ST3(2) C5Z06 Build
12-15-2013, 06:44 PM
#124
Drifting
Thread Starter
08-12-2014, 10:38 AM
#125
Le Mans Master
Over beers Friday afternoon, we decided to make a change to the rear wing. While I had never gotten to drive the car in anger on a dry track, Rob and Jim both felt that the car was a little loose on braking and turn in when the track was dry and driven hard. Taking that feedback, we added some angle in the rear wing to see how it would feel for me in the racing on Saturday and Sunday.
By 8:35am on Saturday, we had the radiator installed, distilled water and water wetter added, system burped and everything checked out. I jumped into my race suit while my wife and Jim prepped the car and as I was heading out for the first practice session for Thunder group, they were releasing cars from the grid. Barely made it! Again in ST2 trim, the car felt extremely good. And the extra wing angle on the rear had it planted under braking and turn it. I may have lost a hair off the top end, but not enough to worry about.
During that warm-up session, I went three wide under the bridge and dropped my right front off into a pothole at the entrance to the racer's pitroad. Immediately the front end started vibrating and I knew I either killed a tire, bent a wheel, or worse. I limped the car to the T5 crossover exit and got out. The tire was still inflated, so I hoped it was only a bent wheel. I limped it through the infield roads back to the pits without any damage to the splitter. Once we pulled the wheel off, we could easily see it was now egg shaped. That settled what tires I was going to run for the races. Sticker A6s. Or rain tires. The clouds were looming and I was undecided on what to do until the last second.
The rain held off and I qualified 4th out of 7 in ST2 behind three VERY fast drivers. In qualifying, I ran a lap over a second faster than I ever ran in PTA and I knew there were several more seconds in the car without traffic. The braking and throttle-on points were different than the previous setup and it was going to take more laps to get accustomed to the new speeds.
During the Saturday race, I ran one of the hardest, most fun races in a long, long time. Matt and I battled for 3rd place from the beginning while dicing in and out of traffic all race long. I will let the videos tell the story, but I can tell you it was a LOT of fun and I am very happy with the 4th place finish. Also during the race, I dropped another full second of my fastest time ever. Again, in traffic.
Grid for the Thunder Race:
Thunder Race video:
http://youtu.be/Jr_NphgRw6k
Save at the checkered flag. If you stop the video at the 0:38 mark, you will see that I am 45* to the track surface and pointed directly at my wife on the pit wall. As soon as the car was under control, she keyed the radio and said something like, "Great show for the finish!" LOL.
http://youtu.be/QKYgzc1mcRI
By 8:35am on Saturday, we had the radiator installed, distilled water and water wetter added, system burped and everything checked out. I jumped into my race suit while my wife and Jim prepped the car and as I was heading out for the first practice session for Thunder group, they were releasing cars from the grid. Barely made it! Again in ST2 trim, the car felt extremely good. And the extra wing angle on the rear had it planted under braking and turn it. I may have lost a hair off the top end, but not enough to worry about.
During that warm-up session, I went three wide under the bridge and dropped my right front off into a pothole at the entrance to the racer's pitroad. Immediately the front end started vibrating and I knew I either killed a tire, bent a wheel, or worse. I limped the car to the T5 crossover exit and got out. The tire was still inflated, so I hoped it was only a bent wheel. I limped it through the infield roads back to the pits without any damage to the splitter. Once we pulled the wheel off, we could easily see it was now egg shaped. That settled what tires I was going to run for the races. Sticker A6s. Or rain tires. The clouds were looming and I was undecided on what to do until the last second.
The rain held off and I qualified 4th out of 7 in ST2 behind three VERY fast drivers. In qualifying, I ran a lap over a second faster than I ever ran in PTA and I knew there were several more seconds in the car without traffic. The braking and throttle-on points were different than the previous setup and it was going to take more laps to get accustomed to the new speeds.
During the Saturday race, I ran one of the hardest, most fun races in a long, long time. Matt and I battled for 3rd place from the beginning while dicing in and out of traffic all race long. I will let the videos tell the story, but I can tell you it was a LOT of fun and I am very happy with the 4th place finish. Also during the race, I dropped another full second of my fastest time ever. Again, in traffic.
Grid for the Thunder Race:
Thunder Race video:
http://youtu.be/Jr_NphgRw6k
Save at the checkered flag. If you stop the video at the 0:38 mark, you will see that I am 45* to the track surface and pointed directly at my wife on the pit wall. As soon as the car was under control, she keyed the radio and said something like, "Great show for the finish!" LOL.
http://youtu.be/QKYgzc1mcRI
08-16-2014, 09:55 AM
#126
Drifting
Thread Starter
Thanks!
T12 and I just do not see eye-to-eye anymore. I had another off there a couple of weeks ago and tore the front splitter completely off the car. Much less dramatic than the off back in December with the tank slapper, but much more costly.
The plan was to run Time Trials and shake down the new MTI-valved Penske Double Adjustable Coilovers and some cooling changes. The first green flag lap of the first session of Saturday, the rear of the car twitched in the bump at the apex of T12 and I went wide left.
We pulled the rear wing off and kept running the car naked all weekend to test the new coilovers, but without the aero it was pretty much a wasted weekend. David Farmer softened the rear dampening a couple of clicks Sunday morning after driving it and the car settled down a bit.
The video has zero sound, but if you turn up your volume all the way you can hear the crunch when the splitter left the car. That is Mark Nunnally right behind me.
-Kevin
Last edited by brkntrxn; 08-16-2014 at 10:02 AM.
12-16-2014, 02:58 PM
#128
Drifting
Thread Starter
12-16-2014, 06:42 PM
#129
I have the PFadt Featherlights coilovers. I'm going to replace the original, rubber control arm bushings with polyurethane. How much difference will that make on the track? ALso, what alignment specs did you use? I track my 2004 Z06 a lot at Laguna, Sonoma and Thunderhill. What wheels and tires are you running?
12-18-2014, 12:56 AM
#130
Safety Car
As awesome as it would be to go faster, I really appreciate that I have very little to lose when I leave the luxury of pavement. If you're not in the dirt, you're not trying!
12-18-2014, 08:37 AM
#131
Drifting
Thread Starter
I have the PFadt Featherlights coilovers. I'm going to replace the original, rubber control arm bushings with polyurethane. How much difference will that make on the track? ALso, what alignment specs did you use? I track my 2004 Z06 a lot at Laguna, Sonoma and Thunderhill. What wheels and tires are you running?
Alignment - max on all four corners. Although, we may pull some camber out of the fronts for 2015 due to the new Penske's.
Tires and wheels -- C5Z06 rears on all four corners with Hoosier As or Rs depending on race length and weather.
-Kevin
12-18-2014, 08:37 AM
#132
Drifting
Thread Starter
12-18-2014, 08:46 AM
#133
Drifting
Thread Starter
As a cross post, you can go to this thread and read Post #4 for the East Coast Championship write-up and results.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...a-updates.html
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...a-updates.html