Sonic does One Lap 2016

Sleepyhead, while you are right that our time trials are only three laps, we have a warm-up and a cool-down too. Typically for a normal track-day, a few laps won't overheat the brakes but as we run on new tracks each day with only one lap for practice, brake use during the actually time trial tends to harder than most expect. Behr Brakes considers our event very hard on brakes. Make sure your brakes are in top condition with new fluid, especially for Road America as it will be near the end of the week and the speeds will be very high, therefore the need for good, working brakes with be really important.

I think keeping TC off is important for keeping these big cars cool. The V will have very bad smells come from the rear if I leave it on and play mash the gas. I've never had any issues with the fronts but I'm also purposely on the brakes one full brake marker before I think I need to be. For me, the most important part of an 80% lap is the braking.

Yes, but leaving traction control on can keep you from making a really big "Ooops!!" on a track that you don't know...

Make your choices wisely...

Brock2 wrote: Typically for a normal track-day, a few laps won't overheat the brakes but as we run on new tracks each day with only one lap for practice, brake use during the actually time trial tends to harder than most expect. Behr Brakes considers our event very hard on brakes.

Sure enough Brock. I suppose being a n00b/slower-driver, as well as driving light/underpowered cars at OneLap has skewed my braking perspective a bit.

sorry about that.

Brock2 wrote: Make sure your brakes are in top condition with new fluid, especially for Road America as it will be near the end of the week and the speeds will be very high, therefore the need for good, working brakes with be really important.

This!

although, two full track days at Summit Main, with sharing the car should be a pretty good shakedown for the track rigors of OneLap. Addressing brake cooling now, might save you from having to drive around the problem during the event, letting you enjoy it more... and having to take fewer risks.

In this car, the traction control can never really be turned off, though when you put it in ESP "off" mode, it will give no stability control, but still give some traction control. Gentle throttle application is necessary, even with the limited slip differential and 285 tires in the rear. It is quite controllable in a slight drift through.

As far as brakes go, that was the work done today for the most part. At Summit, we did get a bit of wear on the brakes, but not that much considering how much it was driven on track over 3 days, and hauling the car down from 130+ to 60 or so into turn 1 certainly worked them hard. I was braking fairly early and not really engaging the ABS, and everything was lasting fine in the 20-40 minute sessions. Temp readings right when I got back to the paddock were around 400F on the rotors and around 300F on the calipers, and no indications of fade.

I had the fresh set of tires mounted to the track wheels this week, with the set of testing tires mounted to the BMW's wheels, no issues there. Having both sets of wheels handled at the same time makes it clear how heavy these wheels are, they are much harder to lift than the forged wheels on the BMW, more than the additional little bit of width would account for.

Today I did an oil change (9 quarts of Mobil1 0-40 euro formula, OEM AMG filter), gave the brakes a quick bleed (Motul 600), and swapped in the new set of brake pads all around. The pads on the car were more than 50%, so those are all kept as spares and going with us just in case. I still need to bed in the pads, though they are the same compound as what was on there before, so the transfer layer should be OK.

I've never had a car with monobloc calipers before, and changing brake pads is just so easy. Undo one bolt, drive out two pins, and then slide the pads out the back. Pushing the 3 pistons per brake pads into the bores wasn't hard, it just took holding 3 screwdrivers at a time to push all three pistons in at the same time.

I'm still amazed at how big these brakes are. 15.2" rotors, and the pads are about as big as my hand.

At this point, the car is basically ready to go...the spare tire is in the truck with the plastic box of stuff, and everything else is all together and ready to go. This coming week is going to be a big thrash at work, and tomorrow is a thrash on the Lemons Citroen SM, and it doesn't help that I have the flu while doing all this, I just hope that Chrissy doesn't catch it, as a 4000 mile week with the flu will not be any fun.

The flu? E36 M3, that sucks. Hope you're back to 100% soon so you can really enjoy the week. Post lots of pictures.

T minus 43 hours until we leave. The car is ready. Tools and car stuff is all ready and some of it is in the car. We need to pack clothes and stuff. I'm 80% over the flu, and Chrissy is starting to be on the mend.

We still are not showing a car number on the One Lap site, when most other cars have their numbers assigned. We are all paid and have sent in all of our documents, with confirmation from Brock that he got everything, so maybe tomorrow?

This is kind of anti climactic being ready like this. Even the Lemons cars are pretty well ready for the race the week we get home.

I finally got all the cars listed and put in car numbers. While not quite a random numbering, it's done and not meant to insult anyone. The only time they are important is at Tire Rack the first day.

What number did you get Sonic? I hear we're 58.

Brock, no worries, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything!

Mazdeuce: 52

Packing the car...we hit the road for South Bend as soon as Chrissy gets home from work. There was no way we were going to make it tonight, so no particular rush. We will go as far as we can tonight, probably short of South Bend as that is 9.5 hours away according to Google. From what Seth said, there isn't much rush to be there tomorrow, so we'll get there when we do, likely mid morning.

Butter Flys of the stomach variety?

Not really nervous, not having any pressure on ourselves to win anything really helps with that. More just excitement of a fun impending adventure.

Have a nice comfortable drive over there. No reason to get too tired before things even start. Remember, you're largely responsible for setting your own run groups after the first track day. The goal is to be running with a group that lets you get nice clean laps without holding anyone up. If it were me (and it was last year) I'd find Karl in the factory Acura MDX and stay close to him. Super nice guy and we enjoyed running in the same group as him.

Good luck! Enjoy the hell out of it, I'll be there in spirit.

-Hans

Have fun and good luck, my friend!

In reply to Sonic:

(Granted I haven't looked at FB much today, but) Why the F were you so quiet about this on FB? I didn't even know the AMG was purchased! Business was so strong since late January that I haven't made any time to get on the GRM board.

Man, the depreciation on these cars is just alarming in that you're able to casually grab one as a (wacky) track toy.

This is gonna be one hell of an adventure! I hope it's a safe, fun blast. Please do update on FB. Also, is Chrissy on Instagram (I'm assuming you aren't )

Heads up Sonic, sleepyhead and his co-driver have recovered a One Lapper from a car that didn't make it to the start. They're bringing him to SB but are pretty smushed and are going to be contacting you so see if that luxo barge of yours has any extra room. If you don't hear from them tonight they should find you at the start tomorrow.

FYI, update on the post above... the stranded driver found a ride with a perennial One Lap participant... so that's sorted. So, no worries if you don't have room... yet

We're still en route. Left yesterday at 4pm, went a bit more than 500 miles and crashed in western OH. We should be in South Bend by 11. We will have a quick stop at a car wash so we have a clean car for stickers.

Gamby, I haven't opened Facebook in months, though now race season is starting I will now. Can't say I've missed it much. I think we are going to post updates in the 3PM page. Neither of us are on instagram

We're here at Tire Rack. It started raining right as we got here so putting stickers on in the rain was fun. So glad we got the pop up tent. Now sitting in line for tech.

Fortunately sleepyhead introduced himself and gave us some pointers about tech that nobody else did like bring your race gear and first aid kit and fire bottle to tech.

I reset the trip computer as we left the driveway at home, here is the update so far.

It will be interesting to watch your average MPG over the course of the event! Excited to follow along!!

I guess you didn't need that spray bottle after all.

Between the 20mpg highway and 6mpg track, I'm estimating it to even out around 16, which is about what I get in normal daily mixed driving.

I did use the spray bottle! It is full of quick detailer to wash the dirt off of the car before the stickers, and I'm glad I brought a few big old towels to try to dry the car off. Chrissy has all the stickers in the trunk and was peeling them and handing them to me one by one as the spots were clean and dry-ish.

Made it through tech no problem.

I see you're at 97k miles. Does that mean the car will roll to 100k during the event?

Seems like a great way to mark the milestone.

Cheering for you from home. I just want to point out that my home is about 5 miles north of The Ohio Turnpike at Exit 118. Contact me for any needs you might have between Toledo and Cleveland.
jwelsh02...yahoo...