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TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
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5,245
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10-20 Years
Illinois
Paddy

Good to see you have gotten over the German invasion. LOL

Did I tell you about the time we had a guy show up at the local track with a Boxter. He placed cones around his car to keep folks back. They sure did work, no one talked to the jerk all day.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Anyhow, got a lil' facelift, she got a lil' work done and all that. So many things going on last minute both with the car and personal that the last week went by in a big blur. Instead of being white and some other mix of colors, got a red/white/blue and black/blue wrap to be a little different.

1601939738943.png

First two days out on the Toyo RR, think I've got the pressure just about right, and despite being 105+ for both days, got it almost into the 1:50's (1:51.029) which I somewhat expected with these tires being slow from just about everybody I've talked to. So not that I wasn't listening to the others, but yeah, from my unprofessional amateur opinion, they're certainly not anywhere close to a Pirelli DH/DHS slick, or even a Hoosier A7/R7, much closer to a Nitto NT01, an old and slow 100TW. We'll see how they continue at Buttonwillow this upcoming weekend, where I had the car previously with NT01's to see what the comparison is like. I got them for just under $400/ea, so if they last and perform just as good as Nitto NT01, I'd probably stick with them, as they're just a touch over $300, or keep accumulating scrub slicks which tend to be $125-150/tire with shipping figured in. Weekend went by too quickly, was doing lead/follow with 5 on Saturday, and more time on Sunday to play with things, I found another second or so from Saturday's times, but think I've had enough trailing throttle oversteer for a while, really hot out nearing the end of it. First time in I can't remember when that I actually had the slowest car of the bunch, they gave me all the HP monsters, like a 1000hp+ Hellcat, and the slowest I think was a C7 Z06. Felt kinda bad taking them around 5-6/10ths, but I was being limited by the groups before us. Couldn't trust the speedo or GPS on some segments, one pass said I was doing like 165mph, which on 315/30/18's in a MT82-D4's 4th 1:1 and 3.55's is almost mathematically impossible, and felt more like the 150 that I was used to. I need to stop playing with so damn much and keep the car consistent as a control for a bit while I play with approach and dialing in the MCS suspension.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
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Under 3 Years
San Diego
Paddy

Good to see you have gotten over the German invasion. LOL

Did I tell you about the time we had a guy show up at the local track with a Boxter. He placed cones around his car to keep folks back. They sure did work, no one talked to the jerk all day.
😂
I'll be sure to bring some with me for the next time out.
 
Anyhow, got a lil' facelift, she got a lil' work done and all that. So many things going on last minute both with the car and personal that the last week went by in a big blur. Instead of being white and some other mix of colors, got a red/white/blue and black/blue wrap to be a little different.

View attachment 58750

First two days out on the Toyo RR, think I've got the pressure just about right, and despite being 105+ for both days, got it almost into the 1:50's (1:51.029) which I somewhat expected with these tires being slow from just about everybody I've talked to. So not that I wasn't listening to the others, but yeah, from my unprofessional amateur opinion, they're certainly not anywhere close to a Pirelli DH/DHS slick, or even a Hoosier A7/R7, much closer to a Nitto NT01, an old and slow 100TW. We'll see how they continue at Buttonwillow this upcoming weekend, where I had the car previously with NT01's to see what the comparison is like. I got them for just under $400/ea, so if they last and perform just as good as Nitto NT01, I'd probably stick with them, as they're just a touch over $300, or keep accumulating scrub slicks which tend to be $125-150/tire with shipping figured in. Weekend went by too quickly, was doing lead/follow with 5 on Saturday, and more time on Sunday to play with things, I found another second or so from Saturday's times, but think I've had enough trailing throttle oversteer for a while, really hot out nearing the end of it. First time in I can't remember when that I actually had the slowest car of the bunch, they gave me all the HP monsters, like a 1000hp+ Hellcat, and the slowest I think was a C7 Z06. Felt kinda bad taking them around 5-6/10ths, but I was being limited by the groups before us. Couldn't trust the speedo or GPS on some segments, one pass said I was doing like 165mph, which on 315/30/18's in a MT82-D4's 4th 1:1 and 3.55's is almost mathematically impossible, and felt more like the 150 that I was used to. I need to stop playing with so damn much and keep the car consistent as a control for a bit while I play with approach and dialing in the MCS suspension.


Tease, we need some pics!
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
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Why arent u going to WWR For help with the mcs tuning?
I'm fully capable of turning these here knobs :) Just need more seat time and less dickheads blocking me when I'm trying to test the setups. I had 3 days at Buttonwillow with a complete day to myself on the Friday and think I've got it pretty good there, but it's completely different for Auto Club, which is mostly flat other than that big NASCAR 14 degree banked turn. I'm pretty sure I've got the rebound up too high, because with it like that and the 800/1100# springs, I'm bouncing going through the 10-11 chicane. Shitty part is there isn't much value left in me going to Auto Club with them 99.44% destroying it in March. Only a few events left, and I'm told that they're not taking/making any reservations for January or February, so my December date there could be my last.
#fuckNASCAR
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
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San Diego
I think with this being the 4th weekend that the stripper has been out, this was the coolest at mid-80s. I mean, it's f'n October, in the North, we'd normally be getting snow in the next 30 or so days.
I need to stop typing all of this stuff up on the phone. Geez. Screw you, autocorrect.
So, let's see, loaded up and headed over late Friday night, and got to the track nice and early Saturday, unloaded, tech'd, and asked for a more in-depth inspection for competition next year. Pretty much everything but the fire system was in order, minor things like I've got my anti-submarine bolting into the same spot that my lap belts are on, need to switch the clip to something with a locking pin, drill some small holes to help inspectors, and a center net so I don't go flying. No surprises there. They again didn't have the dyno, but with a half tank, I tipped the scales at 3599. I think I said it before, but the only real nag I have with NASA is that they run HPDE3 (point) and 4 (no-point) on the same session, and moreso than other groups, there are a bunch of different car and talent swings on the track at one time. When was the last time you saw a train of cars behind a Viper ACR? Behind.

I'd like to think that running the course in the counter clockwise was almost more of a deterrent as you'd recognize some of the sections and set-up then realizing it's completely backwards. That, or perhaps either I suck, or just now realizing that I'm dyslexic. Plenty of offs and yellow flags though, and with that traffic it was hard to get some clean laps in. I'm certain that there is plenty left in the car, and I was sloppy in parts, but could only muster a 2:04. For reference, the AI Race that @Don Lariviere won on Saturday was 5 seconds faster on the same tire. I did have some fun as Will Wattawongkiri was out with some of the usual suspects and we had some fun ripping through whenever traffic would allow us to do so. Still surprised that this lil' piece of crap can keep on the heels of something like the GT3RS. Not saying he was going 10/10ths, but wasn't exactly Sunday driving it, and that thing moves, couldn't be stock, and since he owns a shop, shouldn't be stock.

Sunday was the CCW25 configuration, which cuts out the bus stop and goes for the dog leg, which if you take the riverside sweeper will exit you onto that back stretch and let you get up to a real high rate of speed, which is equal parts fun and scary as you enter grapevine, and more often than not, you can catch some air right where you'd normally want to brake. Cotton Corners is fun as you enter it somewhat blindly, and then come into the I-5 which is a fun turn, given the danger if you mess up, and there were a few cars that left the track and got airborne. I got a little greedy myself in one section and had a 4 wheel off, but my fault for not fully warming up the brakes. Looking back, I should have done a long street brake coming into Grapevine on the outlap. I was making minor changes to the adjustables and on my 3rd session I was able to get a 2:05.7, which I am somewhat happy with, but I know there's more there and if I put on a front splitter and rear defuser, I'll have more confidence to take it even deeper, there are two seconds there, easily. I know I take Phil Hill wrong, a bad combination of overbraking, and not carrying enough speed out of it, used to the orientation of it in CW where I'd come right into the apex and shift through it. I left probably 10mph in Riverside, trying to get the timing and a visual to start straightening off and making my exit. I don't apex late enough out of I-5 to get straight enough for a good exit, and I'll likely see even more mistakes when I take to the data and video tonight someitme.

The day ended on a sour note though, a few weeks back I sold my shift boot to somebody, and that somewhat disabled my reverse lockout, and to me, feels like it slightly altered the shift path. 3rd is yes, still up, 4th is still down, but 5th seems harder to get into, visibly evident in my ACS videos where I'm trying to feel that out, and in not wanting to bend shift forks, I just kinda give up because I'm coming into 1 at 145-150 and lost whatever benefit the extra 5-10 on the tail of the straight would have gotten me. Not that I hit 5th at Buttonwillow, or on track, 1st and 2nd, but they too are slightly tougher since I could partially go down the horizontal path for reverse. It's been a somewhat common complaint by the MT82 and MT82-D4 crowd that some combination of the shifter and the clutch suck, and while I tend to not be a bandwagoner, it's pretty clearly evident.

On my 3rd session, something in the clutch assembly died on me. I was still able to shift, so the transmission wasn't blown, and the engine was holding just fine, but this noisy video is the result. I'm not usually all that serious on Instagram, but the problem certainly was.

http://instagr.am/p/CGN__eZFGYJ/
And to be honest, I think I kinda knew it was. After that 2nd session, I took an extended cruise around the pits, making slight changes to the throttle, various levels of clutch application, and the noise would increase, didn't matter if I was in a gear or not. I thought about putting it back on the trailer, but people were starting to leave, and after sitting in the trees and watching people take that I-5, I thought I could better replicate their ways, and shaving 1.2 seconds off the previous session's best was a sign I was right.

It sounds like I'm complaining, and with most posts I make here, you'd probably be right, but it was a good weekend, hung out with the guys, put some names to faces (Hi Eric!), made some new friends, got help towing it back onto the trailer, and best of all, met two guys named Carlos.
 
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PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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I want to say that on Saturday night that I told somebody the Stripper's legacy of breaking parts streak was over.

giphy-downsized-large.gif


One day, I'm going to look back at all this and laugh. I'll be broke by then, but it'll be a good, hearty laugh.
 
82
145
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Los Angeles
I also have full Cortex susp and decent aero, that will make up 5 seconds a lap pretty quick. Although I'm running a lowly 3V with 308 ft-lbs of torque...

25CCW is always exciting, with Riverside only a 90 degree turn it's a lot faster and I was hitting 145 into the braking zone of Grapevine. I should have brought a new set of tires, might have done better on Sunday!
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
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I also have full Cortex susp and decent aero, that will make up 5 seconds a lap pretty quick. Although I'm running a lowly 3V with 308 ft-lbs of torque...

25CCW is always exciting, with Riverside only a 90 degree turn it's a lot faster and I was hitting 145 into the braking zone of Grapevine. I should have brought a new set of tires, might have done better on Sunday!

I just shattered the screen of my phone so it's partially inoperable, so I can no longer see Track Addict's data, but I was 140 coming in. Question for you is, about when do you get on the brakes coming into that Grapevine 90, and are you threshold or trail into it? I'm reading it as a type 3 into the cotton corners, so exit speed isn't a huge priority, but coming into that with speed and potentially catching air just after the ribbon on the right starts had me guessing. Is that hop as much of a problem for you with the aero, and are you running something more than a 0 degree AoA?
 
82
145
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Los Angeles
I was on the rev limiter in 4th for about 4 car lengths before braking into Grapevine, about 145-150. I started threshold braking half way down the curbing on the right side, then relieved pressure over the hump and back on as the car settled for a split second, then turned in and back on the power up to cotton corners. I kept working on going deeper with the braking, but the hump really messes up the braking zone, and you can turn in pretty early for Grapevine and really get on the power up the short hill to Cotton.
I'm currently running 5 degrees on the AJ rear wing.

Biggest thing you can do to help with Riverside, and mustangs in general, is to keep the air from getting under the car with a splitter and vent the hood to get what's there out. Riverside is much easier once you do that! Like I said at the track the vented hood is worth almost 2 seconds a lap there with a splitter. I damaged a vented hood I had and put the stock one on for a race and I was about 2 seconds a lap slower due to high speed push.
 
82
145
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Los Angeles
To more clearly answer the question I guess - I brake a little earlier than I would if the hump wasn't there and turn in early and use the power up the hill to finish rotating the car.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
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Exp. Type
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San Diego
I was on the rev limiter in 4th for about 4 car lengths before braking into Grapevine, about 145-150. I started threshold braking half way down the curbing on the right side, then relieved pressure over the hump and back on as the car settled for a split second, then turned in and back on the power up to cotton corners. I kept working on going deeper with the braking, but the hump really messes up the braking zone, and you can turn in pretty early for Grapevine and really get on the power up the short hill to Cotton.
I'm currently running 5 degrees on the AJ rear wing.

Biggest thing you can do to help with Riverside, and mustangs in general, is to keep the air from getting under the car with a splitter and vent the hood to get what's there out. Riverside is much easier once you do that! Like I said at the track the vented hood is worth almost 2 seconds a lap there with a splitter. I damaged a vented hood I had and put the stock one on for a race and I was about 2 seconds a lap slower due to high speed push.
Awesome, thanks for the help. I've been putting that stuff off, but might as well take a lil' downtime now and address some of those needs a little better.
 
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Sorry to hear that Sunday was a bit of a drag - so glad it’s the clutch and not internal engine. Sounds like an Exedy hyper-single and MGW shifter are on deck??? Back together for ACS on Nov 7&8?
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Sorry to hear that Sunday was a bit of a drag - so glad it’s the clutch and not internal engine. Sounds like an Exedy hyper-single and MGW shifter are on deck??? Back together for ACS on Nov 7&8?
I've heard great things about that combo, so might as well. I was considering going back to BW for this weekend, but I guess I lucked out not plunking down, and was looking forward to Willow Springs with the Cobra Owners Club (COCOA) for 24-25, but oh well.

I've heard some rumors that the California Historical Preservation Society has a Request for Quote out to convert Big Willow into Little Willow, because of that lucrative Rosamond real estate affordable housing / trailer park market is set to boom with the second coming of Hoovervilles. I believe turn 5 will just meet up with that straight that starts right after turn 1.
I'm so f***ing joking. If that was the case, I'd just sit at home and just cheese grater expensive tires.
 
1,161
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5-10 Years
SoCal
I've heard some rumors that the California Historical Preservation Society has a Request for Quote out to convert Big Willow into Little Willow, because of that lucrative Rosamond real estate affordable housing / trailer park market is set to boom with the second coming of Hoovervilles. I believe turn 5 will just meet up with that straight that starts right after turn 1.

Dang it - I was hoping they would get rid of the uphill section and make another oval track using 8 & 9. Besides, who doesn’t want a hillside lot with a view of the track - right next to the Budweiser pavilion?? Paradise.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
Exp. Type
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Under 3 Years
San Diego
Had ordered a Clutch, Pressure Plate, Flywheel, and Slave to find out that the flywheel is on national backorder until the 2nd week of November from one dealership, end of November from the other. Found a Clutch + Pressure Plate semi local for $400, so the plan for the time being is to jack that sucker up as far as my non-recalled Harbor Freight stands will let me go, and see if I can't get that stuff off. I'll check the Flywheel, and if necessary, get it resurfaced. I was hoping to just get one since they're only ~ $250, and just take all the old out and put in the new and call it a day, but might as well take a little more time and save some cash.

There isn't much of an aftermarket for these yet as the 2018+ MT82-D4 went to a 9.5" twin disc clutch and a dual mass flywheel. I don't know enough about the technology to say whether that makes the 18+ transmission better, but it seems to decrease the aftermarket players and increase the costs. In talking with McLeod, for their Mag Force SE (Street Edition) they want me to use a 11-17 slave with their kit, so that's another $175 out of my pocket to complete the package. I did some research on the Mantec and stumbled upon a few videos and threads about some earlier horror stories and one guy who had to install/re-install it four (4) times. I'm happy that Mantec was supporting and working with them throughout the process, but at the same time, I don't have the time and skill to perform QA for free, especially when it's a $2300 product.

Now is zeh time on Schrockets vhen we vait und do noshink!

sprockets.gif
 
118
155
MD
After 2 stock clutches, I moved to an exedy mach with their lightened flywheel. No complaints with 2 years, ~25 track days, 7k+ shifts, and ~10k miles. Not sure if you've checked the master cyl yet but friction material dust from the blown clutch can run up the clutch line, go into the master cyl reservoir, and hurt it. The dust from my 2nd blown clutch caused my master cyl to fail. Initial pedal pressure was fine but it wouldn't hold pressure and slowly go to the floor. Switched to a PP master cyl after doing the clutch. If doing it again, would use the auto trans PP master cyl without the clutch bung and run a separate reservoir for clutch fluid.

GL on getting it back up before season ends. Prob have a longer season than us east coasters. Woke up to 40* mornings at VIR this weekend.
 

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