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!

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:

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!

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.

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...