Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

Great couple of days at VIR with Trackdaze, driving solo, hanging out with my buddy Mark Dissen. Still getting the hang of the car, and remembering how to drive fast. Made tons of progress in two days; cut my lap time by over 10 seconds. Still probably have 10 to go, as the car is setup now. But I'll probably have MOAR POWAH next time I go there.

It was mostly due to my awesome new shoes.


Here's the best lap of the two days - my last full lap in session 2 yesterday. I set four personal bests in the last four laps of that session... culminating in this 2:23 lap.

[ame=""]VIR Trackdaze 20160322 Session 2 - YouTube[/ame]

And here's what happened immediately following the end of that lap...

[ame=""]VIR Trackdaze 20160322 Turn 1 off - YouTube[/ame]

I was going almost 130mph when I started braking, so I wasn't doing much less than that when I upset the car and went into the slide. I slid a LONNNNNNNG way. Epic skid marks.

Pro tip: Get mostly done with your threshold braking before taking a hand off the wheel to downshift. I will NOT make that error again. Got lucky.

My car looked like some prankster spread an entire bale of straw in it.



Immediately went to the race shop and bought this:



I feel much less likely to die an early death, when sitting in that seat.


Took it easy for half of the next session, then loaded up and headed home, while still in one piece.

It was a great couple of days.

 

Yep. I will never ever ever ever trivialize that braking zone again. Or ANY hard braking zone, for that matter. Bullet dodged, lesson learned. Two hands on the wheel. :yesnod:

 

No doubt. I've waved off Jan trying to upgrade me to the 400HP TVS setup, happy to stick with 325-350 for starters. I can upgrade later, if I decide I can handle it.

Doing some things to fine tune suspension, alignment and aero before next trip to the track. And next outing will be pretty focused on more suspension tuning and burning a few skill improvements and disciplines into my firmware.

But I needed that spin (if you can call 90 degrees a spin) to learn and confirm a few things. It was timely and necessary. And I was pretty happy to stop short of that tire wall.

 

That never occurred to me. :cornut:



There's a reason the car has a 6 point cage. And I just bought a $1000 halo seat...

Grading in run-off areas at tracks is pretty important. Luckily, 15" NT01's with the shoulders worn off slide pretty well, sideways, once you break traction.

A guy put a stock car off the other edge at about the same spot last fall, going a bit faster, and did about 7 end-overs.

 

Actually, no I haven't. Funny, Mark doesn't like talking about his goofs :arf:

I'm planning to do the Trackdaze Shenandoah October event.

Oh, indeed. I'm not trying to destroy it. Hoping I don't. But also realistic about it... It's a track car, and I'm gonna drive it at the limit... Stuff happens... I buy trackday insurance for a reason.

 

When I stuck the landing with the old car, on the rear end, one casualty was the rear section of my Milltek exhaust. The pipes out of the mufflers, to the tips, were badly bent, and one tip was mangled. I was waiting until the car was otherwise operational, to take it to the shop and get that fixed. Finally, the planets aligned, and there was a dry day, when I had time, and the shop had 1.75" stainless pipe.



First, chop out the mangled stuff.



Then fabricate some new pieces of mandrel-bent 1.75" stainless, slip-fit over the existing pipe so it could be rotated to the perfect position. TIG weld in place, with a brace, and add the original GP0769 JCW tips.




I intentionally had them protrude a bit more than they do on the OEM JCW exhaust, because I like the way it looks. The tips are affixed with set screws like the JCW exhaust, so I can adjust them later, if I change my mind.

Kudos to RJ's Custom Piping in Raleigh, for doing a great job salvaging a mangled exhaust. They also built my custom center section that mates up to my RMW race header.

While the car was on the lift, I played around with the battery box skid plate / diffuser. I scored a set of new Group4 diffusers, but I know they won't fit with the current exhaust configuration. As I looked at things back there, I thought I could probably fabricate something that would improve the airflow, short of a true "diffuser" setup. Playing with the OEM battery box plate, I think I can make something perfectly functional out of three of them, that will create smooth airflow from the underbody panels back to the rear bumper.



I'm going to get a couple more of these plates and see what I can do. Stay tuned.

 

When I bought the OMP HTE-R XL halo seat, I thought I might also get an OMP WRC-R XL, which is basically the same seat with no halo. Then I could use that as the passenger seat on the track (for when I have an instructor), and swap them to drive in the WRC-R on the street.

But, after driving around for several days on the street in the halo seat, I decided that I LOVE it. And the halo is really no big deal on the street, given that the car is definitely not a daily driver.

So then, I thought I might just keep the Corbeau LG1 passenger seat. But I really wanted another high-back seat like the OMP, and really wanted another OMP. But, to accommodate the broadest range of passenger body types, I wanted an XL seat, and OMP only sells a couple of styles XL track buckets.

And this probably won't pass tech inspection at the track...



Then I stumbled upon the OMP "Style" tuner seat. A nice, affordable, high back, supportive, reclining tuner seat, that compliments the race seat, and will fit more body type / size passengers than any bucket seat. And is 6-point harness ready. Sold.

Ordered last week from RacingSeatsUSA.com, and it arrived today.



These are REALLY nice. Not as "cushy" as my Corbeaus, but plenty comfortable. A nice combination of "airtec" fabric and microsuede. Looks pretty. Micro-adjustable reclining mechanism. Integral slots for shoulder harnesses and anti-submarine belt(s). Tubular steel frame, much lighter than an OEM seat. Made in China, but nice.

I decided to rob the OEM sliders off my original Blimey cabrio passenger seat. Just had to fab some simple brackets to attach the seat to the sliders, and to raise it up and tilt it a bit. Made these from a couple of 3/16" steel straps from the hardware store, cut, bent and drilled to mate the seat bolt arrangement to the sliders. Worked great, first try.





I think the pair looks fantastic. Now I can sell the Corbeaus. I think I already have a buyer lined up...