Dallas Fort Worth 5.0 Mustang Club - View Single Post - Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT

Fair · 10-10-2013, 06:11 PM

continued from above

As you can see in the video below, pretty damned bad, actually. The tires we were using in these early Saturday sessions were some of the 315mm Hoosier R6 scrubs I picked up at Miller from the Hoosier trash pile, and all 4 had a LOT of klag (balled up rubber) glued to the carcasses. So on my warm up "out lap" I was aggressively trying to get the rubber off by slaloming hard on the straights. Most of the time on a TT out lap we're doing about 50 mph, and until we get to the "bunch up" zone (marked on the map) we can swerve and brake and do what we need to get tire heat, brake heat, oil heat, and scrub off klag like on my set of tires. I thought I had done enough... but no.

That's my first hot lap and yes, I had an off at Turn 6. The car was very loose exiting Turn 3 so I should have been ready for anything, but it was calmed down in Turns 4 and 5, so I started turning it up by Corner 6. I did my normal turn in for T6 and the rear washed out VERY QUICKLY. When it did I think the right rear tire caught some of the still damp track surface off line and it REALLY stepped out some more. I like to think I have pretty fast hands, and can usually catch a spin like this fast enough. Nope, not this time. I got into a classic tank slapper and shot straight off the exit of Corner 6 like a bullet. I could have gone of sideways but figured "go off straight" was the wise choice.

The times from Saturday's TT Warm-Up (left, which I skipped) and TT Session 1 (right, where I had an "off" and a subsequent DQ)

The "off" didn't do anything bad to the car, as the stiff aluminum plate splitter just mowed the grass - you could clearly see the path I took in the outfield. I felt like I should go back and do the edging, since I did so much mowing. Luckily I didn't go very far off track and missed any ruts or big bumps while in the dirt. I slowed down, waited for a gap, and got back on track when it was safe. Once back on track (in between a safe gap of cars) I immediately pulled off line (track left) on the straight and waved several more cars behind me by, until I could check the gauges, brakes and tires to see if I could get back up to speed. Once I was up to Turn 7 the car felt and looked fine, so I sped up and started planning for a hot lap on lap 2. I knew that now this TT session 1 was was going to be a DQ (offs or spins = automatic session DQ in Time Trial), but my times should still count towards gridding for TT session 2. And I needed to move up the grid more than I needed to worry about my fastest official TT time at this point. I took 2 more hot laps with lots of traffic (mostly passing cars I let by when I had the "off"), and got down to a 1:55.564 in traffic, then noticed engine temps shooting up so I took a cool down and came in. Turns out the new mesh grill we added to the lower fascia opening was PACKED FULL OF GRASS, so no air was getting to the radiator. But it still took 2 laps to get hot, so I guess the ducted hood was still pulling some air through the rad, somehow. I wiped away the tall grass clippings that I had mowed and got the car ready for TT session 2, after lunch.

These grey wheels have the R6 tires, and were only used in TT session 1 on Saturday

I went up to check the grid sheet after lunch before TT session 2 was to begin and they had me gridded in... 26th. Huh?? There was apparently some mistake in T&S and they hadn't gridded me by my Session 1 time, which they should have. Oiy, what a mess. But hey, weird stuff can happen when you DQ a session, which was my own damned fault. Since we only had 2 sessions left on Saturday and we all knew it was only going to get hotter, and I had some fast TT3 drivers already breathing down my neck, I went ahead and made the call - switch to A6s now. I was hoping to wait until Sunday morning to make the A6 move, but I wasn't going to risk losing on Saturday by leaving the fast tires in the trailer. So I ran the scrub R6 tires for all of one session, and they never felt very good, but I was buried in traffic the whole time so who knows?

I switched wheels to run the the A6 tires for Saturday's TT Session 2, with help from Brian Matteucci (striped shirt)

By now my old college racing buddy and former roommate Brian Matteucci had arrived and he helped me and Amy swap the tires over - and because of the swarm of people coming by, we needed the help. With a freakishy good paddock spot and the "hard to miss" changes to the car, we had 100+ people come by on Saturday and ask questions about the hood, splitter and flares, as this was the first NASA Texas event where anyone had seen the front aero mods. But we don't mind talking to folks - that's why we're here.

Matteucci was here to watch a NASA event, as he is building a top secret TT car that should debut next month at the NASA @ ECR event (Nov 2-3).

Getting gridded up for TT session 2 took some "wheelin and dealin"

My lap time from the DQ'd session should have put me in 5th place on the grid, but the official sheet showed me way back at the back again. After telling the nice grid workers my story about the mistake on the grid sheets, and talking to some competitors gridded ahead of my, I begged my way into 10th place on the grid (most of the folks didn't want "the big red Mustang that just drove off track" right behind them, heh) and I was ready for Session 2.

So in that session I started in 10th and got some passes done in the first few laps and finally got in a quick, mostly traffic free run on hot lap 4. The best time I ran on this 4th hot lap was a 1:54.369, which was the 3rd quickest time in the session. Vorshlag customer Allen Page was on fire in this session and cut a 1:53.893 in his TTB car, the quickest car out there this time! Mike Weather's was 2nd quickest in his TT1 car, still clearly in the TT1 lead but he wasn't even running his good tires yet (didn't until Sunday).

Allan Page (left) was the quickest in TT session 2 in his TTB E46 M3, while Mike Weathers was fastest of the day, running a 1:50.480 in TT Session 1

My lap time was still way slower than I wanted to see, but was good enough to move me up to P3 on the grid for the final TT session , TT Session 3. Mike was clearly in the TT1 lead and didn't want to bother with the added heat of the last session of the day, as was Allan in TTB, so I ended up leading the pack out for the last TT session. More importantly, I finally had the first bit of clear track all day, and what I thought was a full battery on the vidcam and lap timer. So here we go, in the video below...

As you can see if you watch that video (up to 1080P rez available) there were a few video and timing equipment faults. First, the data logger got all out of sync and we lost data about halfway down the straight away for my first hot lap. Brandon has been trying to coax the TrackMate software to work with the native output of my Sony HD video camera. Long story, but the data was borked so we cannot see speeds or the g-meter data on my hot lap. He has finally figured out how to sync this stuff, when the data isn't corrupt, so we'll keep trying. Next, the battery on the vidcam died about 3/4 of the way through my first hot lap.

continued below

10-10-2013, 06:11 PM	#231
Fair Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 333	continued from above As you can see in the video below, pretty damned bad, actually. The tires we were using in these early Saturday sessions were some of the 315mm Hoosier R6 scrubs I picked up at Miller from the Hoosier trash pile, and all 4 had a LOT of klag (balled up rubber) glued to the carcasses. So on my warm up "out lap" I was aggressively trying to get the rubber off by slaloming hard on the straights. Most of the time on a TT out lap we're doing about 50 mph, and until we get to the "bunch up" zone (marked on the map) we can swerve and brake and do what we need to get tire heat, brake heat, oil heat, and scrub off klag like on my set of tires. I thought I had done enough... but no. That's my first hot lap and yes, I had an off at Turn 6. The car was very loose exiting Turn 3 so I should have been ready for anything, but it was calmed down in Turns 4 and 5, so I started turning it up by Corner 6. I did my normal turn in for T6 and the rear washed out VERY QUICKLY. When it did I think the right rear tire caught some of the still damp track surface off line and it REALLY stepped out some more. I like to think I have pretty fast hands, and can usually catch a spin like this fast enough. Nope, not this time. I got into a classic tank slapper and shot straight off the exit of Corner 6 like a bullet. I could have gone of sideways but figured "go off straight" was the wise choice. The times from Saturday's TT Warm-Up (left, which I skipped) and TT Session 1 (right, where I had an "off" and a subsequent DQ) The "off" didn't do anything bad to the car, as the stiff aluminum plate splitter just mowed the grass - you could clearly see the path I took in the outfield. I felt like I should go back and do the edging, since I did so much mowing. Luckily I didn't go very far off track and missed any ruts or big bumps while in the dirt. I slowed down, waited for a gap, and got back on track when it was safe. Once back on track (in between a safe gap of cars) I immediately pulled off line (track left) on the straight and waved several more cars behind me by, until I could check the gauges, brakes and tires to see if I could get back up to speed. Once I was up to Turn 7 the car felt and looked fine, so I sped up and started planning for a hot lap on lap 2. I knew that now this TT session 1 was was going to be a DQ (offs or spins = automatic session DQ in Time Trial), but my times should still count towards gridding for TT session 2. And I needed to move up the grid more than I needed to worry about my fastest official TT time at this point. I took 2 more hot laps with lots of traffic (mostly passing cars I let by when I had the "off"), and got down to a 1:55.564 in traffic, then noticed engine temps shooting up so I took a cool down and came in. Turns out the new mesh grill we added to the lower fascia opening was PACKED FULL OF GRASS, so no air was getting to the radiator. But it still took 2 laps to get hot, so I guess the ducted hood was still pulling some air through the rad, somehow. I wiped away the tall grass clippings that I had mowed and got the car ready for TT session 2, after lunch. These grey wheels have the R6 tires, and were only used in TT session 1 on Saturday I went up to check the grid sheet after lunch before TT session 2 was to begin and they had me gridded in... 26th. Huh?? There was apparently some mistake in T&S and they hadn't gridded me by my Session 1 time, which they should have. Oiy, what a mess. But hey, weird stuff can happen when you DQ a session, which was my own damned fault. Since we only had 2 sessions left on Saturday and we all knew it was only going to get hotter, and I had some fast TT3 drivers already breathing down my neck, I went ahead and made the call - switch to A6s now. I was hoping to wait until Sunday morning to make the A6 move, but I wasn't going to risk losing on Saturday by leaving the fast tires in the trailer. So I ran the scrub R6 tires for all of one session, and they never felt very good, but I was buried in traffic the whole time so who knows? I switched wheels to run the the A6 tires for Saturday's TT Session 2, with help from Brian Matteucci (striped shirt) By now my old college racing buddy and former roommate Brian Matteucci had arrived and he helped me and Amy swap the tires over - and because of the swarm of people coming by, we needed the help. With a freakishy good paddock spot and the "hard to miss" changes to the car, we had 100+ people come by on Saturday and ask questions about the hood, splitter and flares, as this was the first NASA Texas event where anyone had seen the front aero mods. But we don't mind talking to folks - that's why we're here. Matteucci was here to watch a NASA event, as he is building a top secret TT car that should debut next month at the NASA @ ECR event (Nov 2-3). Getting gridded up for TT session 2 took some "wheelin and dealin" My lap time from the DQ'd session should have put me in 5th place on the grid, but the official sheet showed me way back at the back again. After telling the nice grid workers my story about the mistake on the grid sheets, and talking to some competitors gridded ahead of my, I begged my way into 10th place on the grid (most of the folks didn't want "the big red Mustang that just drove off track" right behind them, heh) and I was ready for Session 2. So in that session I started in 10th and got some passes done in the first few laps and finally got in a quick, mostly traffic free run on hot lap 4. The best time I ran on this 4th hot lap was a 1:54.369, which was the 3rd quickest time in the session. Vorshlag customer Allen Page was on fire in this session and cut a 1:53.893 in his TTB car, the quickest car out there this time! Mike Weather's was 2nd quickest in his TT1 car, still clearly in the TT1 lead but he wasn't even running his good tires yet (didn't until Sunday). Allan Page (left) was the quickest in TT session 2 in his TTB E46 M3, while Mike Weathers was fastest of the day, running a 1:50.480 in TT Session 1 My lap time was still way slower than I wanted to see, but was good enough to move me up to P3 on the grid for the final TT session , TT Session 3. Mike was clearly in the TT1 lead and didn't want to bother with the added heat of the last session of the day, as was Allan in TTB, so I ended up leading the pack out for the last TT session. More importantly, I finally had the first bit of clear track all day, and what I thought was a full battery on the vidcam and lap timer. So here we go, in the video below... As you can see if you watch that video (up to 1080P rez available) there were a few video and timing equipment faults. First, the data logger got all out of sync and we lost data about halfway down the straight away for my first hot lap. Brandon has been trying to coax the TrackMate software to work with the native output of my Sony HD video camera. Long story, but the data was borked so we cannot see speeds or the g-meter data on my hot lap. He has finally figured out how to sync this stuff, when the data isn't corrupt, so we'll keep trying. Next, the battery on the vidcam died about 3/4 of the way through my first hot lap. continued below Last edited by Fair; 10-10-2013 at 06:13 PM.