Quote:
Originally Posted by TylerLieberman
Was cool seeing this thing rip around AMP this weekend. K series really is the jam for these cars.
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Thank you, it seems to work alright most of the time
. Hard to miss your Hakone out there too, god, I love that color.
General weekend summary
Saturday was CW, I was about half a second off pace from the last event - 1:46:843, but still got the TT5 win. I ran the RE71RS and the car started out super loose, so I ended up swapping to my Mann 13mm rear bar, dropping the rear, and pulling out some damping to settle it down. Unfortunately, I think I did like 5 laps the entire day due to an issue I'll mention later.
Sunday was CCW, I managed to drop the TT5 record by half a second on the RE71RS on a lap with a handful of big mistakes. 1:47:2, I feel like it should be a high 1:45 done right. Car still felt a bit loose. For sure threw away a 1:46 multiple times over this lap.
Coolant Temp Issue
I had a fairly annoying issue to deal with all weekend - on Saturday morning at first session warm up grid the car popped a check engine light, which is extremely abnormal. I proceeded to give the RE71RS a good single lap scrub in. I checked the data and it said the coolant temp was 235f, normally it rarely goes over 185f.
I decided to go out for the first real session, do a single lap for points, and come in. Temp was again 230.
I replaced a blown thermo fan fuse, did some IR temp gunning, decided that the temp was probably wrong, ran a lap or two for the second and third sessions, and bought a new coolant temperature sensor on the way home for the day.
On Sunday morning I tried to swap the coolant temperature sensor and it instead decided to break off in the coolant neck on the back of the head against the firewall. I heated the car up until the thermostat opened and didn't see the signs of the sensor leaking so I ziptied the new sensor against one of the radiator hoses, set the electric fans to always run below 10mph, and decided to finish out the day like normal.
Looking at the Haltech, the car was pulling 5* of timing at WOT on Saturday due to it being over 230f. Who knows what it was doing on Sunday with the coolant temps reading 85-125f on track. Sucks, probably a decent chunk of power both days.
RE71RS
General thoughts on the RE71RS are kinda limited right now since it was super cold and I the car issues. Generally speaking though...
They seem to want a fair bit more heat than the RC1 to start working. RC1 I generally try to do a very soft out lap with no scrubbing, the RE71RS seemed to want a hard scrub and it still wasn't fully ready on the first lap.
Pyrometer had me at 36-39psi for proper gradient, obviously there are a lot of variables here, but the gradients looked better than RC1s. I assume they have a stiffer sidewall.
They seem to be more quiet than the RC1 during breakaway.
The most noticeable thing I felt is that the RE71RS feels like they have a lot more grip under braking.
All in all, they have me wishing the RC1 and the RR get an upgrade since the main draw (other than contingency) of them in the first place was that they were supposed to handle heat better than the fast 200TW. I guess we will see as I get more time on them.
I'm happy with them, I'd buy them again.
Other random stuff
Turns out PCI is making some sphericals for the FLCA - they've got replaceable Aurora bearings in them and they're really cheap ($165 total). Grabbed a set, as well as a set of Hardrace sphericals for the FLCA rear bushing, to replace the poly SuperPros. This is an effort to help tire wear.
Techno Toys Tuning is also making some stuff for our chassis now too. I bought a set of rear toe links since they're no points, easier to adjust than what I have now, have heims, and the price is right.
Anyway, on to Chuckwalla on Feb 17 - 18.