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Mostly posting this to keep myself sane and motivated so this might get a little long winded, fair warning. At the Nasa northeast lime rock event few weeks ago my ls7 let go in a pretty spectacular fashion. There was a large fireball underneath my car trailing about 15 feet. Unfortunately, the motor let go at the worst possible place. The bottom of lime rocks famed downhill...
To rewind a bit...I bought this car four years ago as a beautiful 17k mike street car with 0 intention of ever going racing. Hell, I had never even been on track. Iworking in Florida at time and decided to buy a “Florida” car. The car had a brand new ls7 and some track oriented upgrades-coil overs, sway bars, twin oil coolers, and the brembos on all four corners. I shipped the car back north and quickly learned a c6z06 is a pretty terrible street car, even for my relatively young self. Anxious to stretch car legs and not being interested in drag racing I stumbled across track days. After my first one, I was hooked 110 percent. At the start, most track events all I was told is this is the worst possible car you could have picked. You will never learn anything with this car or get anywhere. Well, by the second season on track I was asked by two clubs if I had any interest in instructing. Also a cool note, in second season on track I met cars previous owner. He is an instructor with several clubs and had traded it in on a new c7 z06 (hi Jim). he actually did a lead follow session with me to approve me for the “advanced group” back then, so that was cool memory chasing his new car around. Anyway, after instructing a bit I started time trialing. After some encouragement from the st2 National champ to “stop messing around in a street car” and come racing...I thought, why not....
Well, my first race I never made it out of qualifying. It rained for about 15-20 minutes fairly hard then stopped before we went out. I went out, remember thinking wow track is surprisingly good on out lap, and before coming through the final corner (and fastest on corner at Njmp tbolt) went to normal pace. Well, some water pooled right off the curbing and even though I had sense to not go on damp curbing I put front wheels right into puddle and unsurprisingly plowed straight off track. Managed to put right rear corner into tire wall. Nice welcome to racing dumb rookie...
Well, things got better from here. Next race I skipped qualifying as it rained once again( and was also at same track) and started at the back of the field. Ended up hard charger and 2nd in class. Next two races I won, next pair of second places (lesson in traffic management). Then I added aero and car was a rocket ship. Winning two more races starting from the back of the field as my transponder decided not to hit in qualifying. Finally got to drive vir and ended up 2nd after blowing the lead in t1. Still mad at myself for that one. Nasa Nationals were not in cards this year financially, but I truly believe this car would have been a contender.
Fast forward....I had never driven lime rock, living just over an hr away sounds crazy but true. Sound limits and track day scheduling it just never worked out. Anyway, getting caught up now...managed a causal 55.8 my first session ever at lime rock. I was really excited as I knew I left a lot on table and the setup wasn’t catered to lime rock what so ever. Well, qualitying was a bit nuts with such huge disparities in cars paces for entire race field. Despite traffic, managed to get pole for st2. Race started well enough, super touring started behind Gts 2-3-4 so there was good bit of traffic to work through. Finally, found some open track and was ready to show the pace this car had. Well....hit the downhill in what felt perfect, small lift, catch the compression and turn in, peg the throttle. Well, I pegged the throttle and I saw flames. Felt like rear tires locked but could have been my own oil I don’t know. Like Ricky bobby I was flying backwards and thought “mmm this is not good”. Car backed into wall, the hit didn’t feel all that bad. Pulled fire suppression to make sure under hood fire was out. I heard some cars having some drama as they came through downhill after me and quickly realized all the oil from motor was now spewn across track at bottom of hill. I could quite see it coming but I definitely could hear one of my competitors cars coming and unfortunately he hit the oil and plowed straight off track, right into me.
There is some crazy compression at lime rock, more so then any other track I’ve driven with this car. Stock 09 “dry” sump system with pan baffle. Lesson learned. Next motor will have a real dry sump.
Ive spent last few weeks weighing out options. Financially, rebuild actually makes the most sense. I own the thing, and taking a loan out to purchase another car to turn into a race car is crazy. Salvage cars are bringing way more then money then I would have thought. The frame appears to be straight, although not much else survived honestly.
I’ve already purchased front and rear cradle assemblies for surprisingly cheap (off an 07 z06). The rear diff case was cracked from impact, so car will essentially be getting an entirely new drivetrain. I will send trans out to be rebuilt with some bells and whistles to improve shifting. Scored a rear frame section for dirt cheap to steal a rear bumper beam from. Mine was tweaked pretty badly and being aluminum bending it straight isn’t going to provide a sound mounting point for a chassis mount wing.
When I didn't see your name on Racehero I knew instantly something had happened. I'm real glad you are rebuilding her Mike. Extremely sorry this happened to you. Wish there was something I could do to help.
Sucks, but you're not alone. There's a yellow C5 that got pieced back together for this season on this forum and a C6 that got it worse than you at Hallett. The worst part must have been sitting there with a dead engine waiting to collect someone, oil is nasty on a race track. Good luck! Sounds like you have a plan. Have you had a shop give you the thumbs up on the frame already?
Sucks, but you're not alone. There's a yellow C5 that got pieced back together for this season on this forum and a C6 that got it worse than you at Hallett. The worst part must have been sitting there with a dead engine waiting to collect someone, oil is nasty on a race track. Good luck! Sounds like you have a plan. Have you had a shop give you the thumbs up on the frame already?
That yellow C5 was behind him when he splashed the engine. My first thought was “oh ****.... that’s Mike”....followed by “he’s taking me with him” when I hit his oil at the bottom of the hill. I’m not sure how I didn’t get a Ferrari enema but I can tell you I got that sinking feeling in my stomach when I saw him in the Armco. It was the same track, two turns before, last year when I splashed my engine.
Im afraid of how fast you are going to be next year when you have your new weapon shapened!
Been studying the scca gt2 rules. Aero wise I don’t think I’m going notice a difference, my splitter needs to be an inch smaller and wing the cord needs to 12 vs 14. I was hardly running any Aoa in current wing...motor wise I’m not sure what direction I’m going
What do you think the root cause was? You mentioned this being a lesson about the stock dry sump - are you thinking that oil starvation let a bearing seize?
What do you think the root cause was? You mentioned this being a lesson about the stock dry sump - are you thinking that oil starvation let a bearing seize?
yea, I think the compression of the uphill and the downhill at lime rock proved too much for stock dry sump. For what it’s worth, my last black stone oil analysis literally says “this is a healthy motor, keep up the good work”.
yea, I think the compression of the uphill and the downhill at lime rock proved too much for stock dry sump. For what it’s worth, my last black stone oil analysis literally says “this is a healthy motor, keep up the good work”.
While I don’t think the stock dry sump system isnt exactly as good as a real 3 or 4 stage racing system I don’t know if I’d be so quick to blame it. Did you pull a valve cover to see if you broke a spring? I’d be quicker to bet money on that or perhaps a broken rod or rod bolt.
08-04-2018, 11:09 AM
Death of a race car
