Posted: 21st August 2012 by Joseph in DIY, The Car
Comments Off on Stress & Cracks
One thing that we’ve been keeping an eye on over the last couple events is our rotors and what appear to be stresses in the metal. With our very limited experience in this area we weren’t really sure what to make of what appeared to be stress related lines in the face of the rotors. Clearly the lines didn’t penetrate through the rotor and it appeared that maybe the lines were simply surface imperfections caused by heat and stress, but once the lines started look more like cracks the rotors needed to be replaced.
The cracks look very dramatic in these light conditions and in these photos…
…but clearly the cracks are very shallow surface stresses
Believe it or not, these were the rotors we installed on the car when it was first built back in 2007 and have approximately 30 track hours on them – there is still a ton of material left too!
So out with the old and in the new. This time around James and the crew over at ECS Tuning took care of us with a new set of “ECS Geomet” coated, slotted rotors. We look forward to seeing how well they hold up to the abuse. We’ll be sure to report back and keep you guys posted. Thanks again James!
Posted: 20th August 2012 by Joseph in Aero, DIY, The Car
Comments Off on Aero Bits
Not long after we implemented our first round of aero components at the beginning of the 2008 season was I already thinking of how to improve and build upon what we had created. So it’s fair to say it’s been on my mind for a while… just ask Jason – he was probably very thankful I finally shut up about it and made the changes 😉 We waited to post this information until after we were able to put our new changes to the test at NJMP’s Lightning circuit and we are happy to report everything held up great!
So in addition to the enlarged rear wing that we mentioned in our Budget Shopping & Tips post , we increased the size of the splitter dramatically, added some dive planes to get the air up and over the tires and added some hot air ventilation through the back of the fenders.
The splitter.
location, location, location – looking for the best bang for our buck
final – here’s the final look
“Dive Planes”
mock-up
final
Fender Ventilation
Here’s a series of photos to show how I went about creating the fender ventilation using a spare fender we had on hand.
testing – removed the two bottom screws that held the fender in place and pulled the fender out. Wedged a block of wood in to find the right distance.
photoshop – once I found the right distance that I wanted to pull the fender out I did some photoshop to get an idea of the finished product
carnage – let the cutting begin
stowaways – some rolled up rubber that seems to find its way into the crevices.
fitment – finding the right fit and adding the new panel
mounting – since I had cut off the bottom mounting points, I had to create a new one
final – once I was satisfied with the outcome of the spare fender I moved onto the fenders we regularly run.
Comments Off on We Drove the Tires Off @ Lightning
We’ve fallen a bit behind with our updates, but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten our responsibilities! Our next event at VIR is approaching fast so we wanted to drop in and post up a brief recap of our time at NJMP’s Lightning circuit with TrackDaze before we get even further behind 😉
It was a good event! TrackDaze again put on a quality show, keeping to their schedule and providing all drivers with four solid hours of track time over the course of two days. Needless to say, the Corrado took a beating but came through the other side with only a few minor issues. Unlike some drivers, we really like NJMP’s Lightning circuit. It’s a very fluid track with a good balance of technical turns and straights. Our car just seems to be suited for a track of this size. It doesn’t run out of breath on the straights and has enough torque to pull out of the slow turns and maintain momentum in the faster turns.
We went to this event with high hopes. We solved a few minor issues from our previous event, replaced our failed brake booster as well as added some new aero components. With our fingers crossed we made the trek down Friday night for a night of camping and an early start at the track Saturday morning. Having already prepped the car a few days prior, our Saturday morning was a breeze. We rolled the car out of the trailer, unpacked a few things and were ready to go. Jason was up first and admittedly a bit nervous knowing we hadn’t tested our new brake booster setup… but what better place to put it to the test then out at the track, right? Needless to say, everything went as planned. The booster did its job and so did Jason by keeping the car on the track and slowly chipped away at his lap times. The remainder of the day went off without a hitch and we were feeling pretty confident about the car and the lap times. To top it all off, we couldn’t have asked for better weather; warm with a really nice breeze to help keep things comfortable.
As it often does, as soon as everything goes as planned, something always creeps in to muck it all up. This time around we noticed the AFR’s continually increase (indicating a lean condition) as each session progressed. With each new session, after the car was able to cool down, the AFR’s would go back to normal for the first few laps, then slowly creep up by the middle of the session. We tried our best to tweak our fuel control setup to combat the problem, but in the end, we simply had to change our driving style for the remainder of the day. In order to keep the AFRs in a safe region we needed to short-shift to stay out of the higher RPM’s where the AFR’s seemed to be the most aggressive. We closed out the day scratching our heads and tossing around all the possibly ideas and components that might be contributing to this problem. As always, Olaf from Atomic Motorsports was on the phone with us brainstorming to help resolve the problem before the end of the day or at least before Sunday’s sessions. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to diagnose the problem and made little to no improvements on the AFR numbers.
The next day was more of the same; beautiful weather, a solid breakfast made by yours truly, a great event by TrackDaze, but a car that was a bit off in the engine department. Like I mentioned earlier, the car was built for this track and it was in fact hooked up for the first few laps of each session, but due to the rising AFR’s, we had to stay out of the higher RPM’s which of course affected our lap times the entire day. We are, however, happy to report once again that we finished the event unscathed and although we did struggle a bit with that AFR issue, without a doubt, we did enjoy our time on track. With so much track time, how could we not have fun? How much track time you ask? We came with front tires that were one rainy event old and left with completely bald tires… that much track time 😀
We finished out the event, packed the car up and headed home feeling pretty good about our weekend overall.
As always, thanks again to our sponsors! Olaf @ Atomic Motorsports with his incredible positive support and the guys @ TyrolSport with their continued contribution – thanks again, guys!
Here are a few videos we put together from the event. Unfortunately, the microphone battery was dead so we don’t have that wonderful VR6 engine note to compliment the video, but we are improving our data overlay setup so things hopefully look better and are easier to view. Feel free to give us some feedback… both on our videos and our driving 😉
We are always on the lookout for inexpensive alternatives to parts and materials. Here are a few we’ve found along the way. We’ll update the list as we think of others or find new ones in the future.
Aluminum Tube Split Collar (for roll bars/cages).
These sell on most racing supply websites for $15-20/ea. We found these (1-3/4″ ID) on Ebay for $9/ea and can probably be found for even less. We bought six collars @ $9/ea = $54, saving us $36 had we bought six @ $15/ea. We didn’t feel there could be much quality variation between the ones found on the expensive racing websites and some of the ones found on ebay; fortunately we were right. The ones we purchased from “Uberacer” on ebay are great and have worked out perfectly since.
Stainless Steel Turnbuckles (for splitter or rear wing stabilization).
Another Ebay item we found that worked out for us, both in price and function are the stainless turnbuckles for approximately $12/ea. The key with these turnbuckles, since they have a clevis (fork & pin) at each the end is how they are mounted to whatever it is that you are supporting. Knowing how we wanted to mount these, we scoured the internet until we found exactly what we were looking for: aluminum “eye-ends” at Midwest Control Products
Not including the price of the bolts/screws you’ll need to mount these turnbuckles, each turnbuckle and two “eye-ends” costs us <$15/ea. Compare that to the minimum $60 price for a set of two turnbuckles by APR Performance; that’s a very respectable savings.
Foamed PVC (great for aero elements, dash face plates, etc). Very easy to work with.
One material that we like and have been using a lot of lately is “foamed PVC”. Foamed PVC is a lightweight PVC plastic that can be cut, drilled and even bent (using heat). It comes in several colors and we’ve seen thicknesses from 1/8″ to 1″. We’ve used it for everything aero related and a few other small projects. We created our rear diffuser/underbody element, front splitter, rear view mirror brackets, etc, etc using various thickness of this material (1/8″ & 1/4″).
These sheets can be found online, but we sourced ours locally because we wanted two large 48″x96″ sheets. Foamed PVC is often used by storefront sign makers, so check with your local sign maker if you are hoping to source some material locally.
Early development of the rear diffuser:
New rear wing extension:
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