Time Attack - Day 46 + 47 - OnGrid @ The Ridge - New Data, 9LR and Vitour Tires
Coming hot off the heels of a succesfull weekend at ORP with a new PB I was pretty excited for the upcomming time attack event with OnGrid at the Ridge Motorsports Park. I knew I had a few things to sort out, but for the most part the car was ready to go and shred!
Leading Up to The Event
So the biggest headache leading into the event was a blown front right coilover. This would be the most demanding corner on my car on the track, and I just didn't have time to swap coilovers from left to right. So... I went with what I had. The coilover itself hadn't really felt terrible and undriveable at ORP... so I'd probably be okay...
An article and bit of testing I'd long since delayed, was comparing my DIY C5 Corvette Wing versus the 9LR wing. So I bolted the 9LR up to make sure it would fit, wrapped the heck out of it, and brought it with me to the track so as I could A<>B test it. My goal was to get some data and lap times for an article, which I've since written and you can see here: 9LR Wing vs DIY Aero: Which Helped Our Time Attack C5 More.
One problem I've had with my Corvette is that the trans tunnel by my right leg tries to properly cook me alive. After 40 minutes or so... I genuinely feel like my leg has actually been properly cooked like meat on a BBQ. I tried adding heat blanket insulation to the inside of the trans tunnel, and while it helped, it didn't cure the problem. However, adding rubberized foam pretty much entirely cured my problem, and added some nice comfort!
Another thing I built this week in preperation for a potentially hot weekend, was a DIY cool suit setup. Turns out they are about as simple as they get to manufacture. An Encel Cooler, an aquarium pump, some 1/4" hose... it's all about as easy as it gets! The hardest part was getting the plastic fittings as it involved navigating McMaster or US Plastics... whose websites are friggen terrible and since they only compete with each other they don't care to innovate.
Arriving early-ish to the track on Thursday, I set out to secure a nice and easy to work with spot down at the end of the cold pits. I would have plenty of space to setup, I could pull my car through so no having to faff with my questionably useful reverse gearing, and I'd be good to go!
This is also the second outing with my truckbed tent setup. It's an inflatable tent, so I set it up in my truckbed, inflate it, fill it with gear, defalte it, put my tonneau cover over the whole setup and just drive to the track. Once I get there, I merely roll down the tonneau cover, inflate the tent, and set a few minor things up. This has me setup and pretty comfortable in maybe 10 minutes tops? Add in a USB battery setup and I'm really living it large!
Another minor thing I added was I wired up a 12v accessory plug under my truck seat to plug my new Dometic 12v Cooler into. Turns out that with the two giant batteries on my Ram 3500 I can run a LARGE 55L dometic 12v cooler for 4+ days withou the batteries geting too drained. My truck also has a 5th wheel plug in the rear I got an adapter for 7pin to accessory plug, which in turn lets me power the cooler right out the back of my truck!
Day 1 of the event
Day 1 started out with about the perfect weather for a track day in my opinion, minus the very mild chance of sprinkles. Temperature was in the 60s, breezy and overcast. You can't ask for a whole lot better than this!
The Corvette was ready to go and looking good!
I went out and each session managed to improve, excluding the last session as it was cut short after my first flying lap due to a car oiling the track. DOH! Ah well, such is life. I still managed to beat my previous personal best by 1.5 seconds, but I also just barely dropped down into the sub 1:50 territory. That felt pretty good! I had a few laps as well that were all below my previous personal best, so my average lap time had indeed dropped down.
To wrap the day up I chucked on the 9LR wing and took it out in the group 4-5 (combined advanced) to see just what I was getting myself into. It felt solid though with some modest felt improvements over my previous setup. Seems like I was onto something... but tomorrow would tell.
Other minor details... the cool suit worked WONDERS once the sun came out. It kept my body temperature down and worked good. Only problem is that the cool suit I was gifted has a leak, and as you can tell... I look like I've peed myself every time I get out of the car. Fortuantely, I had extra underwear a plenty for the trip and hangers to hang the suit up to dry between sessions... so I was never all that wet.
Nobody really talks much about the basics of what you need to know for a coolsuit, but one thing is where the hoses route. They run right out the bottom of the zipper on your suit, aka the crotch zipper. Then you got hoses hanging out right there and... well you look a bit silly for a bit there with them. Just tuck them back into the suit once they're done draining and you won't look all that silly, but then they leak so... there really isn't a win on this one. You either look like you got your thing hanging out, or you look like you personally are leaky. Ah well, the comfort is still worth it!
It's also probably worth mentioning my neighors in the pits were RAD and I made some good friends! Sure, they all drive Miatas... but they were pretty darn fast and all very nice folks, so I'll forgive them!
Day 2 of the Event
Heading into Day 2 I was pretty excited. The weather was ever so slightly cooler, still overcast, with no chance of sprinkles. Things were looking premium for chasing an even better PB. Plus, I had the 9LR wing to check out!
In my second sesion of the day, I was able to get out and run a 1:49.39, with several other laps well into the 1:49's. In snowboard or skateboarding the saying goes "You can't claim it until you land it at least twice!" and so putting down several laps in the mid to low 1:49's was awesome. Considering my previous PB of 1:51.5 was the only 1:51 I'd ever turned... I feel pretty good about it.
This also provided some useful information to write an article on comparing the 9 Lives Racing Wing to my DIY Wing Logic Wing.
Here's my best lap of the weekend and my new PB:
Pictures from the Track
Track Data
Here's my initial best of 1:49.96 on day 1 with the DIY WingLogic Wing
Here's my second day best of 1:49.39 with the 9LR Wing.
I don't have enough accessible data to really compare my previous best to this current one to see just where I improved. As I'm transitioning to Racebox for my primary lap data setup I'll start to have more and more data I can easily draw up comparisons from.
Some of my improvements can be attributed to the Vitour P1 tires wearing down. Supposedly the more these tires wear down the more capable they become, to the point where when they're pretty much worn down slicks they'll put down their best times. Consequently, I'm trying to hold onto what I've got for taking the class record down at Thunderhill in the not so distant future!
Takeaways and Next Moves
My blown coilover is now especially blown. It's become rather apparent to me at this point that the QA1 Proma Stars are a good coilover, but can't handle the full on rigor of a time attack full aero build. I'm actively trying to work with QA1 to see about getting their Mod Series coilovers as I think the story arc would make for a great article, and they aren't getting much attention in the C5 Corvette world. I can perhaps help change that!
I'm debating "detuning" the car down to GT category. If I've got these current coilovers still I can switch them to my non aero spring rates, remove the front splitter, and swap the wing for a mounted spoiler, pop in a passenger seat and I'm in the GT class. Oh, and I'm going to need some wheels up front with 295 tires so as I am within their average tire size requirement of 305 average width. Looking at the numbers and kind of cars entering I'd be up against notably more similar cars than I am currently facing off against, some being modified Porsche GT3RS's. All other variables being equal but the car... I don't stand a chance.
Other thoughts... get the trans and diff coolers setup with some info there to monitor everything. Keep insulating the trans tunnel next to me to help with felt temperatures. Keep going out and having fun!