Branka: Country Road Specialist

[Tristor]

Awesome track day this morning. Unfortunately I'm a knucklehead and I forgot to enable video on Harry's LapTimer so all I've got is data logs. Anyway, set a new best lap time of 1:39.88 vs my previous best of 1:43.86, so I'm happy gaining 4 seconds. I just need more seat time/drivermod and I hope I will continue getting better.


In other news, I now own my own helmet with integrated radio. That was sort of a debacle, but that's a story I'll keep to myself since the vendor is working to make things right.


I wish I could post some videos or photos, but unfortunately there aren't any from this morning at the track. At any rate, I'm planning to go back on track in possibly 2 more weeks. Still need to work it out.


Now that I've been on track, I can confirm that the Jackson Racing Dual-Rad Oil Cooler did the trick. My peak oil temp was 221F and my peak coolant temp was 219F with an ambient of 101F. Sure beats the past, that's better by around 40F than stock. Thanks to the folks at CSG for their help during my install @CSG Mike

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by Tristor

Awesome track day this morning. Unfortunately I'm a knucklehead and I forgot to enable video on Harry's LapTimer so all I've got is data logs. Anyway, set a new best lap time of 1:39.88 vs my previous best of 1:43.86, so I'm happy gaining 4 seconds. I just need more seat time/drivermod and I hope I will continue getting better.


In other news, I now own my own helmet with integrated radio. That was sort of a debacle, but that's a story I'll keep to myself since the vendor is working to make things right.


I wish I could post some videos or photos, but unfortunately there aren't any from this morning at the track. At any rate, I'm planning to go back on track in possibly 2 more weeks. Still need to work it out.


Now that I've been on track, I can confirm that the Jackson Racing Dual-Rad Oil Cooler did the trick. My peak oil temp was 221F and my peak coolant temp was 219F with an ambient of 101F. Sure beats the past, that's better by around 40F than stock. Thanks to the folks at CSG for their help during my install @CSG Mike

That's a nice CPU in your profile pic.

That coolant temp is a bit on the higher side. 219F is okay, but higher than I'd like to see.

Make sure all your underbody trays and fender liners are in place!

-Mike

[nitro_alltrac]

Sounds like a great day!

[Tristor]

Next Saturday I'm planning to go on track again, before I do so I'm going to get this Stark Performance Automatic Transmission Cooler installed. Currently have the car up on jackstands and have all the undertrays off, and am about to finish taking the bumper off. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to start working on this at Midnight on a Saturday, but eh, probably get it done tomorrow afternoon without a problem.


I'm definitely getting a Fumoto drain valve for oil changes in the future though, I can say that for certain.


Update: You can see another thread I made with some photos when I wasn't sure where to mount the thermostat. Anyway, I've finished doing 3 repetitions of the fill/drain cycle for the automatic transmission, but unfortunately I have a small leak on one of the NPT barb fittings on the thermostat. I've had to remove the thermostat in order to rectify this, so this project is going to run into another day, I'm guessing.


Update2: Removed the barb fitting that was leaking after getting the thermostat off and in a vise. Looks like it didn't have any thread sealant while the other 3 had visible thread sealant. Used PTFE tape and reinstalled the fitting. We will see how things go now.

[Tristor]

Had a few more fun moments, but everything is back together with no leaks and my test drive went well. Eating Whataburger breakfast for dinner and calling it a night. Cant wait to get back out on track.


I also used this as an opportunity to write a much-needed DIY on how to do the ATF fluid change since I didn't see one otherwise.

[nitro_alltrac]

Great!

Man, I miss Whataburger!

[Tristor]

Just a quick update that I was unable to make it out to the track this weekend, so I'm scheduling it for the 8th. Hopefully this time I'll remember to enable video on Harry's LapTimer.


EDIT: Update to my update, I didn't make the track on the 8th (obviously), due to weather. It's been crazy weather lately here in South Texas, so currently I'm expecting to be on track on the 22nd or 23rd. We'll see how it plays out.

[Tristor]

Looks like I'm not going to be on track this weekend after all. Meanwhile, I've done another small mod and put in the 5 pound Shorai battery with the PTuning lightweight battery tray setup.





Parts and instructions. Also you can see I've got the PTuning Windshield Washer Fluid Reservoir to install at some point.





Installed. I really need to clean my engine bay (and my car).





Up close, you can see the kind of janky setup I have for the negative terminal to get things out of the way.




With this, it should somewhat offset the weight added with the engine oil cooler and transmission cooler I installed. Once I get the windshield washer fluid reservoir installed I want to run by a truck stop and get a weight just to see where things are, I'm guessing around 2700 without me (remember it's an AT, so it's 2800 factory).

[Tristor]

Well I went to Twisted Sisters on Sunday morning and had a blast with a group of locals. I wasn't even pushing it too hard and was able to comfortably lead on the group (mix of cars), most of which were on coils. The twins are just incredibly balanced and with weight reduction love corners even on stock suspension. Currently we're experiencing a massive moth/butterfly migration so you can see the damage and redemption in the photos.



Here's a photo of the Texas Butterfly Massacre






I went and washed her as soon as I got back







I've ordered a set of 225/40R18 Yokohama Advan Neova AD08R from Tire Rack that are arriving tomorrow and should be going on before this weekend. My Michelin's have life on them for daily driving, but are starting to look really rough on the edges with some chunking so it's time to say good bye to them before my next weekend drive or track day.

[Code Monkey]

Re: tires chunking on the edges, probably need more camber.

[Tristor]

Originally Posted by Code Monkey

Re: tires chunking on the edges, probably need more camber.

Yep, 100%. Next year my first priority is getting coilovers and LCAs on the car and then getting a performance alignment.

[Code Monkey]

Get a needle pyrometer too, without it it is like the blind leading the blind.

[Tristor]

Originally Posted by Code Monkey

Get a needle pyrometer too, without it it is like the blind leading the blind.

That's a good call. I think I've got maybe one more track day on these tires as they're not corded yet. I ordered a probe-style tire pyrometer from Joe's Racing Products that should be here tomorrow and have a track day scheduled for Sunday to give it a try. LongAcre has some nice tire temp tracking sheets as a PDF on their website I'm going to print out for use then.

[Tristor]

Well my track day yesterday was pretty successful. I also have one scheduled for next Sunday as well. It'd been over a month since the last time I'd been on track and since then they'd repaved part of it and the course had very slightly changed. On my 2nd lap of my very first session I lost my balls exiting turn 2 where they'd started repaving because I thought I was going to overshoot track out and I did the worst thing possible and lifted resulting in a spin and me going off-track. Good news is that I didn't hit anything and my car was fine and I was able to continue the remaining sessions of the day.



My first spin and off-track incident and it took me this long, so I was a bit embarrassed since I thought I was already past that and I'm always very smooth and careful with my steering. If I'd kept in the accelerator I would have made the turn. That turn continued to plague me for the entire first session, resulting in my average time on my first session being a full 3 seconds slower than my average time from my last time on track. I was able to get it together in my second session and return to an average time that matched my previous average, but for the whole day that was the best I ended up doing.


I'm hoping that having two track days only a week apart will help me to retain my feel of the rhythm of the track better and I can eek out at least another second off my average lap time next Sunday.


Also, Harry's Lap Timer failed to record video again, however this time I /explicitly/ know I enabled it. I'm not sure what happened. I do have video from my dash cam this time around since I had hardwired it to get rid of loose power connection that was an issue last time I was on track. I'm still trying to figure out how to get things working in Dashware to output a video with overlay. Once I do I'll embed one here from YouTube of me doing a spin.


The tire pyrometer was very helpful, I found out I was overpressure for the optimal point on my tires by around 1-1.5 psi depending on the tire. I waited 3 hours after my last session to let the tires cool and took a cold pressure reading and noted it, so I can start from the same cold pressures next Sunday and then use the pyrometer to adjust. I'm hoping that'll get me closer to optimal to start off with. I also still have tread left on these, so I'll be going one more track day on these Michelin's but I will say they had several moments yesterday where my braking distances didn't feel right and I think they're underperforming how they were in the beginning by quite a lot, especially on braking. I'm looking forward to getting the AD08Rs on and then taking it back to the track to see if I can pick up a second or so off grippier tires.