mcorrie

Has the code been created for volunteers to register for Friday lapping?

That’s the $64k question. Right now, I’d like to think you’re ok with the RS-4’s (almost guarantee the Firestone’s are ok…Almost). Maybe one or 2 nights at -4 or -3 when it goes up to +10 during the day, ‘should be good’ and it should - as if there was some kind of sliding scale for R-Compound Frost degradation, so a 200TW RS-4 would be ok for -5 over night a couple times, but a Hoosier A7 or Michelin racing slick will lose, say, 10% tread deflection per 5 deg C temp decrease per 12hr cycle, cumulative - or something to that effect. The chemical composition transition is a huge gray area….all they tell us is “don’t freeze”…and it’s a safe bet that racing tires aren’t put through any cold weather testing. The reality is that I have no idea. Testing this characteristic would fun, but the potential number of beneficiaries of this research doesn’t exactly warrant the expense. However, as tires are the #1 performance improvement, and one of, if not ‘the’ biggest investment we make in our track day cars; to protect that investment I would play it safe and put the car on jack stands and bring those tires inside while it drops below Zero.

Freezing competition tires ruins them. So what makes a competition tire? I don’t have a definition. The line between Competition Tire and Street tire becomes more blurry as technology progresses, especially with the new 200TW class of tires. In the buyers guide for high performance tires, if you have a “summer only” tire, that might be an indicator to keep it from freezing. How long/duration frozen, and at what temperature causes this problem? No idea. Will -5C for 1 night wreck them? Still no idea…my experience has been “all winter” and only here in Winnipeg, so when it looks like it’s going to be below Zero, bring them in to heated storage. From my experience, I can tell you that the cracking shown in the pics is a relatively new problem (to me), as cracking doesn’t happen on all comp tires that have been frozen. My first set of hoosiers going back 30 years, were amazing tires, unknowingly, I left them on the car that winter. They were quite different afterwards, traction was terrible. They didn’t squeal anymore, they didn’t leave black rubber marks, they just polished the road and left rubber dust. Fast forward to 4 years ago. My Toyo RR’s also showed no indication they were frozen, (they were near the end of their lifecycle for me) I left them on the car all winter - when warming the car up for a couple laps the following spring, it was clear they were hockey pucks - but no cracking. Hoosier has a freezing warning on their website (attached), they mention cracking. it would make sense for new car dealerships to understand the risk and maybe some do. I know of a new GT mustang that was at the school a couple years ago - 3 or 400kms, brand new, the tires were cracked. I don’t order tires until it’s above freezing just to be safe…

DM sent

A big thanks to you too Roland - also an important part of the process!!

Missed it - nice to hear this!

Just want to say that I am grateful for the efforts that have been put into TA in the past few years and we see our discipline grow because of it. this is grassroots motorsports and TA is now the frontlines and the club has responded in the best way possible and I am quite happy to see this effort. The amount of discussion in this thread alone is indicative of the strong future in front of us. What ever rules that are in place next season, I will comply - as I am here for the fun of developing the car and having fun watching new drivers develop and being a part of that. If for some reason the moons align and my car becomes competitive with new rules, super - all the better. I will say that I have read it and I like the SCCA rule set. for reference, it’s my opinion that the classing systems are skewed by the type of track. New or old. New tracks are designed without high speed corners such as we have with T1 -T2 at Gimli. Newer tracks do not have these features as they are safety risks. With Gimli being a shorter track, the results are amplified. The new tracks will have a different index factor for this reason. As such, it will be hard to adapt a factor to work for our track, but again, I applaud the efforts taken to equal the playing field. there is no perfect solution here, the fact that we as a club put in the effort to make it as equal as possible is exactly what I like seeing and I will support those efforts. matt

It’s completely normal to feel no difference…. It would be more beneficial if you could hear the difference; did the motor Rev easier? Did it sound better at all? How did it start hot? Cold? On shell VPower I got some dieseling or run-on when I shut it off. This was new as it didn’t do that before. I added a simple over the counter fuel additive and the problem went away. Like you, maybe it added 1-2 points of octane, but that wasn’t for power, but drivability and for reliability. Those are the gains we want because it allows us as drivers to be in tune with our car so we can get the most out of it.

You and Jeremy were doing well. Know what you mean re: tires. Mine were same, they were old and shredding - cords showing at first session! , junk at best - but that’s the fun! Glad to meet you Jeremy, the old Camaro had a hard time keeping up with your car - good fun indeed!! looking forward to running next year.

A bit late to the party…Re: AvGas, it’s called 100LL, or 100 octane low lead, but it’s quite leaded, and not a little, it has a lot more lead than we used to have in pump gas. It will kill your O2 sensors. The 91 Shell is pretty good. I have tried a couple other 91’s and while my rating system is quite elementary (does it Rev clean? Does it run-on (dieseling)when I shut it off? I get yes and no, Shell is all good for me.

Welcome! - glad you are going to come out and join us!

It’s an interesting development. There should be a ‘standard’ test and more importantly, the desired results established/defined. I’m sure it will take a bit of work and time to do that. Many factors are relevant such as the location of the exhaust exit on the car or cars tested and which side of the track (infield, outfield and/or height above the track) the sensor should be mounted - not to mention environmental conditions (trees, buildings, wind, etc) and at what location on the track is going to work (end of straight, fastest corner exit, etc) as has been mentioned. Either way, as a club we should welcome this, we have been immune from such regulations for years by no other reason than location (middle of nowhere and adjoined to an airport), when in fact with exhaust technology being what it is today, there is no performance loss to running a bit quieter. To further support the initiative, I would mention that on many occasions I have spoken with drivers that had no idea their car was about to fail due to the excessive noise they experienced while in the car; simply put, when you can hear what your car is doing, you are a better driver and you can extend the life of you car.

Thanks Roland - Please accept my thanks for your efforts in making this season happen. I am hoping, like all of us are, that this pandemic is in our rear view mirrors, and we can look forward to a bright and entertaining future.

Lol! Indeed it was!!

This weather is really good. I haven’t had much time during the summer months to work on the car, but this warm October has been great so far. I have spent what free time I had this summer putting the motor back in and fitting the long tube headers - which in all honesty are a mega pain in these 3rd Gen Camaro’s! It took 2 weekends, some fabrication and about 5 hours each side to make them fit! This was stage 1 of the exhaust upgrade. stage 2 was getting rid of the single exhaust. I had been running shorty headers and a single exhaust since day 1. These old Camaro’s are terrible for fitting high flow exhaust as they were designed to run a single exhaust with no room for anything else. I considered that a challenge…and that’s part of my problem…lol! So once the long tube headers are in and the weather was calling me to work on the car, I picked up the parts off the shelf and formulated a game plan. i bought a used 4” oval dual side exit system with an X pipe from a nascar team wholesaler over a year ago. It would never work as delivered so I started at the very beginning- the collectors of the long tube headers….and the new set up was 9” too wide. I Bought a hand full of part off discs and started cutting! without boring you to death in the minutia of this project, I can say it took all the qualities we look for in a project to make it work. ingenuity, planning, fabrication, proving it can be done, grinding through the hard stuff we couldn’t plan for - and finally, completing what we started! in the end, I am quite glad with the way it turned out and as I am not a master fabricator, I do enjoy doing it myself and using what’s left of my hands to do so! I’ve never Mig welded with Stainless steel, so that was fun - and I think I haven’t seen anything similar around here - so that’s cool too. here is a couple pics of my weekend project - hope to be back at the track soon!

Great offer @Weebly. While I’m quite “AX Challenged” (if there was such a term) I’m reminded of Wayne S’s statement a few years ago where he stated that he became a better race driver due to his time in AX. Because of this, I have wanted to try AX (again, it’s been a while) and with a different perspective. I have the Camaro re-assembled and running (I’m rather pleased about this!) and was hoping to shake it down a bit with the new set up before taking it back to the track…where it belongs. AX time would be a decent opportunity, if it wasn’t for the kids. I’m up at the south end of the track this weekend - both days…and will try to be at the other end the following weekend. thanks again!

Hi - Pi data system with dash, data logger w/2 axis accelerometer and lap timer, trackside beacon, USB download cable, Tach lead and more. would need wheel speed sensor (simple flying mag, easily available) for speed read out. Has 11 channels. comes with manuals and software. It all worked when removed, small scratch on dash display. More pics upon request. After years of looking at it and really no time to work with it, I can’t see that changing in the near future. $300

Congrats to our competitors. Great job, hope you all return for the next event!!

I use the lever type. I have it in the car within reach while strapped in. The Lever provides a visual reference where the dial does not, I have it set up so the lever points more to where I need it. IE: if it’s pointed straight to the front, it’s all front braking. Further, it has 6 positions that you can quickly and easily set, from these detents, you may or may not be able to tell the difference in “one click” but you will in 2, in 5 years on on-track use, I have never found a need for further refinement between those detents. I have definitely changed brake pads to further aid brake balance (when the valve isn’t enough) and also calipers and rotor diameter, but the fine tuning has never been more than a couple clicks on the lever - and it’s a dynamic situation, so you want it at the drivers reach. You don’t want to be on your 3rd or 4th lap and have to end the session, pull in and make the change when you can do it on the fly and know the immediate result. If you change tires, brake pads, shocks, springs, sway bars - these all have an effect on how the car stops. I have done all these mods and have had to dial the rears out completely and bring them back in 80%. ive also ran the valve with and without the OEM prop valve, which will likely yield different results with different vehicles.

Thanks @Jim Eh. What I find to be the most Interesting statement is when Counsellor Palson uses the daycare reference where she questions why there’s been no discussion around the sale of the race track – just a vote. A possible lack of transparency is evident.