Ewheels Road Course Build

[Ewheels]

it's supposed to be a SQUEEEEEEEEEEZE with ever increasing pressure, not STOMP! and hold it to the floor.

Yep, I was definitely doing the latter

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[PaddyPrix]

Second session comes around and I luckily find @PaddyPrix near grid. He comes by the car to say hi and I ask him if he'll do a ride along with me. Patrick....thank you! He corrected my line in a few places which I'll need to practice but the biggest take away was he informed me of my poor braking habits. Apparently I'm too hard on the brakes. Completely murdering the brake pedal; which is upsetting the car and overheating the brakes. Patrick said to back off 10% pressure and start braking a little earlier. I tried this the following session and finally for the first time all weekend, I had zero braking issues!

So heh, the events leading up to that -- my 2nd session I was supposed to take the TT group out for the parade lap. Some TT1 shows up with seconds to go who hadn't yet run, and because of how they placed on Saturday, they technically had a higher grid position, 2 to my 3. Apparently, they had never taken a group out before, and actually had no idea how we're supposed to even do things which, if you've never run with a TT/TA group before, okay, but like... weren't you paying attention yesterday? Maybe it's a 150k Porsche driver thing, I dunno. I went out with 3/4 a tank, which is dangerous territory with high G's and banking, because you're going to starve the engine. We came out of the playground at 60, and not ramping stuff off, and on the sticky sticky and having low fuel, I only had one shot. At the time I didn't know if he had a problem, but if so, that's the start of our straightaway, so pull off high to the bank and get out of the way. Realizing my session was over literally before it had even started, I just missed making it back into the pits/inpound, because I'm not going to waste a heat cycle on a blown session.

I am furio... no, livid. I'm as bright as my Flyers shirt, do the cooldown lap, blow past scales because it didn't improve, park the car, and go hunting for somebody to hand out some free dental work/weight reduction. Caught bossman just before I made it to the garage and had a change of heart, didn't want to catch some ban or DQ and toss my PB away just because somebody is a flippin' idiot, but that confusion was decently dangerous with all the high powered cars firing through, and explained my concern for everybody's wellbeing outside of lap times, just because dude has 200k for a race car doesn't mean that everybody else does too.

Knowing that my day was now definitely over, went on through the lineup to say hi and pass out encouragements, and caught you on the way through, and figured taking you up on that offer is at least another couple laps around my fave track, so why not After we do those laps, and you drop me back off at my garage, we go over my lap, and Christian stops by, we talk for a few minutes, and after you leave, somebody walks through handing out boxes of pizza, because I guess they over ordered for their Spec E46(E30?) party. Just my luck, it's a Philly Cheesesteak pizza (I'm from there) and Race Chaplain pulls out his keytar and starts rocking out Paradise City, my favorite Guns N' Roses song. Strange and funny how things have a way of working themselves out sometimes, huh?

Anyhow, glad to be of help, hope that it worked, and here's the video that I promised you -- -- so you don't have to so much compare my speeds to yours, or perhaps you do, at least in the turns. No sense trying to go 75 in a turn that I'm doing 50 in, it's not that you're faster, but there's a smoother line or that you're sacrificing one turn to get a better exit out/into another. Also try to look at how I try to keep the car nicely balanced, not that I always do, and something a lot easier said than done, and I myself still have a long way to go.

 

[Biggsy]

So heh, the events leading up to that -- my 2nd session I was supposed to take the TT group out for the parade lap. Some TT1 shows up with seconds to go who hadn't yet run, and because of how they placed on Saturday, they technically had a higher grid position, 2 to my 3. Apparently, they had never taken a group out before, and actually had no idea how we're supposed to even do things which, if you've never run with a TT/TA group before, okay, but like... weren't you paying attention yesterday? Maybe it's a 150k Porsche driver thing, I dunno. I went out with 3/4 a tank, which is dangerous territory with high G's and banking, because you're going to starve the engine. We came out of the playground at 60, and not ramping stuff off, and on the sticky sticky and having low fuel, I only had one shot. At the time I didn't know if he had a problem, but if so, that's the start of our straightaway, so pull off high to the bank and get out of the way. Realizing my session was over literally before it had even started, I just missed making it back into the pits/inpound, because I'm not going to waste a heat cycle on a blown session.

I am furio... no, livid. I'm as bright as my Flyers shirt, do the cooldown lap, blow past scales because it didn't improve, park the car, and go hunting for somebody to hand out some free dental work/weight reduction. Caught bossman just before I made it to the garage and had a change of heart, didn't want to catch some ban or DQ and toss my PB away just because somebody is a flippin' idiot, but that confusion was decently dangerous with all the high powered cars firing through, and explained my concern for everybody's wellbeing outside of lap times, just because dude has 200k for a race car doesn't mean that everybody else does too.

Knowing that my day was now definitely over, went on through the lineup to say hi and pass out encouragements, and caught you on the way through, and figured taking you up on that offer is at least another couple laps around my fave track, so why not After we do those laps, and you drop me back off at my garage, we go over my lap, and Christian stops by, we talk for a few minutes, and after you leave, somebody walks through handing out boxes of pizza, because I guess they over ordered for their Spec E46(E30?) party. Just my luck, it's a Philly Cheesesteak pizza (I'm from there) and Race Chaplain pulls out his keytar and starts rocking out Paradise City, my favorite Guns N' Roses song. Strange and funny how things have a way of working themselves out sometimes, huh?

Anyhow, glad to be of help, hope that it worked, and here's the video that I promised you -- -- so you don't have to so much compare my speeds to yours, or perhaps you do, at least in the turns. No sense trying to go 75 in a turn that I'm doing 50 in, it's not that you're faster, but there's a smoother line or that you're sacrificing one turn to get a better exit out/into another. Also try to look at how I try to keep the car nicely balanced, not that I always do, and something a lot easier said than done, and I myself still have a long way to go.

Sounds like you both had an eventful weekend. Congrats on the top finish.

Just curious, what is the proper way to take the grid out to the track? I dont understand how a driver could do that incorrectly. I am not familiar with TT rules but would like to get there at some point.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Sounds like you both had an eventful weekend. Congrats on the top finish.

Just curious, what is the proper way to take the grid out to the track? I dont understand how a driver could do that incorrectly. I am not familiar with TT rules but would like to get there at some point.

TY

Funny you say that, I didn't think that was possible either. Now I say this with a *, that all regions and whatnot could do it differently, and no insults, but on your very first time out, you're very likely not going to be leading the field, so you'll figure out your norms in one or two runs. So for us, we have just one TT run group, which spans super fast prototypes in TTU, all the way down to sub hundred rwhp 944's and Civics in TT6, which is a 45 second lap spread on some courses, especially power ones like Auto Club Speedway, which uses 1/3 of a NASCAR oval. We come out of the pits, and make our way at 40ish mph to unload everybody from their grid, and at the front, you don't really have too much sight of the whole field, but assume that everybody could start their cars and whatnot was worked out, but get some space, do your stop/starts and side-to-side scrubs to warm up tires, and there are a couple of points where you can take a turn and look back to glance at the pack.

Since tires warm up at different paces (A7 are seriously ready at half-lap, 3R need one full lap, street tires, ... why?), we're not allowed to pass on the first flying lap unless given a pointby. So, for us, there's a long straightaway on the inside, and a bunch of curves on the inside playground, as we start approach there, we're generally at yellow, and even faster pace as the expectation is to get a charge so that you hit the start/finish at full race pace. If I'm doing 1:45, and the slowest is say, 2:15, then that's a 30 second spread. That then says I've only got 3 laps before I start fighting through the back markers. That also assumes that we start all going full effort at the same time, which does not, if you think about traffic and all that, because by the time I fly at the front, they're still several turns behind and delayed, and being down on power, etc... meaning I've really only got 2 clean flying laps, at best.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

TY

Funny you say that, I didn't think that was possible either. Now I say this with a *, that all regions and whatnot could do it differently, and no insults, but on your very first time out, you're very likely not going to be leading the field, so you'll figure out your norms in one or two runs. So for us, we have just one TT run group, which spans super fast prototypes in TTU, all the way down to sub hundred rwhp 944's and Civics in TT6, which is a 45 second lap spread on some courses, especially power ones like Auto Club Speedway, which uses 1/3 of a NASCAR oval. We come out of the pits, and make our way at 40ish mph to unload everybody from their grid, and at the front, you don't really have too much sight of the whole field, but assume that everybody could start their cars and whatnot was worked out, but get some space, do your stop/starts and side-to-side scrubs to warm up tires, and there are a couple of points where you can take a turn and look back to glance at the pack.

Since tires warm up at different paces (A7 are seriously ready at half-lap, 3R need one full lap, street tires, ... why?), we're not allowed to pass on the first flying lap unless given a pointby. So, for us, there's a long straightaway on the inside, and a bunch of curves on the inside playground, as we start approach there, we're generally at yellow, and even faster pace as the expectation is to get a charge so that you hit the start/finish at full race pace. If I'm doing 1:45, and the slowest is say, 2:15, then that's a 30 second spread. That then says I've only got 3 laps before I start fighting through the back markers. That also assumes that we start all going full effort at the same time, which does not, if you think about traffic and all that, because by the time I fly at the front, they're still several turns behind and delayed, and being down on power, etc... meaning I've really only got 2 clean flying laps, at best.

man sometimes I feel like I’m missing out not racing. But all this ima pass on at least for now. I love being able to go out and just have fun hot lapping.

 

[Ewheels]

Here's some pictures from the weekend:

 

[Ewheels]

Can't wait to install this! Man is it light weight!

Also played with the Nasa TT calculator more....if I use a +0 category tire (3R or A7) and given my stock horsepower, my minimum allowed weight would be 3901 with driver. With this seat and removal of the passenger seat, I'm right there. So I will be right at the competitive edge in TT3 with a full interior car. I like the sound of that......or I could remove more weight and add ballast back....probably won't go that far.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

Nice Eric you’re gonna love that seat.

Get out that wallet if you wanna run a7’s!

 

[Ewheels]

Nice Eric you’re gonna love that seat.

Get out that wallet if you wanna run a7’s!

I'm hoping it helps as much as I've heard it helps others.

Definitely don't have a budget for A7's but 3R's with possibly that USAA discount, that I can make work.

 

[Ewheels]

Got the seat installed over the weekend. In hindsight, the install was pretty easy but in the moment, I was rather confused. Couldn't figure out how the harnesses attach at first and didn't anticipate how iterative the process would be to get the seat lined up and the harness straps to the right lengths. With so many variations in car, seat, base plate, and harnesses, youtube wasn't actually all that helpful. Luckily, @Scootsmcgreggor has an almost identical setup and was able to give me some pointers. Thank you sir!
Also, @2morrow and Scott answered some questions about stock belt receivers and seat belt chimes.

Love the look and feel! Waiting on some extra hardware to properly mount the lap belts but otherwise, it's all done.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

Siiiiiick nice Eric.

Also check that post I sent you about setting the spacing for the shoulder belts where they wrap around the harness bar. Need to set the width to make sure the belts don’t slip off your hans. There are collars you can buy that clamp around the bar for this purpose.

 

[Ewheels]

Siiiiiick nice Eric.

Also check that post I sent you about setting the spacing for the shoulder belts where they wrap around the harness bar. Need to set the width to make sure the belts don’t slip off your hans. There are collars you can buy that clamp around the bar for this purpose.

The Watson bar actually has a welded-on bracket on the back for the belts to slide through. They're maybe twice as wide as the 2" belts so a little movement but nothing substantial. Couldn't find a picture online...

EDIT: similar to this

 

[gone_n_60]

Love this thread, even though I can't figure out 70% of the abbreviations.

 

[Ewheels]

Love this thread, even though I can't figure out 70% of the abbreviations.

Any in particular you need clarification on?

 

[gone_n_60]

TT, TT3 any TT, TA used to be T*ts and A** guess not here, LOL. 3R's, leading grids for TT's? Spec E... or A7's and so on. Likely it's one of these "well once you start tracking you'll learn.." things?

presently I'm Novice 1st Class.

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