September 29, 2008
Autometer Gauge Cluster
Some folks have asked to see pictures of the guage cluster I fabricated with Autometer Ultralite gauges. This completely replaces the factory Camaro gauge cluster and bezel. It's a tight fit, but I managed to squeeze in a 5" tach and speedo, as well as 2" oil pressure, fuel level, and battery voltage gauges, as well as LED turn signal and high beam indicators.
More pictures at:
http://www.skulte.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Gauge-Cluster
Posted by Z28tt at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2007
Limerock Park with Cart-CT
Got to bed at 1am with the trailer loaded Wednesday night (three 1am
nights in a row, getting ready), and up at 5:30am to be ready to go
when Justin arrived (local CTFBA buddy). Fueled up the Durango and two 5
gallon fuel jugs, and hit the road. Arrived at the track with tons of
parking left, and saved a spot for Mark. Only a 70 car cap to
registration, so it wasn't too crowded. Rolled the Camaro off the
trailer, registered (already done from the internet, so you just claim
you packet and get a t-shirt, very quick) and went through tech. There
was a novice track walk at 8am which would have been cool, to actually
see all the little details of the track up close. I've never done that
for a road course. We had our drivers meeting at 9am since everyone
was waiting for Mark to arrive from NYC (just kidding!), and probably
had the first car off at 9:45 (took forever for the workers to get
situated). They had everyone split into 3 groups - A (fastest) to C.
Mark and I went out in the A group with some fast Evo's (running
around a minute flat) and stupidly, they put novices with fast cars in
A group as well. We had passing on the front and no-name straights,
with no point by's necessary, but it was a good courtesy. Limerock
castrated no-name straight by laying out cones squeezing the last 200
feet to one lane, to keep folks from making a late pass. Every lap
there were trains stuck behind the six novices in GroupA, and because
of the small passing zone in the back, you only had room to get by 2
cars. Consequently, there were constant trains of 4+ cars with
everyone stuck behind a novice. You'd catch up to a train by the
esses, 2 folks would pass at noname, you're stuck behind for the
uphill, west bend, and downhill and then you'd pass right after the
downhill, only to catch up to the next train by the esses again. The
novices were great with point by's and not drag racing down the
straight, so the instructors did a great job keeping everyone
courteous (except for one guy, later...). Justin timed me at 1.12's
for the first 6 or so laps and by that point the novices were starting
to get the hang of things, and I was down to 1.06's (had a fun time
just following Kyle through traffic with his even faster Evo, enjoying
the smell of race gas in the morning!). Finally got one clean lap -
1.03! Started out the session with the Kumho V710's at 30 psi cold,
and at the end, they were LF:41, RF: 38, RR 36, LR 37 psi. Dropped
them back down to 30R and 32F.
Tire Temps (outer-middle-inner), in the pits a few minutes later (thanks Justin!):
LF 173-170-166
RF 155-150-159
RR 130 138 128
LR 139 146 136
You can see how the pressure got too high and the center of the tires
was hotter. 9" rear was at 148 degrees.
After they ran through the run groups, it was open track for the day.
It's my first time running that format, and I loved it! The Camaro was
running well, and I didn't think to top off the gas, figuring one
session wouldn't burn that much fuel. Wrong - 4 laps in, the fuel
pressure was dropping in the corners (gauge read half tank). Back into
the pits to dump in 5 gallons, another 4 laps, and the stumble was
back. I need to look at the DFI6 fuel trim tables because I was
pegging out the wideband and power felt down - maybe I've got a funky
setting for IAT or CLT tables that goes to a full rich safety mode
Pit in, add another 5 gallons, and good to go (for another 5-10 laps).
By this point, the track was pretty open, and you'd only get stuck
once a lap behind a slower car. I can understand not allowing passing
in more places, but the uphill would be a perfectly safe zone, with
lots of room before West Bend. I'd usually hang back after West Bend
to get a run through the downhill corner, late apex, and go right by
on the inside (as long as there wasn't a train, and other cars in
front, passing on the right). Then I caught up to a shiny red Ferarri.
And stayed on his bumper through the esses (didn't want to dog him too
badly, since he had the N sticker on the back for Novice, and I
couldn't afford to fix his car if he did a panic stop and I drove into
the back). We got to no-name straight, and he's drag racing me? WTF?
Dog him through the uphill, west bend, and downhill, go to the inside
to pass, get next to him, and drag racing again. Huh? Pull in behind
again, and put put through the esses. By this point, I'm waving my
hand out the window, trying to get the flagger's attention for a blue
flag, but no luck. He's WOT on no-name, uses the full track to
eliminate the passing zone on the right, and now it's impossible to
pull a pass if the passee doesn't lift. Yes - even in the Z28tt. Slow
down to what felt like 40 for the uphill section, and now I really
hang back for the downhill, since he likes to brake a lot for the
downhill corner. I get a run on him, go (slowly) past as he's drag
racing, and get in front before the brake zone this time. He's no
where to be seen by the time I get to noname. Had a chat with him
(nice older gentleman), and it seems he doesn't understant the point
of track days. I tried to explain that he's going very slow through
the corners, and there are cars with less horsepower that get stuck
behind him in the corners, and don't have the HP to pass on the
straights. He said he didn't want to beat on the car in the corners,
which is why he was driving slow, but he likes going fast on the
straights. Maybe Lebannon Valley would be a better place. At the next
drivers meeting, maybe we could have some official signal to get the
flagger's attention for a blue flag. Waving arms, flashing headlights,
etc... Pics from Ray Covino:
Drag Racing: http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078645871430871858
and http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078645931560414018
Tire Temps (outer-middle-inner), in the pits after session 3:
LF 196-183-178
RF 163-171-186
RR 131-133-144
LR 156-161-155
Filled up the tank at the track pumps ($4.80/gal for 93 octane, btw),
and checked with the grid guy to see how long open track would go,
until time trials started. He said 3, so we took a break for lunch at
1:45, and I rolled back out to grid by 2:20, only to be told that
they're setting up for time trials. Please, please, please have
consistent communication with everyone. Maybe a dry erase white board
with a master schedule, so last minute schedule changes can be shared
with everyone. The Camaro is happy with 20 minute sessions, but more
than that, and the oil temps get too high and the V710 tires overheat
(I got the left front at 195 in the pits after one of the faster
sessions). The T56 transmission is starting to go as well - funny
clicking noises on decel in 1st gear, and I get a little grind every
time I downshift into 3rd for the back straight. I've got a spare
waiting, and I'll rebuild this one with good parts eventually.
A peave - Limerock Park closed the track several times the day to run
construction equipment across. Would they have done this for the
Porsche clubs... We paid for the track, and they took time away. Maybe
red-flagging the session would have minimized the disruption?
Time trials started quickly enough (only 15 minutes to set up the
timers and convert over), and people gridded by car number in groups
of 3, split every 20 seconds or so. We'd get a 1 lap warmup, 2 hot
laps, and a cooldown. A light rain started half way through, and they
decided to hold off for 15 minutes until it cleared & dried up. I saw
#40 in the hot pits, so I decided to grid. It was finally our turn to
move into the hot pits, since we'd be the next run group, and of
course, the rain came back. Track went cold again, and 20 minutes
later, rain stopped (I thought it'd be a great learning experience to
run in the light rain to help my driving skills and keep the racing
line a bit drier, but CART club officials thought otherwise). We were
allowed 2 warm up laps to help dry the track. I was out first, then a
fast CRX also in the 1.03's, and a very clean black Fiero. The
concrete was very slick on cold tires, and the asphalt a little less
so. A few times the car attempted to swap ends when I fed the throttle
in a bit early, but not bad. Once the Kumho's got up to temp for the
2nd warm up lap, I could actually start driving it pretty hard. Thank
goodness for soft new tires! On the 2nd lap, the corner stations were
waving a yellow, which I thought might have been for me to take it
easier on the warm-up laps. Once I made it to the uphill corner, I saw
why - dirt ALL over the track. It turns out the Fiero had gone off
track, but saved it. We all got black flagged while the track workers
swept it up, and back out for our time trials. Everything went
smoothly, didn't make too many mistakes, but I was still cautious as
the track wasn't nearly as sticky as before the rain. Managed to get a
1.03.680, which put me in 2nd place for the E-mod class (data shows
130 before braking for big bend). First place was for a 350Z driver
who got a 1.03.3xx (Kyle and the other Evo had left after the rain
started). Another stand-out was the AMG Mercedes that was in F-stock
and ran a 1.03.xx! That's moving!
http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078646842093481074
TT's finished around 4:30, so we still had some open track time. I
wasted 15 minutes with the data acquisition system & Windows Vista on
the laptop, gave up, and headed back out on track for a few more laps.
I was released out of the hot pits and saw the gorgeous red ZR1 ahead,
who was also running in the low minutes range, and would be great to
follow and maybe learn a better line. At west bend, there was a HUGE
cloud of dust, and I saw the ZR1 slowly rolling off the track before
pit entrance, with a cloud of smoke behind it. Kept going for the next
lap when the session was black flagged, and saw his front left wheel
was cocked funny. It turns out his CCW Classic wheel (old style, same
as what I've got) had cracked off the center section at the base of
his spokes. He did a great job saving his car at a fast corner, with
only minor damage to body work. CCW has a revised center section with
2mm thicker spokes that fixes this. Hopefully they exchange the center
pieces for no-cost on these expensive wheels. CCW has a great rep for
customer service. Time to make a phone call, and get that taken care
of...
http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078644604415519186
Overall, it was a great day and another fun event put on by CART-CT.
Too bad there aren't any more Limerock dates with this club. I had a
great time.
Oh yeah - the crazy valve cover TIG welded breather towers we fabbed last week with baffles and
modified AMW catch can on Mark's car finally fixed his oil blowby
issues! He came in after the first session (still on street tires and
brakes - I could smell his car halfway around the lap!), and was
skipping around like a little school girl doing the happy dance! :)
Nice 1st gen: http://picasaweb.google.com/raymond.covino/CARTCTLRP/photo#5078645983100021586
Posted by Z28tt at 2:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2007
Watkins Glen DL90 data from the COM SCC time trials on 4/24/07
C5 rotors after Watkins Glen
Wagner BD125539, Made in Canada
Posted by Z28tt at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2006
Lime Rock - The Line
Every time I make it out to Lime Rock, it takes a session or two to get comfortable, so this will be my cheat sheet to remember for next time. Start out with the 315 35/17 Kumho's at 30 psi rear and 32 psi front. Make sure data logger is turned on. Big bend - I was braking at the imaginary #7 marker last time, and running a late apex. The car is just too heavy to do the double apex line. Downshift to 4th and track out to the rumble strips, and bring it over to the right for a very late apex at the esses. Hug the left side of the track (almost no track out for the left hander), and an aggressive late apex for the right hander onto noname straight. It goes off camber at the kink. There were 3 levels of braking cones set up for the uphill corner. I was braking at 2.5, and sliding the car into the corner. If the car was straightened out early, I could get on the gas sooner, without worrying about the back end coming around as I crest the hill. Hadn't picked out a brake marker for West Bend, and could work on a more aggressive line tracking out to the rumble strips. Downhill corner, hard on the brakes early, to set the car up for accelerating through the apex and keeping the rear tires weighted. Late trail braking made the car want to rotate in the corner, which gets hairy with the cold track and hard tires. This was around 4200 rpm in 4th gear (3.70 rear, 1:1 4th, and 25.5" circumference tires). Next time I need to focus on the line for big bend. It's very easy to become distracted with the dirt around, and be too late turning into the apex. Also must stay towards the outside of the track before turning in, rather than creeping in early.
Posted by Z28tt at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)
Lime Rock Park Time Trials
Morning came quick at 5am, with my alarm going off upstairs, which Zip (the wonder lab) heard, and prompted her to try and snuggle up with Dave downstairs in the Aerobed. We actually left before 6am, fueled up, and got to the track around 7am, registered, and through tech very quickly. Apparently Dave's SLP catback needed 3 tries to pass sound (and my unmuffled-only turbos, boomtubes with deflector passed easily). So much for consistency... My first session the track was very slick. I couldn't put any more than 1/2 power down until the car was perfectly straight, or the back end would swing around. The stock cheapo pads got fade about 5 laps in (my PFC race pads were down to their backing plates, and I didn't want to buy $150 pads for one event, as these single piston brakes are getting tossed in the trash), but that was also on the old Indy brake fluid, not even bled. Shawn gave me his old performance friction pads for the 2nd session, we bled them, and pedal was better. Still soft, but not fading. I was using the imaginary 7 brake marker (they go to 6) for big bend. Winter mod is definitely some big brakes. No question this time. The DL90 data acq box was working great (I think, I haven't analyzed anything yet, other than sector times), and laptimes were around 1:05's to 1:07's. Those old Kumho's really need some heat to start working. I need to throw them out, even though there's plenty of rubber left. 3'rd session in the afternoon the track was much warmer (about 65 in the sun, but 34 in the shade, according to my temp gun in the pits). This time I was able to consistently drive the car at 90-95%, and start working on my line, brake points, etc... Data showed most laptimes in the 1:05's and a single 1:04.
I grabbed tire temps in the pits (which is a little late, but I still wanted to see). The FL, RL, and RR tires were 130-135 degF, and the FR was about 10 degrees off. I wonder what my cornerweights are, and if I should adjust them. Time to put the car on the scales, and square it up. Inside to outside edge on the front tires were around 10 degrees hotter, and 5 degrees on the rear. I also checked the rotor temps, which were 450 on the FL, and 480 on the FR (5-10 minutes after I came in). The back of the pads were 380. Tires were set to 34R and 36F cold, which worked up to 40 (too much possibly).
The time trials finally came around, and we're all grouped in the staging area, inside of the downhill corner when I heard screeching, looked over, and a Scooby or Evo just lost the back end, came around 160 degrees, and with a very loud thud, hit the inside tire wall (and moved it over about a foot!), 100' away from us. The entire drivers side was flattened in about 6", but the 3x tire deep wall with thick rubber barrier did a wonderful job of absorbing the impact at 80ish mph. This put about a 30 minute delay getting the car off the track, and I had a chance to talk with one of the Evo guys. Kyle's running 59's consistently, with only about 300 hp, 2900 lbs (no interior), and lots of suspension work. He's got the Race Technologies AX22 data logger, and we'll exchange files to see where the differences are, and how he makes up all the time. My friend with an '07 Z06 had followed him one session, and noticed he's on the gas hard before the apex, while he has to wait a bit longer before feeding in the power. Once I finally got out for the time trials, I tried to warm the tires up, but the car was just all over the place. I did get to start pushing it, but under braking and turning, I'd just end up sliding it into the corner, so scrubbed off too much speed. 1.08.xx, for 2nd place in the Tuner Over class. I'm a bit dissapointed, as I was running 1:04's 2 years ago with less suspension work and was hoping to improve it, but I think those 5 year old Kumho's seemed to need a good 5 laps to get up to temp. There's always next year, which will have new tires, a rear differential instead of spool, a wing, plexi hatch, side & nose skirts, glass hood, real brakes, and 3x the boost.
After reviewing the data from the Race Technologies DL90, speeds through BigBend were 63 mph, up to 74 before braking for the single left hander, around 55 through the esses, up to 105 on no-name straight, down to 68 for the uphill corner, up to 95 before braking to 72 for west bend, up to 95 down the hill, and braking to 70 for the downhill corner, and hitting 135 on the front straight. The car was accelerating around .35 g's in 4th gear, and decel was .8g's before big bend, and .85 g's before the uphill corner. Cornering g's peaked at 1.35, but 1.10-1.20 is more realistic as an average.
Third Session - 1.1mb
Z28tt Car Setup File- 1kb
Posted by Z28tt at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
Getting ready for the EMRA Lime Rock Park time trials
Things to complete before Limerock:
Order & Replace rear wheel studs
Install front single piston caliper brake ducts & racing pads
Wire TPS sensor into data acquisition box
Install camcorder
Fabricate side exhaust baffle
Load truck and trailer (cold weather gear)
Clean windshield
Top off oil
Top off rear end fluid
TIghten dipstick
Wire 300+?!!
Turn up boost?!!
wash/wax?!!
Tap out dent?!!
Posted by Z28tt at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Watkins Glen
Just an old picture I found from Watkins Glen, in 2001...
Posted by Z28tt at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)