SCCA EMod MGB GT V12 Build

Samebutdifferent said:

I've been lurking for some time, quietly cheering you on from afar in hopes you walk away with the top ranking.  Your fearlessness to tackle any and all obstacles is an example we should all take note of but more importantly, acknowledge and reward with our admiration and encouragement.  This latest event is proof that hard work and determination will prevail even in the darkest hours. 

Bridgett's driving performance (and painting expertise) has been an absolute delight to read about and then watch thanks to the many videos you post.  Her smile said it all in the latest installment and she should absolutely be in front of the camera as a general course of action.

You now have the major components in place which should alow you to focus on your driving and less on the fixing.  With a bit of fine tuning, and some serious seat time, I truly believe you can make a serious run for the top spot.

Congratulations on a great weekend and best of luck in the future.

To quote Briget about what you wrote "That was a beautiful post" and I hope I can get her on camera more. She is usually kinda indifferent about racing but after matching my times, she has not stopped talking about it. She's genuinely excited about driving the car now. I have figured out where we are lacking. We are used to radial tires and these R25B Hoosiers are bias ply and require a much larger slip angle to get the most out of them. We have a steep learning curve to get up to the experience of Jeff Kiesel (who,btw, had a private tire test at the Lincoln site the day after the event) on concrete but hopefully we can really concentrate on the driving now that the car is working. I always thought the car was doing 80-81 mph at redline in 2nd gear but the GPS said I was doing only 75 mph and that would explain all the time bouncing against the limiter. I will change the diff ratio to get us a few more mph.

It was pointed out to me that my side by side video should have been sync'd to where the timer starts, not where the car starts moving so I made a new video with that change made and I added unseen video of my attempt to narrate a run while driving it (spoiler-I can't talk and drive at the same time) Episode 242 Bonus Footage

Yup,another video hot on the heals of the last one. Episode 243 Where has all the traction gone?

You've mentioned tires a lot this season- did you change them what you used to run?

We tried r25b's last year on our Street Prepared Miata and I am not a fan.

Like you say, the slip angle needed is quite large and I don't think we could get enough in rapid transitions. It is a very different way to drive.

Your lack of traction could be the tires cycling out. That was the first sign the tires were dead for us. You can try a little Formula V, but it didn't make much of an impact for us. There was a ton of rubber left on them, but no more grip.

For us, they were good for two events with two drivers before being trashed.

YMMV

alfadriver said:

You've mentioned tires a lot this season- did you change them what you used to run?

Back in the V12 and V8 days we ran Avons but for the last 4 years we have run Hoosiers. I guess talking about the tires is a good thing because it means the car doesn't have other problems. Some say the Hoosiers are good for only 20-30 runs and I don't know if that is true. It might be but we always run brand new tires for Nationals. The front tires on the car are new this year and have only been used for testing and the rears are from last year but the balance of the car is good. I've heard that the Avons keep their performance much longer and maybe I should look into going back to them. They cost a lot more than the Hoosiers and are harder to get but if they are just as fast and last longer, then they're worth it. 

I have nowhere near the experience as you do, but when I ran Goodyear bias slicks on the Super 7, the car just felt "off" half-way through the third or fourth event.  Worked out to about 15 minutes of runs between me and my co-driver.

We ran them another two years, but they definitely went off relatively early on.

Dirt track guys grind their tires between races, to get rid of glazing or "sealing up" of the tire surface.

My drag racing buddy prefers Hoosier, he gets an amazing amount of runs out of them.

In reply to bentwrench :

I found that Hoosiers work harden after one race  but really aggressive tire warm up during the pace lap gets me 90% of the traction back. But I feel like a jerk with everybody around me avoiding me even though I tell them my intentions before we are flagged off.  

I don't think we can compare dirt track, drag race and road race compounds of Hoosiers. They have very different requirements, qualities and construction. Local events are low grip asphalt and we run brand new tires for important events in Lincoln so maybe them going off isn't really a big deal. 

I had a local event and in an attempt to get traction, I softened my suspension settings. The balance of the car remained amazing and I could really throw it around but I didn't have enough heat in the tires and my lap times suffered. Episode 244 Whew, that was close

We had a two day event and day 1 was no fun as we wrestled with traction issues. On day 2 I still had no grip but still had fun because I drove really well and still got good results. And I found out why I have no grip.

Episode 245 Well, there's my problem

Got your money's worth out of those tires.

You can almost see the air in them!

Looks like the back end is taking all the abuse.  With the power to weight ratio you have, it's simply killing the tires due to your traction issues.  No wonder Bridgett said it was no fun. 

Bridgett.  Don't give up.  This is exactly the kind of experience which builds your driving skills and makes you a better driver.  You've proven you can match his times so the ability is there.  Now you need to continue to build confidence and learn how the car behaves in different conditions and adjust accordingly.  Also, you might want to do your own walk around to verify the tires are OK.  ;)

The car used to really punish the front tires. So much that the fronts would be corded and the rears were still visually great. We would bag the rears and buy 4 new tires. Now the car is pretty neutral but the rears get slightly more use than the fronts. For local events we bought a new set of fronts this year and the rears are a set from 2018. We use the pyrometer to check tire temps after runs and never spotted any cords, we just knew the tires were not getting up to temp anymore. This two day event just peeled off the last bit of rubber. If I had seen how little rubber was left, we could have put another set of rear tires on before this double header. I got them mounted today because there is another double header in two weeks. These rears look to have about 50% tread left, the dimples are still pretty healthy. Briget is not a shrinking violet but sometimes if things don't start off on the right foot, her confidence is rattled and she can't just shake it off. That first run is very important for how well she does after that. What I'm going to do from now on is put my mildest tune in the car for her first run and ramp it up as she gains confidence. If she had no boost on her first run, she wouldn't have looped it. Or, if we had good rear tires, she wouldn't have looped it.

Looose C .....what was the ambient temp that day? ....sorry didn't eve finish the video....I'm looking at a surface riddled with tar strips and GRASS?!?!?!!!!???? and you're talking adding weight.....sorry not all things are equal in this scenario..eh???? Now you go give Briget a big hug and tell her she did NOTHING WRONG.....I'm pretty dang sure Nationals in Lincoln Neb. has a surface that will suit all participants.....I'm not but if i was(owner) I'd go home and start painting the 'P' ..peace out..

In reply to 759NRNG :

The air temp was low 20's C and I removed the weight before running. We will have new Hoosiers for Nationals and I know the car is great on decent tires. Briget feels a lot better about her driving now that she saw the rear tires.

Any day now, the August edition of Grassroots Motorsports will hit your mailbox and you will see a full spread on the Pink Panther. I feel this is a good time to release a video that goes through all the versions of the car. Episode 246 The many versions of the Pink Panther

I vote gray paw prints......great article.....but i'm a bit partial 

759NRNG said:

I vote gray paw prints......great article.....but i'm a bit partial 

You have your paper copy of GRM?

Yeppers came early this week....anything in particular you want to know about, or can you wait?

759NRNG said:

Yeppers came early this week....anything in particular you want to know about, or can you wait?

No, I've seen the article in digital form.

What? Another video? Yes! The local club put on a double header and had one event in the morning and one in the afternoon. For the morning I created a new, even milder torque map to try (I call it level 0) and the car felt like a Miata. I was able to gap all the cars except that yellow CM car, who spanked me pretty good. I can't blame the tires, they were good, my driving was not good enough. For the afternoon event I put my suspension back to the settings I used in Lincoln and I cranked up the tune to level 8. Now the car felt seriously quick and I chopped the gap to first in half, but still finished 2nd overall. The courses were really tough to read and even after multiple course walks, I would lose sight of where to go and would pause before committing to a turn. This cost me time,obviously. Our courses have no flour to mark the edges and there are lots of doubling back on elements so it can be very confusing. Briget hates running local events because of this. I'm guessing that 25% of the drivers got lost and DNF'd one of their runs.

Episode 247 Double Header

It was awesome to read the article. Congrats!! 

In reply to loosecannon :

I'm glad you commented about the course layout- I'm thinking the exact same thing while watching you drive the course.  Instead of using so many straight, dense, cone lines, they could do a lot better with the flow layout, and then flour the entire outline.  If I were the designer, and saw that more than 5% went off course, I'd seriously look at the design.  It's not an obstacle course, it's a race course.