE4 group.
Then the rain came, in buckets. I called the team together--Mike, Brent and Dan-- and we had a strategy session. Should I go out again? I have the class win, and nobody is going to beat it in the rain. Mike correctly pointed out that I had little to gain by going out, and much to lose. What if some wonker T-bones me under braking in the rain? I'd be out of contention for Sunday. The forecast on Sunday was for more rain.
James the Fabricator (UnderRadar) came up from Milwaukee to spectate and lend support, and offered to drive back home to get me a set of rain tires for Sunday (street tires on Evo wheels). I accepted his kind offer.
So we packed it in, headed back to the hotel for a nap, and went to the NASA party/award ceremony later that night.
At the awards ceremony, they announced a "fantastic battle for the TTB win, with 1st and 2nd separated by only one-tenth of a second!" Say what? How could that be?
Turns out that the car that won TTC (a Corvette), declared himself in TTB and moved into my class to take second place. I still had 1st, but only by 0.1 sec instead of 3 sec. Before we figured out what actually happened, we speculated like crazy: Why would somebody give up a TTC win to take 2nd in TTB? In the process of figuring all this out, we discovered "NASA's Dumbest Rule": Any car can move up in class at any time. At Autobahn, earlier this summer, the car who came in 2nd in TTC saw that his time would win TTB, so he declared himself in TTB after the race!
The TTC Corvette declared himself in TTB because, being an honest guy, he discovered that adding superwide tires for this weekend added more points, and bumped him out of C into B. Nobody would have known, but this is a classy guy with 15,000 road race miles under his belt and 35 years of experience on the track, so he did the Right Thing.
SUNDAY
We stepped out of the hotel to see snow on the ground, bitterly cold, and howling winds. But no rain. It apparently blew through during the night.
The track was wet, so we had to choose between James' street tires or the Toyo Prox slicks. The team's opinion was that street tires don't hydroplane as much as slicks, but they don't warm up. The Proxes may hydroplane a little, but they will eventually get warm and sticky. So we went out on the slicks.
In the first session, we set 2nd fastest time, beaten only by the S2000 running on Hoosier rain tires. We passed almost everyone in our run group, including TTR, TTU, TTA and all the other classes, and lapped at least one car. More boost! Mike cranked it to 20 psi.
In the 2nd session, on a gradually drying track, we set fastest time in TTB by a fraction over that white Corvette. More boost! Mike cranked the boost controller another quarter turn.
Oops! Brent discovered a cracked brake rotor. Now what?
The strategy for running on a very cold track, I learned, is to use the first four laps to heat up the tires, and go for a hot lap near the end of a session. So I decided to run 4 easy laps to heat the tires but go easy on the braking, and then try for one or two hot laps. With luck, the Stoptech rotor would hold up for two more hot laps.
On lap five, I turned up the wick. 140 mph into Turns 1, 5 and 12, passing two or three cars at a time, but there was too much traffic for a really good lap. Coming into 12, I was in a pack of cars, and spotted a telltale cloud of blue smoke as I went past them onto the front straight. Was that me?
Yes indeed, it was me. I saw the big blue cloud of death whilst braking into 5, so I went straight off the track onto the exit road.
Turns out we broke the oil line from the oil pressure sending unit to the gauge. The crew decided we could fix it if we could find some teeny tiny 15-cent part at a hardware store in nearby Plymouth, so Mike and Dan took off in the truck while Brent disassembled everything. Alas, such a part was not to be found on a Sunday afternoon, so we packed it in and came home. The white Corvette took TTB when we retired.
NOTES
One of the cars I beat on Saturday was the S2000 Honda that won TTC and came in second in TTB at the Nationals (he ran in two classes). So the good news is that I beat the car that took 2nd place in TTB at the nationals. The bad news is that S2000s will be reclassified into TTB in 2007. This particular S2000 is wicked fast, and most likely will be the car to beat next year in TTB.
No more boost. Although Mike cranked the boost, we could not get it above 20 psi. We had zero knock running on race gas, so we could have run 23 or 25 psi. James suggested that maybe my stock blowoff valve is venting, keeping me from getting more boost.
More tire. I've been running 235/40 Toyo Prox RA-1s, which are not enough tire to compete with the S2000 and the Corvette, both of whom are running superwide Hoosiers. It was most obvious in the Carousel -- a long, constant radius righthander -- where they would both eat me up. The Toyos would wash out in the front when pushed to the limit, but the S2000 and Corvette would just scream through that corner. I am thinking of going to Hoosiers next year. ($1,000 a set! Ouch!)
Rain Tires. The DSM platform is awesome in the rain, and would be even more so with a set of rain tires. Not street tires, mind you, but real rain tires. If the budget permits, I may have to get a set (Hoosier rain tires are another $1,000 a set. Ouch again!).
Better brakes. I cracked yet another Stoptech rotor. This makes four rotors so far. Gotta do something about the brakes. Maybe a rear-brake upgrade.
Taller gears. We were pulling 6500-6700 rpm in 5th gear on the straights, or about 140 mph. Mike the Mechanic has me red-lined at 6500 rpm because of the stroker motor, so I guess this means we have to install a "highway" 5th gear to get a higher top speed.
When Brent develops the film in his digital camera (or whatever he does), he'll post some pix.
Rich
.
1st in TTB on Saturday
Broke on Sunday (15-cent part)
Passed nearly everybody on a wet track
Went almost as fast as the car can go: 6500 rpm in 5th gear
Beat the guy who came in 2nd in TTB at the Nationals
Very bad news: S2000s will be in TTB next year
An incredible weekend!
It rained much of the time, snowed a little, and the track was so cold the tires would barely warm up by the end of a session, but the Eclipse got through it with flying colors.
It took all season of breaking things, coming in on the hook, and going home on the trailer, but my fantastic crew perservered and refused to give up hope.
We finally saw the potential of the DSM platform. In short, a DSM is a legitimate contender in TTB against M3s, M Coupes, various Corvettes, and assorted other platforms. For me, it was a complete success.
SATURDAY
Cold and wet. The first two sessions were on a wet track, where we just danced around, exploring the limits of traction, and tuning the Apexi for increased boost (18 psi). Finally, the track dried out enough, so I ran without my 230 lb tuner, "LIttle Dan" (Mike the Mechanic refuses to ride with me any more until I fix the roll cage, but Dan has no fear, or maybe no sense).
We turned a 2:42.xxx, fastest in TTB by three seconds and fifth fastest in the TT/HPDE4 group.
Then the rain came, in buckets. I called the team together--Mike, Brent and Dan-- and we had a strategy session. Should I go out again? I have the class win, and nobody is going to beat it in the rain. Mike correctly pointed out that I had little to gain by going out, and much to lose. What if some wonker T-bones me under braking in the rain? I'd be out of contention for Sunday. The forecast on Sunday was for more rain.
James the Fabricator (UnderRadar) came up from Milwaukee to spectate and lend support, and offered to drive back home to get me a set of rain tires for Sunday (street tires on Evo wheels). I accepted his kind offer.
So we packed it in, headed back to the hotel for a nap, and went to the NASA party/award ceremony later that night.
At the awards ceremony, they announced a "fantastic battle for the TTB win, with 1st and 2nd separated by only one-tenth of a second!" Say what? How could that be?
Turns out that the car that won TTC (a Corvette), declared himself in TTB and moved into my class to take second place. I still had 1st, but only by 0.1 sec instead of 3 sec. Before we figured out what actually happened, we speculated like crazy: Why would somebody give up a TTC win to take 2nd in TTB? In the process of figuring all this out, we discovered "NASA's Dumbest Rule": Any car can move up in class at any time. At Autobahn, earlier this summer, the car who came in 2nd in TTC saw that his time would win TTB, so he declared himself in TTB after the race!
The TTC Corvette declared himself in TTB because, being an honest guy, he discovered that adding superwide tires for this weekend added more points, and bumped him out of C into B. Nobody would have known, but this is a classy guy with 15,000 road race miles under his belt and 35 years of experience on the track, so he did the Right Thing.
SUNDAY
We stepped out of the hotel to see snow on the ground, bitterly cold, and howling winds. But no rain. It apparently blew through during the night.
The track was wet, so we had to choose between James' street tires or the Toyo Prox slicks. The team's opinion was that street tires don't hydroplane as much as slicks, but they don't warm up. The Proxes may hydroplane a little, but they will eventually get warm and sticky. So we went out on the slicks.
In the first session, we set 2nd fastest time, beaten only by the S2000 running on Hoosier rain tires. We passed almost everyone in our run group, including TTR, TTU, TTA and all the other classes, and lapped at least one car. More boost! Mike cranked it to 20 psi.
In the 2nd session, on a gradually drying track, we set fastest time in TTB by a fraction over that white Corvette. More boost! Mike cranked the boost controller another quarter turn.
Oops! Brent discovered a cracked brake rotor. Now what?
The strategy for running on a very cold track, I learned, is to use the first four laps to heat up the tires, and go for a hot lap near the end of a session. So I decided to run 4 easy laps to heat the tires but go easy on the braking, and then try for one or two hot laps. With luck, the Stoptech rotor would hold up for two more hot laps.
On lap five, I turned up the wick. 140 mph into Turns 1, 5 and 12, passing two or three cars at a time, but there was too much traffic for a really good lap. Coming into 12, I was in a pack of cars, and spotted a telltale cloud of blue smoke as I went past them onto the front straight. Was that me?
Yes indeed, it was me. I saw the big blue cloud of death whilst braking into 5, so I went straight off the track onto the exit road.
Turns out we broke the oil line from the oil pressure sending unit to the gauge. The crew decided we could fix it if we could find some teeny tiny 15-cent part at a hardware store in nearby Plymouth, so Mike and Dan took off in the truck while Brent disassembled everything. Alas, such a part was not to be found on a Sunday afternoon, so we packed it in and came home. The white Corvette took TTB when we retired.
NOTES
One of the cars I beat on Saturday was the S2000 Honda that won TTC and came in second in TTB at the Nationals (he ran in two classes). So the good news is that I beat the car that took 2nd place in TTB at the nationals. The bad news is that S2000s will be reclassified into TTB in 2007. This particular S2000 is wicked fast, and most likely will be the car to beat next year in TTB.
No more boost. Although Mike cranked the boost, we could not get it above 20 psi. We had zero knock running on race gas, so we could have run 23 or 25 psi. James suggested that maybe my stock blowoff valve is venting, keeping me from getting more boost.
More tire. I've been running 235/40 Toyo Prox RA-1s, which are not enough tire to compete with the S2000 and the Corvette, both of whom are running superwide Hoosiers. It was most obvious in the Carousel -- a long, constant radius righthander -- where they would both eat me up. The Toyos would wash out in the front when pushed to the limit, but the S2000 and Corvette would just scream through that corner. I am thinking of going to Hoosiers next year. ($1,000 a set! Ouch!)
Rain Tires. The DSM platform is awesome in the rain, and would be even more so with a set of rain tires. Not street tires, mind you, but real rain tires. If the budget permits, I may have to get a set (Hoosier rain tires are another $1,000 a set. Ouch again!).
Better brakes. I cracked yet another Stoptech rotor. This makes four rotors so far. Gotta do something about the brakes. Maybe a rear-brake upgrade.
Taller gears. We were pulling 6500-6700 rpm in 5th gear on the straights, or about 140 mph. Mike the Mechanic has me red-lined at 6500 rpm because of the stroker motor, so I guess this means we have to install a "highway" 5th gear to get a higher top speed.
When Brent develops the film in his digital camera (or whatever he does), he'll post some pix.
Rich
.
