Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

[honeybadger]

Wow, great pictures and sounds from the track.

I stopped in the little speed shop at Watkins Glen during the BMW club event I was doing.
Unbeknownst to me until they started talking, there were a bunch of corner workers hanging out in there. When I walked in they started talking to me about my car. Going on and on about how great it sounded. First I was surprised that they knew who was driving it, I guess they really don't miss anything if they could recognize me without my helmet, and second, I asked them, you must hear some pretty exotic stuff up here? They confirmed they did, but that the GT350 is like music.

And as usual for your threads, I have a few more questions, What material brake studs did you go with?

And darn, I overlayed a new video to see if I could find the obd dongle extended menu with no luck? I think I explored every menu in HLT and can't find it.

[MENTION=29991]JT1[/MENTION] What an awesome story. This car sure is a treat to own. A really great place between exotic and affordable. It has a lot of the awe of an exotic without as much of the stereotyping and general negativity.

I went with 4340 since it seems to be the recommendation for track users. Although when I asked about the difference between the 2 for use cases, I got the impression both really will work fine. I also liked how the 4340 studs were black.

Regarding the HLT video - what OBDII dongle are you running?Do you have all the data setup in your settings for your car? Screenshots below (follow the blue boxes).

Here are a couple of shots from the "My Ford" menu under Administration showing the details I've entered about the car that enables parts of the instrument cluster to show.

Apologies if this is too rudimentary, but uploading in case anyone else is new to HLT and learning how to export. But once you tap on export

You should see something like this (or something very similar). Here you can set how many seconds before and after the lap you want to include. Afterwards, swipe over to the left on the main part of the screen.

One you swipe over, you should see something like this. Extended provides the instrument cluster like in my videos. Standard provides just the speedo and tach I believe.

An apology is in order. This is a great thread and you've made it very enjoyable to read as you cover a pretty wide array of subject matter and the photos/videos make it a breeze to follow. So I shouldn't have chosen this thread to voice any displeasure. Keep up the good work and I look forward to following your exploits with this car.

No worries, Tob! While I might not share your passion for fabrication, put some shoddy user-experience in front of me and watch what happens

Thanks for the kind words! :cheers:

 

[keltykid350]

Nice meeting you and your dad at FFF, sorry I didn't get to see your Ruby. The R was beautiful! Hope you guys can make down next year.

 

[honeybadger]

Nice meeting you and your dad at FFF, sorry I didn't get to see your Ruby. The R was beautiful! Hope you guys can make down next year.

It was a pleasure to meet you as well! You have beautiful taste in color and options ;)

There is a chance I'll be back down in early August for the Mini-Nats. If so, we'll need to meet up!

 

[JT1]

[MENTION=29991]JT1[/MENTION] What an awesome story. This car sure is a treat to own. A really great place between exotic and affordable. It has a lot of the awe of an exotic without as much of the stereotyping and general negativity.

I went with 4340 since it seems to be the recommendation for track users. Although when I asked about the difference between the 2 for use cases, I got the impression both really will work fine. I also liked how the 4340 studs were black.

Regarding the HLT video - what OBDII dongle are you running?Do you have all the data setup in your settings for your car? Screenshots below (follow the blue boxes).

Here are a couple of shots from the "My Ford" menu under Administration showing the details I've entered about the car that enables parts of the instrument cluster to show.

Apologies if this is too rudimentary, but uploading in case anyone else is new to HLT and learning how to export. But once you tap on export

You should see something like this (or something very similar). Here you can set how many seconds before and after the lap you want to include. Afterwards, swipe over to the left on the main part of the screen.

One you swipe over, you should see something like this. Extended provides the instrument cluster like in my videos. Standard provides just the speedo and tach I believe.

No worries, Tob! While I might not share your passion for fabrication, put some shoddy user-experience in front of me and watch what happens

Thanks for the kind words! :cheers:

Awesome write up! Thanks! I didn't think to try swiping on the overlay screen.

 

[honeybadger]

Brake Pad and Tire Updates

Hi all -

I thought I would provide a quick update on the R16/R12 pads to show wear and add additional thoughts. While neither track I ran on (The Ridge, Pacific Raceways) would I classify as really hard on brakes, both had a spot or two that could work them pretty hard (i.e. 135mph down to 35mph).

After 3 days, I very little pad wear (I measured ~9.34mm on my front pads after 3 track days. The wear is looking great).

I am very happy with the performance so far. As I'me mentioned before, the initial bite is pretty aggressive, which I like because it's helped me be much lighter on the pedal (i.e. not mashing it down). I'm able to match the max braking threshold of the OEM pads with a much lighter feel. If you do mash the pedal, however, they will overload stock MPSS tires (Causes ABS to come on more aggressively than you'd typically notice). Some might not be very happy about this, so keep it in mind you're looking at a set. I'm excited to try these out with a set of sticker tires like the Cup 2s.

I can't compare them perfectly to OEM pads as I never ran them at these tracks, but I do know that the OEM pads would've faded at this track since another 350 on stock pads got a bit of fade. I presume wear would've been more as well.

Tires
So I'm at roughly 7500 miles and 5 track days on this set of MPSS tires. Anyone have any insight on how much track life they have left? Wondering how many more days I can get out of them before I'll need to put on new tires.

 

[raiderjatt02]

There is a chance I'll be back down in early August for the Mini-Nats.

Dooooo iiiiiitttttt!!!!!

 

[DrumReaper]

[MENTION=6571]Bossing[/MENTION] is very knowledgeable about MPSS at the track.

 

[Bossing]

[MENTION=23430]honeybadger[/MENTION] Obviously wear will differ per track conditions, temps, and how hard you push it but so with that said just keep tracking it until you see signs of cording or blistering... on both my previous MPSS and Cup2's, I wore them down to the threshold.

Check thoroughly after each session and more often than not the delamination actually starts towards the middle area of the tire. These Michelin compounds are two layers so you still have meat to burn thru... another telltale sign is it'll start to feel greasy and more understeer. Just keep checking them often and in between sessions.

 

[JT1]

Anything special about the magnet to disable iPhone image stabilization? I ordered an assortment from Amazon.

Any way to test it in advance?

 

[honeybadger]

[MENTION=23430]honeybadger[/MENTION] Obviously wear will differ per track conditions, temps, and how hard you push it but so with that said just keep tracking it until you see signs of cording or blistering... on both my previous MPSS and Cup2's, I wore them down to the threshold.

Check thoroughly after each session and more often than not the delamination actually starts towards the middle area of the tire. These Michelin compounds are two layers so you still have meat to burn thru... another telltale sign is it'll start to feel greasy and more understeer. Just keep checking them often and in between sessions.

[MENTION=6571]Bossing[/MENTION] Tanks for the info. When you mention understeer and greasy, is the transition fairly progressive or abrupt? Just wonder if it's something that could sneak up on you and bite in the middle of a track day.

I'm estimating 3 more track days out of this set based on wear so far, but I've been pushing the tires harder each time out, so I'm not sure my estimation is realistic.

 

[honeybadger]

Anything special about the magnet to disable iPhone image stabilization? I ordered an assortment from Amazon.

Any way to test it in advance?

[MENTION=29991]JT1[/MENTION]

Not particularly. I just use a neo magnet and place it directly over the camera lens (screen side). I also put double sided tape between the phone and the magnet to ensure it's extra secure. Here are a couple of pics. (I spray painted my magnet black so it blends into the screen and isn't distracting).

To test it, just mount the phone, find a good road, going into the camera app, start recording a video and "let her rip, tater chip." You'll want to make sure to do some hard accels and braking as that's where the shutter is most likely to occur.

 

[honeybadger]

Time for more updates!

It's been an absolutely nuts second half of June and July. Between work, vacation, and the new truck, things have been crazy busy.

But I've been able to squeeze in a couple of track days luckily!

First up we have another day at The Ridge

A couple of us PNW guys were able to snag some last minute openings in the TSS x RevScene track day. Besides running on track with (3) 350Rs, what made this a cool day was that they allowed passengers. I was able to give rides to both my parents and my wife. Wife went out with me during Session 1 where we barely got up to speed - that was enough for her. HA! Dad rode with me for session 3 and had a great time. Mom lasted 3 laps into session 6 before she got too motion sickness. Overall it was really fun to share a bit of the track time with the family and be able to give them a small taste of this car's capabilities at speed. So cool.

You'll also noticed I've added a 350R style wing. I took the plunge and went with an HCM carbon wing (huge mistake - I'll post more on this later). While I'm extremely disappointed in the Wing build quality and HCM's customer support, I can't deny it's effectiveness. The added downforce has definitely improved the cars handling.

Here are some photos from the day of the (4) of us.

Fast lap:
[ame]

3 laps:
[ame]

Next was my first day at Pacific Raceways for the Annual Mustang Ride and Drive

This track is deceptively intense. While most will probably see a track that is a bit short, boring, and dangerous (due to high speed, concrete walls, and embankments) in person you'll experience crazy elevation changes, changing surfaces, and technical braking lines. Very, very rewarding track once you get the flow down a bit. Member CSL hooked me up with one of his racing buddies that helped me learn the lines and read the surface. Once I got it down, this track was an absolute blast and terrier of the walls fell away. However, the respect for the beast is always there.

After lunch I rode with [MENTION=19800]CSL[/MENTION]. Chris takes turn 1 at 150+ and only misses the right hand side of the wall by mere inches. Not going to lie man, that's the closest I've ever come to thinking I was going to die in a car. Kidding aside, it was insanely helpful to see where I could push it more and change my lanes. Riding with an instructor always helps me improve my lap time a second or two (in this case, it was almost 6 seconds). With this track it's important to find search for the grip and the best braking lines rather than focus on nailing the apex cone. Very rewarding day.

I did feel like I played tackle football without pads the next day tho. Between the dangers of track driving and the new speed I'm carrying in this car now, it's time to step up the safety game. Roll bar, competition seat, harness and neck restraint are next on the list.

Fast lap of the day:
[ame]

3 laps. Not consecutive as I had telemetry errors.
[ame]

 

[50 Deep]

Damnit Kevin you are my hero.

How were you keeping up with the R's and are you any faster with the aero?

 

[Epiphany]

Good stuff!

 

[JT1]

What tires are you running on the track? I'm surprised I did t hear much (any?) squealing?