NASA at TWS - Nov 26-27

Not much action in this thread as of late, so here's a few videos to keep things alive.

Saturday morning in the rain. Yeah, it sucked.
http://vimeo.com/32789074

Sunday before lunch - good game of chase with the 711 TTE Miata that was 2nd in points with NASA TX. The first of the 2:08:49's was in this session.

http://vimeo.com/32812220

Sunday after lunch - the track had cooled off quite a bit during the lunch break. A 2:08:52 and a 2:08:49 back to back.

http://vimeo.com/32801619

Didn't have a ton of confidence in tire grip to carry mid corner speed (everything felt vague and the car needs corner balanced after all the recent surgery) and I'm still getting used to the new brake compounds but the added power (+11hp/+8tq), reduced weight (3360 -> 2182), and a tail wind certainly helped. This is a speed trace from the data analysis tool. Need bigger cajones to cross the transition at 110+.

[IMG]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6...50c55fc9_b.jpg data_compare by clkearns, on Flickr[/IMG]

Get some of those fancy Dutch shocks and you won't mind the transition at speed, that's one of my favorite corners going CW. There is a ton of grip in the next two right-handers and you can make up a ton of time with bravery...one of the few places where I'm brave on this track.

Yeah... It's only money to replace a pretty good coilover package with one that's better. I think my biggest problem was with air pressure and a lack of confidence in a couple of key corners.

Found the welds on the header flange cracked on Friday and ran anyway. Cracks grew over the weekend and I'm pretty sure I was blowing fireballs under the car on Sunday afternoon. I think my header is one of the ones that was too short and put the whole exhaust system in tension and cracked both weld joints on the muffler too. :( Looking at a pimpy stahl header replacement and to make it up to the exhaust with a short section of that webbed flex pipe and some vbands.

And the wideband controller is going into calibration mode if I let the o2 sensor go through a full heat cycle before starting the car. Swapped the sensor for a new one and same result.

I'm a bit glad I've got a couple months down to sort this stuff out.

Reset and recalibrate the WB controller. Are you getting an error code? What is your power-source for the controller? If your power source switches off during cranking it can cause problems with the controller.

I feel pretty manly in every corner going CW, its CCW where I'm afraid all the time.

Nice driving Chris. Thanks for posting those vids.

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Originally Posted by mr brg

Reset and recalibrate the WB controller. Are you getting an error code? What is your power-source for the controller? If your power source switches off during cranking it can cause problems with the controller.

I feel pretty manly in every corner going CW, its CCW where I'm afraid all the time.

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I think the next step will be to reflash the WB controller firmware and see if there's a change in behavior. The light's don't look to be throwing an error code (the delay isn't 2 seconds), but if it were an error code it would be Error 2: WB Heater Open Circuit. Swapped the sensor with a brandy new one and there's no change.

Everything works properly provided I don't let the WB sensor run through the full heat cycle before starting the car.
Key to ACC-2 > FP On > WB Heater start > FP Off > WB Heater complete > Start > WB goes into Calibration Mode
<Perform free air calibration to recover> (Can start from the step where you reconnect the sensor to the controller or from the sensor disconnect step, and the results are identical)
Key to ACC-2 > FP On > WB Heater start > FP Off > Start > WB Heater complete > Everything is normal

Controller 12v is coming from an unused 15A fused circuit on the interior fuse block that's switched on accessory 2 from the ignition switch. It's the only thing on that power circuit. Tried running it from the switched 12v under the hood (where it used to run) and got the same result. I believe both power sources drop to 5v during engine crank.

The good news is that there's 2 weeks left on the LC-1 warranty.

Was it wet all day on Saturday?

The bottom half of the track dried out pretty well for the final session, but it stayed really slimy around the top in turns 4 through 9. Turns 4, 6, and 9 in particular never really had grip levels come back up and were collecting cars in every run group.

I didn't put the NT01's on the car until Sunday morning.

Chris

Your car sounds cool, Chris. lines look good. There is definitely alot of time to make up in braking and cornering for your car.

At the ChumpCar event this past april, we were running 2:09's in a 200,000 mile stock 1.8 miata on star specs on a windy and dirty track.

I'm going to miss that track when it's gone next year.

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Originally Posted by mr brg

i'm going to miss that track when it's gone next year.

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gone???

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Originally Posted by NC Eunos

gone???

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The property has a fo sale sign posted along the highway. I think the current owners want to flip it and turn it into suburban sprawl.

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Originally Posted by johnwag

Your car sounds cool, Chris. lines look good. There is definitely alot of time to make up in braking and cornering for your car.

At the ChumpCar event this past april, we were running 2:09's in a 200,000 mile stock 1.8 miata on star specs on a windy and dirty track.

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Admittedly, I am a big :cat:. I think the car is capable of mid 2:05's in current form, but I'm not good or fearless enough to get there yet.

I'm going to build a box around the microphone to keep the wind off it. Wind noise is aggravating. There's no wind proof place to hide things under the dash now that it's been cut up and the rest of the under-dash equipment has been stripped. A bit of foam core and some tape is all that's needed for that.

Spoke to Adam at Innovate yesterday and his recommendation is to add an additional chassis ground (splice in and add a pigtail to connect the existing ground wires to the tub as well) to the sensor and controller grounds that run up to the motor. The thought is that there's some voltage flooding the grounds under cranking and that's putting the controller into calibration. With 11 pounds of wire coming out of the car with this last round of surgery, I can't help but think the grounding system overall was impacted. I'll do that this weekend.

Trey - which fancy dutch shocks are you running and what does your overall suspension package look like? AST's, Xida-CS, Xida-S, ???, and if your car was a track only car with no road miles would you be running the same setup?

I'm liking the spherical uppers on aluminum mounts rather than pillow balls on steel along with the tender spring.

I think I need to take out a quarter inch of ride height to get more camber in the car as well.

Need to get all this planned rather quickly as the lead time on everything is a month.

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Originally Posted by ckearns

The property has a fo sale sign posted along the highway. I think the current owners want to flip it and turn it into suburban sprawl.

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The city wants to turn it into housing, the owner somehow overvalued the property to get a loan which they cannot pay now...or that's the word on the street. College Station seems to want this land pretty bad even though it was there before Chipotle.

So, if you plan to build a track, do it out in the middle of nowhere...wait, build it on the moon.

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Originally Posted by ckearns

Admittedly, I am a big :cat:. I think the car is capable of mid 2:05's in current form, but I'm not good or fearless enough to get there yet.

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I have no shame, TWS is scary.

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Originally Posted by ckearns

Spoke to Adam at Innovate yesterday and his recommendation is to add an additional chassis ground (splice in and add a pigtail to connect the existing ground wires to the tub as well) to the sensor and controller grounds that run up to the motor. The thought is that there's some voltage flooding the grounds under cranking and that's putting the controller into calibration. With 11 pounds of wire coming out of the car with this last round of surgery, I can't help but think the grounding system overall was impacted. I'll do that this weekend.

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I had a spark problem once so I ran three 8AWG wires from the engine to the body and the blow-out went away.

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Originally Posted by ckearns

Trey - which fancy dutch shocks are you running and what does your overall suspension package look like? AST's, Xida-CS, Xida-S, ???, and if your car was a track only car with no road miles would you be running the same setup?

I'm liking the spherical uppers on aluminum mounts rather than pillow balls on steel along with the tender spring.

I think I need to take out a quarter inch of ride height to get more camber in the car as well.

Need to get all this planned rather quickly as the lead time on everything is a month.

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I wish I had Xidas because the rear shock set-up I have lacks two key features. I have old-school AST 5100s; 700/400 springs; RB front bar (AWR mounts); FM rear bar; poly bushings; I run 2.75*f camber, 2.5* r camber, 3.5 caster, 1/16 tow in on the rear, and I run the car super low, 3.9" front, 4.25" rear (corner balanced so those heights are approximate). The car drives itself, no BS.

I think AST can get you spherical uppers, like what I have. However, those uppers will cost you about .75" of travel at the shock from blocking, but I'm not sure if this matters with a 400lb rear spring. You want the dual-spring set-up but may need a shorter spring to fit it, there is no way I can use a dual spring in the rear on my car. I run the 700/400lb spring and might go up in spring rate if I added aero and sticky rubbers but I'm approaching the land of over-sprungness with 800/450lb springs. My green car is more comfortable on the street than my daily, even on rhythmics bumps, but I never considered this when I asked for 700/400 which every sinle person told me was a mistake aside from AST.

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Originally Posted by mr brg

I think AST can get you spherical uppers, like what I have. However, those uppers will cost you about .75" of travel at the shock from blocking, but I'm not sure if this matters with a 400lb rear spring. You want the dual-spring set-up but may need a shorter spring to fit it, there is no way I can use a dual spring in the rear on my car. I run the 700/400lb spring and might go up in spring rate if I added aero and sticky rubbers but I'm approaching the land of over-sprungness with 800/450lb springs. My green car is more comfortable on the street than my daily, even on rhythmics bumps, but I never considered this when I asked for 700/400 which every sinle person told me was a mistake aside from AST.

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The AST spherical upper mounts were redesigned this year by Brian@AST. They have more travel than the sets that you and Jeff have. All of Emilio's kits have the updated design, as far as I know.
You can run a tender in the rear, but you'll need a 5" main spring, IIRC.
The ride quality is in the valving.

Just wait til next year when they release kits with the new DD pistons. It'll be amazing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnwag

Just wait til next year when they release kits with the new DD pistons. It'll be amazing.

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Any advanced literature or discussion thread I can lay eyes on? Are these the cartridges for the new xx50 models I saw mention of somewhere sometime? (My old man memory dump valve has opened a few times, so I can't remember diddly other than that there was an upcoming model number change.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnwag

The AST spherical upper mounts were redesigned this year by Brian@AST. They have more travel than the sets that you and Jeff have. All of Emilio's kits have the updated design, as far as I know.
You can run a tender in the rear, but you'll need a 5" main spring, IIRC.
The ride quality is in the valving.

Just wait til next year when they release kits with the new DD pistons. It'll be amazing.

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http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-conte...mind_blown.gif

Terry Fair at Vorshlag put a set of the new DDP equipped AST's on their test Mustang.

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We also got to try out some brand new shock pistons from AST - their new Double Digressive Pistons, or DDPs, were installed into our 4100 front struts a few weeks ago. We have Moton Clubsport doubles ready to install for this car but have been waiting to try the DDP equipped (and renamed) 4150 AST shocks at both autocross and track events first, before we switch to the Mo's.

I'm glad we waited! These DDP pistons are amazing - they ride even better on the street than before, but when you turn up the knobs they make some SERIOUS rebound forces. This piston is a game changer, and starting in 2012 all 4000 series ASTs will have these pistons (and a new shock name). Be prepared for a slight price increase on the AST 4000 series on Jan 1st 2012 - but the added costs will include these DDP pistons, improved top guides, upgraded seals, aluminum shock bodies, and several other innovations - all things learned from racing in GRAND AM in 2011 (where ASTs took 28 of the 30 podium positions in GS for the year!). The new 4150 is coming soon...

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http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Product-...0/L/scan-L.jpg

Yep. It's gonna be really nice. Haven't had a chance to drive on them, yet.

If you guys are looking for a test mule, lemme know... I'll give you a ride. :D