Quick Hello...

#1

Afternoon folks…

Just popping in to say a quick hello as a prospective new Spec e30 racer ( maybe within the next year ). Almost finished the build on the car.

I have heard what a great bunch you all are ( Skeen and Jones come to mind as references ), and based on this weekends RA festivities, I would have to agree. Special thanks to the WalshLako team for their hospitality.

Couldn’t find anywhere decent to park so pulled up in front of the Discovery trailer…Next thing I know, Dave has crossed the paddock to find me and invited me to share some of their space.

Made some great new friends, met a few of the folks on here, the Pattons come to mind and thanks to Johan for the classroom sessions. ( hope I spelt these names correctly ).

Wife and I had a great time this weekend, many thanks to all of you and look forward to the next one…

I was driving the Silver two tone # 62 car, albeit very slowly for now…Got a ton of learning to do…:blush:

#2

Welcome to the sweet life of Spece30! Thats a beauty of a car you have. It was nice to meet and talk with you.

#3

Welcome to the website. Sounds like you are on the same schedule as I am trying to keep. I think the only session I saw your car on track was the last one on Sunday when I felt like it was only E30s and my pit buddy’s Lotus Elise out there which was nice.

#4

Jon,
Welcome to the spece30 gang. We enjoyed you and Eva’s company this weekend and are welcome anytime at the WalshLako camp. Thanks for the bisquits and look forward to seeing you at the next event. Lako

#5

Jon,

Glad to see you on the boards! Car looks great! This is truly a great bunch of people. If you need anything at all this board is the place to get it. Feel free to email as well.

Brian

#6

Welcome to the circus, Jon.
You couldn’t have picked a better group to run with. You are yet another noob that I’ll be looking forward to meeting at CMP. Hope you’ll make it that weekend. Word is we’re having the IFU4 at CMP. Make that -and you’re in for the time of your life.

ScottMc

#7

Figured I would add a link to my video so you can see your beautiful car in action:

http://www.vimeo.com/14078010

I think I came up on you pretty early on in the video.

#8

Nice video and the car sounds great…Yep, that was me coming out of turn 5…Toodling around minding my own business…:blush:

#9

Nothing wrong with that. We all just need more seat time.

#10

Just finished hooking up the Traqmate, working on getting some gauges installed so I can see the essentials.

Need to make some pedal adjustments to get them comfortable.

Next on the list is replacing the stock steering wheel, and investing in a decent tire pressure gauge. ::slight_smile:

Gonna get some coaching at CMP on Sept 17th before my next weekend event there with THSCC…

Hopefully will be well sorted for the NASA weekend there in November…B)

#11

Getting back from a day at CMP last Friday…

Car ran pretty good. Need to make a few adjustments on the rear sway bar and looking to install a crank scraper for the oil pan. RA1’s drove really well and the help I got with the pressures made a huge difference ( to me at least ) from the last trip out at RA.
Traqmate is up and functioning, so have some nice data to mull over and see where the time is being lost.

Was fortunate to have Mike Skeen along with me to show me the basics and generally let me know what these cars can do in competent hands. Worth every penny…

Did find some oil on the floor in front of the driver side back seat. Believe it was coming from the transmission overflow and up through an access panel in the floor. Need to check that out. ( anyone seen this before? ).

Here are a couple of laps from a morning session…( just in case you are bored )…:wink:

Still working my way up through the DE’s, getting seat time, so not ready to join you in the races just yet…Hopefully will be ready soon. Would rather join and be right than rush it and be a speed bump…:stuck_out_tongue:

Enjoy… http://vimeo.com/15076537

#12

Jon, did Mike coach you at CMP? Laps in the car with Mike? How enlightening was that? What did you learn that can help others?

If Mike was the driver with you in the ride-along, I would expect that you made some great progress that would have taken many events to learn on your own.

So, call this a coomercial announcement for Mike Skeen,call it an endorsement, call it what you will. Those that want to “get faster” contact Mike at mikeskeen.com

RP

Oh yeah, I’d like to be faster, but there are some things, skills, nerve, call it what you will (talent, maybe?) that can’t be transferred.
Mike is one of the best.

#13

Jon62 wrote:

Since the oil in on the driver’s side, consider also that it might be power steering or brake fluid.

You can put an overflow tank on your tranny to catch and return fluid. Put a hose and hose clamp on the overflow port that sticks up on top of the tranny. Then run the hose to a catch bottle high in the engine compartment. Transmission fluid might go up the hose a ways, but probably not all the way up to your bottle. Then the fluid in the hose just returns to the tranny once you stop.

Note that if you do put a hose on, you are required to put a bottle on. Same with a diff hose.

Next possibility is engine oil, but because the engine is inclined a bit oil tends to travel to the passenger side of the engine before dripping off.

#14

Man training from Mike Skeen eh. I bet you will be running laps around me next time we meet in HPDE. I look forward to watching your video when I get home. I will see you at CMP.

#15

Thanks Ranger, sounds like I need a hose / bottle combo…Will investigate other potential leaks while I am in there…

KT…I drove with Mike for the whole day…Eash session we worked on either an extension of the last session, a new corner combo or a new techique / modification of an existing.

Of all the things we looked at, brake management was probably the biggest area. Fine tuning braking points to maximise initial braking then trail braking a little deepr into the turns to keep the front loaded and steering in the desired direction. I have a habit of braking slightly early, but not fully, coming off of the brakes a little too soon, having over slowed the car and then getting the car a little upset with early application of throttle and resultant push.

Best way I can describe it.

In addition, changing the braking points, changed the entry speeds ( for me ) at turn in, so having to make small corrections to maintain a good line added to the “fun”. Non of this is very natural to me yet, so quite allot of thinking going on while driving. Had a few sectors where I totally messed things up…Skeen has the patience of a saint in that regard…:slight_smile:

Another thing that occurred during this day was the length of the sessions. Normally with the NASA driving I have been doing, the 20 minute sessions normally result in about 10 - 15 minutes of hard driving…On this track day, we ran 35 minute sessions and the track was basically empty. As a result, after about 15 minutes or so, I started getting a little loose in my concentration and mistakes happened. Mental and physical abilities definately need to be honed along with driving skills.

30+ minutes of driving hard is allot different from 15 minutes that I had been doing. So hats off to all you racers that live on the edge for the sprint races and enduro’s…:slight_smile:

I am still processing the track time in my head, re driving sessions, referring back to the data and video to re inforce what Mike was telling me about.

Skeen drove the car in Session 3, which for me was a great asset. I tend to be a “feel” learner. Sitting in the car “feeling” the sensations of braking, cornering etc is how I learn best. Now that I have a feel for what the car is like at speed, under heavy braking or cornering allows me to process the data that much better.

Starting to get a little long winded here so will end on that…Look me up when we get to CMP and we can discuss in more detail…

Hope that helped a little…

I posted some of Skeen’s laps also on the Vimeo page…I watched them side by side for comparrisons…

Jon

#16

I watched both your video and Skeen’s. I noticed in Skeen’s that just about every left hand turn was resulting in your low oil pressure light coming on. Can you describe your oiling setup? What weight oil? Full? Quart over? Oil cooler (for Ranger)? Crank scraper? Modified oil pan? I don’t remember seeing the light come on when you were driving, but it might have just been your hand position blocking it from view. Did you notice it at all while driving on track?

#17

After Skeen’s drive, we noticed it on my sessions also ( started going a little faster I guess…:). We added more oil to help but it didn’t completely fix the problem. One quart over. It is a standard oil pan, no baffles or scrapers.

Fed Ex delivered an oil scraper today so that will be going in the car as soon as I can get to a lift.

I was using 20/w50 high mileage oil for that event. doing an oil change before the next event and will have the scraper in there. New oil is 10/w30 high mileage. Will see how that works.

#18

There’s some good threads here on oils. I’d do some reading before I made anymore oil choices. Especially before putting in a 10W30. Here’s some ideas off the top of my head.

Brad Penn 20W50. Cheap and excellent.
Valvoline VR1 20W50 Conventional. Cheap and pretty good.
Mobil1 15W50. Medium price and pretty good.
Mobil1 VTwin 20W50. A little pricey and excellent.
Valvoline VR1 20W50 Synthetic. A little pricey and pretty good.
AMSOIL and Redline xW50 Race. Pricey and excellent.

Oil is complicated. There’s a lot more going on then it’s “weight” class.

When you install the crankscraper, you might want to buy a couple extra rod bolts. Then pull off #6 rod bearing and take a look at it. If it looks fine, you’re good. If it’s hosed, you can replace all the rod bearings pretty easily from underneath. If any of the rod bearings are bad, then pull main bearing #6 and look at it also. If any bearings are really bad, look at the crank for signs of damage also.

Don’t worry too much. Bearings are cheap. And as long as you don’t have to replace main bearings, it’s all easy. Main bolts are reusable, rod bolts not.

Your 7psi OEM OP warning light going on is pretty bad. Playing around with different oils isn’t going to help. Either there’s oil at your pump’s pickup, or there isn’t. I’d check the bearings.

#19

Thanks Ranger, will definately look at those when I have the pan off…Looks like the 20/w50 is a common oil to use…Appreciate the feedback…

#20

Jon62 wrote:

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Put the scraper on, pick your favorite oil, and drive the d@mn thing.

“Checking” the #6 rod bearing means disassembling something that’s happy just the way it is. If you toasted the bearings, it’ll knock eventually to let you know.

From what I have read on line, Ranger’s “Preventive Maintenance” program is neither. :laugh: