Wednesday, May 18, 2005

PROJECT - FINSHED

We took the car down to Sebring Sunday for a test day. It went very well. I put about 100 miles on the car. The only issues that cropped up were a loose exhaust pipe, a loose alternator bracket, and a very loud exhaust rattle. All except the rattle were fixed at the track. I did a short, 15 minute session on my new set of Hoosier R3S04's, to get them heat cycled. I then switched to an older set of Hankook Z211's for two long sessions. They don't have nearly the grip of the Hoosiers, but they are ok for testing and practice.
Overall, the car is good. This was just a shake-down, so we didn't bother with things like tire pressures or temperatures. We also haven't got quite as much camber as we would like, and the car hasn't been corner-weighted. Despite all that, it's quite neutral and doesn't come unglued over Sebring's bumps. It seemed to make good power as well. In fact, I almost ran out of 4th gear on the back straight, which I don't think I've ever been close to doing in the old car. We'll get it to a dyno soon and verify that it's making good power.

The next race is at Sebring in June. If I am to make that, I'll need to install my window net and cutoff switch, but I think that is all I need to do.

Here's a few pictures (Warning: these are BIG files)
Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3


and here's a quick video clip (also a big file)

Video

Next time I'll get some in-car video.

I hereby declare this project officially done! Now comes the fun part - racing.

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