tsiboosted
15+ Year Contributor
- 753
- 11
- Mar 18, 2005
-
Orlando,
Florida
Saturday - Practice began Saturday morning and I could not wait to get out on the track and test out the new Ground Control Coilovers we put on during the week leading up to the event. I went with 650 lbs springs in the front and 350 lbs springs in the rear. Last event the car pushed liked a dump truck on rails in the turns. It was not fun to drive at all 
So 1st session we get out onto the course. Just scrubbing in the tires the car felt more rigid and stable. Man I can’t wait to really get on it and throw this thing through the turns. I was not to be disappointed. Once we got the green flag to start the session, I went into turn 1 fast but cautious as I didn’t know exactly how the car was going to react. WOW....It stayed so flat through the turn so I went ahead and jumped in the throttle. Turns 2 & 3 went by like the car didn’t even move. It stayed so flat through there I was impressed. Turn 4, where the car really use to struggle now gets through there with ease. Well, easier than it did before 
TO say I was impressed would be an understatement. I am glad I called Ground Control and gave them the specs on the car and the track to suggest a spring package that would work. They hit it right on the head for me. We also made a tire pressure adjustment to get the car to rotate through te turns a bit better as well. I went with 32 (cold) in the front and 35 (cold) in the rear. Although through a full 20 minute session, the rear of the car got a little squirrely, so I went down to 33 in the rear cold and it seemed to calm it down more later in the sessions.
Sunday Practice - Well on event days, I don’t really get out on the track too much for practice. Although today I wanted to just because the car is really fun to drive with the new suspension on it. So I stayed out a bit longer than normal. However, around 10 minutes into the 15 minute session, as I was rolling on the throttle coming through the long sweeper (turn 14) and onto the front straightaway.....The turbo started whine a bit as I started to boost. I thought nothing of it and continued on....Next time I went into the boost it did the same thing. So I headed into the pits to check it out. I was missing a bolt on the J-Pipe going into the turbo. So I replaced it and didn’t go back out onto the track, I instead jsut went out into the track parking area to hit into boost to see if it was still doing it....It was. But it didn’t seem to effect the performance of the car at all. It just made a different sound. Maybe its just a boost leak somewhere I cannot find at the track. I guess we will soon find out
Qualifying - Time for qualifying for Round #2. My deal on this is I usually go out later in the grid to get a nice clean track in front of me. Get the car and tires heated up the first 2 laps, go all out for 2 laps, then have a 1 lap cool down lap. It usually works out well for me as those 2 all out laps are pretty much clean laps and that is where I tend to get my fastest times. It worked like a charm today as in lap 5 I set my new personal best lap time of 1:26.8. A full 2 seconds faster than my previous lap time. Now in qualifying there are allot of cars on the track so I couldn’t really hear if the turbo was still "Whining" but the car did not seem at all in the wrong so I continued to run it hard the rest of the day.
Heat Race - Well, since I had such a good time in qualifying, I was starting closer to the front in the heat race than I ever had before. It was a pretty kewl feeling for me I gotta tell you. See when they line us up in pre-grid, there are 2 lines. The line on the right is where the "faster" guys are and the line on the left is for the uhhh, "slower" guys if you will. I am about half way up on the right side Sorry, had to throw that in there. It was great to finally be over on this side of the grid 
So, as we head out onto the track I get some thumbs up from some guys in Porsches who know how hard I have been working to get the car ready to go this season. Great guys. We get the green flag and I duck to the outside of the turn and a BMW and a 240 go to my inside. No big deal, just the first turn. As we roll through the sweeper I can get the power down so much faster now that the car doesn’t push to the outside wall...So I give it the "go fast" pedal and sling around the BMW and tuck in behind Chris Carver in the 240. I follow Chris for a while as I know he is a faster driver. I cook a turn later in the session so he gets a little ahead of me. So I am really pushing the car to try and gain some ground on him and the 2 Porsches we were running with. The car is feeling great in the turns and really good all over the track. About 15 minutes into the heat race I am going down the short shoot straight away between turns 8 & 9 and I go t to shift into the 4th gear and I grinded the gears pretty good. So I lifted and tried to ease it into 4th. It went and right as I get back on the throttle it yanks out of 4th. I try to put it back in and all of sudden POP !!!! Grinding, grinding, grinding....4th gear was no longer. I ease the car in 3rd back to the pits and well.....That’s all she wrote for this round of the GBRS folks. I waited for around 30 minutes to let everything cool of just to see if the tranny just go too hot. But, when I jumped back in the car to shift into 4th, it was no longer there. It had checked out permanently. I knew in the back of my mind this day would come. This is the factory transmission on this car so it had well over 100,00 miles on it. Beating all last year and now laying down more power through it. it was bound to happen. I was just hoping it might have lasted to at least Christmas time this season, so "Santa" could have brought me a new TRE tranny.
Wrapping It Up - Well the new suspension package is great guys. Man what a turnaround from last month. The car actually turns now which is a big plus in road racing I hear Need to figure out why the turbo is whining. Hopefully it’s just a boost leak somewhere and nothing major. I mean it is a brand new 16G turbo. I have been talking to Jon Ripple at TRE about the new tranny and it looks like we are going with the Stage 3 rebuild with an LSD for the car. Once the drive train is taken care of we can really focus in on dialing the car in then. It’s been a ride of ups and downs so far this season and in the off-season with the engine build. I thought we were finally getting on track and would be able to contend for the overall this season and now this tranny issue happens. Looks like I will most likely miss at least 1 event due to this set back. Hopefully no more than that. But, I will keep everyone up to date on what is going on with the tranny and the car. Maybe we will get lucky here....
So 1st session we get out onto the course. Just scrubbing in the tires the car felt more rigid and stable. Man I can’t wait to really get on it and throw this thing through the turns. I was not to be disappointed. Once we got the green flag to start the session, I went into turn 1 fast but cautious as I didn’t know exactly how the car was going to react. WOW....It stayed so flat through the turn so I went ahead and jumped in the throttle. Turns 2 & 3 went by like the car didn’t even move. It stayed so flat through there I was impressed. Turn 4, where the car really use to struggle now gets through there with ease. Well, easier than it did before TO say I was impressed would be an understatement. I am glad I called Ground Control and gave them the specs on the car and the track to suggest a spring package that would work. They hit it right on the head for me. We also made a tire pressure adjustment to get the car to rotate through te turns a bit better as well. I went with 32 (cold) in the front and 35 (cold) in the rear. Although through a full 20 minute session, the rear of the car got a little squirrely, so I went down to 33 in the rear cold and it seemed to calm it down more later in the sessions.Sunday Practice - Well on event days, I don’t really get out on the track too much for practice. Although today I wanted to just because the car is really fun to drive with the new suspension on it. So I stayed out a bit longer than normal. However, around 10 minutes into the 15 minute session, as I was rolling on the throttle coming through the long sweeper (turn 14) and onto the front straightaway.....The turbo started whine a bit as I started to boost. I thought nothing of it and continued on....Next time I went into the boost it did the same thing. So I headed into the pits to check it out. I was missing a bolt on the J-Pipe going into the turbo. So I replaced it and didn’t go back out onto the track, I instead jsut went out into the track parking area to hit into boost to see if it was still doing it....It was. But it didn’t seem to effect the performance of the car at all. It just made a different sound. Maybe its just a boost leak somewhere I cannot find at the track. I guess we will soon find out
Qualifying - Time for qualifying for Round #2. My deal on this is I usually go out later in the grid to get a nice clean track in front of me. Get the car and tires heated up the first 2 laps, go all out for 2 laps, then have a 1 lap cool down lap. It usually works out well for me as those 2 all out laps are pretty much clean laps and that is where I tend to get my fastest times. It worked like a charm today as in lap 5 I set my new personal best lap time of 1:26.8. A full 2 seconds faster than my previous lap time. Now in qualifying there are allot of cars on the track so I couldn’t really hear if the turbo was still "Whining" but the car did not seem at all in the wrong so I continued to run it hard the rest of the day.
Heat Race - Well, since I had such a good time in qualifying, I was starting closer to the front in the heat race than I ever had before. It was a pretty kewl feeling for me I gotta tell you. See when they line us up in pre-grid, there are 2 lines. The line on the right is where the "faster" guys are and the line on the left is for the uhhh, "slower" guys if you will. I am about half way up on the right side
Sorry, had to throw that in there. It was great to finally be over on this side of the grid So, as we head out onto the track I get some thumbs up from some guys in Porsches who know how hard I have been working to get the car ready to go this season. Great guys. We get the green flag and I duck to the outside of the turn and a BMW and a 240 go to my inside. No big deal, just the first turn. As we roll through the sweeper I can get the power down so much faster now that the car doesn’t push to the outside wall...So I give it the "go fast" pedal and sling around the BMW and tuck in behind Chris Carver in the 240. I follow Chris for a while as I know he is a faster driver. I cook a turn later in the session so he gets a little ahead of me. So I am really pushing the car to try and gain some ground on him and the 2 Porsches we were running with. The car is feeling great in the turns and really good all over the track. About 15 minutes into the heat race I am going down the short shoot straight away between turns 8 & 9 and I go t to shift into the 4th gear and I grinded the gears pretty good. So I lifted and tried to ease it into 4th. It went and right as I get back on the throttle it yanks out of 4th. I try to put it back in and all of sudden POP !!!! Grinding, grinding, grinding....4th gear was no longer. I ease the car in 3rd back to the pits and well.....That’s all she wrote for this round of the GBRS folks. I waited for around 30 minutes to let everything cool of just to see if the tranny just go too hot. But, when I jumped back in the car to shift into 4th, it was no longer there. It had checked out permanently. I knew in the back of my mind this day would come. This is the factory transmission on this car so it had well over 100,00 miles on it. Beating all last year and now laying down more power through it. it was bound to happen. I was just hoping it might have lasted to at least Christmas time this season, so "Santa" could have brought me a new TRE tranny.Wrapping It Up - Well the new suspension package is great guys. Man what a turnaround from last month. The car actually turns now which is a big plus in road racing I hear
Need to figure out why the turbo is whining. Hopefully it’s just a boost leak somewhere and nothing major. I mean it is a brand new 16G turbo. I have been talking to Jon Ripple at TRE about the new tranny and it looks like we are going with the Stage 3 rebuild with an LSD for the car. Once the drive train is taken care of we can really focus in on dialing the car in then. It’s been a ride of ups and downs so far this season and in the off-season with the engine build. I thought we were finally getting on track and would be able to contend for the overall this season and now this tranny issue happens. Looks like I will most likely miss at least 1 event due to this set back. Hopefully no more than that. But, I will keep everyone up to date on what is going on with the tranny and the car. Maybe we will get lucky here....
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I'm glad to hear you like the GC's. Good luck sorting out the tranny but I gotta say this car is gonna be a whole new, whole new car and its only race 2.
