NWARC Lapping Day

Contents

Summary

• Highlights
  • As usual, NWARC (Northwest Alfa Romeo Club) ran the event really smoothly and very well. There were a lot of really great people at the track that day, which made for an awesome experience. Kudos to NWARC for a well-run event!
  • Nothing broke; the car is still in the same number of pieces as it started out; I didn't go gopher hunting at all; I didn't swap ends; and I kept the shiny side up.
  • My brakes held up to everything I threw at them. No fade, no boiled fluid. Minimal rotor wear, and < 9% pad wear.
  • Coolant and oil temps were much lower than last year, probably due to the upgraded oil cooler.
• Lowlights
  • It was wet or raining for the first 2 sessions, so I had to drive much more conservatively. The RA-1 tires did quite well in the wet - better than I expected for an R-compound tire.

Track Map

©2004 Pacific Raceways, Inc.

Track Description The Pacific Raceways Road Course is an SCCA and NASCAR certified, 10-turn (9 turns with a "kink" in the main straightaway), 2.25-mile course. There is a total elevation change of 125 feet, of which 100 feet occurs in 1/2 mile. The course winds through natural wooded terrain, making it one of the most unique and challenging courses in the United States. ©2004 Pacific Raceways, Inc.

My Car Setup

• Brakes
  • Porterfield R4 Front Pads (AP531)
  • Porterfield R4-S Rear Pads (AP631)
  • OEM Rotors, Front and Rear (83,000 mi)
  • OEM Calipers
  • 3SX Performance SS Brake Lines
  • ATE Super Blue Brake Fluid
  • OEM Front Dust Shields Removed
  • Supercar Engineering Titanium Pad Backing Plates
• Tires/Wheels
  • 275/40/17 Toyo Proxes RA-1 Tires (Full Tread)
  • Cold Inflation Pressures: 39F/35R (@ 52F)
  • 5Zigen FN01R-C Wheels (17x9 +35)
• Suspension
  • Saner 28mm Front Anti-Sway Bar, Poly Bushings
  • TEC Performance Front Strut Tower Brace
  • Saner 25mm Rear Anti-Sway Bar, Poly Bushings
  • Cusco Rear Strut Tower Brace
  • OEM ECS Springs/Shocks (83,000mi)
  • ECS Shocks set to full stiff (Sport Mode)
• Engine
  • K&N Aircharger Filter
  • ek2 Development Downpipe
  • High-flow Pre-Cats
  • OEM Main Catalytic Converter
  • OEM Cat-Back Exhaust
  • Blitz DS Boost Controller (R:54 G:9, 0.84kg/cm² sustained)
  • Near-stock (12psi) boost levels.
  • ERL Aquamist 2s Water Injection System (170cc/m peak)
  • Mobil1 0W40 Synthetic Oil
  • 30/70 Coolant Water Mixture with Redline Water Wetter
  • MSD 8224 Ignition Coils, Magnacor Wires
  • OEM NGK Spark Plugs at 0.039"
  • Supra Fuel Pump (Hotwired w/ 8ga wire)
  • AEM Fuel Pressure Regulator (52psi differential)
  • Cleaned and Balanced (by RC Engineering) OEM Injectors
  • Custom Front-Mount Setrab Oil Cooler
  • HKS Side-Mount Intercoolers
  • 3SX Performance Polyurethane Motor Mounts
  • Shell 92 octane fuel (no race gas)
• Driveline
  • Redline MT-90/MTL Mix in Transaxle
  • Redline MT-90/MTL Mix in Transfer Case
  • Redline 75W90 in Rear Differential
  • Solid Shifter Bushings (engine bay and interior)
• Instrumentation
  • Full Defi BF Series II Sensors/Gauges
  • Mirage Mitsubishi Hybrid Datalogger for Palm
• Camera
  • Sony TVR-25 Mini-DV Camcorder
  • 0.5x Wide-Angle Lens
  • 6" Suction Cup Mount from FilmTools.com
  • Camera mount mounted to inside of sunroof glass

Equipment Report

• Brakes
  • No cooling problems at all, even with slowly increasing my top-speed on the front straight. No boiled or black fluid, and no pad fade that I could detect.
• Tires
  • I'm still getting used to R-compound tires, but I can definitely tell there's a lot more grip available. That's due to the extra 30mm of tread width (275 vs. 245) and the stickier compound. R-compound tires also don't talk to you much when you're at the limit, so I'm having to learn how to tell when I've asked too much of the tires by feel instead of feel and noise.
• Suspension
  • For my current driving ability and the way the rest of the car is set up, I have lots of great things to say about this suspension setup. The car is extremely predictable and forgiving, and it sticks pretty well.
• Engine
  • Nothing broke, nothing leaked, and I got to go fast.
  • I had some low-level knock throughout all 4 sessions. Most of it was under partial throttle conditions, as I see on the street. Actually, I had the most frequent knock in the 1st two sessions, when it was wet and I was running slower and 1 gear higher than normal. I'll try adding some race gas at the next track day to see if it makes this low-level knock go away...
  • In 1 of the sessions, I had a knock spike under WOT conditions. It was just a 10 out of nowhere on an abrupt throttle transition and then it went away - perhaps driveline backlash or something if it wasn't real knock.
  • My new oil cooler ROCKS! As you can see below, I observed a significant reduction in both oil temps an coolant temps when compared to last year with the OEM cooler. Sweeeeeet.
• Driveline
  • Didn't break anything, so it was a good day :-)

Numbers and Data

• General Data (Metric)

  		Typical		Extreme
  		Low	High	Minimum	Maximum
  Water Temperature	C	84	85	83	87
  Oil Temperature Post-Cooler, Pre-Engine	C	100	103	99	104
  Exhaust Gas Temperature Post-Turbine with Water Injection	C	600	720	560	755
  Oil Pressure	kg/cm2	4.5	6.6	3.5	7.1
  Fuel Pressure Differential, Pre-injectors	kg/cm2	3.6	3.7	3.2	3.7
  WOT Manifold Pressure	kg/cm2		0.84		0.97
  Knock	ECU Count	0	5	0	15






• General Data (Standard)

  		Typical		Extreme
  		Low	High	Minimum	Maximum
  Water Temperature	F	183	185	181	188
  Oil Temperature Post-Cooler, Pre-Engine	F	212	217	210	219
  Exhaust Gas Temperature Post-Turbine with Water Injection	F	1112	1328	1040	1391
  Oil Pressure	psi	64	94	50	101
  Fuel Pressure Differential, Pre-injectors	psi	51	52	46	52
  WOT Manifold Pressure	psi		11.9		13.8
  Knock	ECU Count	0	5	0	15

  
  




• Brake Rotor Wear Data

  Discard Depth: 28.4mm (Front) Orig. Thickness: 30.0mm (Front)		Front		Rear
  		Left (Driver)	Right (Pass)	Left (Driver)	Right (Pass)
  Rotor Thickness (Before Event)	mm	29.75	29.74	19.88	19.82
  Rotor Thickness (After Event)	mm	29.70	29.70	19.88	19.82
  Wear (Due To Event)	mm	0.05	0.04	0.00	0.00
  Wear (Due To Event)	%	0.17	0.13	0.00	0.00






• Brake Pad Wear Data

  Orig. Total Thickness: ~15.0mm Orig. Pad Thickness: ~10.0mm		Left (Driver)		Right (Pass)
  		Outboard	Inboard	Inboard	Outboard
  Pad Material Thickness (Before Event, Leading Edge, including backing plate)	mm	11.66	11.18	11.70	11.53
  Pad Material Thickness (Before Event, Trailing Edge, including backing plate)	mm	11.45	10.93	10.83	11.56
  Average Pad Thickness (Before Event)	mm	11.56	11.06	11.77	11.45
  Pad Material Thickness (After Event, Leading Edge, including backing plate)	mm	10.71	10.24	11.14	10.75
  Pad Material Thickness (After Event, Trailing Edge, including backing plate)	mm	10.64	10.16	10.76	10.45
  Average Pad Thickness (After Event)	mm	10.68	10.20	10.95	10.60
  Average Pad Wear	mm	0.88 (8.8%)	0.86 (8.6%)	0.82 (8.2%)	0.85 (8.5%)





• Tire Wear Data

  Orig. Circum: 80.625in Orig. Radius: 12.832in		Front		Rear
  		Left (Driver)	Right (Pass)	Left (Driver)	Right (Pass)
  Tire Circumference (Before Event)	in	80.563	80.563	80.625	80.625
  Tire Circumference (After Event)	in	80.563	80.500	80.438	80.500
  Circumference Wear (Due To Event)	in	0.000	0.063	0.187	0.125
  Tread Depth Wear (Due To Event)	mm	0.000	0.234	0.756	0.505