- Joined
- Aug 14, 2014
- Messages
- 4,141
- Reaction score
- 1,191
- Location
- Madison, WI
- My Car
- 1971 M-Code Mach 1 w/408C stroker
So here is the report from this weekend. It was a very busy Saturday and Sunday with five segments. On Saturday I did 8 laps of the Autocross segment plus the judging for the Design & Engineering challenge and the Road Rally. In Autocross I was 11 out of 24 in my GTV class. This is not that bad considering that many of these cars are more race than street cars. I didn't do well in the D&E challenge. I think they want to hear more about expensive upgrades and high HP numbers rather than custom made improvements or street oriented mods. The Road Rally event was a joke. It was about 10 miles long at 7:30 at night when it was cool and no traffic. Even a NASCAR car would have completed this one. Then on Sunday was the Track and Acceleration/Braking segments. On the track I was 13 in my class. In the Acceleration/Braking segment I was 7 in my class. Overall I ended 12 out of 24 in my class. From the beginning I thought that if I could be on the top 50% I did good so I am right there. Here is a link to all the results: https://clubregistration.net/clients/usca/results/overall.cfm?eventID=12953&class=GTV
Overall this was a great driving experience and met a lot of cool people. I am a bit disappointed on how "easy" the road rally segment was and how bad I scored in the D&E challenge. For the D&E challenge you only have 4 minutes to talk about your car so this is an area that I definitely could refine and refocus next time to try to cover all the judging areas.
I had a few issues that include brake pads, lean condition and vibrations. This weekend I was using BP20 Wilwood compounds on the front. I was previously using E compound but unfortunately this one is not available anymore for my calipers. That said, I called Wilwood and they recommended the BP20s which clearly are not up to the heat generated on track. I argued with them and they still indicated that it should work. Well, the reality is that they didn't work. After the first lap my braking was very poor. Since I was suspicious of their advice I was carrying a spare set of Hawks DTC30 because the BP30 compound from Wilwood was backlogged. I replaced the pads right after the 1st track session, which made me miss the 2nd session but I was able to make the 3rd and 4th. Braking was excellent with the Hawk pads so I was able to improve my times. However, I was dealing with a lean condition towards the end of the front and back straights that slowed me down.
The AFR was leaning to 16-17 and I was able to feel that lack of power. I let go off the pedal a little and that improved. I also had a good vibration of the front end at 120mph which made me slowdown. I think I have both of these figured out. I talk to Robbmc who is the manufacturer of my submerged pump and he explained that the pumps have a restriction on the inlet to allow them to work with 1/4" gas tank vents as returns. Since my vent is 5/16 he suggested to open up the restrictor some which will allow more fuel and probably fix the lean issue when at full power for that long. If this doesn't do then I will go to 3/8 return which will allow for a even less of a restriction. The vibration I think it is just a matter of rebalancing the tires. This 200tw tires are very soft and sensitive to locking the brakes. When you lock the brakes "flat" spots create which can throw off your balance. I definitely was locking the tires during Acceleration/Braking segment so that is probably contributing to the issue. All in all, what a great experience!
Overall this was a great driving experience and met a lot of cool people. I am a bit disappointed on how "easy" the road rally segment was and how bad I scored in the D&E challenge. For the D&E challenge you only have 4 minutes to talk about your car so this is an area that I definitely could refine and refocus next time to try to cover all the judging areas.
I had a few issues that include brake pads, lean condition and vibrations. This weekend I was using BP20 Wilwood compounds on the front. I was previously using E compound but unfortunately this one is not available anymore for my calipers. That said, I called Wilwood and they recommended the BP20s which clearly are not up to the heat generated on track. I argued with them and they still indicated that it should work. Well, the reality is that they didn't work. After the first lap my braking was very poor. Since I was suspicious of their advice I was carrying a spare set of Hawks DTC30 because the BP30 compound from Wilwood was backlogged. I replaced the pads right after the 1st track session, which made me miss the 2nd session but I was able to make the 3rd and 4th. Braking was excellent with the Hawk pads so I was able to improve my times. However, I was dealing with a lean condition towards the end of the front and back straights that slowed me down.
The AFR was leaning to 16-17 and I was able to feel that lack of power. I let go off the pedal a little and that improved. I also had a good vibration of the front end at 120mph which made me slowdown. I think I have both of these figured out. I talk to Robbmc who is the manufacturer of my submerged pump and he explained that the pumps have a restriction on the inlet to allow them to work with 1/4" gas tank vents as returns. Since my vent is 5/16 he suggested to open up the restrictor some which will allow more fuel and probably fix the lean issue when at full power for that long. If this doesn't do then I will go to 3/8 return which will allow for a even less of a restriction. The vibration I think it is just a matter of rebalancing the tires. This 200tw tires are very soft and sensitive to locking the brakes. When you lock the brakes "flat" spots create which can throw off your balance. I definitely was locking the tires during Acceleration/Braking segment so that is probably contributing to the issue. All in all, what a great experience!
)
