Thursday, May 31, 2012

929 Evo's Custom Jack Rails!

During the cage build, Izzy seen the beat up pinch weld area from all the times I've used a jack on the car.  He suggested a custom jack rail and I really like the idea.

Here are a few pics of the finished product currently in use.  We ran them about 3-4 feet behind the front tire on each side.  Each time I jack up the car I get a smile on my face because of these. 

They're easy find and support the jack w/o worries.  Best of all, I never have to bend down to double-check the position of the jack or worry about the base/handle scratching the side of the car since it sits so low. 

If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend something like this!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Evo Oil & Driveline Fluids!

And the round of mid-season maintenance continues.  After the tow truck, next up was the oil change for the 929 Evo.  Nothing special here, business as usual with AMSOIL 'Dominator' 15w50 going in.  I've been running AMSOIL exclusively in the engine since early 2009.

Also included in this mid-season maintenance are the driveline fluids.  Transmission and ACD fluids are currently draining as I type this - with AMSOIL going in there as well.

More maintenance coming...

Friday, May 25, 2012

Tow Truck - Oil Change!


Maintenance is ever on-going.  That includes not only the racecar, but everything else in the garage especially the tow truck.  My Nissan Titan was due for an oil change, creating over 35,000 miles recently with a good portion of them towing miles - along with it being my Daily Driver.

Since I got the truck, it's been running AMSOIL 5w30.  It's always ran and shifted smooth and I've no complaints.  One side effect of the mileage (I assume it's the age) is that the fuel consumption has gone down.  The truck has been getting about 1mpg more across the board in 2012; both back-and-forth to work and when towing.  Keep it coming!



Next up on the schedule is a full round of fluids for the 929 Evo.  All AMSOIL products going in, everything from engine oil to transmission fluid.  I'll post up some pics when I get to it. 





Tuesday, May 22, 2012

ACD-Tuning Review

One of the hardest things to get rid of in an Evo is understeer - or push. Like most cars from the factory, the car is front heavy and is setup to understeer once you turn up the wick. You have to drive the car pretty hard to find this barrier, but once you do it will drive you crazy!
In mid 2010 I was so fed up I decided to jump classes and upgrade the rear diff. I chose Shep's version which is a 1.5 way 12-plate. Oh my god; the car freakin rotated now!  I was now able to better control the car, and hold a 4-wheel slip angle.  Instead forcing the rear to come around with tricks, I could get rotation with just the gas pedal.I was able to Especially in the wet, the car was so much more fun and controllable. At my first event, I could carry a small drift ~80mph for over 100ft w/o drama! The car now rotated through the turns and I could pick up the gas soooo much quicker. Times dropped and no side-affects. I did a lot of refining the car and really liked where I had it sitting at this point.

After awhile though, as I put on wider and stickier tires, my speeds continued to increase and some of the push came back. I had heard about ACD updates a few years ago but never really believed anything about them. This was one of the reasons I got the Shep unit originally and not some fancy software that did not have a lot of feedback out there, at least not from many people I knew. 
But I heard something about a newer company - ACD-Tuning - and I started researching them in late 2011. I talked awhile over email with Matthew and I explained how the car has progressed and what would make it better. We decided to team up and I quickly received an updated ACD unit for testing. I have to say it came quickly and was packaged very tightly - A+!

Now I've received a lot of offers to test products in the past. Some are new, some are proven, some have been offered at a discount and some even free. A majority of the time I do my homework and end up going a different direction. Meaning just because it's free, I'm not slapping it on the car. The same goes for stickers/decals. I keep the car pretty clean and prefer it that way. But this ACD-Tuning I really wanted to see if it could help so I pulled the trigger.

Test weekend #1 - Road Atlanta
In March 2012 I made my first trek to Road Atlanta. I ran Day #1 with my normal setup using 245 Hoosier R6's and had a time of 1:32.8 I think. For day #2 there I swapped in the updated ACD unit and ran it in map #1, which had the smallest change as compared to the factory Tarmac mode. Overall I did not notice much of a difference. I only ran a few sessions that day given the 11hr drive but I did better my time to a low 1:32x. The good news is that the updated ACD unit did not cause me any problems or issues at all. There was no bind-up, no loss of grip, no crazy understeer or oversteer, no wheel spin or wheel hop or anything negative. Now being a new track I only ran about 8/10's so I didn't push the car incredibly hard or drive 'on the edge', so the ultimate decision on the ACD-Tuning software would need more testing.
I talked with Matthew about the event and Map #1 and he assured me it was the smallest change and said everything was good. He recommended to start with Map #2 next time, especially since I'm running Hoosiers and all. So that was the plan!

Test weekend #2 - Autobahn.
Although a small facility, a lot of people know this place as Redline and GTA and One Lap have all been here. It's actually one of my closest tracks and a great facility. The track is pretty wide and mostly smooth with some difficult corners and a few oddly placed bumps - and is known to be hard on brakes. I ran the first day with Map #2 on the same tires and the car rotated well but felt a little 'skaty'. In retrospect, I attribute this to some other factors including the new 6pt cage I had installed, and the fact I was pushing hard on a familiar track with skinnier tires than my last trip. The car still rotated well.
With day #2, I switched classes and bolted up my wider 255 A6's from the previous year. In my first hotlap I ran a new personal best of 1:31.9 (vs 1:32.1 in April/2011) on Map #2. The car felt great. It was so much more stable and sure-footed on the wider stickier tires and it again felt like my 2011 setup - the rotation felt good and I even played around with Map#3 which Matthew put on there for insane drifto! Even that map wouldn't turn the car into a drift-machine which is actually good. I didn't want to sacrifice grip in the front in order to gain it in the rear. I wanted the whole system to work together... just better - and it was.

Test weekend #3 - Putnam.
Back to another track I know well - running those same 245 R6's which was nearing the end of their useful life! I ran the car in my favorite Map #2 and tossed down some low 1:17's. Despite a gearing change from 2011 the altered my shiftpoints for the worse, everything felt great. Putnam has 2 long L-hand sweepers that can be torture to run - especially T4. They used to be torture with understeer frankly, and I've seen many a RWD car have trouble getting the power down here consistently.
Leaving the car in Map #2 all weekend - as the grip from the tires got worse, the car dynamically changed in T4. Keep in mind, that because of the reduced grip I was pushing really hard, close to 10/10's and the car was a handful with lots of steering inputs and corrections needed to keep it literally on-course. As the weekend progressed, the rear was beginning to rotate more and more in T4 specifically and it was great! I never adjusted my line, I just kept my foot down and adjusted the steering angle by opening up the wheel earlier as the rear rotated more and more.


Synopsis:
Now I wouldn't really call my car overly developed or refined. It's running a ton of factory OEM parts still and some off-the-shelf items. There's no trickery and nothing really custom on it. I'm saying this so anyone reading this can put themselves in my shoes with regards to how the ACD-Tuning has helped further refine and aid the rotation in my car.
Now what I can't tell you, is how much the ACD-Tuning will help a car on the stock rear diff. I can only guess, and that guess would be enormously! With my car already having an upgraded rear-diff, coilovers, an aggressive alignment and setup to rotate well - it only made it better, more controllable and more predictable.

Customer Service:
Matthew has been very easy to work with. We exchange a lot of emails as I send him my thoughts on the car along with turn specific information and video. He takes all that in, and I believe they are continually refining their tuning solutions to help the entire market get an even better product. They even offer an exhange program, but no worries as our Evo's work w/o the ACD unit in them anyways if you're in a pinch for time.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Putnam Park Videos - 5.13.2012

Here's video from day #2 at Putnam Park - Sunday 5.13.2012.  If you've read my previous post, you'll know that by the time Sunday rolled around there wasn't much grip left in our old heatcycled-out Hoosier R6's.  Still we managed to put down a sloppy 1:18.1 to take first in class.

Below are some vids of those sloppy, challenging and really really fun laps!  The first is from Session #1 when I was having a lot of fun sliding the car.  The first lap is from a trailing car, then you get that same lap from my point of view.

The 2nd vid is from Session #2 with the camera pointed backwards.  A 302 Mustang is behind us and the tires just won't hold so I point him by after a very fun lap.  Enjoy!




Thursday, May 17, 2012

Putnam Park - 5.13.2012 - Drifting into 1st place!


Saturday evening I rotated the tires; X'ing the front backwards. I figured the LF would be nearly bald - and it was. But the RF was worse! Sunday was going to be interesting with no grip in the rear, but I was thinking since the fronts looked ok that I'd at least be able to turn like I could early Sat.

(Pic):  Left side tires from Sat evening. Front on the left; rear on the right. I rotating the bald ones to the rear....

I made more suspension tweaks, rolling back the changes I made late Sat in hopes it would help the car grip more. I had some pulsing in the front end under braking on the out lap. I figured something was stuck to the rotor and/or the tires were flatspotted from sitting all night as I had reset my pressures to my normal morning starting pressures. It seemed to go away with some really hard jabs so I put it out of my mind and hit it hard. I ran 6 laps with a best of 1:18.2 which the car was no longer sliding, but rather drifting today! Jeff's Evo was behind me this session and got some good vid; check it out below.

For S2 I bettered my time to a 1:18.1 but that's all I could get. The rear was drifting around so much that I had to do more than countersteer, I had to get out of the gas some which is a killer for times. This is the session I put the camera on the rear and had a Mustang 302 behind me. My overall times were better than his, but in this session I just couldn't get the power down and after drifting through T4 and getting out of the gas I simply pointed him around.
When done, I looked over my tires carefully to see how bald the rears were now and to verify nothing was corded. The tires passed inspection, but the LF rotor did not. Check it out:


While I had a spare, it was 12:30pm at this point and very hot. With basically 0 chance to improve my times and only to play around more, I decided to forgo the fix and just pack things in and go surprise visit my Mom with it being Mother's day and all. It'd only add about 45min to my overall trip. With all the crazy turmoil with my wife's family recently; I've been trying to take the extra effort with regards to visits and calls and whatnot. I was actually going to cancel this event but the wife told me to go and enjoy the distractions. So I watched the start of my friend's race after packing up and took off.

Overall the car did great. No mechanical issues, just the broken exhaust bracket which was no biggie, the broken rotor which is a wear item and my boost gauge is still broke (so no, I've no idea what boost I was running). Oh, and my time easily held up Sunday for first in TTA once again.

After looking deeper at all my GPS data, everything is pretty cut and dry.  An 8/10's lap from 2011 on wider A6's yielded a nearly identical laptime to this year's lap at nearly 10/10's on skinnier R6's. Nuff said.
Braking force with R6's is crap compared to an A6; I had data confirming this already. Cornering G's were about the same but that's the 8/10's vs the 10/10's thing to allow that. I was able to push my brakezones a bit which is good and the car rotated great w/o hardly any understeer given what front grip I had at least.

The 2012 setup vs the 2011 setup to me feels better with regards to power and rotation. I'm really happy with how smooth the car idles, and I don't even notice the Synapse BOV thx to Buschur's tune (he assured me it'd be smooth; he's right). The differences being a Buschur tune on the engine this year and an ACD-tuning update in the ACD unit. Also different on this track were taller tires and a taller 4th gear as compared to May/2011 - both of which hurt my laptimes as the car was previously geared incredibly well for Putnam. With less speed on corner entry from the ****tier tires and the gearing changes I was actually forced to downshift twice more per lap to keep the turbo spinning. So factor in all those changes and running 1.3 seconds behind my blitzing 2011 time of 1:15.7 and I'm feeling pretty good about the car.

Video's coming...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Putnam Park - 1st in TTA - 5-12-2012



After running the Enduro on Friday afternoon/evening, I awoke at 6:45am Saturday tired and sore.  I still had to unload, unpack the car, and do some prep but that was about it.  Our warmup wasn't until after 10am so it was relaxed.  For the warmup I lined up around grip spot #3 I think and after waiting 1 lap for things to come up to temp I put down an easy 1:17.9 to earn #2 in grid.  I then went to tech and got weighed since I still had no solid idea of what the car weighed post-cage.  It came in at 3198 lbs; which was about 50 lbs over what I was claiming for the day so I was pretty happy with that given the current fuel load. 

Session 2 was at noon and I made no changes and fired a 1:17.0 which slotted me first in class and first overall.  I hit traffic very quickly as there were 44 cars in TT on Putnam's 1.7 mile course.  Also someone nailed the hay bails in the final turn so we had a few sitting on the exit of T10 which was right in the line - and after 2 laps of that I seen the double yellow.  I was probably going 130mph when I seen it, closing in on 2 lower classed cars probably going 95-100mph but I made the passes safely before the flagstand and tucked in behind the traffic.  Oddly though that traffic was another car giving pointby's that was off pace.  By the time I realized it I'd been re-passed by a few cars - I think this confused some cars as other passing from other cars ensued and only 1 was called in for passing under double-yellow.

For S3 I made a few small tweaks and ran a best of 1:17.2 but the car was really starting to slide at this point.  Wasn't sure if it was the heat - sunny and around 85 - or the tires giving up.  I figured a bit of both.  I know I was starting to drop 1-2 tires into the dirt in multiple corners on exit as the car just wouldn't hold and would slide.  It made 'catching' the slides a bit interesting and fun but I knew this wasn't going to be faster.  I was also given the pleasure of the 'meatball' flag and when I came in was told my exhaust was rubbing and throwing sparks.  This shocked me as there was no audible difference.  When I got back to my paddock spot I seen the brace by the rear axle had broken and it was hanging low and would need a bandaid!  I recently had another bracket re-welded and perhaps with that being tighter, me dropping tires and that rear brace being rewelded back in 2009 - the extra pressure caused it to break again.  Either way I had 2 hours to fix it, and with my idea and some help from a friend it was pretty simple.  (see pic)

For S4 I adjusted the suspension a touch to try and aid rotation/grip assuming things would be worse if the tires were the problem.  I had my answer in the first lap; it was the tires!  I ran 3 hard laps right around 1:18.3 until I hit traffic, then I played for another 1-2 and drifted.  I actually had a few people ask who left the drift marks in certain turns as I was at least having fun!  At this point I new the tires were shot, having 12-16 Heatcycles each.  Also good news was that our exhaust fixed had held up just fine.  My time from S2 would hold to land me 1st place in TTA by about 3 seconds - but I was 1.3 seconds off my record from 2011 when I was on wider stickier rubber.  But considering the tires I came with I thought the car did very well - running times right where I thought we would.  Power was smooth and rotation was great with no understeer; just an overall lack of grip especially at turn-in from the worn tires. 
Vid from Sat; A lap each from Sessions 2 & 3 from different angles:

Monday, May 14, 2012

Putnam Park 3hr Enduro Podium Finish!

On Friday I split a 3hr Enduro with a Jason P. from GP Racing Products in one of their Miata's.  I drove past the halfway point, to a total of 66 laps.  Accomplished everything I wanted to do.

Around 20-25 cars in total I think with 8 in our E3 class.  Being our car wasn't in 'Spec' Miata form, we were faster than all the other SM's and right on par with the top 2 944's judging by laptimes.  Then there were 3+ a lot slower and 5+ cars that were considerably faster.  So really a good mix of traffic imo with passing some and being passed some as well.  So I was able to accomplish everything I wanted with regards to traffic management.  I was also able to settle into a groove and click off consistent laps w/o having to think about it which was a huge goal of mine.

I started out running 1:26's.  Trying hard early with a FULL fuel load I got a few 1:25's before settling into a groove.  Then we were forced to pit with a clutch issue that Jason quickly jumped into the car to fix by adjusting the pedal a few inches - then I was back in and we were off - but about 5 laps down.  So back to work....  Some open laps then some passing back-and-forth and some chasing I netted a few high 1:24's before settling into a groove with consistent low 1:25's which made me very happy.  Best of 1:24.6 I think.
I wasn't getting too tired really and was calling out my fuel load over the radio every so often and saying everything was good (with regards to the clutch issue fix).  I was having fun with the car, and the combination of less fuel and me driving about 1.5 seconds faster really livened up the corners for me with a decent amount of 'dancing' which kept it interesting and funner still.

About 1 hr and 45 minutes into the 3hr timed race, I was called in for the driver change pitstop.  This went very very well as we did the switch and a 5 gallon fuel dump and Jason was off to finish things up.  I think we were sitting in 4th at this point.  A combination of a pitstop and Jason's pass got us up into P3.  He was clicking off consistent high 1:23's and chased down P1 and P2 in class and after 2 long battles was able to get around both with a best of 1:23.3 I think.  We're pretty sure had it not been for the clutch issue we'd have been on the lead lap and in our class lead at that point. 

Overall finished 3rd out of 8 in class - and ON the podium!  I was pretty happy with the way I drove.  I know I was giving up time in the braking zones as I was paranoid about locking up the tires w/o ABS and cording something.  Jason isn't the fastest in the world, but he's damn consistent and to be about 1.5 off his laps when he was running less weight in fuel I feel pretty good.  
This was an arrive-and-drive deal with GP Racing and the experience couldn't have gone better.  The whole team is so relaxed and that really helped, especially being my very 1st race and very 1st Enduro.  They regularly crew for 3+ cars including 8hr Enduro's so they've quickly become pro's.  Highly recommended...

Friday, May 11, 2012

Putnam Park weekend - Enduro kickoff!


At 4pm today, the 3hr NASA Enduro at Putnam Park kicks off.  After suffereing an engine failure in my first attempt at an Enduro before I got a chance to drive my stint in the car I was eager to give it another go.  This time I'll be splitting the drive with Jason and GP Racing in a SM (Spec Miata) build again running in the hotly contested E3 class with 8+ entries.

This time I'll be taking the first stint and the weather looks great for Friday.   With me and Jason luck!

And after the Friday Enduro, the normal NASA Sat/Sun schedule will take place with HPDE, Time Trials and Sprint races.  I'm currently signed up for TTA.  I set that TTA track record here last year with a 1:15.7 and hope to drop a similar time down on older tires and the updated Buschur tune.  I was working on updating my APR splitter and Kognition rear wing, but I don't think there will be time to make it all legal to fit into my TTA class and still be functional.  So more fabrication and planning is needed for that setup!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Brake Cooling Update Project!


In an attempt to keep the braking system cooler, I've got a series of projects to undergo before I line up for another sprint race!  With my next NASA event being this weekend, here's what I did have time to undergo...

I pulled the caliper & rotor off.  Then I unhooked and removed the dust shield, which I am planning to leave off.  I've really only left them on as I've been worried about them protecting the ABS sensors.  So taking the advice I've got, I wrapped the ABS sensor and lines in the DEI wrap that's frequently used for exhaust or header wrap.  You wet it down, tack it in place and spray it with the associated spraycan. 

Below is a pic of the nearly finished ABS line wrapped, coated, and ziptied up.  If you follow it to the bottom, that is the location of the actual sensor which has a separate chunk of wrapping protecting it. 

This should prevent the rotor from retaining as much heat as it has been.  Next up after this weekend of running TT at Putnam Park will be the planned new run of larger cooling ducts including new openings in the bumper.  I've got everything I need to undergo this project and just need to figure out where and how much to hack up the front bumper!  Wish me luck at Putnam and then later with my crappy Fabrication skills!

Friday, May 4, 2012

4.22.12 - NASA TTS @ Autobahn


After the brake caliper failure on Saturday, I switched the car to run Time Trials on Sunday to do some testing with the brake setup.  As for changes, I swapped out the leaking RF caliper with another that I had (always bring extras) and did a quick bleed of the brakes.  The odd thing was besides being a bit low of brake fluid, there really wasn't any air bubbles or darker fluid that came out of the system.

Having no time in TT from the previous day, I gridded in the rear and clawed my way through the traffic to find a descent lap while trying to be nice.  I ended up with a respectable 1:34x, similar to what I was running in the race the previous day - on the same setup.
Session #2 I bolted up my better 255 A6's that were leftover from 2011 and laid down a personal best 1:31.9, running just 3 quick laps.  Everything felt great including the brakes and things seemed to be back to normal overall although the car was rotating more that usual with the more aggressive ACD map from ACD-Tuning.  By this time it was lunch, so I popped out the front brakepads to check for wear assuming I'd need to drop in a new set.  But, they did not look any worse so I left them in. 
Session #3 I was lined up behind another Evo and we turned some good fun laps, nearly identical laps all right around the 1:32x range until he had an OFF and we both came in.  Overall, no better.
Session #4 I stayed out and ran 6 hard laps; which coincidentally was all the further I got in the race!  These turned out to be my best laps as I was pushing the car pretty hard - a bit too hard probably for the tires - through some of the tighter turns.  I had multiple laps in the 1:31x range.

At the end of the day, we ended up 2nd out of 5 cars in class; besting 2 TTS Evo's with front/rear aero and set a personal best of 1:31.666.  Keep in mind we were actually running in legal TTA form (but in TTS for competition) and this would have set a new TTA lap record with that time.  Huge thanks to Buschur Racing, AMSOIL and ACD-Tuning for their 2012 support.
The video below is from S4; enjoy:



Thursday, May 3, 2012

929 Evo Racing Debut! 4.21.2012 - NASA Autobahn


Saturday April 21st was the wheel-2-wheel (w2w) racing debut for the #929 Evo.  After warmup and an oil-soaked qualifying the grid was set for the Thunder racegroup.  Because of low carcounts in my chosen class of PTA, I'd be bumping up to run in ST2 this weekend.  ST2 would be joined with the faster ST1 and SU groups for the first 'wave' of the Thunder racegroup.  I ended up gridded 11th in the first wave.

The start was odd. I ended up beside a fellow rookie that ran TTA with me last year so there was some comfort there. We actually took the green when I was in 4th gear (yes above 90mph)... which is just odd at least compared to all our practice starts I'd done the previous week.  I was side-by-side with said Vette for about the first 4 turns including some sideways action and him taking the gators to thankfully give me room! The next turn I backed off a hair (the car was loose on colder tires) and I tucked in behind him and the leaders. About 4 laps later the 4-5 leaders were pulling away from us but we were having our own race. About this time my 245 R6's were starting to give up a little grip and the Vette running 315 A6's was able to distance himself some. The next lap my pedal starting getting longer and I was doing some LFB pumping on the straights. The next lap when I was 3-wide down the backstraight passing a slower GTS car and letting a faster GTS car past I reached for the brakes and the pedal went to the floor repeatedly. Checking my data I left the track at 85mph.

Pumping the brakes feverishly, steering strategically and downshifting accordingly I was able to drift it through the grass & weeds to an eventual stop. I kept the revs up, got the car turned around and back to the track safely and into the pits to avoid a tow or extended yellow.

The brakes - 100% stock Brembo's - have always been a bit of an issue with this car and Autobahn S can be a difficult track. Most of the guys racing have upgraded to a BBK (Big Brake Kit) and that's ideally what I would do. But, that's not the plan as I have a TTA/PTA build and a BBK is a 2pt upgrade, not to mention the $1800-2500 price. So we'll see what the longterm fix is....  I later found a faulty RF brake caliper that looked to be a big issue as well with evidence of corrosive leaking.

The vid below is the green flag and first lap.  The brake caliper issue happened on my 6th lap and caused a nasty off and my retirement from the race.  Fortunately I was able to save the car w/o damage.  And to my surprise, I didn't finish last in the ST2 field!


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

4.21.2012 Qualifying at NASA Autobahn

So Saturday and the Evo....
I went out for the warmup session on street tires as I did not have time to change tires as we were first up! I tossed down a very eventful and sideways filled 1:38x on a cold green track in about 50 degree weather on 5yr old Dunlops on my 3rd lap and pulled in.  lol.  It was fun; and the car ran for the first time since the cage!

Qualifying was about 2 hours later. On my 1st hotlap I seen the debris flag at T6 - and quickly found the insanely huge OIL SPILL directly on-line from T6 through T10 when I actually passed said spiller on the backstraight still limping the car around.  IDIOT.  About 5 awesome oil-soaked drifts later for myself, about 6 offs witnessed from other cars and 1 car sitting a full 180 degrees backwards track-center - and just 3 laps - they tossed checker to end quals early. I had just a 1:40x.

I had a 4 hr gap until the race.  I worked on cleaning up some of the wiring from the gauges and getting my oil temp gauge hooked back up (Thx to Boostin Performance for the wiring fix).  I had time to update some of the decals on the car including adding ST2 designations for the race.  More to come...

The vid is from Qualifying.  Not too entirely eventful as most of the sliding action was in front me.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Electrical Issues - Fixed @ Boostin Performance!

After spending more time after Gateway with my brand new voltage meter - in the cover of my dry garage and not in the rain - I had found that the alternator was in fact still putting out a charge.  So I'm very happy we didn't try to hash & hack in a new alternator overnight at the track at Gateway.  With some more searching and following lines, I unwrapped the protective coating around the main fuse assembly just off of the battery that my cagebuilder updated during the cage build process.  Low and behold I found an obvious issue with the fuse!  I was both frustrated and optimistic at the same time, as the car ran perfectly as always at Road Atlanta earlier in March prior to the cage build at Izzy's.

I shared these findings about the fuse with some friends and we all agreed this could be the only issue, or just 1 of the issues.  Either way it needed changed out as well as a belt in the car that was showing some wear.  So I scheduled some time Friday April 20th prior to my Autobahn event at Boostin Performance in Addison, IL which is about 1hr N or the Autobahn track.  It was going to be a busy day, but Devin & Kristin did their best to accomodate me with a late pickup that I would need after running the Enduro from 3-7:30pm.

I dropped the car off at Boostin Performance around 1pm and further explained my issues and what I had determined to this point with the instructions to 'fix what was needed'.  lol.  I was then off to Autobahn for the Enduro where I'd be splitting a 3hr event in a Porsche 944.  Even before the Enduro started at 4:30pm I had an email from Boostin Performance that my car was fixed and it was indeed just the fuse.  I exchanged my thoughts on verifying the battery load for 10+ minutes etc and everything had already been tested so it was ready for pickup!  On top of that they were able to fix my sliced wire on my Oil Temp gauge under the car!

So after our Enduro 944 suffered an early retirement from the race on Friday evening, I headed back to Boostin Performance to pick up the Evo and bring it back to the track.  Around 8pm I had the Evo back at the track and unloaded.  Then some food, and the hotel for the night...