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well time to get back to road courses. My first time to MSR Cresson.
(warning: lots of pics)
been just running my street pads lately at the Autocross's, and origonal rotors, they were more than shot.
spent 3 weeks researching what race pads i wanted to try next. not much info on them yet, but the people that ran them loved them. The Raybestos ST-43 compound. well i called every shop in america and even Raybestos themselves. entire country was out. waited 3 months for them to finally produce some more.
replaced the rotors, with Stoptech/Centric blanks
stock rotors weighed 23.5 lbs, new rotors weighed 24lbs. probly the difference of the holes.
also my steep driveway entrance had drug a flat spot in my headers primary tube on the driver side. metal was paper thin. and when i wraped them it then cut the wrap. so i re wrapped that section. and made this redneck galvenized skid. ugly and ghetto as hell, but works awesome.
Headed off to Cresson to try MSR for the first time. definatly alot nicer facility than i was used to at TWS. first thing i came across was these vettes, not encouraging!
race day! what a humbling experience coming to a new track. i was used to usually haveing one of the fastest street car lap times at TWS to being a total newb again! i did some practice on Assetto Corsa sim to try to learn the track. i found it very difficult to learn. alot more technical i thought.
had to go on a Monday to get the full 3.1 mile track. luckily only 25 of us signed up. and about half were new to the track like me. and it was an open track day. no sessions or groups. 7 hours of run when ever you want, how ever long you want. Attachment 48352657
i found the new pads to have too much initial bite, and were also over powering my rear duralast GT pads, the car would only straight line brake, which made turn in tough, especially for a newb learn where that point was. Attachment 48352658
i struggled most of the day to get tires pressures/temps up. a sign i wasnt even close to pushing the car enough. but i knew that as i spent most of the time tip toeing around trying to learn the place. Attachment 48352659
over heard the guys running the event (Chin) call Corvettes "Gods Chariot" several times. lol i had never heard that before. damn catchy! Attachment 48352660
i dont know what Sonic puts in the burgers, but apparently its testosterone. after lunch i started to get my ***** back and push a bit more. Attachment 48352661
but it was short lived, my new found comfort level was quickly met with overheating the brakes, several times. to the point it even backed off my front bleeder screws, and letting brake fluid leak and steam/smoke out. eating and discoloring the caliper powder coat too. the rubber nipple covers were smoking/melting too.
on the second to the last session i boiled and lost the brakes completely. pedal went straight to floor. Attachment 48352662
this picture is a perfect image of my impressions of MSR. Elevation change, and it seemed the designer wanted every corner to be off camber, blind, and with a insanely late apex. Attachment 48352669
on the second to final session is when i completely lost the brakes. boiled them. so with 30 minutes left in the day after some cool down time. i went out. hoping they had cooled. i putted around for the first 2 laps, to see if they were back. they were. so i braked super gentle the rest of the session/day and it worked. car lasted the entire 30 minutes and i had a great time. this is that final session, minus the first 2 "do i have brakes?" laps.
was running a best of 2:29-2:30s most of the day.
well when the white flag droped for the end of the day, i decided to go for it. gave as much as i was comfortable with. ended up shaving 3 seconds and ran a 2:27 flat for my final lap! ironically exactly what i had run in Assetto Corsa sim. you can see that fastest lap at 17:41 in the vid. Attachment 48352670
was alot of fun, dispite some setbacks. but ive got alot to learn still. 4 corners im still completely lost on.
you may end up rerouting front brake hose to a 4" input into main radiator section and using titanium heat shims behind the pads. I think if you dd 43's to the rear it will feel better. Nice work on updates and learning new tracks. Did you have issues with camber on the big track?
i was braking like a gorilla at first, and not knowing the track my braking wasnt smooth, i have 1 other hunch as to the overheating im gonna look into. in the final session when i was super smooth and lighter braking it did fine the entire session.
i probly wouldnt go full ST-43s on the rear. something less aggressive.
i probly did get some outer shoulder wear, but mostly because i struggled to get pressures up with the overcast, and my slower pace. with all the off cambers this track has i probly need more wheel camber. TWS had more banked corners or flat.
well i got a bit behind on editing and posted these. but better late than never
took the exhaust off and put four 3/4" slots in each side to help them clamp better.
Attachment 48351499
it actually worked, until the exhaust came off again. but this time when i jacked it up to my surprise the joints were all still intact, it had just sliped off the rubber hanger in the back by the tips this time. which i kind of remember not being able to get that all the way back on last time i reassembled it.
lost a center cap on the new wheels, my guess is o-ring got so hot it melted/softened enough to let it pop out. i also need to turn the rotors, there warped horribly.
trying to catch the fast guys. i had already been out half a session in the heat of the afternoon. brakes and tires were already fading. these guys were quick. it took every bit of talent and concentration i had to try to reel these guys in. lots of fun.
Thanks for the hood scoop post! I liked it so much I did the conversion myself. Definitely a pucker moment cutting the hood lol. But I love how it turned out! I left the hood on my car so it would not be sliding around on the ground and just put a sheet under the hood to catch all the debris.
went back to Cresson Monday for the full 3.1 course
had probably my best track day ever. i wasn't nervous or anxious. just chill and relaxed. and it showed in my driving. i wasn't having to think at all, everything was just flowing and happening naturally. despite the video showing all the worst clips.
the cooler weather let me throw anything i wanted at the car. was really nice. i could focus on pushing, rather than on conserving. made big improvements into T2. now if i could just figure out T6! #growballs
Should you happen to have exhaust issues again, these band clamps from Stainless Works are the way to go. They secure around both pipes so you get the squeeze on the pipe where you've cut the slots and the bite on the actual pipe being inserted...
You can buy a variety of sizes from Summit for ~$15 each
Just got done reading through your thread, thanks for sharing
i struggle with that in T3 (0:27 in the vid)
tried both 2nd and 3rd
in second i can get off the corner hard, and give the amount of gas i want, but have to quickly short shift to third in a busy spot, because of the off camber exit and torque levels
in 3rd, i feel like if cant give enough exit throttle, feels like its going to spin the clutch if i give the gas i want., but makes the exit alot easier and smoother further up the sequence.
this trip i did alot more of the 3rd gear method.
this is still a very new track to me and im learning it a bit each trip. i made my big strides this time going way deeper into T2 just before the corner above.
before heading out, i got a more aggressive alignment. -3.3*F / -1.6*R camber. also .1* of toe OUT per side on the rear, this ended up being a big mistake. very twitchy/unstable and on exits on power, i could actually feel the rear of the car being pulled towards the outside by the outside wheel. no good. camber felt pretty good, although i did feel a bit less grip on the rear.
on the last session of the day, on the 2nd lap i ended up setting a new Fastest lap record for myself on some very expired tires. i know the cars got alot more in it. i just have to learn this new track. i did get better at T6 which has been my nemesis. also started going deeper into T2
this guy also showed up. brand new GT4 AMG. unfortunately he ended up putting it in a muddy ditch, costing us all an hour of track time as they extracted the car.
at the end of the last session as the sun was going down, had a great few laps with a 4 door bmw. despite his PB lap being nearly 3 seconds faster than me! but on this day, both our tires were TOAST, our cars were very evenly matched, and we were both sliding everywhere to stay near each other. was a TON of fun, until i lost all brakes, went straight to the floor, all the hard laps had boiled the brake fluid. day was done. exhaust also came off the rear hanger some time during this run. still a blast. unfortunately my gopro went dead on grid and i only have the helmet cam footage.
haha i know right
v-bands would have done nothing. it pulled itself off the rear hanger.
since i put 4 slots in the slip joints, they have not come apart since.
Got an opportunity last weekend to drive for team GSpeed in one of the 3 corvettes they were entering in the World Racing League US Endurance Championship at Circuit of the Americas! Two 8 hour endurance races, one Saturday and one Sunday.
also got a few a few laps with Lou Gigliotti, owner of LG Motorsports and Corvette racing fame. he did a couple laps then i did a couple before session was black flaged
went out again in a later session which was also black flaged after a C5 went off track and de-beaded a tire.
Friday @ COTA
race practice, driver gear and car tech inspection, and drivers meeting.fueling up for practice. had 21 gal quick fill fuel cell (max allowed)
i did the 1st and last practice sessions of the day. sharing driving duties with 2 other drivers.morning session i putted around getting a feel for the car and track. last session i tried to get a bit more aggressive to simulate the race.final friday practice
Drivers meeting Friday night. 93 cars to be on track at the same time!
Saturday morning Race Day #1
getting lined up by class on pre grid. we were running in GP1 which is the second to fastest class. so we were near the front of the entire feild, but near the back of our class.
our hot shoe Brian would start the race for our #61 car
green flag! released in 2 packs, this is just the first half of the pack we were in.
He made up a Bunch of spots but unfortunatly on lap 5 is when our issues started. waterpump pushed out the tube (pressed fit) that the hose connect to. had to be towed back to garage
some silicone and hammering the tube back in had us back on track. Brian was able to do another 45 minutes or so.
came in for 1st pit
after this is when we started having our issue. car was smoking bad.came in again first time and it appeared to be coming out of the rear drivers side valve cover breather, pluged it back up and sent back out
3 laps later had to come back in, it spit out plug and was smoking again. getting worse. all from under the hood, none coming out exhaust.we did this 3 or 4 more times every 3 laps. car would come back with NO oil showing on dip stick. was smoking so bad they couldnt hardly see where they were going. leaving quite a huge smoke trail.finally the problem was found. rear main seal had blow out (likely from excess crank case pressure) and the oil was leaking straight out the rear main, out the bell housing and hitting the exhaust.
at the 2 hour mark of the first race, our weekend was done. had a spare motor but was decided it wasnt worth the effort, with the other 2 cars still in the game, and unsure if it could be done in time for race next day.
i never even got to suit up. my 3 year dream and W2W racing debut never got to happen. i was was gutted.....
on sunday our other 2 cars with 30 minutes to go were sitting in 1st and 3rd. they ended up finishing 8th (due to extra fuel pitstop) and 59th.
Last edited by STANG KILLA SS; 12-09-2018 at 12:00 PM.
If your dream is W2W it's not that difficult to get into ya know. NASA TX is alive and well. Not as elite as what you almost got to do, but you can always double dip across series.
cage/safety and license research has already begun
had the opportunity to buy the car, which is the by far cheaper and best route to go. but i REALLY enjoy building and learning. almost as much as doing laps.
starting a 1-2 year plan to get there.
I was where you are back in 2013. I decided to buy a used race car which kind of went against what I really wanted. I got someone else's vision (and crappy wiring job). But I did get to get my comp license and hit the track immediately with it. W2W is a whole different ball game, especially sprint races. There is no cool down time (unless it's TX in July hot maybe), it's go go go from start to finish. When a car breathes down your *** intending to pass for position, it's a lot different feeling than wondering if you should give a point by. I think I'd be hard pressed to build a better car than G Speed and if it's also the cheaper way to go then I think I'd have already given them a deposit if I were you. Do you have room for 2 Corvettes?
05-13-2018, 08:39 PM
Attachment 48350002
