ITRCA

Well fella's I got a chance to take the pile back out again to Sebring. Car felt great and I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Was in the low 60's in the morning and warmed up to mid 70's for the high. Nice and sunny, typical winter day here in Florida. So I made some changes for this event again. First up I swaped out the stock 22mm rear sway bar in light of a 23mm JDM sway bar. I also added 2 clicks stiffer for the sussy and lastly I changed the seating position again. Lowered the seat about another half inch and also moved it forward another 2 inches. I still need to shim the column down about an inch and I think it will be perfect.

So it was a good and bad day. First session started out and for some reason the car just didn't feel right. It was sorta fine in the corners (getting point bys) but then I came out of T17 onto the front straight and struggled to pass cars. Well, that's odd. Turns out the Vtec wasn't coming on at all. I knew the oil level was fine and I was on a straight so oil deprivation wasn't an issue. Couple of laps later going around the carosel (sp) it decided to kick in while I was tracking out. Very interesting time for it to come back needless to say. Still though, during that session it wouldn't stay in Vtec past 7800 RPM. Odd I thought. I finished out the session and started to look at it. Turns out to be a bad connection to the VSS. I removed and repluged it in a few times to get a good solid connnection and all was good for the rest of the day as far as Vtec is concerned but the spedo was still jumping around. Second session was fantastic. I finally got my braking down in a few places enough to get a slight wiggle in the rear under hard braking. Third session was going great too until the last lap of the session. I came out of the hairpin in T7, went through 8 and 9 and into 10a the car lost power and sounded odd. I instantly went into panic mode thinking to myself this is only the second time I've had the car out, please don't be something major. I pulled to the side of the track and shut the car down. Sat for a few moments as everyone else finished up their cool down laps and proceeded to try to fire the car up again. She started but was shaking pretty bad and still didn't quite sound right. So the corner worked signaled the tow truck and off we went, being towed back to our spot was the worst feeling ever. I was having such a great day up until that point. We parked the car and popped the hood. Me not being in the right state of mind can't think of anything other than possibly a bent valve. Turns out that a MSD plug wire had backed off on the dizzy side. Thanks to Dave-ROR pointing that out, I wasn't even thinking about that. He plugs it back on and I fired up the car. All was once again well. That didn't last to long, turns out I may be replacing the brake booster before the next outting.

I have to say, going out for the second time in the car was a great experience. No more nervousness of being out for the first time. I knew what to expect and I knew the track layout and the lines. I ended up improving my lap times by 7 seconds according to our stop watch (yeah, not official but close enough) Now I'm turning sub 3 minute lap times (Sebring is 3.7 miles 17 turns) I'm working on a few new things, T17 instead of going around in 4th, I'm now going in 3rd for about 2k RPM before I shift during track out. Turning in a little bit later on T1 (wow what a difference that makes, especially since there's a wall on the inside of that turn about 1 foot from the rumble strip), also working on the carosel. Apparently I wasn't out far enough the last time out. Now I'm much faster going around it. Lastly I was working on braking. Learning my braking points per corner and really working the spec VR's. If your not smelling the brakes, your not using them right.

Recap of the day:

First session I had the VSS issue that sorta worked itself out by the end of the session, came in and reconnected it and all is good.
Second session was almost to good to be true. Not a single hiccup.
Third session though, the MSD plug wire issue made my heart sink.

What I learned this time out is as follows:

Turning in later is sometimes better than turning in early. At least at Sebring, there are a lot of corners that you can carry more speed this way.

MSD plug wires are teh suckzor!!! I'll never use them again on anything I ever own. Back to stock for me!!!

The A-pillar cage bar on the drivers side really needs to be closer to the cars A-pillar. I really like how DavidNYC has his done. I'm going to be talking to the fabricator to see what we can do about that.

If your not smelling the brakes, your not using them right.

Question for you guys though before the pics, with the Azenis 615's what hot and cold tire pressure are you running? At the end of the day I was up to 39 PSI all the way around in them. Thoughts?

Well enough with all the rambling, on with the pics as they say. There were a few nice cars out there on Sunday.

I wish I could have seen this DB9 on track more than the parade laps.







I've only seen a few of these. This is for you Pat!!!





Oh how I'd love to have a GT3!!!



Always makes you feel good when you get a point by from one of these. =)



Wish this one would have been out there too.



The chick driving this SC mustang was fast as hell!!!



Dave-ROR's pile of crap



My pile parked



This was the only car on track louder than mine.



My buddy out on the parade lap with mah old man driving.



I don't think I noticed it as much last time out, but this time coming around the back section there was a plane landing heading in my direction maybe 200 yards to my left.



And finally on with the pics of me on track. I had a blast!!! Thanks again to PIC for all the support you have given me, you guys rock.

The timing tower.



Turning into T1



Little early turn in on T7



One of my favorite pics from the day. Thanks ROR.



Not sure which corner this was. Looks like the back section around 14-15



This is a fun section here. This is the part of the track that I never thought I'd be going as fast as I am.





No really, the planes are right there.



Going round the carosel.



Not sure where this is either



Looks like T3



Mid turn in, in T1



Looks like the beginning of the carosel.



Not quite sure what I was looking at here.



Before turn in at T1



Coming under the Audi bridge.

Damn, sorry to hear about all those issues in just one event. Guess it makes some sense though, a freshly built car needs to shake out the parts that aren't 100%. Each event you do will only make the caR more stable, me thinks. Just glad nothing serious happened because of a failure.
Just remember, a bad day at the track is still better than a good day at work

Nice pics toooo Yeah, those GT3s are real badasses

pic size is stupid

Glad you had fun and learned so much Dave. Was your understeer problem still as apparent this time? The feeling of being towed back in is pretty sickening. When that happens you just need to kind of take a minute, calm down, and look at it subjectively.

Whats your booster worry?

Glad to hear you had fun & learned a little.

fyi - a wire coming off the dizzy & a blown valve sound about the same = running on 3 cylinders

I'm really glad it was just a wire.

There ya guys go, pics are now resized. Thanks to Bradstard for the space.

Joe, your right a bad day at the track is always better than a good day at work. As for the car, I'm going to have to work some of the bugs out of it. This is where I wish I could drive it on the street just a little bit.

Erik, pics are now resized and I have full res if anyone wants any. Just LMK. Understeer problem was gone for the most part. I think a little bit of it had to do with me, and a little bit with the car. The most apparent place I had it was T1, now that I'm turning in a bit later and the 23mm bar plus stiffer sussy settings T1 has almost no understeer. I did "push" the front end once at the hairpin, but that was my fault... I was coming in to hot. Getting towed back really sucked. I just didn't know what to think. Only thing on my mind was I had to get the car back up by April of next year for CMP and then Expo in June. I didn't even look at the car once we were back. I guess that's kinda the good thing about my old man being there. I don't have to worry about the mechanical issues and such. The booster worry comes into play because after the tow back I had a very hard pedal and almost no brakes. Also, at idle if you press the brakes the rpm's fluctuate a bit. Me thinks this is a vaccum leak somewhere but I'm not sure yet.

Jeff, oh I learned a bunch this weekend. I didn't have an instructor yelling in my ear to move over somewhere, or floor it, or don't lift. This guy was awesome. We talked about what I wanted to try before we went out, and then once the session was done we reviewed the session. I definitely want to get my camera mounted for the next event. I think that will help me quite a bit during the review process. And your right, running on 3 cylinders, in either manner is still running on 3. Makes the car feel like chit. I'm very glad it was just a wire myself. That's an easy enough fix.

if on the tow you were using the brakes without the vacuum assist of the motor running then you will build up pressure and feel like that. With the booster there with no vacuum on it you will get that hard pedal with almost no pressure. I'm sure it went away shortly after you started the car up again.Might be all it was. Also, a slight rpm fluctuation is pretty normal.

Erik95LS wrote:if on the tow you were using the brakes without the vacuum assist of the motor running then you will build up pressure and feel like that. With the booster there with no vacuum on it you will get that hard pedal with almost no pressure. I'm sure it went away shortly after you started the car up again.Might be all it was. Also, a slight rpm fluctuation is pretty normal.

Actually no, I tried it after we resolved the MSD issue and the pedal was still pretty firm. Not to mention the fluctuation of the tach when you pressed the pedal while the car was running. I haven't singled out the booster yet, but that's where I'm going to start. We'll see what turns up. I was using the brakes a lot harder this time around. The RPM fluctuation is 1k up and down. I've seen like 200 rpms, but 1k? Seemed a little odd. Now that the car is back and I have some down time I'll start looking into it. I do know that the VSS is getting replaced though, so maybe I'll start with that and then work on the brake issue.