Here's the latest video from yesterdays shakedown before the end of the season on a high speed track up at BIR. This car is a beast to drive, let's focus on getting her bushings replaced so we can put all her power to use. As you saw she has a lot of potential. She's great on these high speed courses lots of room for her to stretch. The carousel wasn't much of a challenge. After yesterday's test under overcast and damp conditions I really think she can do under 1:50 on the short 2.5 mile track.
ok so.... humm......Track Day The car seems to be pushing coolant out on higher boost at the track once you go all out on it for 2+ minutes. We lowered the boost to wastegate and it seemed to hold fine. 5000-8000rpms the boost is at 23psi and tapering to above 20psi. We are on E85 and also 9.0:1 compression. We tested on 80%water with Royal Purple coolant additive. The CAP may be not strong enough or the HEADS are lifting off since we are still on STOCK head bolts. Makes me wonder if we would be making more power if the heads don't lift???
Well when we were running part throttle and short shifting the car seem to be running just as fast with no temp issues. The tires did pretty well but we'll need to keep the nose from lifting on corner exit. Brakes felt a little mushy after one hot lap into turn 3. The setup did well, we managed to carry great speed in/out of the turns we could still use more rubber to fully utilize the power and stiff suspension.
On my old track car I would run Royal Purple coolant additive and distilled water, resulted in much cooler water temps. It also didn't leave the weird scum that Water Wetter tends to leave. I would ditch any coolant if you plan on running track events, switch back to coolant for the winter.
So there's proof the invisible man does exist after all. I was super duper busy and by the time I could get around to jumping into the BM we had one lap. I was looking for ya! You have a sweet little V8 Mercedes. It was really nice to see you and Ron's crew up there.
That's a great idea, I also think that if we just kept it under 7k and 80% throttle she'll stay cool and happy. There's plenty to work with and she'll need more work if we're going to try and use all of it. Petite little thing with a lot of punch. We only did a few hot laps, the rest were for water and temp testing.
Running no coolant is obviously a better conductor but it's also what keeps the internals from rusting and bacteria from growing. Definitely ok for just a track day but I advise running it for an entire season. I love the tracks in the video, old school Prodigy -> Lady Hawk -> Friendly Fires The car looks amazing on that track get some good head studs/bolts and dyno it again I want to see what your beast is capable of!
Great advice regarding the coolant there, I think Fuji will more than likely be going full coolant for the winter if he doesn't end up parking it and rebuilding it again. I think he showed me some ARP bolts at his place but I'm not sure why he decided not to use them, he may be waiting for the BIG day. Or he could use Gorilla Glue, the car's really not that fast. I'm glad you enjoyed the music, Dirt 2 is currently my favorite game for training. I really appreciate the feedback, I'm always open to suggestions and constructive feedback. Feel free to chime in anytime. Student for life!
HUGE Congrat's to everyone involved and especially to you both. Not sure how those times translate in my world but I'd say its getting into the scary fast street able world. If I could suggest so openly and boldly-I thought she could of done better. I really think she's capable of doing 11.5 if you'd just install a duel short shifter. And next season if Fuji gets the old bushing's replaced 11.3 is a possibility. There's a lot of lost energy wasted with all the travel. And get serious guys, get some real drag slicks for once, you boys are all using the same dimension tires and wheels that you could all just get a set and share. If you do Mini Mt. Fuji will be shopping for a fire suit and cage really quick. Granted I wasn't there and I don't do the 1320 thingy. I'd like a recap from Fuji what were his shift points and if they were consistent in every gear? I like!
the first run, which was also the fastest run was driven shifting right about 7000rpms despite the higher 8000rpm redline. I know the shifter is really sloppy becuz of the worn bushings at the joint. If you can shift it fast without a shorter shifter, then you won't need one. Anything faster and you'll be grinding gears or wearing out the synchros fast. If anything I'll be getting a short throw linkage over a shifter. I'd like for you to take a look under the car and suggest which bushings need replacing. There are a few select ones I would like to replace but I'd like to see which ones you suggest.
here's from the autocross yesterday... I haven't autoX for a LONG time. I dunno where I am on the time list.. but eh... I had fun! Formnula karts doing 50-55secs. Fast EVO running 56sec. I running 58 sec. Other cars 60+ sec. Credits to photographer!!! Thanks for speedyham for lending us some tools! Thanks to Chong for coming out to have another drive with the wagon before winter. Thanks to Nuke for the bringing the uproar in power, Thanks! We broke the sound barrier with our "LOUD" external wastegate. People hated us. Well that's just too bad.... it's as if they've never heard anything that loud before... thanks for the hate! we made a record of 103.5db at something like 50ft away!!! WE ARE THE PROBLEM!!!! LOL hahahahaha The car handled sloppy. The road was like marbles. However the car still gripped if you allow it to. Then if you wanted it to slide, you can on demand. The LSD was overworn. Inlift sucks because you can't lay down the power. The car sure moves when BOTH rear tires are flat! Damn that EWG is ear piercing! I would have drifted the course if I wanted to. Revving out to 8000rpms is quite fun! I almost got into 3rd gear. We probably hit close to 60mph on that little straight. I saw course workers running out of the way when skittles approached. The car is STOCK.
Well our day started very well. I signed up my little friend Fuji into the Pro Index, why? Well he's our secret weapon on the team you might say. But really he's just that good. No pressure considering pretty much everyone in that class was running slicks and has many years of Autox'ing experiencing. I put myself in XP, it was really nice to finally see Speedyham's GC monster, for some reason this car reminds me a lot of the Time Attack GST. It's nice to finally meet you Sean. So the day started out without a hitch, I had asked Fuji to run the first three sessions since we were sharing the car so we can get her dialed in quickly. In the morning the car oversteering a lot more than I'd like so we kept dropping the tire pressure especially the rear. We finally got the car to where it would only oversteer on demand. It was very nice to see a course map before going to the event. Studying it I observed lots of opportunity for left foot braking and two possible hand brakes. So that's what I ended up doing to keep my lines tight. I got a little creative since this was not as very a fast course as the last COM event, so I decided to get an Instructor to ride along. I wanted their input and some weight to balance the car out on the right side. This car really took them by surprised, one female instructor told me she had held her breath in some of the sections and this is from a Corvette driver. All morning we were pushing pretty hard trying to find the threshold of the car's traction limit running at I believe 25psi, no noise infractions what so ever. I was probably the colperate since I had the most DNF's from spinning and going WOT in area's where some wouldn't, but that's one of the advantage's of using LFB'n. We later took her down to WG boost 18psi and that's when Fuji bounced off the rev limiter twice giving us our first noise warning infraction at 101 db. LOL The BM is a handful but a lot of fun to drive, Fuji's has agreed to get wider tires for next season so hopefully we can reduce the amount of tires spinning and minimize braking and carry more speed into the corners. I really liked the modifications Fuji made to the shifter, this is a much needed improvement. I can finally drive without second guessing which gear I'm in. We'll have to put a real bucket seat and race harness in for next season. One of my least favorite things about Auto'x is standing around for hours. I was working as the Start Marshall and I've been hydrating all day to the point where I had to go super bad. I was trying to flag someone over from one of the near by stations and also tried to radio someone to come relieve me, so finally I got Speedyham to come help me out. I sprinted straight to the portapotti. Thanks Pal! Despite popular belief I believe we put on a heck of a show, displaying AWD car control. Everyone that asked can't believe the car is only putting out just over 300 whp. Well folks here's the secret, it's all in the delivery and the best guy to go talk to about this is Nuke, he'll set you straight. It's not about peak horse power, it's how practical and functional you can apply it to your style of driving and activities. My camera was only able to capture Fuji's two run's in the morning so enjoy. This is one event I won't soon forget. I had a lot of fun hanging out with you guys, thanks again.
ohhhhh my goodness!!! Here are the RAW times... best times for everyone http://www.mnautox.com/results/2010/mowog8_raw.htm
View attachment 23470 Drifta.....I had concerns about us getting the boot for going thru the course sideways, I'm glad that didn't happen and we finished the day in a happy manor. It was nice to see Shane come over and greet Fuji in a non competitive manor. For someone who comes in such a small package he sure does have a lot up his sleeves. Kudo's Bro!
Ha, that was me you were trying to flag down! I couldn't figure out what you were trying to signal to me - I thought you were pointing at a cone that got hit, so I went over and checked it, LOL. Sorry, if I knew what you were trying to signal, I totally would have helped - definitely been there before! Anyway, I REALLY enjoyed watching you guys drive the hell out of that car! That was probably a great car to have with the limited traction conditions. You may have been over the sound limit, but I thought it sounded GREAT Very agressive-sounding, but somehow not too harsh on the ears...
I was tempted to grab my crotch and do the moonwalk, but I figured that might be over the legal decibels. LOL I really do appreciate the feed back about our car. I wish we could of caught some outside footage so we can study the car's handling characteristics. I don't drive this car much, only on occasions such as these for testing so it challenging sometimes to make the car do something you've never tried before on it. I hope we didn't look too out of control, she's quite easy to control but everything happens very quickly on this car and can get into trouble really quick as you saw.
Ha!! I would have peed myself laughing if you did that! I thought you guys looked pretty well under control most of the time, especially considering your power levels and the severe punishment for getting off the "vulcanized rubber" line and into the marbles... Are you going to be at MOWOG 9 (The Sci-Fi Autocross)? I'll have my camcorder with me, so I can grab some vids for you I'll be in the green miata #719 (Michael).
I really appreciate the offer Michael, but unfortunately we're both stuck working next weekend. We had to take time off to make this event because we wanted to hang out with friends and test the car in this setting. We might be back next year but more likely be at a COM event for many reasons. But feel free to come join us and hang out anytime at one of the club events I'm involved with. We utilize the whole track at DCTC and both tracks at BIR. It would be nice to meet you and get some pointers from you about driving. Thanks again!
This is a nice picture: View attachment 23486 I can't seem to find any pictures of me driving, but I like this picture from Speedyham's team member. View attachment 23487 It's nice to see someone else with a nice tall attractive wing other than myself. View attachment 23488 View attachment 23489 View attachment 23490 http://motorchan.smugmug.com/Cars
OK an update. The car currently has a little over 10k miles on the built motor since the beginning of May this year; 2010. Oil consumption is normal for a Subaru turbo motor, about a little over 1qt when changed. I do run the car hard so burning some oil isn't surprising. The car is currently on 20w-50 Racing Motor oil from Fleet Farm. This seems to be still working well keeping my oil pressure up. The things you DON'T hear about. I had the stock turbo inlet rip on me when I was at the drag strip during my 11.75sec run. This stock piece was later replaced with a Gimmick inlet. The Gimmick inlet was cut in half right between the two runners, cyl #1/3 and a 3"x 2" metal pipe was put in. This keeps it from collapsing during boosting since I am on a 20G turbo. One of the TGV plugs shot out. The plug was JB Weld. This caused a HUGE leak in the intake manifold. I purchased some Quick Steel and plugged it back in without taking the intake manifold off. These holes must be plugged with something else to ensure this will NOT happen again. Since then the car does idle up and down when you're trying to park and running through reverse and 1st gear. It'll settle down when you let it idle. I have a CEL saying system too lean. One week the pass front fell into a sewer hole on the side of the curb while on the right turn lane. It was probably like 5-7" deep. A few days after this the pass front started to clunk. For sure I knew the damper may have been hurt. Yes I'm still riding on my BC Racing 12k f/r coilovers. The sound got REALLY bad and I took it apart to inspect it. I found out the lower ball joint was worn. I replaced that with the help of a friend and put everything together. The sound was STILL there. The following night while a visit to Grimmspeed I learned that my top damper nut was LOOSE. The hit was hard enough to loosen the nut. SO I just simply tighten it with a 17mm socket on a 3/8 ratchet. This fixed the loud clunk!!! The brake dust is really bad. Well... I wasn't expecting to have clean wheels anyway since these are race pads. I should have clear coated my wheels. Now it's very hard to get my BRIGHT colors back. I will respray my wheels in the spring. Having NOT washed my car for a while, the carbon dust has covered the side of the car to the back hatch. You may want to not brush up against the car if you're wearing some fancy clothing. I tried to take off the driver side axle nut and failed. The last time I put that together I think I only torqued it to like 125ft lbs. I guess tracking the car and brake boosting really makes it stay on there. The axle seal on the diff needs replacing. I bought a 3/4" craftsman breaker bar and a 32mm 3/4" socket to take the nut off. The socket is TOO thick to fit the hub so I have to grind the socket so the walls aren't so thick. I may just wait til spring to do that at the same time doing an LSD upgrade. Carbonetic 1.5way?? I found out the inconsistent braking issue during hard driving. The chassis flexes causing the master cylinder to pull away and adding play to the pedal. I found this out by cornering hard and getting on the brake pedal after. Even when I go up on ramps at an incline, the brake would bite deep. I will try to get the MS brace and see if that alone helps. If not that I was thinking strut brace. I do have fender braces so I wonder if only having fender braces was a bad idea but 2.5RS's come with the factory stamped steel fender brace. So that is the braking issue!!!!! The braking is still more biased to the driver front locking up first before the rest. My car does NOT have ABS and I am using the FWD SVX master cylinder. I will soon be retiring the car for winter. In the spring I hope to have saved up some $$$ so I can put on the larger turbo and have the fuel system set with the header/uppipe stuff. Limited funds have kept me from putting on the big turbo. I'll get some vids before putting her to sleep.
Good to hear that they mighty Fuji even has issues. I've been working through bugs myself so I know how it is. I was "Testing and Comparing" last night and now my car makes a thudding feeling on the PS front wheel at 30-45MPH and a rattling/bearing noise at highway speed FML I think it's a wheel bearing maybe but it doesn't change pitch when making turns so who the hell knows. Anyway good progress on your car, when you sell your 20G let me know.
Since when do Full Aggressive Race Pads not create dust. LOL This was a short season for you, hopefully she'll be ready when next spring comes around, bright and early!
