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Bryan, that is impressive for first time out in the new ride! Nice job and good luck tmrw. :thumbsup:
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BTW, I briefly met Brett today also. He was standing in line in front of me at the food counter at lunch time. His car is pretty darned fast on the course as well! |
Day two is all wrapped up now. We managed to avoid rain all day, until 6:00 when I was at dinner at least, so the auto-x went off without a hitch.
It was MUCH cooler today, and most cars reflected that with slower times. I got in 4 runs again today, and none were faster than my 70.8 with the blown stop yesterday, but my last run of the day was a 71.6, which was good enough for 6th place out of the group of 45 or so (that's what the announcer said) in the Street Machine class. Again, TOW did great, but I do have a small problem. It looks like I may have lost a seal in the steering rack, although that's not confirmed yet. I think that the boots on each end of the rack are not supposed to have fluid in there, but for some reason, there is a crossover tube that came out which has some kind of oil (which must be PS fluid) coming out of it. It looks like that tube just connects the 2 boots, and my guess would be that it is there to equalize the air in the boots side to side so that as one compresses and the other expands, the air just moves side to side. Anyway, my pump is losing fluid, so this must be the issue. I'm glad I threw the extra quart I had into the trunk before I left on the trip! I've had a blast driving this weekend, and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more. I need to spend some time driving the car to get used to it and then I can start experimenting with the setup. I have a lot to learn, but based on my results, I have a good base from which to start! :) The Fort Worth GG was a great show. The turnout today was great given the weather projection. I was able to check out several of the cars which made the Road Trip from California to Austin as well as spend some time looking over the 'pro' cars. Some serious work on those cars! |
Great weekend! Only minor issues... always a good thing... will be anxious to see how your steering deal plays out.
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Hope you come out in the morning. You'll get more runs in. |
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Funny enough, someone with a T/A project actually commented to me that he liked how I did the shaker, with the 'retro' look from the drilled holes that we then closed back off. I hated to admit that was an experiment that didn't work out... ;) |
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I actually walked over to your car a couple of times, I recognized it from here. One time I didn't see you, and the other you were talking to someone, so I never got to catch you. I did actually put down a better time yesterday, but I blew the stop so the time didn't count. Never was able to match it again, but that last run was a definite improvement for me today! Next time... ;) I've heard mixed accounts of what tomorrow morning will be like since it's an open day. At this point I'm thinking I may not push my luck on the steering rack, but I may stop by for a little while anyway before leaving town. If so, I'll make sure to say Hi. I also heard mixed stories on the 'parking' situation. I was there early enough today that there were several empty slots closer to you, but it was my understanding that we were supposed to set back up where we were on Friday so I did. I guess some people didn't come back today, as there were a number of different cars in front of me. Next time I'll know better... |
Hey Bry...glad you had fun and hope the rack holds up! Did you get a chance to make any adjustments to your set up and if so how'd that work out?
Cheers, |
Hey Bryan, it was nice meeting you on Friday, i never got a chance to make it back saturday as my car got trailered home. On the seals, when you do the pinion shaft seals (cause thats most likely what it is) use radiator clamps instead of the zip ties on the boots, the only thing that will help do is keep it cleaner under The car.......mike
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Mike,
I agree, I'll use a better clamp than the zip-tie to lock the boots on. I've never replaced anything on a rack before. Is it possible to just replace the seals, or do I need to replace the whole rack? Good to meet you as well, hope the trip home goes well! |
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The only things I tried were air pressure and shock adjustment. I can honestly say that I have no ide if either made any real difference. :) The weather was changing through the 2 days, and since I'm so new to the car and autocrossing, I wasn't consistent enough to know if the changes helped or hurt. The overall standings were posted up this afternoon, and I'm pretty stoked to finish where I did. I'm still steaming a little over my blown stop zone which killed my best run, but 6th out of that group is pretty darned good! Especially given the cars and drivers in front of me. |
An unofficial "quote" --- "I ate at The Salt Lick last night... and man am I smokin' fast today!"
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Actually, I ate at Babe's Fried Chicken that night, and dang it was good stuff! You have 2 choices: fried chicken or fried steak. Sides are family style, and good stuff! That place is always busy when the GG events come to town, so thankfully I got there early. Quote:
On a related note, I found out that the local Autocross group held a run at the Harris Hill raceway last weekend, the one that RTTA was held at. Looks like they were running the full course, but with cone obstacles set up to keep the speeds in check and a few slaloms as well. I'll definitely be hitting that event next time they do it! :excited: |
Great job!!!
Was this your first event with this car? |
Thanx! Yes, it was my first show/competition/etc. I left home with about 400 miles on her and came back with about 850. :)
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Fresh car, driver new to autocross AND the fresh car, barely broken in and still get's into the top ten in an event? That's a WIN all day long!
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Actually, I ate at Babe's Fried Chicken that night, and dang it was good stuff! You have 2 choices: fried chicken or fried steak. Sides are family style, and good stuff! That place is always busy when the GG events come to town, so thankfully I got there early. [QUOTE] Little known secret (not after this post I'm afraid) Babe's does take out! We call in a big a$$ order and then draw straws to see who makes the run (helps if straws are drawn B-4 cold beverages are passed out). Then hang out in the RV campground and dine by the romantic glow of tail lights. It was great meeting you and checking out T.O.W. this weekend. Missed you on Sunday but it was great watching you run Friday and Saturday. Not sure what I enjoyed more watching you run or checking your car out in the paddock. I fully expect to see you at or near the top of the leader board next year as you two get better acquainted. Good luck at Harris Hill road, I'll have to keep an eye out for you at local events. Joe |
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Turns out that Spokes, the local auto-cross club, was running one of there 2 annual events at H2R while we were in Fort Worth. Looks like it was a good course, so I definitely want to do that in the future. Look forward to catching up again in FW next year! |
Thanx to Ridetech, TOW was weighed this weekend. Here are the results. Pretty well balanced for setting the ride height with a tape measure! Credit goes to Eric for the setup, I just sat in the car while he did the measuring. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps396a8fed.gif |
TOW got a new steering rack yesterday. I took her over to Eric's shop and dropped the pan under the spoiler/rack. We scratched our heads for a while because I had added RedLine synthetic PS fluid when we put everything together, but the fluid on the pan was green. It looked like motor oil, but there was none to be found coming from the engine.
Then I pulled a boot off of one end of the rack. After almost being doused by fluid, it was then obvious that the rack was the problem. As best we could tell, the rack comes prefilled with a green fluid, and apparently there is a ton of it in there. I mean a TON! We must have dumped a gallon of the stuff on the floor during the swap. Everytime we thought we were done, out came more. The swap went smoothly for the most part (fluid spills notwithstanding). To get the rack out on the JRS subframe you have to remove the front LCA support, which just adds some extra time. And it's a bit harder to get to the steering u-joints with the front sheetmetal in place. But I got it done. This job took about 2x as long as I expected, so we were in a bit of a hurry to get the toe set, but we got it close enough and I drove her home. I'll get her to a shop for an alignment this week, and we should be good to drive for a while. It's still a bit of a mystery why/how this rack failed. I did add some turn restrictors to the rack to keep the wheels from hitting the LCA's, but I cannot see why that would have caused any issues. It looks like they just bottom out against a solid metal flange. Hopefully this won't happen again in the near future! If so, I'll have to look at the PS pump. I do have a volume restrictor in there (from Wegner), so it is supposed to be balanced to the rack I'm using. Most everything else looks pretty good under the car. We may have a small leak on the rear end housing, but it was hard to tell if it was fluid that blew back from the PS rack or not. I cleaned it all up and will check it again after a few more miles. |
Thought so. Most likely a defective/poorly installed seal from the factory. Just another gremlin in our 2nd gens. I heard they dont have these problems on 1st gen's lol.....
Seriously though, glad you got it takin care of and just the loss of a 1/2 day or so and shes up and runnin. Now go drive that baby the way she wants too!!!! Till the next thing breaks, I plan on breakin sh$t for the next couple of years and just weedin out the bad stuff.... What was the inch of your steering wheel? 14 or 15? Mike |
Mike,
I think this is the one I have: http://www.sparcousa.com/product/r-323 I just walked down and measured it, and it's 13.5" outside diameter. Depending on how they measure, that's probably about right since the 330mm translated to about 13". I'm sure I will break something else before it's all said and done. Hopefully not soon though. I need to arrange an alignment this week, then I'll start driving her pretty regularly! |
Alignments nice and all, but once that thing is dialed i bet your going to eat up two sets of tires a year :thumbsup:
thanx for checking on that wheel size, gonna order me up one. Went to one of my customers today, he had a Ferrari California in the garage and he was sayin "wow, this thing really eats up tires" so i looked down at the tread wear rating "140", then i rubbed my thumb across the rubber, almost like chewing gum....sic car.... |
Waking up this old thread... I have my first track day scheduled for tomorrow with TOW. We have a local track called The Driveway that does schools at various levels. I haven't been there before, so this should be fun. It's an all day school, there will be 9 participants from what I was told.
And in typical Austin fashion, we have all sorts of closures around here due to the 'ice' storm (that never happened), and I'll be on the track with 68* degree weather tomorrow. :) |
Which track are you headed to?
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Right on. Don't forgot your GoPro so we can see/hear some action. :bigun2:
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Nevermind, was thinking Drivers Edge, not the driveway. Maybe I'll stop by there tomorrow and check the place out. |
So... Yesterday I got my first real shot at doing what I have wanted to do since I started planning to build TOW many years ago. A full-on track day! There is a track outside of Austin that is owned and operated by a full-time racer in the World Challenge series (previously in the Grand Am series until this season), racing a Lotus Evora. They've had the track open for 8 years, and they do regular schools and private lessons for those interested. $500 gets you a 4-hour private lesson with an instructor, and probably all of the track time you can stand during that day...
After you pass through 2-levels of their school, you become qualified to come out for open track sessions on any day they have them. Which is basically any day they don't have a school scheduled. I'm going to find a day to do the private lesson in the next couple of months so that I am qualified to do the open days soon. TOW did great for most of the day! There were 8 of us there for the class, and during most of the day, we ran in groups of 4. Here's part of the crowd: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...pstsl9mvax.jpg '13 Grand Sport, '13 Boss 302, Carrera 4s, Ferrari California (gorgeous car!), and not pictures were a Mercedes ML550 (yes, an SUV), a newer Shelby Mustang (the supercharged version), and this (just for you, Weld!): http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psdtnbgs33.jpg And the Ferrari: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps9gkbut1i.jpg The track is a 0.7 mile course with 7 turns. There are 2 high-speed sustained left handers, an off-camber right hander, a decreasing radius long turn, and a straightaway. It's a fun and pretty technical track for its size. http://www.drivewayaustin.com/images...hortcourse.jpg You never know what to expect with a class like this. 3 of the guys were doing it from gifts they had received, 2 (the Ferrari and Boss) were young guys (the Ferrari is the guy's mother's car!), and a couple of us who seemed to take it pretty seriously. The R8 driver was one who did. We were in opposite groups, so I got to watch him drive. The car sounded like a boat going down the straight (it is the V8 version), but it sure was smooth around the track. Anyway, long story short, I put 52 miles on the car, which means about 70-75 laps. The best time of the day was when I was a passenger of the School's chief instructor (who is also the current driver of the WC Lotus). He could throw TOW around and do stuff that I definitely wasn't comfortable doing myself. They guys watching were saying he was carrying the left front tire after we used a curb to get through a turn, but they couldn't get a picture for me. That's too bad... I discovered that I suck at heel-toe shifting/braking, even though I thought I was pretty decent at it. I only shifted twice on the track, and the downshift was at a tricky spot going into the tightest turn, so I struggled with the timing. During my last session, I just left her in 3rd gear and did a lot better with the line. The problem I had then was I kept catching people. I pulled into the pits 3 times to separate myself from the other drivers, as I was a bit faster than they were... (the Ferrari, Boss, and Porsche were in my group, and the Boss was the one I didn't pass, but I was catching him) I got a little feedback from Scott, the WC driver, on the car setup. He felt she is well balanced, and he suggested that I soften up the front shocks a bit, but otherwise said she felt good. I personally was struggle with the power brakes some, I couldn't modulate them well, but that's also me getting used to the car. That got better during the day. The other thing is the accelerator pedal is a bit twitchy, and both drivers that drove with me in the car had to get used to that also. The only thing that was a problem was my oil pressure light came on during my last session. I noticed it during one of the long left handers. I looked at the gauge, and I had pressure, but it was low. So I backed her down and took it easy the rest of the session. I was concerned this could be a problem with my oil pan, but when I checked the level today, I discovered that it's low about a quart. Not sure why, there are no leaks, but I haven't checked my catch can yet. So I topped it off today and will keep an eye on it. TOW didn't escape completely unscathed unfortunately... I managed to take out 3 cones during the day, the same one twice exiting the turn onto the front straight. :) The second time was a bit ugly, I completely blew turn 7 and went way wide. Actually straddled the rumple strip on the outside and clobbered the cone there. I'm thankful that Eric used Plasticote on the front spoiler, some minor touchup may be required. ;) Also put a cone rash on the lower fender, but it should buff out... It's interesting how sore I am today after the day of driving. I have a blister on my hand, and my back and hips are sore from keeping myself in place. But I don't care, it was a complete blast, and I cannot wait to get out there again!!! More of these days to come, and soon! I have an auto-x next weekend at an airport, which should be a fun course, then another one at a different road course (the one that RTTA came to 2 years ago), then GG in Fort Worth. So the next track day will come after that... |
Go Go Go!!!! thats Great, beat em up....
"have a blister on my hand, and my back and hips are sore" Sounds like some of the guys on the site after a Saturday night alone. |
Sounds like a great day Bryan
Enjoyment, the name of the game |
Did they have The Salt Lick BBQ Lunch truck there?
Bryan ---- Happy for you man! Track driving is a complete hoot.... so glad you're hooked. Will I see you at GGuys Fort Worth show? Or USCA the following weekend? |
I'm planning to be at the GG show, but unfortunately I already had a commitment for the USCA weekend. I'm really bummed I will miss that event, but it can't be helped. I have my hotel reservation for GG, and plan to drive in to town on Thursday afternoon...
And they didn't serve Salt Lick, but they did serve us BBQ for lunch (it was better... :smiley_smack: ). No pictures though... Quote:
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Great!! I'll be there early as well. I'll leave Laguna Seca on the 10th and move across until I get there -- should only take me a couple days -- and I have 4 to get there and still be early. I just hope they'll let me park the rig somewhere around the grounds there for the show.
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I'm jealous.....Car looked and sounded great on the track. I guess I should have been a better friend and taken a few pics.
Is it a SPOKES event you're attending at the San Marcos airport? |
Awesome Bryan. It's a slippery slope now. :headspin:
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I think it's likely to be air cleaner related. :>) Seriously though -- anyone running on a track should have a track pan -- or accusump -- or both... Doesn't take very long to pull a g -- and have that oil climbing the pan/block wall. |
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