John Freund's Time Attack 99 Eclipse GSX

[TSiAWD666]

I haven't looked at the logs to see the boost curve, but it was a curve and not one number and definitely above 23psi. Not sure to what aftermarket ECU I'd go, I really haven't done any research. Will have to reach out to vendors for sponsorship first.

Won't be turning anything up due to my 8.3 weight/hp ratio limit for TT2. I wanted to have a second map where we went really high for the UTCC (where I have no limit) but we just didn't have time to play with that.

 

[gsxitement]

Man. This thing is goals. Love all the stuff you're doing. Really motivating me to keep going with my car. Good luck this season!!!

 

[TSiAWD666]

RRT did a prototype mount for my rearview/ecmlink display and I stopped by to make sure it's how I wanted. I also brought my gopro and cables to hook it up for a test. Look really cool It just needs to be tilted slightly from its current angle and a small hood made for it and we're golden.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Install of the Pi running ECMLink completed. Rearview mirror is still there in the pics but I removed it shortly afterwards.

I did a lot of automation for my install and am debating releasing a product. Still deciding if it's worth my time. My setup does quite a bit of neat things I think:
- Boots in less than 15 seconds. Starts up ECMLink, automatically, connects to the ECU when available, and automatically starts capturing if not already. Takes maybe 15-20 seconds to start capturing from when I turn the key to On.
- Automatically restarts ECMLink if it crashes (though that hasn't happened yet)
- On power loss (like when taking out the key) the system gracefully stops capturing (saving to disk), and then shuts down the Pi to avoid file system corruption.
- Lights up a blue LED in the dash if capturing logs (i.e. so you know it's working)
- Saves to a removable USB drive if plugged in, otherwise to the local SD card
- Auto connects to my home WiFi and if connected will upload all logs to my Google Drive account

I'll see how it works at VIR next weekend.

Here's the display running my rearview display. This is normally what I'll have up while driving to see out back. I used a simple push-button HDMI switch to bounce between the two. I imagine I'll rarely look at the ECMLink display and did that more for fun.

 

[slowwhite]

Sweet mother of all things awesome. I solute you sir....

Can't wait till I get my car finished so I can hopefully talk you into setting up my car electronics like yours.

John when do you think you'll be arriving at UTCC?

I'm debating in taking the kids out of school that day so we can get there early and get a good camping spot and catch some practice sessions

 

[TSiAWD666]

I should arrive at the track on Thursday around 5pm. That's just to set up and tech. I'll be back at around 645am on Friday.

 

[slowwhite]

So hate to be a party pooper.
But just checked the weather forecaat

80-100% chance or thunderstorms/rain all weekend - starting wed at VIR.

not a big fan of camping on the rain.

 

[GST with PSI]

How is your ECMlink boost control set up? You using the IR solenoid? Are you running a restrictor in the signal line? How it it plumbed?

 

[TSiAWD666]

So hate to be a party pooper.
But just checked the weather forecaat

80-100% chance or thunderstorms/rain all weekend - starting wed at VIR.

not a big fan of camping on the rain.

Yeah, I'm aware of the forecast, but if you can play it by ear you might be pleasantly surprised. I've lost count how many times the forecast has been thunderstorms down at VIR a week out but then it cleared up without a drop of rain the entire weekend. I'm playing it by ear myself, though if it looks really bad on Thursday I may not go. Crossing my fingers!

How is your ECMlink boost control set up? You using the IR solenoid? Are you running a restrictor in the signal line? How it it plumbed?

I'm using the IR solenoid for now, though in private conversations with Tom Dorris of ECMLink and some investigation I'm pretty sure the driver chip in the ECU can support the borg warner BCS so I may switch to that at some point. I have no restrictor of any kind. It's hooked up like this diagram:

The turbosmart internal wastegate is a twin port design hence the above configuration. Only confusing part about it is it's "top" port is the functional equivalent of a typical external wastegate's bottom port. I actually had everything hooked up backwards initially because I didn't realize that (though it's obvious once you think about how it's constructed).

 

[TSiAWD666]

Just discovered a problem with the rearview and man do I feel stupid for not seeing it beforehand. It's horizontally swapped from what you would expect/want from a rearview camera. I.e. what is on the left side of the image is actually happening on the right rear side of the car. This never crossed my mind. I never realized rearview cameras did this inversion, and yet it's so obvious if you actually think about it. Just goes to show how the seemingly simplest of ideas can actually have a lot of hidden hurdles to overcome.

So now I'm looking at alternatives. One is seeing about feeding the gopro to the pi and having the pi handle the image display and horizontal inversion. Another is seeing if there are any inline hdmi devices that can do the inversion. Or I just mentally get used to the camera not being like a rearview mirror.

 

[Scott McIntyre]

I did a lot of automation for my install and am debating releasing a product. Still deciding if it's worth my time.

I for one am interested. If not releasing a product then a DIY article for the technically inclined would be most appreciated.

 

[T2Small]

I for one am interested. If not releasing a product then a DIY article for the technically inclined would be most appreciated.

Me too! I was supposed to get this all working years ago and had a half baked solution on an embedded PC, but it wasn't robust enough. I'd also love for it to be able to spit out some of the DSMLink data to a CAN bus so it can be consumed by the RCP for both display and warnings. USB to CAN adaptors work great in Linux.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Washed the car yesterday, cleaned up very well. I opted not to wax to give the new clearcoat on the hood and roof more time to set. Forecast is for lots of rain on Friday and Saturday so the car's not going to stay pretty very long.

If anyone's going to be at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge and/or Hyperfest at Virginia International Raceway this weekend let me know, and stop by! I'll be in the paddock this year with a red pop-up tent as I couldn't rent a track garage, so I'll be easier to find. It's going to be really wet, so bring a rain jacket for sure. Hopefully we get some dry track time. Based on the driver list I think I can still get the fastest AWD again this year, but not sure about fastest production 4-cylinder as an 800+whp Civic that is crazy fast is coming (it went to World Time Attack, and just set an ulimited Global Time Attack record at Road Atlanta). Of course if it's soaking wet who knows what will happen.

 

[slowwhite]

Was going to say rain here in SC so far has been very sporadic with lots of sun in between the rain and 80 degree temps that drys up the roads fairly quickly.

Wishing I hadn't told work to cancel my vacation yesterday.

 

[Scott McIntyre]

Of course if it's soaking wet who knows what will happen.

What are you running for a wet tire? A set of Hoosier Wet H20's would all but guarantee a win.

 

[TSiAWD666]

I don't have a wet set. I have r7 for practice and a6 for fast laps. I only care about setting the track records mainly so i normally won't bother driving in the wet.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Pic from earlier when I left. I'm at VIR now waiting to get in:

 

[GST with PSI]

I only care about setting the track records mainly so i normally won't bother driving in the wet.

Résumé
John Freund

-I'm a badass who does badass shit

/end​

 

[90'AWDTalonFroggy]

Pic from earlier when I left. I'm at VIR now waiting to get in:

I love your car, and what you are doing with it in showing what it is capable of doing outside of just the dragstrip. A friend of mine used to do what your doing through NASA and did time trials as well, but his was in a 02 z06 l, so he was already practically set up for the track . I know his most common track was sebring international, and homestead as that is where we lived, his favorite was road Atlanta, and would go to Ohio for championships of some sort, I only went with to sebring though. (Side tracked sorry ) but anywho he didnt have to put in the time and effort to get to where you are today. I love having the built not bought plan. So keep it up and hope you do well this weekend....also looks like at this rate you might need to upgrade your tow vehicle before to long to handle all that extra weight

Good luck,
Seth

 

[TSiAWD666]

Haha the resume cracked me up.

Thanks Seth!

Car's ready to go for tomorrow.

 

[Murdertalon]

The insane car stuff I read while I'm not able to sleep in Mexico at 333am.. I appreciate the attention to detail and willing to figure all these obstacles out. I have a bad habit of getting stuck on random stuff dealing with my dsm, I have link, larger injectors and a turbo that all need to go on but I want to get my exhaust and afr gauge out of the way. I'm leaning towards stm ss 3in cat back. Wow what an adventure of a car. Hope she runs well next track session!

People that are real car guys understand when you see a car like this real build attention went into it. I think if someone thought this was rice I would see someone that can't comprehend design. When I first saw Andrew brilliants aero design my jaw dropped someone that legit designed an aero body kit in a wind tunnel. As a kid I played a lot of gran trismo and wanted a time attack car someday. While I won't be building my dsm into this masterpiece, I'm glad I can see yours.

When I first saw the dsm platform and understood what it was, I had so much hope and expectation for the future of automobiles. Fast forward to today and I cringe. The new latest to resemble a dsm is a dodge dart, while not a bad looking car its not offered in awd srt form and I weep for the world. No one will take a 2015 dart in 20 years and build it into a time attack machine it's fwd and teslas will be literally flying by then. Let alone you can just buy a awd tesla and that sorta resembles the dsm design, but you know awd and powerful.

 

[nek]

It was a great read. I just bought a tablet to run ECMLink. I'm interested in how your system works and what the total price comes out to be.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Got Fastest AWD in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge and First place in TT2 yesterday. More details later.

 

[96dsmftw]

Good work! I really need to see this thing in person some time. Keep making them fear the DSM. Hahaha

 

[arrowhead]

Congratulations, glad to see you are doing very well.
Mandy