Now THAT'S an exhaust!

 

Ok, I couldn’t just let the digital level gage thing drop. I just had to figure out what was going on.

So, I went back into the basement with it and got out my trusty 4’ Craftsman bubble level (Sears version, so I know its good) to find out at what point the digital level gage goes from reading zero to a non-zero reading.


Bubble level with shims to get a non-zero reading on the digital gage.

The short story is I shimmed the bubble level on both ends (one end at a time) until the level gage just changed to a non-zero reading. The first non-zero reading is 0.15 deg, achieved in both directions for a total swing of 0.3 deg. The total shim height was 0.236”, which over the 47.5” length of the bubble level, gives 0.28 deg of total swing by measurement. Or +/- 0.14 deg; basically the same as the meter.

From there I looked to see what the next reading was on the digital gage. It changes every 0.05 deg.

So, it appears that the digital gage isn’t very good at finding zero, but once it has a reading, a change in reading is pretty good to about 0.05 deg. That means if the floor is level, then the camber angle reading should be good.

How to fine out if the floor is level? The bubble level seems to show clearly it being off by 0.15 deg from perfect level and that it can be read to something much less than that. With that, it shouldn’t be too hard to level the floor.

Do I care to go any further? Likely

 

You engineers are a troubled bunch.

When is your next LRP day?

 

That's quite the understatement!!

Eddie07S and I will be at LRP this Friday for an afternoon session with BMWCCA Patroon Chapter. Come on over if you have a chance.

 

Hey, I resemble that remark…




Or, come over to LRP on Saturday. I’ll be there as support crew for ZRE. BTW - both days are afternoon events.

 

Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger... Ref: Gildor Inglorion from "The Fellowship of the Ring".

 

I'll see how the week goes. I was at LRP on Saturday for am autoX event. The SCCA was running mixed-class races on the big track. "Mixed class" takes on new meaning when a Catarham, '30s Ford RatRod and BMWs are in the same field.

Also, what's with the orange market on the Straight Formerly Known As NoName? Please, please don't tell me it's always been there!

 

Yup, been there forever, but that just means your eyes have been up the whole time, which is great!

 

 

Wasn't there when iRacing showed up with their laser scanners - or perhaps they excised it?

For your considerable amusement, I offer you a 39 second LRP lap, with the diving turn taken flat at 175 mph. Madre de Dios!


Cheers,

Charlie

Yep, that's the Mercedes W12...

 

Well sure, the chicane acts as a shortcut.😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉 Best I've done in an actual car at the track is several seconds slower.😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉

 

The chicane adds a second or two to the lap of course - a SLOW shortcut!

I'd be fascinated to learn what real car you were working with that was that far under a minute - Formula Atlantic perhaps?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

I edited my post with the appropriate emojis that I now realize were needed to convoy the lack of seriousness in the entire post😁

I don't use data acquisition at the track, but others have timed me at 1:03 when I was younger and a little more daring. I drive the car now at a 7/10 at LRP.

 

I was open minded - I reckon a GTP car has done a 43 second lap, and another monster did a 45 - forget which.

Aero is the ultimate cheat. I'd expect the G loading on the diving turn at 175 mph would be enough to kill me in the real world!!

;-)

 

Absolutely! You wouldn't believe the size of some of the wings I've seen there, not to mention all the underbody mods that are out of view. Not that I'm interested at all in NASCAR, but I wonder how the trucks will do at Lime Rock next weekend...

 

@gkp No, that orange mark was not there at the end of last year:

Maybe it is there so the NASCAR Truck guys know which way to go…

As for MINI Cooper lap times, I am pretty stuck at 1:05 +/- a bit mark, in my 182 Hp Cooper S with well used/heat cycled tires. It looks like a JCW is good for the 1:03 mark. Gkp in his JCW has been up at that mark and walked away from me on any straight, so clearly the added HP helped. Plus he had a better suspension setup. I know veggivet’s JCW is also better setup and has the HP to be that quick.

As for road car times, I remember seeing the GTLM cars running there (like the C7R Corvettes) and they were really quick. Not sure the lap times though.

 

IMSA still has up the video of the qualifying for the NE Grand Prix from the 2019. The GTLM Porsches turned a 49.1. The C7R Corvette was a bit behind that. I remember years ago (2012) being there when Patrick Dempsey was there with his P1 and P2 cars. The fastest P1 car for that race turned a 44.017 (link) in qualifying.

My guess for the Race Trucks is they will turn about a 55 to 60 sec lap. 6/27 we’ll find out.

 

I believe that orange marking is the point where the NASCAR guys have to decide which side of the track they will line up on for restarts…It’s called the “Change Rule” or something like that.

 

I like it. The orange matches my driving gloves, plus it reassures me that I'm going in the right direction 😁

 

That paint on the track might be a hazard when it rains. It will as slippery as ice. There will be drive wheel spin if going straight and going over it. I get wheel spin on the painted curb at track out between T1 and T2 at WGI if is wet. If passing someone, with a little angle of the steering wheel that orange paint might be enough to spin the car. If nothing else, it will cause to car to do something that one may not like.

Ugh!

 

Patroons chapter of BMWCCA is having a rough go of it.

I threw a party and no one came.

That was the story last Friday for their afternoon open track day at LRP. The day started with reasonably clear skies and very comfortable temperatures in the mid (low?) 60s, although there was a strong west wind. That would just mean a MINI would gain about 10 mph down the front straight. With a solid 4 hrs of track time, this day had all the makings of a packed track event.

Veggivet and I both showed up a little after 11am and the paddock was nearly empty. By 12:30 there were only about 15 people at the driver’s meeting and that was short. Play nice and passing anywhere, with a point by.

Where were all of the car that I would have expected to be there? I do not know. Track days for experienced drivers don’t get any better than this. There were a lot of people who, IMHO, missed out on the best LRP track day of the season.

I had signed up for the data coaching, similar to what I do at WGI with GVC. They use the AIM Solo system and I got to match that up against Harry’s Lap Timer with the Dual 160 (10 hz) GPS. They matched up pretty well well, at least for lap times. But both gave disappointing results. Clearly both were reading incorrectly or the track gained about 200 yds in length. How else could I explain away the second that I lost since last season????

Oh, I know, it is the tires. I was on smaller 205-50x15 old worn out RE71R as compared to 215-45x17s Falkens last year. Ummmm - yeah, no. The Falkens were also pretty beat up too. Reality, maybe only a little difference due to the tires?

On the first review of my data with the coach the thought was to work on making improvements through T1 and 2. I was getting on the gas too late on the exit of T2, which implied that how I was taking T1 and turning into T2 needed work. One suggestion (for FWD cars) from the data coach, who drove FWD, was to single apex the two turns at T2 apex by being about a car width off the apex for T1. I liked this idea as it has always felt better for me and the car, but that defied conventional wisdom and I had been told many times it was the wrong line. I like defying conventional wisdom, especially when it comes to MINI Coopers. It is interesting that another instructor/racer said that for qualifying, they would single apex these 2 turns, but for racing they would apex T1 to preclude the dive bomb pass there. Interesting.

On the second data review, I had improved my lap time by 0.6 seconds. Woo Hoo! I as almost back to where i was last year. Bad news was I lost time in Big Bend. That was were I was looking to improve. Ugh! I had gained time around the whole rest of the track that made up the difference, plus some. But, we had not talked about making improvements on any of those parts of the track. My mind works in mysterious ways.

However, on further review, the data clear showed that I was braking earlier and over slowing for T1 in the second group of laps. Why? New brake pads in the rear that didn’t play well with the fronts, to the point of almost looping the car which sent me straight down the runoff chute at T1…. Yup, nope. Didn’t want that again, so earlier braking.

Now, if only I could put all my good sectors together in a lap, I’d have a hell of a lap.

The camber worked well on the front of Smokey. I also lowered tire pressures to 36 hot. Between the two, tire wear was really good and the right front tire had none of the excessive wear on the inside that I saw last season.

All in all a great day and great to be there with friends. Veggivet, good to meet up on this great day.

 

It was a perfect day to be on track, IMHO, and my car seemed to agree. Grip was excellent even first time out. The limiting factor for me wasn't anything mechanical, but sheer mental exhaustion. I worked my way up time wise over the day to 40-45 minute sessions. Toward the end of the day, I was getting close to the limit of the (old) tires, as my DSC was kicking in on the left hander. After I came in to let them cool off for a while, they were good to go for another session. This will be their last event. I will give the Toyo Proxes R888R a tryout when I go to WGI for a 2-day event July 7th/8th, both days on the freshly repaved long course.

I have to disagree with my good friend, Eddie07S, as I thought the track was WAY TOO CROWDED all day long. Drivers were staying out for HOURS at a time, and the courtesy level was extremely POOR. I was even 'spoken to' on pit lane when I came in for a quick torque check. I would not suggest anybody join the Patroon chapter as they are oversubscribed to events already. I hope in the future, things may thin out, but right now, I would advise against it.

Now back to our normal programming, which will involve a top 5 list of small towns to live in. The locals love that publicity! After the influx of new people, hardly anything changes except the tax rolls expand to such a degree that every resident who has been there for over 10 years gets a huge tax refund/bonus every year thereafter.

Coming in at #5 is Los Angeles, California, and small but growing town just beginning to spread out past its original 7 square mile borders.

 

Thanks. That makes sense. I unfortunately had to miss the truck race for a family event.

@veggivet @Eddie07S Either of you thinking about 7/15?

 

Well, I missed it too, mainly because I wasn't really interested in losing any more of my hearing. Despite my increasing deafness, I swear I could almost hear them from my house at times...I'm sure they took some insane lines with all that power. Hopefully, that distracting arrow will be gone sooner rather than later. Otoh, if you see it, you know your eyes weren't up high enough!

On another@gkp more than thinking about 7/15. I'm signed up. That will be my first time at LRP on the Toyo Proxies R888Rs. They'll get broken in before that for two days at WGI next Mon/Tues. I reserved a garage because it always T-storms at the Glen this time of year in the afternoon. Depending the timing of my run group, I may be doing some more tire changes than usual.

Has anybody changed from Nitto NT01s to the R888Rs? Anything I should be watching out for? I'm just hoping they're as predictable and grippy as the Nittos. I'm not really concerned if I lose a tenth or two or three or ten, not that I'd have any way of knowing that, anyway...🤪

 

Hmmmmm - had not known of the 15th…. A definite maybe at this point.

As for the R888Rs, no experience with them. I ran the R888s for a little bit a while back. In comparison to the 200 TW tires I was running at the time (likely the Dunlop ZIIIs), they were more responsive to steering inputs. Grip wise - unimpressed. Then again, the suspension I had at the time was less than ideal for them… They need camber. I was also probably way too high on tire pressure. So, go and have fun with your new tires.