5MT at Pocono

[shotgunslade]

Took my car to a track day with Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team (C.A.R.T.) yesterday. Was worried about the weather, but it turned out to be a beautiful day and the track dried very quickly. Event was on the North Course. Car handled great. Still very balanced, basically understeering, but the width of the drift in the turn can be controlled by the accelerator. The course actually requires only 2 gears, third for almost all of it and fourth starting midway along the banked oval section. Hit about 6000 in third on the infield straight. Was running very closely with a Cobalt SS and a Miata, even on the twisty parts. I was pleased at some of the cars I was holding my own with on the banked oval portion of the track, like a Porsche 944, and a Fiero racer. Couldn't stay with the Nissan 350Z, although he was getting away on the oval, not in the twisty bits. Brakes held up very well, and I was experimenting with later, harder braking. Was hitting over 105 at the end of the banked oval, and with later braking, easily would have hit 110, but, suddenly, my day came to an end. My power steering return hose went to heaven and I was bleeding red stuff all over the pit area. Combined with the coolant thrown from the expansion tank, I was making Christmas decorations all over the pavement. Fortunately, Blakeslee Garage was able to fabricate a make-shift return line that got me back to Princeton. Even with this misfortune, I got in 3 sessions on the track, two of which were lengthy. I'm getting better at this and the car is making it easy. An instructor drove the car around for my first 2 laps to introduce me to the course (even though I had been there already), and, he really like the balance of the car. Said it was heavy, but handled well. Will be back at Pocono again in mid-June, I think. Pictures later.

[NikFu S.]

Cool. Sounds like you had fun.

I'll be waiting for pics (:

[SVXRide]

Originally Posted by shotgunslade

Took my car to a track day with Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team (C.A.R.T.) yesterday. Was worried about the weather, but it turned out to be a beautiful day and the track dried very quickly. Event was on the North Course. Car handled great. Still very balanced, basically understeering, but the width of the drift in the turn can be controlled by the accelerator. The course actually requires only 2 gears, third for almost all of it and fourth starting midway along the banked oval section. Hit about 6000 in third on the infield straight. Was running very closely with a Cobalt SS and a Miata, even on the twisty parts. I was pleased at some of the cars I was holding my own with on the banked oval portion of the track, like a Porsche 944, and a Fiero racer. Couldn't stay with the Nissan 350Z, although he was getting away on the oval, not in the twisty bits. Brakes held up very well, and I was experimenting with later, harder braking. Was hitting over 105 at the end of the banked oval, and with later braking, easily would have hit 110, but, suddenly, my day came to an end. My power steering return hose went to heaven and I was bleeding red stuff all over the pit area. Combined with the coolant thrown from the expansion tank, I was making Christmas decorations all over the pavement. Fortunately, Blakeslee Garage was able to fabricate a make-shift return line that got me back to Princeton. Even with this misfortune, I got in 3 sessions on the track, two of which were lengthy. I'm getting better at this and the car is making it easy. An instructor drove the car around for my first 2 laps to introduce me to the course (even though I had been there already), and, he really like the balance of the car. Said it was heavy, but handled well. Will be back at Pocono again in mid-June, I think. Pictures later.

Dan,
I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has the "expansion tank burp" experience when they race I've resorted to putting a hose clamp on the hose right where it goes into the tank -- helps some, still not the definitive solution...
Suggestion for next time, since you said its understeering. Try softening up the front Konis. Normally, I'd say stiffen up the rear Konis, but you have to take the entire strut assembly apart to do this Another option is going to a larger rear bar PM me if you're interested in pursuing this option
-Bill

[TomsSVX]

Glad you had fun Dan, Looks like we made it happen with the 105 in the straights huh?? Good luck with the rest of the season, sounds like the next thing you need to pursue is some weight loss. Thats fairly easy as there is a lot in the car you can lose without losing the car.

Tom

[shotgunslade]

Tom:
Thanks. 105 in the straight now and maybe 110 next time. Just have to build up my courage to go into the turn faster at the end of the straight. It's a slight turn off the speedway onto the infield, followed by a hairpin. If you are really brave, you just lift up at the end of the straight and turn the wheel slightly to go onto the infield track, then you nail the brakes to go into the hairpin. Saw an Evo get a little too brave, and he went out into the weeds breaking off his splitter.

One thing I need to do is to move the clutch disengagement up a little higher in the pedal stroke. Right now I have to push the pedal completely to the floor to get total disengagement and sometimes I don't quite get there. Having it totally disengage maybe an inch or two above the floor would be better, especially given the exact configuration of the pedal and its arc. How hard is that to do?

Bill:

Right now, my front Konis are on hardest and my rears are (due to my ignorance when they were installed) on softest. That is probably making the understeer worse. Having said that, I wouldn't say it is a heavy understeer. Its fun controlling my line with the accelerator, and I feel like I'm sliding with all four tires. (love the sound of screaming tires, especially when they're my own, and the ability to control that sound with my right foot). I would imagine that the understeer could be much more marked in an Autocross situation (Gotta try that next) with much tighter turns, especially if tight turns are combined with heavy braking. Yes, I would be interested in a larger rear sway bar. Will PM. My instructor also suggested that I could play with my tire pressures a little bit; was running 38 cold in the front and about 34 in the back. After he drove the car, he suggested that I lower my front pressure a bit, which I did.

[Chiketkd]

Dan,

Sounds like you had a serious blast out there! Sorry to hear about the coolant reservoir and power steering line issues. Looking forward to the pics!

[shotgunslade]

Here are a couple of pics from the track day. In the first you can see my hood up in the background. The second is on pit lane waiting to go out. Unfortunately, since I broke down, no action pic's. But here is a link to a video of me being passed by a Nissan 350Z.





Video Link:

http://video..com/videoplay?docid=-5947297359251752828