wstar's Journal

wstar

Belated random updates!

Got the house and truck part nailed down. Now I have an acre of land in a unrestricted area and the Z has a 3-car garage all to itself, way out north of Houston close to Pinehurst, and I just picked up a used '05 Ford F-150 as a DD / tow-vehicle

Made it to the TDE event at MSR-H for the weekend of Jan 26/27 a little over a week ago. It was my first event back since September, and I really had to shake some rust off. I think I picked a bad time in my development to be putting such huge gaps in the timeline, but that's life. So mostly I was just trying to get back up to where I was before all weekend.

Mostly it went well. 2nd to last session Sunday was in very wet conditions, and my rear 295-width Conti DW's had already worn down pretty close to dead flat on tread by then. It was kinda hilarious. I had an instructor for this run. She jumped in the car at the grid and asked what my plans were for the session. I said something like "Hey it's wet and I've got almost no tread left, I'm just gonna take it easy and try not to spin", and then I proceeded to spin out on the first tight corner of the warmup lap. It came on outta nowhere without really feeling it give way first, and I corrected poorly. Luckily it was at very low speed and we just kinda drifted off track as we were spinning in slow motion and then drove back on when it was clear. It was still kinda stupid and embarrassing

Had another related first-ever event: first time I've ever had another car spin out directly in front of me mid-corner. This was in the dry, and the car had just passed me on the previous straight and entered a bit off-line and aggressive. I made it around him, but it was tough to avoid that "oh **** just stop" automatic mental reaction. I probably hesitated a fraction longer than I should have, but it still went well and I never came to a complete stop.

The CL brake pad setup (RC6 / RC5+) was pretty amazing, I was thoroughly impressed with how consistent the pads were on-track, and how much easier they were to modulate than my previous (Carbotech). Not that I'm yet the world's best at braking, but these are gonna make my life easier.

I did develop some brake vibrations on the second day, but I was feeling it in the chassis and pedal more than the steering wheel for once, assumed it was the rear rotors going and just drove through it for the rest of the event.

I got my post-analysis finished up yesterday on the car, and yes that was it. I had switched to a new set of DBA4000's in the front, but still had a set of cheap Z1 rotors on the back that have been on since back when I was having other brake issues with vibration. Either they were damaged back then and it took a while to show up, or they're just not capable of handling the heat. Either way, who cares. The front (DBA4000) rotors checked out on the dial gauge (at multiple radius on both sides) to within .001 still, and thickness variation random samples were all within .001 as well, so those are still perfect post-event.

The rear (Z1) I only checked via dial gauge along the outside surface (since the shield covers the back), but even that was just all over the map around .006-ish variation, and often the sweep on that was pretty dramatic within a few inches. Ordered some DBA4K's for the rear to replace from kamispeed, and will check out the rear pads at that time and see if I need to clean them up (flatten em out a bit with a grinder) before re-bedding.

Next event is Mar 2/3 TDE at TWS in College Station. I've got a fresh set of Conti DW tires to go on the existing wheels, getting those mounted and balanced today. Other than that I'm just gonna get phunk's fuel starve kit (waiting here in a box) installed and probably not much else between now and March, although I may start ordering parts for the next phases of work to occur in mid-late March.

My phone was still down for datalogging purposes, so I didn't bother. I think I'm gonna put a Race Keeper in the car soon so I don't have to futz with phone stuff.

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