Nicely done.
How does it ride over the kerbs? I noticed that on the first lap in the video you take less kerb than the second lap (experimenting?).
Photography Credit: Hillary Frank
Three weeks ago, our C5 Corvette Z06 didn’t even run as we were in the final throes of an LS3 engine swap.
Shakedown sessions went well, although an oil leak and high oil temperatures sent us back to the shop.
This past weekend at the Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials Nationals Powered by Hagerty, we finished seventh overall out of 200-plus entrants. NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, again hosted the event.
Photography Credit: Hillary Frank
On the way home from the 2019 running of the Time Trials Nationals, we pulled our Corvette’s original LS6 engine in preparation for the LS3 swap. It felt fitting for the car’s return to competition to take place at the 2021 edition of the same event.
This time, though, we were packing another 70 wheel horsepower.
After some minor sorting issues during Thursday’s test day—very minor considering we had just swapped engines—the car ran flawlessly all weekend.
Our last-minute decision to add an Improved Racing oil cooler paid off as track temperatures on Friday and Saturday crossed the 100-degree mark, and our oil temps—previously a metric we had to keep a close eye on—were never an issue.
Our crate LS3 ran brilliantly, fed by a steady stream of Sunoco E85 and lubricated by 10-plus quarts of Driven Racing Oil in our Aviaid dry-sump system. All those late nights covered in oil paid off in excellent reliability after all.
[How to corn your way to more horsepower.]
This was our first event on the new Goodyear Eagle RS DOT competition tires.
Initial impressions: very predictable and very easy to drive.
Ultimate grip? Hard to say, as the track conditions were far from ideal due to regular rain showers. And when it wasn’t raining, the coolest track temps that we saw measured 128 degrees. Once we're back, we hope to do some real testing.
The data did show the extra power, though: Compared to our last visit to NCM Motorsports Park, we saw higher terminal velocities and quicker exits.
Our drive resulted in a seventh-place overall finish and fourth in the Unlimited class against some of the top time attack cars in the country.
Ultimately, we were able to make the most important drive of the weekend—the one back onto the trailer—under the car's own power. We just wrapped our engine install less than a month ago, but lots of hard work by Spiker Motorsports and tuning by Redline Tuning Services gave us a perfectly reliable package.
Our biggest advantage, possibly: dealing with a super-reliable car all weekend.
We’ll chat more about the Corvette after a good shower and a couple days of rest. In the meantime, ride along for one of our better laps at NCM.
Nicely done.
How does it ride over the kerbs? I noticed that on the first lap in the video you take less kerb than the second lap (experimenting?).
In reply to Tom1200 :
JG's still on the road but, dang, the car looks good there.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
That is indeed a great shot.
Tom1200 said:Nicely done.
How does it ride over the kerbs? I noticed that on the first lap in the video you take less kerb than the second lap (experimenting?).
Ultimately it depends on the curb and the shape of the landing area, but mostly it's extremely compliant if you get into the curb near or at the apex when you have some good cornering force built. Getting into on on entry can be a little upsetting just because the car is a bit stiff, but once it takes a set on the outside tires, you can really launch the insides.
It's particularly nice with the new WaveTrac diff in there. Before with the original clutch diff, the landings under throttle could upset the car a bit. To the point where you can probably still hear me lifting on some landings just because I'm used to needing to land at neutral throttle. But with the WaveTrac it handles that freewheeel period much smoother, and lands under power much more controllably.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Nice meeting you, hope your tow home was drama free!
Here's me almost KO'ing a turtle (silver miata, not camera car) - I dove into the hotpits and our coach wasn't sure what I was getting at, but eventually got the picture. You'll be pleased to know he was escorted off the track with no damage!
accordionfolder said:Here's me almost KO'ing a turtle (silver miata, not camera car) - I dove into the hotpits and our coach wasn't sure what I was getting at, but eventually got the picture. You'll be pleased to know he was escorted off the track with no damage!
Glad to hear he survived his sprint across the track. I heard a hawk didn't fare so well at some point maybe?
I almost clobbered a turkey at the FIRM a couple weeks ago. That would have been a fun insurance report.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
The hawk definitely didn't make it. I'll try to find the picture, it's not particularly graphic - there were several jokes made about how it wasn't a good way to represent Hawk brakes....
My "racers are good people" is from a scene in On Any Sunday where the guy saves a tortoise.
A turtle has been there since we opened the track I'm not sure if it is the same one though
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