UnsafeAtAnySpd

I have a thread on this over on CF, but thought I would keep anybody interested updated over here as well as I frequent both forums.

Anyway, last season I finally made it up through the NASA HPDE ranks, was signed off for HPDE4 and subsequently the Time Trial program. I had been building a '97 AWD Talon for wheel to wheel use but plans have since changed. Thus I've decided to part out the Talon for now (keeping most of the aftermarket parts for now though as I would like to reattack the project down the road). In the meantime, I want to have some fun with TT. The main goal is to have fun but I would like to be as competitive as possible. Clearly, seat time is going to continue to be my best shot at lower lap times.

For those of you not familiar with the NASA TT classing format, it's kind of cool actually. Every car is assigned a base class. From there, every mod is assigned a point value. For every 20 points, you move up one class. Finally each class will have a minimum weight/power ratio you must adhere to.

The V is assigned a base class of TTC** (the two asterisks meaning it is assessed 14 points right off the bat). That said, I'm almost into TTB stock, so I plan to run TTB for the season.

The first event is this coming weekend at High Plains Raceway ( highplainsraceway.com ). Below is the set-up I'll be starting the season off with. Other than what is mentioned, the car is otherwise stock (albeit with 105k miles). Also indicated is the point value assigned to each mod.

Tires/Suspension:
18x9 Team Dynamics 1.2s (free)
275/35/18 Hoosier R6 (+14)
BMR front STB (free)
Rear STB (free)

Brakes (all free mods):
Stock Calipers
TiSpeed brake shims
UUC 2-piece front rotors
Stock rear rotors
UUC SS lines
Motul RBF600
Hawk DTC-70 pads (f/r)

Drivetrain:
W4M Tune
Kooks headers (+2)
Hi-flow cats/Corsa (+3)
UUC Engine, trans, diff, shifter bushings (free)
UUC shifter (free)
Katech LS9 clutch/flywheel setup (free) (This isn't installed yet as I'm waiting on the remote bleeder I ordered. The entire setup should be installed by Wed at the latest which will give me barely enough time to break it in before Sat)

Misc:
Ron Davis radiator
Heavy's passenger seat mounted fire extinguisher

So...
** : 14 points
Tires/Suspension : 14 points
Engine : 5 points
Total : 33 points

TTB with 6 points left...

UnsafeAtAnySpd

First project of the year was the radiator install. Remind me not to break my arm again (I broke my left humerus completely in half. I have some good xray pictures lol). Not being able to put much weight on the one arm made things way harder than they needed to be. Ugh. Anyway, here's a few pictures.
Stock setup:

Pulling the radiator out was a little tricky but not too bad (a friend would've been nice). So much room, but not for long. I think a catch can is needed as well.



The difference in size between the two is ridiculous:



It took me a while to shoehorn this thing in there. As you can see, there is zero intake clearance. It took quite a while to even be able to get the stock tube back on, so it looks like anything aftermarket will have to wait for awhile (really didn't have plans for one soon anyway). I'll have to keep an eye on the places where it makes contact. But it is all bolted in. It's since been filled back up and put on the road. This was the first time I'd been able to drive the car since August as the stock unit went out on me about that time. Way too long to wait, but it was winter I suppose.
If I didn't already mentioned, it's a Ron Davis unit with built in oil cooler. The oil cooler set-up isn't in place yet but will be needed for sure before the summer warms up.




Also pictured is the BMR STB and my new alternator cable routing.

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Near the end of last season, I had picked up a set of Kumho Ecsta V700 R comps in th 265/35/18 size that I was running on stock wheels. I really liked them and it was hard to beat the TireRack closeout price of $100 each. That said, I ended up picking up twelve used 275/35/18 Hoosier R6s for about $550. They're wider, stickier and Hoosier has a nice contingency program as well, so I'll be running these to start off the season instead. They do end up costing me significantly more points over the V700s though (14 vs 8), so this may eventually change.
To better compliment the wider R6s as I thought 275s was starting to push it too much, I ordered some Team Dynamics 1.2s about a month or so ago. I actually got home right when the UPS guy was about to unload them, so I had him throw them right into the back of the SRT8, went and grabbed four R6s from the basement and went and got them mounted up.




For some comparision, I hopped on the bathroom scale. The stock wheels with some 245/45/18 Goodyear All-Seasons weighed in at about 52.5 pounds. The TD/R6 combo was about 46 pounds each. 6.5 pounds lighter for .5" more wheel and 30 mm more tire doesn't sound too bad to me.

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Here's a couple of pictures of the LS9 setup. I can't wait to get it in. My 105k mile, 20 track day stock set-up is shot, so having new hardware alone will be nice let alone all the added benefits with this.



Went ahead and upgraded the power steering cooler finally. I had ordered one before but it never showed up and I kind of forgot about it. I've had spillover/burned fluid issues at nearly every event in the past, so this mod was long past due. Anyway nothing special about the install. Pretty much followed the FAQ procedure. I didn't paint it, but I don't think it stands out that bad. That said, when I eventually get around to blacking out my grill, I'll probably pull it and paint it at that time.
A little bit bigger...:

Mounted:


I also need to change my 'temporary' transponder mounting place.

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Here are a couple of other random pictures I thought that I would throw up.

The front UUC 2-piece rotors. They save 7 pounds each. I was suprised that the difference in weight was noticable even on the street when it comes to turn in. I really like them and plan to go with 2-pieces in the rear eventually as well.



Here's a couple full car pictures from an event at High Plains last year. Also pictured is tweeter's car.

aurora40

iTrader: (1)

Cool, sounds like fun. Let us know how you do. Can you temporarily lighten the car by removing extra seats and whatnot? Or does that incur points?

SoJersey05V

Gutting back seats and trunk trim will loose more weight. If allowed

jerrycecco

WOW
great write up and pictures
and killer deal on tires

PLEASE email me next time you find a good deal on race tires
I now have a second set of rims and my first track tire will be a set of used AD08's
and i'm now building a list of the NEXT tire....

jerrycecco@gmail.com

shadyLS6

haha i was wondering what that new cable over the TB was.. any reason you moved it? Great progress btw..

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Good questions. As far as weight goes, weight reduction is assessed points but that is (listed base weight) - (competition weight with driver). That said, I can get the car down to 3850 with me in it and not incur any points. I do plan to eventually ditch the front seats in favor of fixed back race seats. I'm pretty sure I want to just throw a 4/6 point cage in the back at the same time. That said, I may just go ahead and pull the rear seats for next weekend. I also need to lose the weight I gained over the past year as well. lol

Will do. If I were you, I wouldn't 'decide' on a certain tire and just buy whatever you can get a good deal on. Frequent race forums as ideally you only run R comps for a day or two, so take offs are frequently available.

Thanks.

I've had a number of issues involving that damn cable. Last event of summer before last, the cable and my driver's side header got into a fight. The cable won. lol I ended up with a huge hole in my header and a trashed cable. I still had to drive home though. An aluminum baking pan, hose clamps, electrical tape, zip ties and 200 miles later I was home. That trip sucked...
So I finally patched up the cable and rerouted it a bit, but it ended up not being securely attached to the alternator, arched and ruined the alternator. Swapped alternators from my parts car. I ended up killing that one two though. My power steering pump went out on track on me. I ended up driving home 170 miles (also sucky drive), pulled the pump from my parts car, swapped them and made it back down to the track the next morning. Only thing is, in my rush I forgot to drain the PS fluid first and it all dumped on the alternator. It only last about two weeks after that. Ugh.
As if that wasn't enough, following the UUC motor mount install, the rerouted cable routing wore through and ground out on the body of the car. That wasn't good. Finally a local shop pulled it all out, built a new cable and rerouted it as pictured. Long story, but yeah, that's why.

SoJersey05V

that would make the car more stiff and keep you planted in the seat... but removing 2 75lb seats and adding a cage may cancel each other out...

id pull rear seat setup, ditch speakers, and gut trunk... maybe loose door panels too.

dont pull a NAF and start grinding the welds though

UnsafeAtAnySpd

I was kind of thinking the same thing, but with the cage I would no longer have use for the airbags. I'm not sure how much they weigh in the V, but when I pulled the driver side, passenger side and control module from my Talon they weighed 50 pounds.

UnsafeAtAnySpd

So, my remote bleeder still hasn't shown up which really pisses me off being that I'm going to have to go ahead and have the clutch installed without it. The first event is this weekend and I'll be heading down Friday morning so there's absolutely no more time to wait. Luckily the break in period is only 150 miles, so I might be driving around town tomorrow night for a while. lol

Went ahead and put my numbers, etc on the car. I think I should probably just have some magnets made up eventually (I've done vinyls before which are really nice but can only be used once really and I don't want to drive around all the time with them on). I used to always run with '00' in HPDE but TT requires a three digit number. I didn't really have much of a preference so I went with 319 since I'm in the 319th Missile Squadron. I thought maybe that would help leadership be more accepting of my hobby. I'll have some NASA and Hawk decals to throw on at the track as well. I expect to get plenty of weird looks driving down to Colorado like this...




(I hate that my driveway is in the alley. Always either gets the car dusty or muddy.)

I also picked up a Saikou Michi dual catch can setup. I had to bend the supplied LS1 bracket a bit to clear all of the fuse box wiring. It's a tight fit and makes slight contact with the hood liner but I think it should be fine. I haven't hooked up the lines yet as I need to go pick up some hosing. I think it is a pretty nice piece though. One thing though is the paint on the bracket scratches really easily. I went with the bare aluminum finish to match the radiator and STB.

tweeter81

Looks awesome! Us track guys know what that look is all about!

BTW, when I took all of my rear interior out last week in preparation for the guys at Big O Tire to install my QA1s (epic fail, btw, I am back to my FG2s - you can read about my install problems on the Cadi Forums if you haven't already seen the story), I went ahead and weighed the rear seat:

Seat Back = 45 lbs
Seat Cushion = 14 lbs

Total = 59 lbs (it only takes like 15 minutes to pull both of those parts out of the car)

My car is currently at Dragon Pro Street Engineering getting all the little problems fixed, but I should have her back by mid April and all sorted out and ready to rock by May 14th

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Yeah, I read about that. Sucks, man. Did you ever get your lights figured out?

True about the seats being easy to pull. I didn't mention it, but I did pull the rear seats out.

tweeter81

That is why I brought the car down to CO, so the DPSE shop could fix the lights, install the HID fog kit, and fix the small leaks around the A-pillars. I can't wait to have the car up and running with no stupid little problems again. It seems like I have been troubleshooting little things for the last 2 years (none of which were actually the car's fault, they were as a result of me adding mods or the hail damage my car sustained last May). I am hoping for a trouble-free, high mileage summer.

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Oh nice I misread; didn't realize the car was there right now. I feel ya though. I'm sick of fixing things lol. Hopefully this weekend will be without any need for any of that... (knock on wood)...

UnsafeAtAnySpd

So I just got home from the track. Didn't go so well as the steering rack bushing is completely shot. The steering has been a little loose for awhile but nothing like how it is now. It's kind of hard to drive smooth when the rack itself moves around a couple inches on its own. lol I'm not sure if the rack itself is going bad as well. Are there metallic replacements for these bushings? If not, does somebody want to make me some? On top of that, one of the damn wheels/tires has a slow leak in it.
Here's the wheel on the drive home


It was good to shake a little rust off though as I haven't been on the track since last July. Some things I need to work on. The new clutch/flywheel setup revs way quicker which is nice but takes a bit of time getting used to.

Here's a few pictures of the old clutch and flywheel:




A couple from the track (I should have some from on track later). I like how the TD wheels look mounted up:



I thought this angle from the hotel was cool as well. The Solara is the gf's:


Noticed this crack when putting the stockers back on this morning:

UnsafeAtAnySpd

I don't think that I posted this info in this thread, but I corner weighed my car at the track early last season.

I went ahead and weighed it again yesterday. Changes are the clutch/flywheel, wheels/tires, rear seat removed, maybe a quarter tank of gas less (if that) and I've gained about 20 lbs...

3886 lbs!

UnsafeAtAnySpd

Figured it's time for an update. Well, I got the car fixed but am not happy with the experience. I was under a bit of shock in a sense at the total bill and didn't notice some things. I ended up having to go with a new cradle as everyone I would find ended up being bent. The good news is that the car actually drives straight now. The bad... The damn stealership ended up doing a bunch of **** without checking with me first. They flushed the brakes with shitty stock DOT 3 fluid. The fixed the rear pinion leak I've had for awhile (I've been aware of it and keeping an eye on it) and I don't think they put the damn limited slip additive in it which I didn't notice until I was 200 miles away. Not to mention I have Amsoil diff fluid at home if they would've actually called me before doing it. Before doing the alignment I asked if they could add some negative camber and they said that was fine, but when I picked up the car the guy tells me he wasn't comfortable doing that. I ended up trashing the outside edge of a few tires because of this. They also either didn't bleed the ps system or didn't fill the reservoir all the way which I noticed when it was groaning at me. Filled it up and after a bit, it went away. Thanks for trying to screw up my new rack, etc. Also, while under the hood, I happened to notice two of the strut tower bolts were about two thirds of the way out. wtf, that's really comforting... Final thing that really sucked is that I'm pretty sure the rack and control arm have been a little bent since I got the car. Which together was 'fine' since the alignment could still come into spec but with the new rack not so much. So they order a damn $600 control arm without checking with me first. I've been out of town, but as soon as I get back from alert tomorrow I'll be headed down there to raise a little hell...

That all said, I did run the car this past weekend at Pueblo Motorsports Park. Being that the car has broken so much lately, my confidence was lacking a lot and it slowed me down a lot. There were three of us running this weekend. I ended up last on Saturday and trashed the outside edge of my R6s as well. I happened to bring my old Kumhos along just in case. Got them mounted up Sunday morning and headed out on track again. Confidence coming back some, I managed to drop 2.5 seconds off my previous day's time on less sticky, 10 mm narrower tires (a 8 point tire versus the 14 point R6). That was great, but I managed to trash the driver's front tire again and the day was done. The one session was enough to take second in my class that day though.