Now with Photos, HPDE3 at MMP Utah outer oop, FAST course, RAAMFiST is doing great!

[RAAMaudio]

Our TRUCK?RV/HOME/SHOP at the track.

Just a quick note for now, I have ran 7 sessions, two more 25 minute ones to go, running with HPDE4 and TT all combined on the fastest course layout has been great. Passing is allowed if alongside in the braking zone, as close to real racing as it get's and I am kicking some butt. I let a Porsche Boxter S pass but did not have to as he could not get to my side as I was faster on the straights and only slower on a few tighter turns and faster on the higher speed ones. I then I followed the rest of the session until a 350Z wrecked pretty hard. We lost my time but it looks like it was in the 2:17 range which is very quick for this car, I have a wife timed 2:19. I am not allowed to have a transponder in my class but she was sure she saw a 2:17 and I had my best lap around there so I think I did.

Anyway, the car is amazing, even the race instructors here and pretty blown away by it

I completely forgot to turn of the driving nannies so not going to change now that I have my pace but I honestly have never felt them at work. The quaiffe and TVC work incrediby well together as I am all over the curbs, I think I might of been all four in the air a few times, fun stuff!

SS moded turbo makes great power and not one issue at all, gotta love it!

I will make it faster yet, this is the first outing, more to come.

Got to go, have a great rest of the day

Rick

 

[Sourskittle]

Glad to hear its kicking butt Rick !!

 

[RAAMaudio]

There is more power to be had but I let the Porsche and a very well modded BRZ NA car go out first and passed them in the first lap and lost them

I passed all these cars or led them on different sessions, none every passed me out of this group.

I am running right around 24PSI, max was 24.45, it changes according to load out of a corner, etc but not by much, in third gear it has been tapering down to 20 at 6300 RPM and about the same in 4th, highest I hit was just under 6,000 RPM in 5th.

Running 91 Octane, around 5,000 ft elevation, 50-70 degree weather.

I can and have ran 26+ PSI but toned it down a bit for these long runs and not fully tuned, just a modified Cobb Stage 3 for now.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I cannot remember how many cars I passed but can the very few that past me and one was an Audi R8 full out race car that was nuts fast and even then he did not pass me on 20 minute sessions if he started first and I started last and had to pass many cars. On the 25 minute sessions he would catch me and blow by like I was in reverse, cool sheat I was also past twice by the National Championship NASA ST1 Vette, I know the owner quite well, pretty damn fast as well.

Some of the cars I passed, and some I had to be a bit assertive to get them to let me by, some full out TT race cars or race street TT cars.
-Boxster race car, two or maybe three different sessions.
-Several S2000's and not stock ones
-E36 BMW, one or more, not sure
-Lot's of Miata's, race prepped and some to higher than Spec series
-V8 Stock car(must of been a nub driver)
-RX7, first and second gen race cars
-Scion and Suby twins, several and not stock, one was pretty dang fast for still being NA
-Mustang's, GTs, at least one, one on the main straight so it may of been a V6 or the guy was afraid to go fast.
-Many more but I am about done for the day, If I remember tomorrow I might post them up.

Overall, the FiST embarrassed a lot of "faster" cars the last two days, I love this little bugger

 

[RAAMaudio]

There was an incredibly built Acura, great guys, blew the turbo on the first lap, heading to an event at Sema, parked next to us, they loved my car

There was also a Civic with barely any aero, on the tail down the 7/8 mile front straight of that Audi R8 race car, the civic clocked 159 MPH!

A session or two later it was parked on the side of the track, something broke.

Though not anything I can prove I probably did run a 2:17 something yesterday but I was having so much fun pushing the limits today I overheated the tires, got into the marbles and picked up some crud, had a tire loosing air, etc......and still ran 2:19 and 2:20's even with traffic and some sideways loss of momentum, sure fun as this car is so easy to be smooth and fast in or hoon around in

All of todays runs included TT cars, half the pack, most were hard core race cars with not races left in the season here so out for some fun, full tilt Porsche's, Vettes, etc...in this type of an event the faster cars left first and I was back in the grid as far as I could get meaning the pure and very fast race cars had a huge head start, maybe as much as half a lap or possible more..and still only one or two caught me at the end

I have also driven a totally stock ST there and can say that it is an amazing car as is but it loves to be modded and get faster and does not cost a fortune if you do it the right way.

Out of this bunch only the full race Vette, a nearly full race one and a totally nuts all out Audi R8 or R10, not sure, ever passed me and they had a great head start and only got buy on the last lap out of a 25 minute session, with one exception, a very very quick E46 M3 that started after me was able get around after a few laps, he runs 2:12 laps in a street car with is exceptionally quick but it is also very highly modified.

These guys probably had half a lap head start and finally passed me on the last lap, like I was parked on the straights but in the corners my car was very quick compared to them. I do not fool around, I use the whole track, edge to edge, curbs and sometimes the rumble strips and I did not have to let them pass unless beside me so I made them wait for a straight long enough, if they timed it right it did not take a very long straight though

 

[razorlab]

What run group where you in?

 

[RAAMaudio]

HPDE3/4 and TT

 

[RAAMaudio]

I was lucky to be allowed to run in this group since I had not been on track in 5 years but they remembered me and let me run there.

If I had to run HPDE 1/2 I would of not had as much fun as lapping cars does not make for fast laps when there are only a few point by places to pass them.

 

[razorlab]

Nice, sounds like you had a ton of fun. Glad all the work you put into the car is paying off!

 

[RAAMaudio]

Thanks, it was great fun, the car is very easy to drive and overdrive, it has a bit of under steer out of tighter turns but more so when I get a bit carried away and heated the tires up to much so I need to work on my driving and a bit on setup but not much, it just sticks most of the time. On mid speed and a bit higher speed corners if I went in to hot it would slide a bit but very neutral and much fun, a light lift, lite brake tap, etc, would pull it back inline.

I really did run the crap out of the car, I drove it 10/10ths in all areas most all the time and it just ran perfectly, the only thing needed to do between runs was clean some rubber off the tires picked up, check the air, adjust it, check the fluids, etc, keep adding fuel, average was 8.9 MPG.

One thing I learned over the years is not only double but triple check everything you have touched on a car before going to the track and if not a full track car take it out and run it a bit to make sure nothing leaks, comes loose, etc....I ironed out all that before I took it out there and it paid off as the car was perfect the whole time.

I do need to install the Autometer 3 stage programmable shift lite I forgot to put in until too late to do so. It his a bit hard to see the tach wearing classes my exhaust is not very loud even with the track pipe on the back, muffler left in the shop. I built is using a Vband, I might have to buy two more and make a resonator delete pipe so I can hear it more. The 5" 100 cell cat did not melt so good to go there, I just need to hear the exhaust a bit more.

I set the shift lite up normally at 200 below redline, redline and 200 above, it reacts very quickly so it helps to keep from over revving when downshifting as when letting out the clutch I will see immediately if in the wrong gear and press the clutch back in, works really well for me but this car shifts so well with the mods I did and the Motul 300 gear lube I never missed a downshift and only one upshift when I got into a bit of a tight traffic situation, slow car in front not quite on line and insanely fast R8 coming around my other side....the R8 driver is very very good in traffic, it was the slow car that was not on the right line that distracted me.

I am not sure how a few of the drivers got into HPDE3 as they were far slower than they should be capable of and some not driving the line very well in a few places but that was a small number out of a lot of cars on track. Some of those guys I lapped even in 20 minute sessions on a long track and had to be a bit aggressive to get around them as they would not let up a bit to let me get by on the shorter straights, no fun following a slow car through a few turns. I stayed within the rules, just pushed the limits of them a bit

I may of not made a 2:17 lap as my fastest laps where all 2:19's the rest of the time but I was really pushing the car and loosing time in a few places but it was so much fun to find out how well the car behaves when doing so, very confidence inspiring and when I am out on tracks with far less forgiveness than MMP I will know I can trust the car if things get out of hand, it is easy to correct, does nothing dramatic, one of the best overall setups I have driven and my best FWD build out of three I have done. I might have made one good solid, no traffic, no major mistakes run, I know the car was capable and even a bit quicker than that.

I was supposed to put a hot shoe driver in for a session but I forgot and it was a hectic day for the organizers so they forgot as well but no worries, I had all the fun behind the wheel but it would of been cool to see just how fast it was and what they recommended to change. I learned decades ago I am just a decent driver with pretty good recovery skills but not the greatest finesse behind the wheel so not the fastest guy around. I love to have those better than me help me sort out things once I get all the basics working well.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Now that I have driven a stock FiST at speed on track and a very moddified street/track one, I can saw without a doubt either way they are amazing FWD cars, both easy to drive at or near the limit, easy to recover if a bit overboard, my favorite FWD cars I have ever been in.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Now I am going to focus on getting my house sold as all but a few projects are done where I need my shop, then we are reconsidering our plans and likely going to head to Carson City to setup in an RV park and start looking for a property there but take our time and as the track schedules and weather permits head to CA tracks for some more fun. I would love to hook up with my fellow enthusiasts where ever we go

 

[RAAMaudio]

I could not get the WW pads I wanted to run on time so I spent twice as much and paid for overnight shipping for Carbotech XP12 and XP8 pads for my WW BBKs and they were exceptional. Carbotech recommended XP20 and XP12 for longer pad life as the calipers only fit pretty thin pads but I was concerned with them warming up fast enough. The XP12 and XP8 work immediately even stone cold so I think I may of been better off in the long run and spend $500 instead of $414 on the pads(OUCH $)

I will pull them and measure to see how much I used up in the next day or so when I put the street pads back in. Next time I will order WW pads so I can compare wear rates, performance, cost per use, etc....sometimes more expensive is less expensive or the same cost but better in use and sometimes not.

 

[razorlab]

Did you happen to datalog any of the sessions? I would be interested in your oil/coolant temps, etc.

 

[RAAMaudio]

My highest water temp was 202 no matter how hard I drove and the oil maxed out at 238 but only once, the rest of the time is was around 220 max, it was around 70 degrees out and very dry.

Not sure the stock radiator, with all the other mods I have done like notching the bumper and opening up the grill, ducting and taking the load off it for oil cooling will be enough in hot weather but so far so good

The only tune issue was some odd timing changes, knock related, so I had added negative timing and it fixed most of it but there is some work to do to figure it out, why I turned the boost down a bit and for the last session added some 98 octane so it was around a 94-95 end rating and the same thing happened only milder....I do not know enough to figure that out but it has to be fixed for sure!

Gearing was not perfect on a few corner exits or on some shorter huts but overall better than some cars I have had, bring up the boost a bit earlier with some tuning will probably help quite a bit if it can be done well.

It pulls well into the mid to higher 6k range but I hit the rev limiter a few times so had to shift up and down or float the throttle a bit which can be better as less upsetting the balance of the car but I found one place I benefited from purposely unsettling it and then sliding it in a bit, fun stuff, might not of been the absolute fastest but sure a great time doing so

I need to graph out the torque and HP curves, RPM, gear ratios, tire diameter, etc....and then know the optimum shift point in each gear. I started doing that bicycle racing in the 70's and even had custom ratios made as well as the first 14 speed with only two front chain rings bike I had ever heard about, I loved killing on climbs and pedaling down hill loosing the pack when they ran out of gear.

I also build the worlds lightest full suspension mountain bike 15 or so years ago, 20.4 lbs and built for cross country racing, injuries stopped my from racing it though, I still cannot ride, my hands go numb, I sure miss it.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I have not yet made ducts to force more air into the oil cooler and at least most if it away from the radiator(AC unit then radiator) yet. I will get that done, right now air can go around it and only 40% or so not hit the AC unit that does pass through it.

I will certainly need brake ducts but will use the lower wide but narrow opening on the splitter/under tray now instead of the fog lights so I get to keep them and they barely weigh anything.

I was going to use that area for more air to the IC but my temps out of it are very low, the J-Line is quite good.

 

[razorlab]

Thanks for the info. Do you have logs of them so I can see how it is over a session?

What did your charge temps look like?

 

[RAAMaudio]

I just went through a 12 minute plus log, the temps started out low but climbed to the 89 range once I got on track, a couple of laps later climbed to the the 99 range, a couple more laps 110 range, peak reading was once at 117 but dropped back down to the 110-115 range after that.

I was really pushing the car hard during this run, the hardest of all the runs.

Sound like good numbers to you?

 

[razorlab]

I just went through a 12 minute plus log, the temps started out low but climbed to the 89 range once I got on track, a couple of laps later climbed to the the 99 range, a couple more laps 110 range, peak reading was once at 117 but dropped back down to the 110-115 range after that.

I was really pushing the car hard during this run, the hardest of all the runs.

Sound like good numbers to you?

Yea mine where peak of 120 but mostly 115 peak on a 98* ambient session. Should be interesting to see the difference next weekend at the same track, looks like it should be around 75* as the high.

I'm impressed by your coolant temps. I forget, do you have the condensor removed?

 

[RAAMaudio]

I am very happy so far and want to see what you get in the lower temps.

I have a fully functioning AC system, this is a dual purpose build, street and track and has to keep my wife and I as well as an Akita and an Irish Wolfhound comfy


A bit of between session checking the vitals, only real issue out of 8 hard core runs and one easier on the first outing was loosing a bit of air from the right front tire, that was it, the car was incredible but I did put in huge hours going over every nut and bolt, fitting, etc....many times before the event.