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PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Was that the gt4 mustang u passed in the first video i always see videos of there
Yeah, it was the same one from earlier. I'm guessing it to be a newer driver or them trying to sort out some other issues, but I don't recall their pace. I'd expect that car to be in the mid 40's just waxing everybody.
 
82
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I didn't see you when I went off, so no issue there! :p It was pretty much the 3 year old Pirellis I was on that I have a stack of. Just burning them up getting comfortable with the car, but they don't put the power down at all! I have a few new sets on the way, and some Hoosiers to try too.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
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So, pumped up to 37 hot-ish, dialed the wing up as high as it went for understeer city, and pretty much mashed it in the straights, and coasted to the turns. Spinning sideways in every turn above 50mph, spinning down the straights, but pulled out like a 1:59.x which was
You sure your Diff is fine ? Sounds like it's opening when loaded and in a turn.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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You sure your Diff is fine ? Sounds like it's opening when loaded and in a turn.
I'm hoping it was just tires being well past their useful life. Live by the race tire, die by the race tire?

Speaking of said race tire... I have all of perhaps 1000 feet on this tire. Good news is these are only good for all of like 8 heat cycles.

1621690427790.png

So I guess this problem will only bother me for like, 2 track days.

Oh well, at least it looks semi good here at Willow Springs.

20210521_180318.jpg
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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After this past weekend, definitely not the diff, it was the tires being pushed far beyond their expiration point. Pretty much didn't touch a thing, put on the same tires, same MCS compression/rebound settings, slightly raised the pressure as Hoosier recommends running higher than you'd normally think, and set a PB on a slightly cooler than expected Saturday session. 3rd session of the day was going to be me dialing up the wing and sending it, but couldn't find the f'n card to get into grid, so didn't go out, and didn't do a 4th either, figured nothing to gain. Looking back, wish I went out the 3rd session, so many people gained a second or two, ones that I was comfortably ahead of, so I'm going to guess there was a tailwind pushing people down the straight and up the hill. Dammit. Sunday I only did a couple of sessions as well, much hotter early on, and very few improved from their Saturday showing.

Got to watch then Enduro on Friday, pick Don's brain for much of Saturday and Sunday about Camaros (of all things, right?), and spend some time with Tom, Bryce, Kevin, Hanno, some of my TT1 buds, and some of the TT2/TT3 Mustang guys that apparently I and Tom scared off into Spec 944's, which is now apparently the new hotness in NASA SoCal after dying off in AZ and Texas regions, go figure.

But I guess technically I get to cross off another one of my car build's goals, taking first in TT2 both days. ... because I was the only one in TT2 : (

I guess it really does take a village, couldn't have done it without so many of you helping and encouraging me all throughout. Obviously not done yet, plenty more to do, right now stuck thinking about what to do with the July/August/September break so I can finish the season out strong, and then think about next year, whether to cut more weight and add power to move up to TT1 which was 8 strong last weekend, and I'm already sitting mid-pack of, or keep beefing up and go W2W with this in a really strong ST2 group which is generally 5-6ish. Food for another day's thought.

20210523_094448.jpg20210523_094900.jpg
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
After this past weekend, definitely not the diff, it was the tires being pushed far beyond their expiration point. Pretty much didn't touch a thing, put on the same tires, same MCS compression/rebound settings, slightly raised the pressure as Hoosier recommends running higher than you'd normally think, and set a PB on a slightly cooler than expected Saturday session. 3rd session of the day was going to be me dialing up the wing and sending it, but couldn't find the f'n card to get into grid, so didn't go out, and didn't do a 4th either, figured nothing to gain. Looking back, wish I went out the 3rd session, so many people gained a second or two, ones that I was comfortably ahead of, so I'm going to guess there was a tailwind pushing people down the straight and up the hill. Dammit. Sunday I only did a couple of sessions as well, much hotter early on, and very few improved from their Saturday showing.

Got to watch then Enduro on Friday, pick Don's brain for much of Saturday and Sunday about Camaros (of all things, right?), and spend some time with Tom, Bryce, Kevin, Hanno, some of my TT1 buds, and some of the TT2/TT3 Mustang guys that apparently I and Tom scared off into Spec 944's, which is now apparently the new hotness in NASA SoCal after dying off in AZ and Texas regions, go figure.

But I guess technically I get to cross off another one of my car build's goals, taking first in TT2 both days. ... because I was the only one in TT2 : (

I guess it really does take a village, couldn't have done it without so many of you helping and encouraging me all throughout. Obviously not done yet, plenty more to do, right now stuck thinking about what to do with the July/August/September break so I can finish the season out strong, and then think about next year, whether to cut more weight and add power to move up to TT1 which was 8 strong last weekend, and I'm already sitting mid-pack of, or keep beefing up and go W2W with this in a really strong ST2 group which is generally 5-6ish. Food for another day's thought.

View attachment 65436View attachment 65437
Congrats!
 
539
687
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3-5 Years
SoCal
After this past weekend, definitely not the diff, it was the tires being pushed far beyond their expiration point. Pretty much didn't touch a thing, put on the same tires, same MCS compression/rebound settings, slightly raised the pressure as Hoosier recommends running higher than you'd normally think, and set a PB on a slightly cooler than expected Saturday session. 3rd session of the day was going to be me dialing up the wing and sending it, but couldn't find the f'n card to get into grid, so didn't go out, and didn't do a 4th either, figured nothing to gain. Looking back, wish I went out the 3rd session, so many people gained a second or two, ones that I was comfortably ahead of, so I'm going to guess there was a tailwind pushing people down the straight and up the hill. Dammit. Sunday I only did a couple of sessions as well, much hotter early on, and very few improved from their Saturday showing.

Got to watch then Enduro on Friday, pick Don's brain for much of Saturday and Sunday about Camaros (of all things, right?), and spend some time with Tom, Bryce, Kevin, Hanno, some of my TT1 buds, and some of the TT2/TT3 Mustang guys that apparently I and Tom scared off into Spec 944's, which is now apparently the new hotness in NASA SoCal after dying off in AZ and Texas regions, go figure.

But I guess technically I get to cross off another one of my car build's goals, taking first in TT2 both days. ... because I was the only one in TT2 : (

I guess it really does take a village, couldn't have done it without so many of you helping and encouraging me all throughout. Obviously not done yet, plenty more to do, right now stuck thinking about what to do with the July/August/September break so I can finish the season out strong, and then think about next year, whether to cut more weight and add power to move up to TT1 which was 8 strong last weekend, and I'm already sitting mid-pack of, or keep beefing up and go W2W with this in a really strong ST2 group which is generally 5-6ish. Food for another day's thought.

View attachment 65436View attachment 65437
Congrats Patrick! 🥳 Double 1st place...goals right there!
 
343
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I guess it really does take a village, couldn't have done it without so many of you helping and encouraging me all throughout. Obviously not done yet, plenty more to do, right now stuck thinking about what to do with the July/August/September break so I can finish the season out strong, and then think about next year, whether to cut more weight and add power to move up to TT1 which was 8 strong last weekend, and I'm already sitting mid-pack of, or keep beefing up and go W2W with this in a really strong ST2 group which is generally 5-6ish. Food for another day's thought.

Congrats it's always nice to see the car beginning to perform and take 1st places :) Nice job.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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So, went out last weekend with Speed Ventures to do a lil' instructing and get some more seat time before NASA's last race at ACS.

Saturday, had fun with the Spec Corvette guys which they say are comfortable in the ST2 class.

Well, then I guess so am I.

Sunday did some lead/follow, and then on the 2nd session, had a great predictive showing, and went for it on the dotless Pirelli's, and while I seldom grab 2nd gear coming out of turn 9, decided why not... and then ... yeah, coasted and got to test out how well my ZL1 Addons front tow hook works. It does the job, in case you were wondering.

So yeah, the car won't start, dammit. No codes are thrown, so flying blind without a proper reader, I guessed the fuel pump, so bought one of those, tossed it in, same problem. Cancelled my U-Haul trailer rental for the weekend, and then on my PTO'd Friday decided why not give the FPCM a try, ran up to San Bernardino and got caught in traffic, and pulled a favor from a buddy to borrow his trailer should it work, so I could make it up for a really late check-in and still make Saturday's action. Yeah, no, still dead. Defeated, I drove all the way back up to return the trailer, hang with the homies for a bit at the track, and @67GTA was nice enough to let me borrow a OBD<->USB cable so I could run Forscan.

Forscan wasn't able to figure out what it was talking to because I'm guessing the tune changes something related to the PCM. Flashed the car back to stock, then started Forscan again, which found it. Went through all the DTC's which were all knowns, like missing airbags in the RCM, missing o2 sensors, and steering wheel thingies gone. Decided it was a bad idea trying to start my e85'd car up with the stock tune, so put the tune back on, and Forscan couldn't initially identify it, but when loading up a previous profile, it seems to somehow talk just fine. Must be something in their identification logic, perhaps useful for somebody else in a similar situation, and with a free program, I'm not going to complain any.

Found some of the fuel related items in the PCM, and did a quick fire, and looks like we've got our bad guy, the high pressure fuel pump.

1623614255519.png

The fuel pump turns on, the high pressure demand is 18kPa, and it slowly builds up which I guess is something of a timeout as it's much slower than expected, so it throws the fault before further it lets me start and further damage the engine. Don't believe it to be the low, because the scaling is messed up relative to the number, but it always exceeded the demand by about 10%.

Still, really bummed I couldn't make the event, ran last weekend times that'd have me in the race for an overall podium. As much as I'd like to think that I'll get them next time, with NASCAR doing what they did to Phoenix, there's a greater chance of me joining NSYNC, and I'm nowhere as dashing as I was in 1998.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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How much HP does the S550 motor make with E85?
Hard to say. Most of the people I know with larger numbers are using a power adder and don't put the abuse through it as a road racer would, lap after lap. That's partially why I'm stock with exception of my longtube headers, and I believe Ale is that plus a cold air intake, which has us at 465 and 480rwhp, respectively. As I've chosen to cut down on some weight, at 3600, I'm at class limit with that power level if I want to run Hoosiers, but if I run RR's or another 100+ TW tire (A052, 3R), I can take it up to 514rwhp, which I think we could get with porting the heads and intake manifold, perhaps and a mild/wild cam.

I've got ideas of going up to TT1 as the NASA SoCal chapter consistently has has 5-6 which would mean that I could qualify for some tire contingencies to make it more affordable. Considering I'm usually right around their podium as it stands, adding another 50-75rwhp and dropping another hundred or so would only further increase my chances, hopefully not at the expense of reliability.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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I changed the Fuel Pump.
I changed the FPCM.
I changed the High Pressure Fuel Pump.
I tried to change the Fuel Filter*
I disconnected the fuel pump line from the fuel pump and the high pressure fuel pump, and made a contraption to pump air through into water bottles to find absolutely no gunk, perfectly clean and delicious e85 in the lines.

Stumped, I went back to the basics. I had initially checked all the fuses and relays related to the fuel system. Started going through the fuses, and at position 44 is a (GT350 only) Ignition Coil 30a, or Vehicle Power 4 15a... and wouldn't you know, it was dead. Got a 15a, tossed it in, and after it took an extra second or so to pressurize the lines, fired right up.

Figured it out, and I'm soooooo angry and happy at the same time. Grabbed like $500 in parts I didn't need, plus a few tanks of gas going up to grab the FPCM and borrowing my buddy's trailer, to go back up to return the trailer and back. Even higher if you consider that I had to eat the cost of the NASA race I wasn't able to attend, for what, a 50 cent fuse? An expensive lesson was learned, that much is for sure, but I'm the type who only seems to learn from failure. I also found out that my tire gauge had been lying to me, so I got another one in hopes of extending my tire life with them being properly inflated and where I wanted them. I also got an OBD<->USB cable, so I can run Forscan, and found out that my wheel speed sensors are also busted, which makes sense why I've never really been able to threshold brake. Oh well, tidying things up, fixing up a bunch of things, and I guess I'm just happy that I'm getting past them. Thanks for listening, internet.

Speaking of, a legend has passed :

1624217249481.png


* The Mustang GT doesn't have a fuel filter, it just uses the fuzzy fuel blanket/sock. In fact, the Mustang GT hasn't had one since 2011. However, the GT350 does, haaaa-ha, you broke dick losers have to change your fuel filters.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
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My employer's HR file says that I stay cool under pressure.

1625892399054.png

Which is cool, because I'd love another promotion or raise.
 

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