My fuse box relocation (project log)

[gsxitement]

I like the door sticker there, then peeling, then gone .

 

[gsxitement]

Yeah, I was definitely jealous seeing you guys at Lime Rock! Those Nascar turns are definitely no joke, I can't imagine going through there at the speeds they do...

You gotta try and make it next year.

 

[turbosax2]

My student from Pocono made this video. If you have any questions about how a novice track day works, this is a pretty good overview!

 

[jpmxrider489]

My student from Pocono made this video. If you have any questions about how a novice track day works, this is a pretty good overview!

Be nice to see the full video. But very great example .

 

[turbosax2]

There were no big changes to the car from the last Pocono event, I just bled the clutch and I think that might have been it. I did order new car numbers but they still haven't arrived. This past weekend we did the Southeast configuration of Pocono which still has T1 of the Nascar track but a different infield layout. It was another rainy weekend at Pocono! There's just never good weather all day there no matter what the weather forecast says.

Saturday was a mix of light rain and heavier rain throughout the whole day. The second session in the morning was very wet and I was getting a couple of weird issues going on. I was getting the CEL coming on which is either for knock or coolant temps. Coolant temps were low and reviewing the logs later confirmed it was knock, but I never get knock so it was probably phantom knock of some sort. Or it could have been somehow related to the other issue which was an intermittent low battery warning. I could watch the voltage dip down into the 11's (normal is >14v) but it would just be for a split second. My hunch is that the belt could have been slipping a little bit, but everything looked mostly dry and the belts were all tight when I checked. This only happened during this one session. I also discovered I have some kind of path for water to get into the spare wheel well I think from underneath and it was getting moist in there. The things you learn driving in the rain haha!

The first afternoon session was a little more "dry" which did allow for some better laps but then back to rain again. I put down a 1:33.126 during that session to secure a second place finish. The #30 Corvette put down a 1:31.480 for first. I was following him during a couple of the wet sessions right on his bumper and he was sliding around pretty good so I'm not sure how he put down that time. When I looked at his car later he had some very slick tires on there so that lack of traction made sense, but someone said he put on rain tires for his fast laps so maybe that was it. The FTD was a 1:26 from the #555 Porsche. I was instructing a guy with a WRX that had about 400hp so that was a fun ride during the day as well! Brian competed in the hour-long enduro event at the end of the day and ended up coming in second with the Miata (there were only three cars out there and one didn't know it was an enduro so he came in early ). I was pretty exhausted so I skipped this session.

Sunday was pretty much more of the same in the morning. After my first session out, the grid worker stopped me and told me they saw white smoke coming out of the exhaust which he hadn't seen yesterday. And my friend confirmed on the next session it was smoking just on left turns. Very strange. I checked the oil level, water level, and everything else I could think of and everything was fine, and I always drain my catch cans after each session. Keep in mind it's wet out so if anything is leaking it's tough to tell.

We had an even more dry session in the afternoon and I managed to put down a 1:28.069 to get first in my class. The #30 Corvette only put down a 1:29.864 but he was only there in the morning I think so he missed out on the best session. The FTD for Sunday was a 1:21 from a different Porsche race car! The dry session was really fun - I put down a 1:30.0 on the first lap, then a 1:28.8, 1:28.6, took a cool down lap, then put down the 1:28.0. I just kept getting more pumped watching the lap times drop since my best time from the morning was a 1:34!



Instructing was far less fun on Sunday. There was a group of first-time students that didn't speak much English and I had one of them with a VW Beetle. It was just a difficult process trying to communicate - I primarily used hand signals but anything much more advanced than that was a struggle to explain. I had to give point-bys for him since I couldn't explain well enough what I needed him to do. And for the first time ever, I actually had to grab his steering wheel a couple of times to keep us safe. Luckily, my student started picking it up quickly and we ended the day in a pretty good spot, but we could have advanced more if I could get more instruction through. I was one of the lucky ones I guess, some of the other students were much harder to instruct.

While I was heading out for the last session on Sunday, I noticed my power steering pump making a weird noise and the steering felt weird so I pulled right back in the garage. The fluid level was on the dipstick but I never trust that too much so I topped it off even more and tried to bleed the pump by turning the wheels back and forth. When I looked under the car I saw fluid dripping down from the rack. Ugh!!! So I'm back to troubleshooting these power steering leaks again.

What a wild weekend of weather, every session was so different with the track conditions that it was quite a learning experience.

This Honda was soooo clean. Super nice build and the owner was a super nice guy and a fantastic driver.

I've seen these Rush cars online but this is the first one I've seen in person. It's actually way smaller than I thought it would be, looks like a blast to drive!

That was most likely the last event for the car this year and it was a good season. I did 12 track days with the car this year!! In the past the most I've done was six in a year so it got a workout. This could be one of the most reliable seasons I've had as well (especially given the number of track days), despite little issues here and there.

I won't get to dig into any issues on the car this week since we're 100% focused on getting ready for the ChampCar event at Pitt Race this weekend with the Miata. It's in no way DSM related, but I can do a little race recap here if there's interest.

 

[turbosax2]

This past weekend we were at NJMP with EMRA. Saturday was Lightning and Sunday was Thunderbolt. I'm slowly trying to retire my car from track duty, but when I met @gsxitement earlier this year at Lime Rock, I promised him I would bring it out if his car made it to this event. He delivered so my car came along! Look at how cool his car looks!!

I split my time driving it and the Miata so it only got a couple sessions each day, but it was fun to get back in it after driving the Miata more recently. We did have some rain on and off both days but it was mostly a great weekend. I was mostly worried about the power steering system on the car but it did well and feels good so I think that's all sorted now. I decided to pull the fuse on the transmission cooler pump after the first session since it was still spewing fluid, but it kept spewing afterwards anyway. I don't know what else to do about that, I think it must just be a gear flinging fluid at a spot on the case that isn't sealed well at the top.

It was really awesome hanging out with Jesse and his crew all weekend, looking forward to doing it again!

This was my student on Saturday, realllly fun car. I also instructed a few laps in the green BMW in the back, these modern cars are just nuts on what they can do.

And of course Jesse and I had to do a photo shoot.

There's a pretty cool video of us on a cool-down lap on his IG account too.

 

[gsxitement]

This past weekend we were at NJMP with EMRA. Saturday was Lightning and Sunday was Thunderbolt. I'm slowly trying to retire my car from track duty, but when I met @gsxitement earlier this year at Lime Rock, I promised him I would bring it out if his car made it to this event. He delivered so my car came along! Look at how cool his car looks!!
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I split my time driving it and the Miata so it only got a couple sessions each day, but it was fun to get back in it after driving the Miata more recently. We did have some rain on and off both days but it was mostly a great weekend. I was mostly worried about the power steering system on the car but it did well and feels good so I think that's all sorted now. I decided to pull the fuse on the transmission cooler pump after the first session since it was still spewing fluid, but it kept spewing afterwards anyway. I don't know what else to do about that, I think it must just be a gear flinging fluid at a spot on the case that isn't sealed well at the top.

It was really awesome hanging out with Jesse and his crew all weekend, looking forward to doing it again!

This was my student on Saturday, realllly fun car. I also instructed a few laps in the green BMW in the back, these modern cars are just nuts on what they can do.
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And of course Jesse and I had to do a photo shoot.
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There's a pretty cool video of us on a cool-down lap on his IG account too.

Had an absolute blast this weekend man. It was so cool just getting to hang out, talk DSM lore and install a 6 point harness . Such a blast. I’m going to try and make it to the EMRA Lime Rock event at the end of the year.

 

[Ludachris]

Two DSMs on the same road course at the same time... that's rare. Glad to see you two making it happen.

 

[gsxitement]

Two DSMs on the same road course at the same time... that's rare. Glad to see you two making it happen.

It was SO rad