I did make it down to CMP this past weekend. A friend and I had a blast on track. This was my second time in the car (the first was just a shake down day a few weeks ago, but I have hundreds of days on track myself). The car was "almost" flawless. It developed a power steering leak sunday, but it turns out that may have been my fault. As I am sure many of you know the Ford Motosports power steering units need ATF and not PSF. The PS fluid is too thin and will seep past the seals. I am going to drain what I topped the unit out with on Friday and put Fresh ATF in there and see what happens.

The Data system I am beta testing seemed to worked almost perfectly. It dropped a couple of frames during the weekend, but overall got a lot of data. The Video didn't work out as well. Seems the camera reached the end of the tape sometime on the third session on Saturday and rewound. We didn't know that and hit record for the 4th session. It over wrote everything we had, so the only video I ended up with was the last group on Saturday. The cool thing is out of the sessions that was the most "interesting" since there were a offs and spins and I think I got most of them on tape. I did capture my friend going off and getting stuck in some sand to avoid a spining NASCAR Cup car.

Sunday I just forgot to turn the freaking camera on which was a shame since I lapped all but one GT3, including a GT3 Club Sport. 3 of them came over afterwards and said "Not bad, you have over 400 hp in that right?" When I said I only have about 200 hp you would have thought I shot their dog.

I also had a session with a group of 911 Cup cars and we ran together for about 5 laps and had a blast. One of the cars in that group was a 914/6 Lemans car. That car was FAST, and I mean 1:30's fast. I was behind them after 8 and they slowly pulled away until we got to 10, and they must have gone through there at over 130. By turn 1 they were probably 20-30 cars ahead of me.

I also had fun with an E30 M3 X-mod car. We were pretty darn even, he was faster 8-11 I was faster 11-14 and we stayed with each other everywhere else. My fastest lap was chassing him. And he was pretty darn cool to hang out with afterwards. He was surprised a "V8" guy could be a momentum driver until I told him I came from Spec Miata

Now the official times. By late Saturday had 3 or 4 1:50:xx with a single 1:49:52. With traffic I was 1:52's. At that pace traffic became an issue, but I had fun with the traffic as well. On Sunday people started to see me coming and gave quicker points, plus I started to push the car a bit (still whimping out on heavy braking though) and I got more 1:49's, a few low 1:48's and a couple of 1:47's with my best being 1:47:42. My Optimal lap was 1:47:10. Still had issues with traffic though.

1:47 was my goal so we called it quits at 3:30 and pack up. Now I think the car has a low 1:46 in it and I need to be bolder in 10 and more agressive on the brakes. I had issues duing the shakedown (Broken tie rod) that made me cautious of the brakes, but they felt pretty good this weekend.

Overall a fantastic track weekend other than being 94+ degrees each day. I am going to try to have video up by the end of the week, but I need a new firewire cable.

Marty

 

wow,
no comments. I guess I get more once I post the videos and pics.

Playing with the getting the telemetry data on a custom dash now.

The dash looks good.

 

sounds like a good weekend, that 914-6 Lemans car sounds pretty cool... in for vids..

 

Finally got the new cable:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nQ2r2DyMZxA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nQ2r2DyMZxA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Still need to get the datadash overlay working.

 

That's awesome and it looks like the car handled great.

 

I feel bad I missed more than a few Apexes, but I am still figuring the car out.

 

New cars are always an experience when figuring them out especially on track days.

I'm sure once you get it nailed down, you'll have to slow down to have people to run with.

 

some pictures:

©2009 Fantine

 

lol, I had enough traffic as it was...but then again I like people to run with.

 

Great video the camera is really clear. Wow! That pave pounder spins on the out lap of that session.

 

I have to say the mount worked better than expected. It was rock solid. You can hardly tell how bumpy the track is in spots and when I was fighting the car a bit.

The First spin was because he was on Nascar slicks which really live up to their name when cold. The problem is finding that line where you get heat in them but don't break them loose.

 

Thanks for posting the video. The car looks rock solid.

Is the car an auto?

What camera are you using? I'm yet to produce any track video and that's something I'd like to do.

 

lol, no the car has a T5 with a 2.73 rear. So torque with tall gearing makes for fewer shifts.

2nd 25-75 MPH
3rd 40 -115
4th for everything else.

Not to mention that the shifter is low in the car so you can't see my hands

The Camera is a Sony DV HC30

 

lol, thanks for claryfing that.

Since I didn't see you shift it seemed that way

 

Marty,

What are you using the HTC Touch that is strapped to the dash for? Datalogging?

I have the same phone, would love to be able to use it in a similar manner if this is the case.

Thanks,

Chris.

 

lol, There is actually a bracket holding the phone, the strap is just an extra measure of security. The HTC is doing data collection through a program called RaceChrono. This version is a little different than the one available for download because I am doing a bit of beta testing and requirements specifications.

What is available is 20hz sampling for OBII and GPS. This is from a 5 hz sampling rate and a tri-axle accelerometer:







You can also create a gauge cluster overlay. I tried to make the gauges look like the ones in the car. It's pretty easy to make your own.

 

Im going out for the lemons race this weekend! kinda off the subject.
You going to be at cmp for the NASA race in nov?

 

yeah, saturday's and sunday's thunder races

 

BTW,
Come by and say hi to my friends teams
Drifto Dogs
Magnum PU
Integranator

 

Where are your fire resistant gloves?