You know this means you cannot blame the car. Given your thoughtful troubleshooting process it makes me wonder how I ever make an event.Originally Posted by Pranav
Intra-class "manties" for any RR shod car finishing behind old, tired, and slow RA1 runners?
#39 CMC Camaro
Orange is Fast!
CMC-NT01 FTW!
Do we have any proof the RR is faster? I know it does not last as long (or at least at TWS I was not impressed with the tire life of the RR's). I know TWS is hard on tires but if the RR is so much faster I would have thought we would have seen new track records. I'm not saying the RR is not faster (I certainly don't know) I'm just wondering if we have proof that it is?
JJ
I'm spoiled by the OBD2 port. Without it I'd still be lost as hell.
Let's swap tires at Hallett and see.
#39 CMC Camaro
Orange is Fast!
CMC-NT01 FTW!
Okay. My 888's for your RA1's.
Works for me.
JJ
I'm happy with the RR wear after TWS, you have to baby them though, can't be driving like a sprint car
I ran RA1's on a Saturday and RR's on a Sunday during a DE a month or so ago. Conditions were similar both days, and my best lap time Saturday with RA1's was 1:56.6 with an optimal of 1:55.8. Sunday with the RR's best time was a 1:55.4 and optimal of 1:54.7. The traffic was pretty shitty both days so it was hard to get clean laps.
This was the weekend after the TWS race. A cool front came through along with some rain in between the DE and race weekend, so the weather for the DE was pretty much perfect in the mornings. The weather for our TWS race weekend wasn't as good as it was at the April 2013 event either, that's why I think the lap times didn't see an improvement. The Spec Miatas didn't see an improvement in lap times from the previous year either, but they claim the RR's are about 1 second faster.
There are a number of variables that could have contributed to the differences in lap times between Saturday and Sunday though. I don't think weather was much of a factor. My lines and braking zones were pretty consistent both days, but it's definitely plausible that I improved by 1.0+ second over the course of weekend. If I had a better understanding of what to look at in the data I could probably figure out where I was losing time, and whether it was due to the tires and/or my driving. After talking with a SM buddy of mine, he was saying that the max G's the tires can handle are similar, but the RR's can be held at the limit better than the RA1's, which allows for higher sustained G's, which means a higher average speed through the corner. What was interesting is that he said max G's under braking for both tires were similar. If I can remember I'll take another look at the data and see what I can figure out.
What coolant temps did all you 4th gen LT1 guys see this weekend? Need help rationalizing something while it's still fresh in memory.
Was pushing mid/high 230s all during the races on Saturday. My gauge in the cylinder head would shoot up to at/above 250 and push a little water out the overflow when I shut it off without letting it cool off a little longer at idle, but other than that I wasn't losing any water on track (running the higher pressure cap).
Only changes to my cooling system were:
1. Converting steam pipes to better flowing AN hose
2. Finished improving/sealing rad ducting
3. One step higher in heat range plugs (colder plug, more heat extraction from chamber into heads):
The plugs came out looking much better, but in hindsight I don't believe there was any need to go colder on plugs, just adjust the gap on what I had to help reduce any chance of losing spark. Anyone play around with heat ranges and notice differences in coolant temp?
The only other things that are suspect are:
1. Possibility of dam folding back; running a stock piece plus an extension
2. I have a fine mesh on the inlet between the core support and bumper support; I've been told taking that out and covering the radiator in mesh instead could improve airflow to radiator.
3. Brake ducts integrated into airdam; I taped 50% of them off between race 1 and race 2. I think I saw an improvement by a few degrees, not sure, but second race's ambient temps were higher I think.
4. Have not notched or cut up bumper support to let in more air yet.
Planning on relocating brake ducts and throwing everything I have at radiator ducting before beating on the car this summer, but wanted to see if going back to a stock heat range is a good idea. Plugs looked very clean with but with a solid black fuel ring, absolutely no misfires this weekend. My memory seems to tell me that I idled and dynoed higher coolant temps with the "colder" plugs, but it may be in my head...
Last edited by Pranav; 06-23-2014 at 11:42 AM.
This may be obvious, but make sure the fins on the radiator are clean. I'm always amazed at how much crap I can get out from in between those fins. I cleaned mine out after 5 weekends and there was a lot more rubber and grass in there than I would've expected for that short of time.
They are spotless; I've got the fine mesh covering up the entire inlet leading to the radiator, was cleaning that out between races.
On the motor #1 I ran unprotected and got all kinds of dings and crap in the radiator fins; had a shop clean all of the fins out and straighten them all before running motor #2, which ran fairly cool (215-220 max) but that was ECR, MSRH, and MSRC. This is my first actual "hot" event since motor #1 (which had all kinds of cooling issues).
Last edited by Pranav; 06-23-2014 at 01:02 PM.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks