Road America Data
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:19 pm
Road America GEN3 data
First I'm really sorry for the bad start in sprints race #1 I started as I was asked to...
Ok, on to new data... looking at the screen shot of CDS data
First, you can see my lack of competitive seat time…as in some corners I’m less than a GEN2 and in a couple I just touch better.
I should have been a touch better in all because, 150 lbs. less weight…it’s been 11 years since I have driven at Road America, so all in all I feel ok about my performance.
The GEN2 lap was 2:40.8 and mine was 2:35.6 I made about .55 sec of mistakes on the lap if I was just equal in every corner to the GEN2 car. Both laps are from the same session.
If you know the signature of the track as a MPH graph…I will point out the new driving challenges…
You can see the GEN3 is about 8 to 12 MPH faster at the end of every long straight, 3 to 5 MPH on the shorter ones. Top MPH no draft was 128. So the brake zones are a little more challenging, sense of timing needs to be just a touch better. I was having an issue with in T5 brake zone.
Easy or most of the time flat turns like 7, Carousel, Kink and 13 are going to require some new set up or skill level to make flat again.
I made 7 flat a handful of times 13 flat most of the time, But Oh boy the Carousel
and Kink not even close any time. I could follow a good GEN2 within 5 feet or so
through the Carousel at half throttle with no drift and just drive around it before the Kink.
I was amazed at the difference in mental stress approaching the Kink @ just 5 to 7 MPH faster than a GEN2 car.
A lot of guys asked are you flat in the Kink…I said hell no…not even close and in fact 50 % of the time I touched the brake.
For some reason I never managed to get 14 right…
The EFI tuning is getting pretty good, mainly just warm up cycles, Accel and Deccel throttle tuning.
I asked some guys how much fuel they used in both races, I used right at 4.6 or 4.7 Gal in race 1 and that was right on par with fast GEN2’s Feel pretty good about that.
So over the last 4 or 5 months a lot of people have asked will it bend vales on a missed upshift from 4th to 5th…you know when you put it in 3rd instead. Well someone had to be the first one to do it….so it might as well be me…I did it.
I shifted @ 6500 RPM from 4th to 3rd on an intended shift to 5th. I don’t have my car back yet to do a leak down but everything seemed fine. The data showed 8036 RPM and it lived. That was good thing…so if you look at all the 5th gear shifts they are all pretty slow…I didn’t want to do it again.
Road America is the only place we had some issue with the sound level of an FE, so I thought it could be a problem with the GEN3 too….well it looks like we will be getting a run all the time or Spec muffler…it was right at and over the limit from time to time. I’m bummed about that…it’s just 5 lbs. I didn’t want to add back to the car.
I also had 2 part failures, the water header tank split for the 3rd time and I’m pretty sure I broke 3rd gear in the bonus race.
We might need to redesign the water tank, I will wait and see with the 12 R&D cars.
The 3rd gear failure, I’m not worried about it this point, my gear box had 34 / 36 weekends and a bunch of test days doing EFI and GEN3 testing. That might have a touch early…but we have not been nice to the gear box at all.
I also used the same type of oil cooler we use now, but the next size larger one. That was really positive, as the oil temp was never higher than the water temp the whole weekend… (High 170’s to low 180’s)
Well I’m getting really excited, engines are little behind, but due in over the next couple of weeks, 90% of the parts are in stock. Flatout received our first born so to speak and converted their car to GEN3 in 3 nights during the Rose Cup event @ Portland. Where they were running 18 GEN2’s I believe. I think Andy did most of the work…he told me it wasn’t bad at all….Let’s hope everyone has the same experience!
Track records beware….
First I'm really sorry for the bad start in sprints race #1 I started as I was asked to...
Ok, on to new data... looking at the screen shot of CDS data
First, you can see my lack of competitive seat time…as in some corners I’m less than a GEN2 and in a couple I just touch better.
I should have been a touch better in all because, 150 lbs. less weight…it’s been 11 years since I have driven at Road America, so all in all I feel ok about my performance.
The GEN2 lap was 2:40.8 and mine was 2:35.6 I made about .55 sec of mistakes on the lap if I was just equal in every corner to the GEN2 car. Both laps are from the same session.
If you know the signature of the track as a MPH graph…I will point out the new driving challenges…
You can see the GEN3 is about 8 to 12 MPH faster at the end of every long straight, 3 to 5 MPH on the shorter ones. Top MPH no draft was 128. So the brake zones are a little more challenging, sense of timing needs to be just a touch better. I was having an issue with in T5 brake zone.
Easy or most of the time flat turns like 7, Carousel, Kink and 13 are going to require some new set up or skill level to make flat again.
I made 7 flat a handful of times 13 flat most of the time, But Oh boy the Carousel
and Kink not even close any time. I could follow a good GEN2 within 5 feet or so
through the Carousel at half throttle with no drift and just drive around it before the Kink.
I was amazed at the difference in mental stress approaching the Kink @ just 5 to 7 MPH faster than a GEN2 car.
A lot of guys asked are you flat in the Kink…I said hell no…not even close and in fact 50 % of the time I touched the brake.
For some reason I never managed to get 14 right…
The EFI tuning is getting pretty good, mainly just warm up cycles, Accel and Deccel throttle tuning.
I asked some guys how much fuel they used in both races, I used right at 4.6 or 4.7 Gal in race 1 and that was right on par with fast GEN2’s Feel pretty good about that.
So over the last 4 or 5 months a lot of people have asked will it bend vales on a missed upshift from 4th to 5th…you know when you put it in 3rd instead. Well someone had to be the first one to do it….so it might as well be me…I did it.
I shifted @ 6500 RPM from 4th to 3rd on an intended shift to 5th. I don’t have my car back yet to do a leak down but everything seemed fine. The data showed 8036 RPM and it lived. That was good thing…so if you look at all the 5th gear shifts they are all pretty slow…I didn’t want to do it again.
Road America is the only place we had some issue with the sound level of an FE, so I thought it could be a problem with the GEN3 too….well it looks like we will be getting a run all the time or Spec muffler…it was right at and over the limit from time to time. I’m bummed about that…it’s just 5 lbs. I didn’t want to add back to the car.
I also had 2 part failures, the water header tank split for the 3rd time and I’m pretty sure I broke 3rd gear in the bonus race.
We might need to redesign the water tank, I will wait and see with the 12 R&D cars.
The 3rd gear failure, I’m not worried about it this point, my gear box had 34 / 36 weekends and a bunch of test days doing EFI and GEN3 testing. That might have a touch early…but we have not been nice to the gear box at all.
I also used the same type of oil cooler we use now, but the next size larger one. That was really positive, as the oil temp was never higher than the water temp the whole weekend… (High 170’s to low 180’s)
Well I’m getting really excited, engines are little behind, but due in over the next couple of weeks, 90% of the parts are in stock. Flatout received our first born so to speak and converted their car to GEN3 in 3 nights during the Rose Cup event @ Portland. Where they were running 18 GEN2’s I believe. I think Andy did most of the work…he told me it wasn’t bad at all….Let’s hope everyone has the same experience!
Track records beware….