NJMP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcxEwPZ7XKY - Almost into the 1:35's!

There's something very gratifying beating up on 300-320 hp evo's all day, but it's all in good fun! Looks like I was just about into the 1:35's at New Jersey Motorsport Park for the last race of the season. Went all year on one motor, one set of brake pads, one set of rotors, and really only replacing a water pump on the first event of the year (shakedown). I shouldn't of even really used the pump but that's what I get for trying to be cheap.

I've decided that the turbo route is too expensive at this point so I'm going to try to do some additional minor modifications to get the car legal for a Performance Touring class. Not sure if I'll be competitive at all, but I need the experience.

Not Lost, Just Busy

So there's much to talk about - Been to a ton of tracks and will finish up the season at New Jersey Motorsports Park at the end of October. I have some winter plans which won't really involve a swap just do to financial constraints, but will involve some work. I'll get some more recient photos up soon. Monticello - Watkins Glen - Etc.

Stay Tuned.

Pocono

Went out to Pocono for the 4th event of the season. Car's still running well - Was putting down some nice lap times minus the bent rim (rock at the end of the track out curbing). Next step will be brake ducts and forward under-tray - Also would like to fix the darn fuel starvation issues :(

Check out the video below for some in-car around the double infield configuration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoeVAyKyFrg

Brake Wear?

I'm anal - I know - But when it comes to the track car I think it's a good kind of anal. I like to inspect every bolt on the car after each track day to make sure there are no points of failure. So my first point of inspection after Lime Rock was the brakes... You hear a lot of complaining from the high horsepower cars or heavier cars about brake wear and being that I ran 3 pretty full-out sessions at Lime Rock I figured I'd pull the wheel off and see some destruction...

In fact I saw the opposite - I had virtually no brake wear! This is very nice for a few reasons - 1) I don't need to buy brakes every other track day (save me about 200$ right there... per front set) and 2) I'm not overworking them. I still think I should get some brake ducts (Didn't have them for Lime Rock) just to have a little extra safety - especially on a track like Monticello coming up on Friday.

Lime Rock

So I had the car up at Lime Rock last Thursday and she really performed well. I was running high 1:04 laps on street tires when I wasn't in traffic... The car can be setup a bit more to get rid of the push at entry and stablize it under braking. After 3 sessions of some pretty good abuse, I have virtually 0 brake wear and tires are still good.

I had a guy come up to me after one of my sessions and ask "So what turbo do you have on this thing?" - My response is... "I don't - it's the stock 2.5". The expression on his face was pricelesss haha.

I did have a small problem with leaking coolant. The car never overheated, but I'm thinking the water pump may be bad due to the previous event at Monticello. I'll take her apart and prep her for ANOTHER trip to Monticello on Friday.

Weekend Projects

So over the weekend I worked on the RS a bit more. Cut out a bunch of unneeded metal off the front of the car (could cut more, but decided not go nuts just yet). I removed material basically because I wanted to offset the weight added with the addition of the oil cooler and brake ducts.

I Fabbed up some brackets and mounting points for the oil cooler and hooked it up to the thermostatically controlled sandwich adapter I have. used -10 line to keep the restriction down. I had an old steel oil cooler laying around from a previous car. It's not the best cooling but it will get the job done for now. I tried to tap all the brackets to reduce fasteners needed to speed up removal if ever necessary.

I then installed some inlets for the brake ducts. These will be modified over time as they are no where near optimal for flow but they are just temporary to get some air on the brakes in time for Lime Rock. My goal will be to build an inlet using some fiberglass to allow for more aerodynamic efficiency. All in due time...

Brakes

So it's been awhile since I last posted most because work has picked up a lot.

I've been awaiting my second track event with the RS at Lime Rock - and in preparation I need to install brake ducts and an oil cooler. I ordered up some 3" high temp brake tubing and clamps and will fabricate up some ducts. Stay tuned for the progress: