TireSmoke.org

Bring your helmet and your car and make some laps at Nelson Ledges, or come spectate! Bring a chair, a camera or both. Maybe a helmet and get a ride from someone.

If you are interested to drive let me know. Cost will be not more than $200 - depends on how many people show up.

Spectators free.

I'm expecting the SS and the Saturn to be there out of my garage.

I know Tiresmoker is in on this - anyone else?

Is there a confirmed driver for the Saturn from Wadsworth to Nelson Ledges?

-Dave

Well, track day has come and gone. Conditions were great. Smoke, Mint, and Tom all made laps in the Saturn.
I was just there for moral support and chasing parts when the new right rear brake line burst.

Cobalt.........................................Impala SS.............................Saturn5


Brake line fails...........................BackOnTrack.........................BMW ouch


As you can see not everything went well, but the Saturn performed well and it will get all new HD brake lines.
Serious fun!

Apparently that BMW forgot which side goes up.

-BP

Needs to get a Jaguar, it'll always land on all 4.

-Dave

Had quite the adventure at the track yesterday. Leading up to the event I was quite busy getting the disc brake setup installed on the Saturn. We started on it Saturday night and it took until Wed night to get it all set – in time for Tom to pick it up. After Tom left I had to get all my gear in order and the spare parts, and I also set up the tune to put into the Impala to try to eliminate Stabilitrak.

I learned the night before that John was coming – meaning four of the five guys from the team would be there, though John did not have plans to drive the race car.

Got to the track and had to unload all my stuff, then downloaded the revised tune. Bumped the front tire pressure to 38 PSI. Took the Impala out on the track only to find the tune did nothing to change the problem with Stabilitrak.

Had a good run following Dave with the Cobalt SS. He was ahead and we made several laps in line. I could not catch him but he could not get away either. It was a lot of fun even though I was losing some time with the Stabilitrak kicking in.

Another problem started surfacing – the car was smoking slightly at the left front. It certainly looked like it was cooking the LF brake – which was a favorite for the Stabilitrak to use to slow the car. Did not smell like cooked brakes.

Suddenly the black flag came out. I saw the Saturn cross the start line. Soon we learned there was a car upside down in turn 4. As we started looking over there I saw the teal color. Well I knew the incident could not be out car so I racked my brain for who else had a teal car. Well there was no other teal car. We saw all the cars come in – except John. I knew it was him – he has a 2010 BMW 1 series he just bought earlier this year. Turns out Dave saw it and stopped to see if John was OK. John was not hurt in the accident. The brake fluid apparently boiled and he could not stop. He hit the barrier nose first and went up on it and slowly rolled over off the barrier. This took a good 40 minutes to get the car righted and off the track. It seems insurance will cover it since it was not a timed event (race).

In the 11 AM hour I was just getting to finding the fuses to disable the ABS when the Saturn blew out a brake line. This was a new stainless braided line we just installed. We contacted local Advance Auto and they could have a replacement rubber brake line at 1:30 PM. While we were waiting I went back to my place and picked up all the spares – including the rear drum brake lines which will work. Tom took the opportunity to bring his Mazda RX7 from my house to the track.

So I got back to the track in the 2 PM hour and Dave and my Dad had the line on the car. We debated the twist in the line but went for it. Bled the brakes and it was my turn to drive. Dave plopped the GoPro on the roof and I was off. He reminded me the car was ice cold before I left, so I took it easy for about a lap and a half. I let a few cars pass as I was warming up. It was good to start easy as I had to remember it was a stick shift car so I better shift. About the second time down the back straight (can't recall exactly) I let a late model Crossfire go by. I figured he would just disappear but after a little while I noticed he was not getting away. I hung with him for a few laps than as I shook the rust off I started closing the gap. I never did catch him but that was another great duel. That was a lot of fun – just love the way it drives. I can't wait to get the video to check out the lap times.

We had some discussion about the rear brake and it did seem like the disc brakes were grabbing better in the back though that might end up as a liability. Seems the backs may grab a little too much and may cause the back end to come around a little. I did notice this a little on my test session.

Next up was getting to fix the Impala. I tried to disconnect the ABS computer from the wiring harness but the car would not start! Then I took to removing the fuses for the ABS motors. Several lights on the dash stayed on but the car started.

Lo and behold it worked! Best time in early session was 1:26.89, this session I made 1:25.40. Improving my best of 1:26.00 from my April 27 trip. I actually got the car loose a couple times which I did not think possible with this front end heavy car. I'll need to think about if I need to fix that.

I really thought I would get more than .6 second. There is probably more from driving better. The real dividend will come later when I get better tires that won't be inhibited by that Stabilitrak.

Track only tire? Decisions decisions.

I also have to resolve the issue with the oil. At first I thought it was boiling out trans fluid but Tom suggested maybe it's splashing out due to lateral G's. I think this is possible so I'll need to think about that before next time.

To see MostMint in action, check here:

http://youtu.be/cO816WvDt-s

It's 30 minutes long -- first 15 is from this past Saturday, 2nd 15-minutes is from the October race. It's still uploading and will need to be processed. Probably won't be done till 10pm.

-Dave

Woohoo can't wait.

I pieced together several of the sessions and made a video thats 1:18 minutes long. It has Dave, Tom, and Andy. Unfortunately for Andy, it's the same clip (roof cam) as in the previous video.

It's saving now and will surely take several hours to upload to Youtube. I'll post a link when I have it.

-Dave

The video is uploading. If you thought it took a while to download 3GB, try uploading it..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwb0XUA67GM[/youtube]

-Dave