Texas World Speedway

Sh0velMan

8 are rally pads, aren't they? Just a really high coefficient of friction but not nearly as long lasting or temperature stable?

Or am I crazy?

They don't sell 6E for the Akebonos, or I'd probably have those. The 6 have been absolutely wonderful though. I've put many thousands of street miles plus a dozen autocross days and 4 or 5 track hours on them and they're maybe half way used up... Brilliant.

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wstar

I doubt they last as long, but they do grip harder, and they are for road-course stuff, too. I've only ever tried 6/5+ on the Akebonos, and 6Ex4 on the AP/Stillen kit, but my guestimation at this point is that 6/6E is even better for the Stillen kit than what I'm running now (but not enough that I'd throw out these front pads early), and that 8/6 would be ideal on slicks.

(Also in my post above everywhere that I said RC-5E I meant RC-5+ )

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YzGyz

I have a Nismo so that fang air duct is not really an option. This was posted yesturday and looks awesome.

Nismo bumper brake duct install

Thanks for the info. I don't plan on getting all this stuff or anything anytime soon. That is, if I get them. The only thing on my list is sound system and oil cooler kit because TX is friggin hot! Stop and go traffic sucks!

DR_

The Driver's Edge event was last weekend and we ran the track counter-clockwise this time. It rained a lot during the weekend and this first session turned out to be my fastest, even with full fuel and a passenger.

wstar

Nice vid! I had to miss out, still waiting to get the car into Lucas for cage work (any day now, supposedly, when the car before me on the list gets pushed out the door), and in the meantime the car's not really in a safely-trackable state until that's done given that all the factory safety gear has gone out the window. With luck I'll make the MSR-H event end of this month, and definitely back at TWS in November (+ whatever else I can pick up at TWS near the end of the year, maybe PDS and/or PCA).

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DR_

There are spots still open in green for January

I guess I was a ricer too.

wstar

^

Yeah sign up for that Driver's Edge, Jan 25/26, there's still spots in green. How much wear you put on the car is up to how deep you get into the hobby. The first weekend in Green won't be that bad. Just be aware that if you leave the car bone-stock (which isn't a bad idea the first time out), and you get to push it around a little hard in the green group, you might get into issues with rising oil temps and brake pad fade. As long as you keep an eye (on the oil temp gauge and how the brakes feel) and maybe take it easy for the final couple laps of a session when they're getting too hot, it'll be fine. The instructors at Driver's Edge are all nice people, and there's multiple classroom sessions for green as well - they'll walk you through everything else you need to know.

If you're unsure about the state of the car (I assume a 2011 was bought used), you might want to at least replace the brake fluid with some RBF600, maybe do an oil change if the oil in it isn't very fresh - and be sure to download the tech inspection form and get a good local shop to go over the car and sign it off.

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wstar

^ FYI - The 25 or 34 options listed with most of the kits are usually Series-6, unless whoever's selling the kit tells you otherwise. The 25 row on DR_'s (and mine) is a Series-9, which is wider. The major difference for oil cooling in our two setups at that time was airflow - his was mostly sitting in a stock bumper setup; mine had the grill fins cut out and replaced with metal mesh, and had some aluminum sheet used as an upper mount blocking off a lot of the over-the-top flow, forcing more air through the cooler, and a trans cooler sitting next to it so that there wasn't any easy bypass for the air in that direction either. Others have gone further with basically building a "box" extending forward from the oil cooler so that air that enters its frontal area is forced to go through instead of around.

I think, given the shape of the bumper area, the 25-row series-9 is better than the 34-row series-6, but even a 25-row series 6 helps a lot.

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x10370zx

That's really good info, thanks! Glad I didn't buy yet - I'll be sure to ask if it's a series 6 or series 9. I'm not sure if I'm willing to cut and mess with bumper pieces, but I guess if it needs it then I'll do what I have to. This brings me to an additional question:

How tall is your 25 row series-9 in relation to the bumper? Are there any rows that are being blocked because of height or does it sit ok? I'm worried that a good bit of the 34 row will get blocked by the stock bumper and hence won't really do a whole lot better than the 25. As mentioned I'm not too keen on cutting the bumper, but I'd be ok with making some sort of box or sheet to direct more air to it.

DR_

IMO the 25 wide is the way to go. It has the same BTU as the standard 34 but as you mentioned because the top of the 34 is blocked the 25 wide does a better job. Honestly though unless you have a good amount of experience and are pushing the car really hard, this setup will be overkill. If your car is a daily driver there is the downside that it takes longer for the oil to heat up. It also will over cool the oil when you aren't driving it hard, even with a thermostat on it. You will also need to put a block off plate over it during the cooler months.

x10370zx

That's good to hear. I had a sneaking suspicion the 25 would be plenty, but in another thread I started specific to this topic several gave me the "bigger is better" answer and recommended the 34. However... sounds like the 25 wide would be perfect for my application. I'm planning to log some track time starting in 2014 (maybe 3-4 times per year) and I'm a novice so it won't be pushed to the absolute limit.

The only reason I'm adding the cooler is to try the track this year and I want to make sure that I do everything right so my car (and I) are safe. During regular driving I've never had a temp issue (stays pegged on 220 on 100+ degree days, never higher).

My car is a DD, so when you say "longer to heat up" what kind of time are we talking? I do a lot of very short trips because everything is close to my house < 5 mins. How well does the car heat up with the cooler completely blocked? Is it comparable to stock or does it still take a fair bit of time to warm up? Sounds like I'd probably be ok to keep the cooler blocked off all the time except for track days because of all of my short trips.

wstar

Well, as you push it more it will become a necessity, but you *could* do your first weekend without it safely. It just means you'll have to back off the revs halfway through your sessions and not push as hard. Either way you're not gonna destroy the car, you're just going to lose some hard driving time. By the time you get to caring about the difference in the various larger sizes, the cost of switching out to a different Setrab core will be pretty marginal compared to everything else you're throwing at this hobby

Yeah short-tripping in the cooler months, you'll need the blockoff plate and you'll still need a little warmup time. Who knows in your particular situation and the weather variance, but you can expect something like 3-ish minutes idling in the driveway, then just take it easy on the throttle for the first 10 minutes or so on the road and by then the gauge should be up around 160 and climbing. Having an oil pressure gauge installed makes it easier - I use that during the warmup driving to know how hard I can push the revs/throttle as it warms (basically aim for staying under ~80-90 psi, at the ~100psi mark it opens the pressure bypass).

On those 5 minute trips if you're starting from dead-overnight-cold, you're probably looking at 2-3 minutes idle and then just staying light on the throttle for the whole trip. It's not ideal, but it is what it is. If you've already driven the car in the past couple of hours, it retains a fair amount of heat in the block though and warmup goes much faster. In the hot months it's really not much of an issue at all, and you might partially or completely unblock it on the street even.

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wstar

^ Yeah Driver's Edge is a really nice group/system/event/whatever, we're lucky to have them around here in TX. I still haven't been up to MSR in Cresson, but I may start branching out to there sometime in 2014, if I can't get my fill at TWS and MSR-Houston

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wstar

I wouldn't worry that much about the thermo - even with it, if I didn't have a blockoff I'd often hover at 150-160 on the highway in cold weather. I'd guess your on-track temps probably spiked up to 200 or more but you didn't notice. It would be difficult to cool this car's oil enough to maintain 180 in a track session, even in the bitter cold you've had up in that area lately

And yeah, by default the thermo plate is fully open in all senses. At temp it should close off the bypass and force oil through the cooler only (not the bypass).

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DR_

I might replace my 180 degree Mocal with the 200 degree one. If I were buying it from scratch and piecing a kit together I would go with the 200 degree one