Track Day 43 -- TNIA @ Ridge - Let's blow up something in the drivetrain...

Welp, track day 43 did not go as planned. Coming into the event, I was thinking I'd be getting some data on the new to me Vitour P1 tires along with in general getting used to driving them on the track. Maybe even set a nice PB since the weather was a perfect 65 degrees with a light breeze. The event also barely had any attendees, which is rare for a Track Night in America.

I had no modifications of any significance to mention going into the event. The only thing I did was pull the upper set of front Cannards after seeing a good video from 9 Lives Racing talking about some of their changes up front, and how they did net improved front downforce but at the expense of rear downforce. This got me thinking that perhaps why I was now experiencing the rear end getting light was because I'd put so much cannards up front, so if removing one set may yield improved rear end feel.

I got the car all loaded up and it turns out with some creative loading, I can fit the aluminum ramps on the back of the trailer. This does mean I am a bit tongue heavy on the truck but everything seems fine towing this way. The aluminum ramps were a design from Dave, a team member on the Lemons Accord team.

I decided it was time to take some tire temperatures, and so I got my tire probe setup all together and went out for a session. The tires are still pretty fresh, I was still new to them, and as you can see by the 35psi hot temperature noted above, I needed to bring the hot PSI down a bit as well. I also was hoping to see trends over time incase I was getting misreadings between sessions, so all I have is what is above.

Overall impressions thus far on what I am seeing... In theory I could use less camber on the front right tire as the inside is getting hot, not the outside. On the front left I need more camber as the outside is getting hot. Rear is pretty much good to go, with the outside being slightly cooler but that difference is fairly negligible.

That said, I need to test again with 31psi hot on track, take more readings, and see what in general I have. Plus, I need to drive hotter all the way to the finish (I left off two turns beforehand) and having an assistant to get temps would help as I have to get off the track, pit, ditch gear, climb out of the cage, grab all my stuff and THEN start taking temperatures.

If this picture doesn't give away what happened on my second session though, I'll spell it out. I put down a warmup lap and was going for my second lap. Things were starting to feel decent... so let's send it! I'm going down the front straight, max out in 4th gear, go to grab 5th and it pops out with some serious crunch crunch noises. I can no longer get the car into any gear. Oh no... I break through turn 1, carry momentum through turn 2... and coast all the way up to a fairly out of the way section of turn 5. Course goes all black (sorry everyone) and I get my first tow ever. Unfortunately for me and the car, the tow truck at this track is really not well setup, so they just chucked a chain on my tow hook and dragged me out. Shoutout to After Dark Speed's tow hooks though for being good for 3/4 of a lap at the Ridge while getting dragged around with a chain.

My one good lap from session 1:

My best lap was a 1:53.495 on the first session out, which I can't really attribute to anything as I was getting used to the tires, and they wound up at 35psi hot which is too high. Comparing this to my most recent best lap there of 1:51.999 my corner speeds appear to be up, which is to be expected with the super 200 versus endurance 200 tires... but top speeds are down in a few places which I think just relates to my willingness to jump on the throttle from the overinflated tires.

Removing half of the front cannards did seem to have the effect of improving the felt balance of the car, but with only one session and no times to really back that up... it will need further testing.

Ultimately, not a lot to deduce really.

Current plan of "attack" for future events this summer:

So it's a bummer to have what may potentially be a very expensive bit of damage to the car so early in the season occur, but given I had my trans go out mid last year, this can be overcome.

Current plan of attack is remove the trans and diff and see if there's a smoking gun in there. Hopefully there's a smoking gun.

From there I gotta determine what I want to do. I've been sitting on the base model transmission... maybe now I take the time to pull it apart and rebuild it with upgraded components and add a cooler?

Perhaps something went wrong in the differential, but I would expect that to mean I would have heard the issue when being towed out as even in neutral the differential turns?

Part of me wants to go insanely overboard and just buy the most stout transmission and differnetial, chuck it in, add a ton of cooling and hopefully never have to deal with it again. At $12-14k or so though for that... it violates my DIY ethic along with my mission of keeping this car reasonable enough in cost that I can throw it off the side of the track and not cry too much about it...

More info to come.