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Old 04-24-2021, 12:01 AM   #11
clyde
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Originally Posted by Biggins View Post
Give it a few more events and I'll bet that you have the car mostly figured out... can you do a test-and-tune at a decent venue?

You've done enough events in the last few years that I think you will adapt within a few events and get used to the car. I can't imagine you would be far from where you expect to be without more and substantial seat time.

I'd have to have some time to type out all my thoughts about Washington Circuit, but it's a site that is available to host an autocross. I have a lot of similar reservations that you both noted, but I still want to autocross and cannot travel too far any longer for local events. I think I'll do ~5 SCCA and 3-4 NCC BMW events at the Washington Circuit this year, but I already miss FedEx despite its issues. If they try variety in how the courses are laid out, some courses will be decent and others will be rough. I've done events with good courses there and events with dreadful courses there.

I still want to autocross... Ripken is a mass vax site now, NJ is too far for a local event for me, so it's this, Philly, or Susquehanna I guess?
I'm sure next week will be better than last week and then I'll get to see if I can adjust to NJ the week after that.

A couple weeks after that is Spring Nats in Lincoln. If you haven't been following along, Spring Nats is going to be two Tours this year, all on the east (plane) course side AND Nebraska region is going to run a test and tune Thursday-Sunday on 2019's west course.

The next five weeks are going to go by quick!
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Old 04-24-2021, 11:25 AM   #12
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Good luck! I'm planning to do NJ, but it will be a last minute decision for me. I wish the finger lakes and NJ dates were switched, but I want to do at least one national event this year.

Is Oscar ready for all of these events? I'm sure Kevin has been wrenching on it and knows how to fix things.
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Old 04-24-2021, 12:16 PM   #13
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Good luck! I'm planning to do NJ, but it will be a last minute decision for me. I wish the finger lakes and NJ dates were switched, but I want to do at least one national event this year.

Is Oscar ready for all of these events? I'm sure Kevin has been wrenching on it and knows how to fix things.
As someone else who has codriven with him said to me once, "he's good with a wrench," and that's very true.

Oscar, though,... My understanding is that when Oscar left the area a few years ago, he left in pretty good shape. Being an SP car, things break and maintenance is constant. After Shriv brought Oscar back in late 2019, you might have seen a million photos on vids over the next year that he posted on facebook with captions like, "Is this supposed to be like this?" To which the answer was always no.

By the time Shriv sold it to Kevin, he'd repaired just about everything he'd found and it sounds like he did a pretty good job. Kevin found a couple other things and addressed, but we're still not sure if there's anything less that needs to be unfucked. We figure we'll find out when we start breaking stuff.

To that end, as of 30 minutes ago, Oscar was getting some help so he can break things with more authority (and hopefully start and idle more reliably).



We should be ready.
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Old 04-24-2021, 04:51 PM   #14
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Man, that place brings back a lot of memories. I've done hundreds on pulls on that dyno It's a very consistent dyno. Only thing I don't like about it is the knurling on the drum is pretty worn out. Last time I was there the RX-8 was smoking the tires on the drum. Guessing you won't have that problem
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Old 04-24-2021, 10:04 PM   #15
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Man, that place brings back a lot of memories. I've done hundreds on pulls on that dyno It's a very consistent dyno. Only thing I don't like about it is the knurling on the drum is pretty worn out. Last time I was there the RX-8 was smoking the tires on the drum. Guessing you won't have that problem
I've never been.

It is making 6% more HP and 9% more torque than Mike's last session, so that's something. They also got the warm start fixed (took about 2 minutes after a warm start last week before it would idle on its own) and cold start is much improved.
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Old 05-04-2021, 10:20 PM   #16
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Any better luck with Oscar last weekend? I didn't stick around but i assume/ hope you're ready for the big events?

I bailed on NJ due to car issues and CS not making a class. Ugh.
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Old 05-04-2021, 11:02 PM   #17
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Any better luck with Oscar last weekend? I didn't stick around but i assume/ hope you're ready for the big events?
Kevin was two seconds off of where we should have been. I was two seconds off Kevin.

Tires are 2018 build and they had some wear, but we don't know how they've been stored. They were stupid slidey by the end of their fifth run. Kevin was still about a second faster on each of the last few runs, so I can't blame it all on tires.

I'm consistently underdriving the entire way. Just a tad bit slower through everything. I think a lot of it is that everywhere Kevin is moves away from 100% throttle, I'm coming of just a little bit more and a little bit longer. Whatever the condition of the tires, I need to get better again at managing slip angles. While driving, I was hyper-aware of the grass and wanted to stay on the pavement enough that I think I gave up a little more than I would have if the pad was solid and there was more runoff room. Coming out of the opening loop and the pinch before the finish were a bit dicey a few times.

Hoping fresh tires and runoff space will help me reset.

It was the first event with a new Race Capture Pro and we had some wiring/power issues, but I think we figured them out and have a fix. It starts hot a lot better than it did before visiting Peter the week before, but it still won't idle cold until it gets to closed loop. Not super happy with our camera setup, but good enough for now.

Quote:
I bailed on NJ due to car issues and CS not making a class. Ugh.
You could run your car in STX. I don't think you'd do poorly. But if the car is giving you issues...maybe you can codrive with someone?

But if you've already decided not to go...
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Old 05-05-2021, 08:41 AM   #18
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If the tires were losing grip as you guys accumulated runs, they're probably done. Were you keeping tire blankets over them between runs?

What time are you guys heading up on Friday? Maybe I'll see you on the road.
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Old 05-05-2021, 10:17 AM   #19
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If the tires were losing grip as you guys accumulated runs, they're probably done. Were you keeping tire blankets over them between runs?

What time are you guys heading up on Friday? Maybe I'll see you on the road.
My times were pretty consistent, but they felt ever more greasy. Kevin slowed down after first three runs. No blankets, but we ran last heat. It was sunny, quite warm, and we were nearly hot lapping.

Stickers are now mounted and wets are in the truck, because we may need those this weekend.

Kevin is picking me up about 7:45 and we're taking the longer toll free route.
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Old 05-05-2021, 10:56 AM   #20
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Cool. My plan was to be out of the house at 0700 but that depends on many factors so it may be a bit later.

What's the longer toll-free route up there? I've done the I-95 to I-295 route the last few years. It's not toll-free, but it avoids most of the Turnpike and is actually a fairly nice drive.
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